? 7/7 Missy Amps 101, +4 45, +5 94, +7 104 Is my cat more carb sensitive then most??

[DanaB]

Super carb sensitive??

We use LANTUS - just above 0.5 units. I had to really play around with tiny adjustments using calipers. My vet did say she was really sensitive to insulin ‍... but he is not a specialist.
My kitty regularly eats Fancy feast chicken and liver pate 2%.
I recently started to give her whitefish and tuna pate 0% at the beginning and end of her cycle.... but i would prefer to avoid fish given regularly. When I do this her BG drops a bit too low around +4. But then I just give her the chicken and liver pate 2% and she goes back up to a normal level and stays normal.
Yesterday she was at 47 at +4 then the 2% food brought her to 70 within an hour.
Today +4 was 45 then 2% food brought her to 94 with in an hour.
She has multiple small meals throughout the day. 0-2%
If I only feed 2% then she is slightly high all the time and I feel like I should slightly raise her insulin dose.
I have tested lots and I know my kitty well... she does ok with low numbers and has never shown any signs of hypo... but obviously I would love her to stay in the normal zone.

I guess I'm wondering if this is normal for others that food even as low as 2% affects the blood glucose levels like this.

I would put her on 0 carb all the time but there isn't a can without fish I can afford and works for my other kitties medical issues. I really wanted to do 0% raw, but it didnt agree with her tummy ☹.

 

[Wendy&Neko]

Lower carb it not necessarily better, some cats do well with a bit more carbs. Feeding Low Carb vs Lower Carb Foods

You also have to keep in mind that a 2% carb food might be 1% one manufacturing run and 3% another. So might a 0% be 1% one day, making the two foods the same carbs. Most feed foods in the 3-6% range.

Missy needs to have her dose reduced. The 30's on the 28th and and that 25 on the 27th says this dose is way too much insulin.

 

[DanaB]

Lower carb it not necessarily better, some cats do well with a bit more carbs. Feeding Low Carb vs Lower Carb Foods

You also have to keep in mind that a 2% carb food might be 1% one manufacturing run and 3% another. So might a 0% be 1% one day, making the two foods the same carbs. Most feed foods in the 3-6% range.

Missy needs to have her dose reduced. The 30's on the 28th and and that 25 on the 27th says this dose is way too much insulin.

I have micro adjusted her dose so much and this is the closest I've got to normal numbers.
The the only times she has dropped is when she eat the seafood 0% carb food.
If I just do 2% food then she stays a little above the normal range.


I did try her on the 5% carb as well a couple of months ago.

Lower carb it not necessarily better, some cats do well with a bit more carbs. Feeding Low Carb vs Lower Carb Foods

You also have to keep in mind that a 2% carb food might be 1% one manufacturing run and 3% another. So might a 0% be 1% one day, making the two foods the same carbs. Most feed foods in the 3-6% range.

Missy needs to have her dose reduced. The 30's on the 28th and and that 25 on the 27th says this dose is way too much insulin.

 

[tiffmaxee]

I count 4 times she’s dropped under 50 on this dose and I would reduce if she were my cat.

 

[DanaB]

I count 4 times she’s dropped under 50 on this dose and I would reduce if she were my cat.

I reduced tonight... .but my whole thing is that those 4 times is when i fed the 0 carb fancy feast. I fed it yesterday and today in the AM as a test to figure out if that was what was happening.
When i feed just the 2% she mostly stays in the blue. I was going to raise her insulin a tiny bit but i wanted to figure out why she had dropped below 2.8.

Is it ok if she is always in the blue?? I was hoping to get some green nadirs. I want whats best for her health. I know i dont want her numbers too low.
This has been the most stable shes had long term.... just a little high.
Maybe i will always be adjusting

 

[tiffmaxee]

First read what Wendy wrote above.

I think rather than getting hung up on the carb percentages which quite frankly we have no real idea if accurate as we have to go by what the manufacturers tell us, I would try to get Missy to be between 50-90 for longer stretches. So yes, you would want to feed the curve to prevent the lime greens. Is it possible to get some +2-3 tests and if she’s dropping feed a little higher carb food to keep her in green fur longer stretches? That means getting a +2-3. She’s already to low by +4.

 

[DanaB]

First read what Wendy wrote above.

I think rather than getting hung up on the carb percentages which quite frankly we have no real idea if accurate as we have to go by what the manufacturers tell us, I would try to get Missy to be between 50-90 for longer stretches. So yes, you would want to feed the curve to prevent the lime greens. Is it possible to get some +2-3 tests and if she’s dropping feed a little higher carb food to keep her in green fur longer stretches? That means getting a +2-3. She’s already to low by +4.

Ok.. thank you. I do understand the carbs might not be accurate.
I think im just struggling to feed the curve because I rarely get the 50-90 with 2%, which is what i usually ONLY feed. Even if i just feed at shot time and nothing until +4 she still stays above 100. Then the 2 days she had a different food late in the cycle she went below 50. So i tried it again in the ams trying to figure out if thats what it was. Its a fish one so i dont want it to be her regular food... it was just meant to be a treat... but then it turned out to be an experiment with what happened to her BG number.

In the future i will be sticking with the 2% chicken.... so I was going to raise the dose slightly (by less then 0.25) only feed 2% and then feed the curve. But for now i have dropped her down a tiny bit for at least a week to see.

I was just trying to understand if this was normal reaction... it seemed so extreme to me to be struggling to get greens at her nadir, then to suddenly get lime greens at the begining and end of her cycle.

I guess i will continue my search for the right dose, right food and right feeding schedule combination.

Thank you!!! :

 

[Tina Marie (GA) and Jan]

With Tina, I could keep her numbers lower when feeding 2% instead of 4% (DMB) so I understand what you are seeing. Also, I understand the fish dilemma. I am also worried about potential fish addiction - I've seen it happen in cats I pet sit.
Just yesterday, I bought a fish food, and 5 of my 6 cats thought it was fantastic. The protein, fat, carbs and phosphorus are what I like for Tina. However, I think I will mostly use it for a cat trying a serious food strike!

 

[Margaret and Pearl (GA)]

One more comment from me! Remember, doses are based on NADIRs not on preshot numbers. You can check out @Missy & Tammy and others like her, some cats are just more bouncy and get some blues and yellows mixed in with those pretty greens. Some cats do this all the way to remission. Just ignore them and adjust based on the NADIRs.

Also...the best food is the one your cat will eat. I would be consistent and decide what you're going to offer all the time, and make that the main food. You'll see the trends then with the BG readings and know what to do. I hope this helps.

 

[DanaB]

One more comment from me! Remember, doses are based on NADIRs not on preshot numbers. You can check out @Missy & Tammy and others like her, some cats are just more bouncy and get some blues and yellows mixed in with those pretty greens. Some cats do this all the way to remission. Just ignore them and adjust based on the NADIRs.

Also...the best food is the one your cat will eat. I would be consistent and decide what you're going to offer all the time, and make that the main food. You'll see the trends then with the BG readings and know what to do. I hope this helps.

I try to give her other food every now and then only because at one point she wouldnt eat the same food for more then a few days. So a rotation helped. But then her numbers became more unpredictable. So now its mostly the same food... with a little something else every few days. Which she seems to be happy with.

I dont think she will ever go into remission.... we are going on 7 years. I just would love a little longer in the green zone. She is such a different cat when her numbers are lower.... good lower.

 

[tiffmaxee]

I’d just play around with different amounts of low carb food to see which keeps her in the range you want for longer periods of time. Some need the low end and others just under 10%.