8/13 Tink AMPS 280 (nice!), +1= 382 (major food spike!)

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JenM

Member Since 2013
Nice preshot this morning - lowest AMPS in a long time. BIG food spike though, which is somewhat unusual. He always spikes... but not 100pts in an hour. Still wonder if Wellness didn't tweak their formula... but they insist they haven't. Maybe just more and more carb sensitive? It's still 4%. Literally 3-4 small bites of Amish Friendship bread the other night sent him flying... so obviously carbs affect him strongly.

DD is home today so can monitor him. She has observed testing, but hasn't done it yet. I might see if she can try around +6, although he eats at +5 so that # may not be too helpful. If not, at least I can get some good data this weekend.
 
Hi guys .. Well tink, you started out sunny yellow but instead of heading to the lagoon you shot up to the stinky pinky floor, that's no fun! Some cats are very carb sensitive which always makes it a little harder to work around .. You'll get there! Have a great day!
 
I was finding the same thing with ProZinc, and had started shooting and then waiting an hour to feed, to give the insulin some time to kick in before loading him up with food. Might have to do the same on Lantus. I think I'd like to have more data first, though he seems to consistently go up at +1 - just usually not THIS much. Any input on that idea (waiting an hour to feed)??

I think I'm going to start noting which flavor he's eating as well. I'm curious, with yesterday's spike being so much lower than today's... if maybe just one flavor we're using is higher carb than it's supposed to be? We use turkey, chicken and chicken&beef, as those are all supposed to be 4% carbs. I could also switch him to Weruva Paw Lickin' Chicken - which I think is 1% (maybe 2%) - it's the only other lc food I found that he will eat. Though with it only being one flavor (he doesn't like the others), I dont know how long he'll eat it. I had tried it before he went back on insulin, to see if it would help, and it didn't have much effect at that time... but who knows. It's also considerably more expensive than Wellness.
 
100 points is a pretty incredible food spike. i'm wondering if he's on his way up in a bounce and that's the reason he jumped so much in the past hour. maybe he dropped lower than he's used to last night. the next test will probably let you know.

nom nom nom on the Amish friendship bread. that stuff is wonderful! share with me, mr tink! ;-)
 
That could be too... I didn't do my midnight test last night - decided to take a break with my horrible headache - and of course now I REALLY wish I would have! ohmygod_smile
 
Hi Jen and Tink!

I haven't posted on Tink's condo, but wanted to extend a belated welcome to LL. :smile:

Like Julie mentioned, it looks to me like Tink's probably headed into a bounce. Since Lantus is a gentler insulin than ProZinc, bouncy kitties will often head up rather than down after a shot if they're in a bounce cycle. Take a look at Eddie's SS...he does this all the time. :roll: In fact he's doing it this morning.

I know when we were on ProZinc, I didn't see a lot of kitties having high flat cycles, and it took me a while to understand what was going on. There's bouncy pre-shots, that are big spikes at the beginning and ends of a cycle, and then there are the flat bounce cycles. Those flat cycles where the numbers go up from pre-shot, or where they don't really go down much are often bounce cycles. Those bounce cycles can stick around for up to 72 hours after the "event" that generated the bounce. Over time, the length of time a bounce lasts generally decreases, and they don't bounce as high....and eventually, many kitties stop bouncing all together. It's possible that Tink is still bouncing off the blues on 8/11, or he may have gone lower last night. He had a fairly sizeable dip between PMPS and +3 last night that might have led to some lower numbers later in the cycle.

Another difference with Lantus is that a cat's patterns can stretch over several cycles. For example, a cat might have a string of green numbers one cycle, bounce for two cycles, start to head back down on cycle number four, and then have another string of greens on cycle 6. Then, wash, rinse, and repeat, until they decide to change their pattern up on you, as cats do. ;-)

If no one has mentioned it yet, one good habit to get into is getting a +2 test. For many cats, if the +2 is significantly higher than the pre-shot, your kitty may be headed into a bounce cycle. If the +2 is about the same as the pre-shot, that's pretty typical, and a kitty will often have a "normal" curved Lantus cycle. If the +2 test is significantly lower than your PS, get ready for a cycle that might keep you on your toes. For Eddie, getting a +2 test has been hugely helpful in starting to be able to better predict what he's got planned for a cycle. Since I work full time, if Eddie's +2 is lower before I leave for work, I will leave extra food in an auto feeder in case he decides to "get busy." I actually moved Eddie's shot time as early as we could to get those early cycle tests in, as they are almost as informative as the nadir test.

Hopefully Tink works his way back down soon and gives you a better idea what he can do at 1.75u so you can decide whether you need to increase or hold. Have a good day!
 
He DOES like to bounce. :roll:

Outside of getting up at 5am, I really can't do a +2 at AMPS... but I most certainly can at PMPS, so will start doing that. An hour is really all the window I have in the morning - I get up at 6am and leave the house by 7:15 at the latest.

I usually feed at PS though... so wouldn't the food still have him spiked a bit at +2? Or should the insulin be kicking in by then and thus be fairly close to the PS #?
 
Here's a little from the "New to the Group?" sticky:

NOTE: Until kitty is pretty well regulated, the description below is NOT not what you'd consider a "typical" Lantus cycle. It takes time and patience for kitty to achieve a "typical" cycle! The example below is what you're working towards (a nice shallow curve). A relatively flat cycle is the ultimate goal.

Example of an ACTIVE, but NOT necessarily typical Lantus cycle:

+0 - PreShot number.
+1 - Usually higher than PreShot number because of the last shot wearing off. May see a food spike in this number.
+2 - Often similar to the PreShot number. You'll probably see an active cycle if the +2 is the same/similar or lower than the preshot number. Continue testing!
+3 - Lower than the PreShot number, onset has started.
+4 - Lower.
+5 - Lower.
+6 - Nadir/Peak (the lowest number of cycle).
+7 - Surf (hang around the nadir number).
+8 - Slight rise.
+9 - Slight rise.
+10 - Rising.
+11 - Rising (one of the quirks of Lantus/Levemir: some cat's blood glucose numbers dip around +10 or +11... not to be confused with nadir).
+12 - PreShot number.

Cats don't always read the "New to the Group?" sticky, however, so they don't always have this pattern. But many do. If the numbers continue up after the +2, I'd suspect a bounce from either a fast drop in the previous hours, or they'd gotten to lower numbers than they're used to in those same previous hours. And Jen is right, some cats will have a delayed bounce from low numbers - they might be followed by a normal cycle and then the climb up the BG scale begins until the bounce peaks.
 
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