8/14 Jynx AMPS 277 PMPS 129, +1 105, +2 60

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Lisa and Jynx

Lisa and Jynx

Member Since 2011
I'm concerned that Jynx's # has dropped so drastically in only 2 hours since his 0.25u dose. He is asymptomatic, except that he is laying around. He ate his full dinner (2 oz. Evo chick and Turkey) right before his insulin. I'm concerned that he is going to continue to drop as he gets closer to nadar.

Lisa
 
he very likely will, lisa - that's a big drop. i'd go ahead and give him some food to slow him down a little bit. if he's got a good appetite usually you might be able to get away with just his regular low carb food. if he's a dainty eater, you might just open the high carb can and give him a teaspoon of the high carb yummies. see what that does. it's an opportunity for information gathering.

probably retest in 30-45 minutes or so and repost.
 
Good call on your part (although, we reserve the "911" for dire emergencies).

Give Jynx some gravy from HC food (about a teaspoon). Don't overdo it. If his numbers are going to drop, you don't want to fill him up.

For future reference, you could have changed the subject line in your previous condo from today. You go to your first post in the thread, click on "edit," change the subject line, then click "submit." We open one condo, per cat, per day.

Also, please bookmark or print out the starred note on shooting and handling low numbers. That way, if no one is around, you'll know what to do.
 
Sorry about the 911. I realized as soon as I posted, and changed the icon. I'm new, so still learning the posting rules. Thanks for the advice. I just gave him 1 oz FF before seeing your posts. Unfortunately, the HC food that I have is I/D wet with no gravy (24% I think), and Hill's w/d dry (46%) - both filling. I also have honey. I'll recheck him in 30 min. and re-post.

In case no one is online, how often would you suggest that I check his sugars tonight?
 
don't use the dry food. it takes too long to take effect and it will keep him high for a long time.

you can use karo syrup, pancake syrup, honey - but you can also use the canned I/d if he'll eat it. just give him a little bit at a time.

sienne's given you the link you need. basically you're going to test often enough to keep him safe and you're going to keep it up til he is past his nadir. which will be hard to tell because you're giving him high carb food. so you'll be doing some "best guessing" with the main goal keeping him safe. can't tell you exactly what that is, but in general, i would go til i had a couple of rising numbers in a row above 60 and in the second half of the cycle. you'll get a feel for what he's doing as you test.

i'm up for at least another half hour and will look for you. if you want someone to stay up with you i can do that. i'll check back again here in the next little bit to see what his next test is.
 
Hi Julie,

His sugar came up 7 points to 67. Thanks for the offer to stay up, but it's not necessary. That's very kind of you.

Just a couple of questions. Do you think that I should test in another hour, and if the # decreases, give more carbs?

Lisa
 
if it were me, i'd be testing every 30 minutes at this point. only because that quick drop from the preshot number to the +2 is usually a signal that the cat's BG is going to do some significant dropping. without knowing jynx's patterns, i don't know if he's now going to stay flat for the next 4 hours or if he's going to be at 30 in 1/2 hr. my cat is a "flat cat" and he doesn't move much, but we don't know about jynx yet. so i would test every 30 minutes -sorry. i'm sure you'd have rather heard every hour, but without knowing, i'm just saying what i would do. i'd probably also keep giving him the same amount again of the high carb canned food. that's what's keeping him from going lower.

it's basically a lather, rinse & repeat process.

test, give a little high carb food, wait 30 minutes in the 60's, but if he's in teh 40's only wait 15 minutes before repeating.

then do it again.

you want him past his nadir and 2 rising numbers in a row. i like to see punkin above 70 and past +7 before i stop. a lot of people set cell phone alarms so they can sleep in between, and fortunately this won't happen to you every night.

i'm headed for bed now, but it looks like you feel pretty comfy. good luck tonight!
 
excellent! was that +3? the tricky part is that numbers can wobble with food - you've still got the insulin trying to pull the BG down. so don't get complacent and just go to bed.

you can see i haven't really gone yet, but i should . . .
 
Jynx is up to 151 now.

I'm having some concerns:(

After his insulin today (in 1.5 hours), I'm afraid that he is going to drop drastically again. I still can't believe the impact 0.25U had on him. I know it didn't go under 60, but only because I supplemented with periodic food.

My poor kitty's ears are getting sore :(

Mommy is exhausted.

Would you recommend giving the normal dose today?
Does anyone take blood from the paw? I saw the instructional video, but not sure if it is a good idea.
Also, I feel that my AMPS#s aren't accurate, since he eats 1 oz. of food 5 hrs prior, so how can I consider this when dosing?

Thx.
Lisa
 
Some do use paw pricks, but I know it isn't the norm. I'd recommend picking up some neosporin with pain relief. A dab of that on the ears provides relief and generally heals things up pretty quickly. As Jynx's ears become more accustomed to testing, it will be a lot easier.

The eating 5 hrs before shouldn't be affecting your PS really at all. The protocol indicates food should be withheld 2 hours before shot time so as to give a true number. If you are needing to be gone much of the day and are nervous about dosing, you can either shoot the 0.25u and leave some medium carb food (10-15%), or you can shave the 0.25u. However many drops constitute your 0.25u, measure that amount and then remove one more drop. It's pretty clear from your numbers that Jynx isn't ready to go off insulin yet.... if for no other reason than his liver hasn't caught up with his new normal BG#s.

We've all been there with the low numbers... but some cats (see Sienne's Gabby as one example) are just divers... they drop dramatically in the couple hours after their dose of insulin and their beans have to employ strategies to manage that curve. Each cycle can be very different at first.
 
5 hours is more than enough time for food to not influence his pre-shot number. We recommend that you not feed 2 hrs prior to shot time. If you were feeding dry food, it may have an effect but the effects of canned food should have worn off after 5 hrs.

Some people here do test on the paw. I'm an ear-tester so I can't give you much advice.

A 60 really isn't a problem. Yes, you did use food to prevent numbers from dropping further. It just looks to me like Jynx's pre-shot numbers haven't come down enough to drop the dose much further. Are you around during the day? As long as you can keep an eye on the numbers, you're in good shape.
 
I'm around today. I'm thinking that I'll get his AMPS, feed, and then give the 0.25u. Then, I'm going to nap for a bit, and check his #s in a while.

I'm wondering if I should give FF, instead of Evo this morning, since the Evo has 0% carbs.

After his AMPS, should I begin a new condo, and add this link for reference?

Thanks :)
 
yup, open a new condo each morning and link yesterday's to it.

you did great last night! i'd add a second YAY vote for the neosporin with pain relief. the ointment is better than the cream for helping the blood bead up, imo. some people slather it on at night and by morning ears are new again. i used it on my foot where the cats scratched me and it really is amazing for the pain relief. owie totally gone. some people put it on about 20 minutes before they're going to poke so it kinda numbs the ear. it lasts for a while, though, so you don't have to use it all the time.

what's considered "low" numbers is actually anything below 50. we were advising you to add the high carb food last night only because it was so early in the cycle. 60 is an awesome number. a non-diabetic cat's range is about 50-120. what you're trying to do in this plan (following the protocol) is to keep the diabetic cat's BG in the normal range - it lets the pancreas heal and zowie, the cat (ideally) goes off of insulin. we tweak the dosage of the insulin and steer with the carbs in food to try to arrive at those magic numbers.
 
Lisa and Jynx said:
Does anyone take blood from the paw?
Click to expand...

Hi Lisa and Jynx,

I use my Boo's dew claw. I just can't seem to get enough blood out of the ear and the alternate site seems to work well. I tried the actual paw, but that seemed "painful" to him....

Good luck!
 
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