8/19 foster Tzuri - dose advice?

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laur+danny+horde

laur+danny+horde

Member Since 2009
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Hi everyone. Here's the backstory on my russian blue foster cat, Tzuritza (formerly Tabitha). She didn't answer to Tabitha, so I combined Zuri ('beauty' in Swahili) with Tzaritza (Russian for 'Empress'), to rename her Tzuritza. Not only is she truly beautiful, but I thought naming her for her Beauty was a nice nod to my Beast. Her photo on petfinder looked similar enough to Minibeast (who died in June) that I actually didn't want to take her. But in the end, even though I was really worried another cat wouldn't be well accepted by my crew, I just couldn't bear to leave her in the cage that she'd been in for nearly 11 months.

Tzuri is very affectionate and sweet. She is very sociable, and loves to be petted and skritched. She gets on pretty well with several of the cats (Cole and Coco, especially), but as for several others... not so much. Tzuri earned her Empress name too, as the new alpha cat. But things are slowly improving. While I'd hate to see Tzuri go, the good news is that there is a lady in Maryland who may be interested in adopting her. I hope to hear from her in the next day or so.

But in the meantime, I could really use some eyes on her spreadsheet. I'm thinking she's been showing some rebound. Any ideas?

Tzuri8-1-10edit.jpg
 
I'm not sure I'm following your rationale for changing doses. I see where you raised the dose from 0.25u to 0.50u. I'm not sure I see why the drop to 0.40u or the 0.10u this morning.

I suspect the numbers you're seeing are due to shifting around the dose. If it were me, I'd be holding the dose at 0.5u.

Also, one other question: When was Tzuri diagnosed?
 
Ronnie & Luna said:
She's on Lev right?
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Yes

Ronnie & Luna said:
I'm thinking a before bedtime number might of given you an idea what she was up to last nite.
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Don't I know it. But I wasn't feeling well, and went to bed right after her shot. I thought I'd wake up in the night but didn't. Sure wish I had, because then I would know instead of just suspecting that she is rebounding.

Ronnie & Luna said:
What's her feeding schedule like?
What meter are you using agin?
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Well, first off Tzuri's a little overweight (to be expected with zero exercise for the last year) and is a good eater, yet she doesn't hesitate to walk away from the dish. She eats low carb wet, about 2.5 to 3 cans a day of FF (or equivalent amount of Weruva) in three meals: breakfast, late afternoon, late evening.

I use Relion Micro meters.
 
I would pick a dose and hold it, to see where she goes after 5-6 cycles on the same dose. I liked the 0.25. Usually you need to give 4-6 cycles after something like a skipped shot to see what happens once the shed is full. She might have needed an increase if she lost momentum, but I'm thinking that maybe the increase to 0.5 was a little premature.

I think a good place to start would be to go back to 0.25 and hold it, and test as much as you can this weekend to see if that is bringing her down or not. The numbers were best on 0.25. Just my opinion...
 
Sienne and Gabby said:
I suspect the numbers you're seeing are due to shifting around the dose. If it were me, I'd be holding the dose at 0.5u.
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With a +12 53 on .5u? Followed by a +5 48? Seriously? Wow, that's too aggressive for me when I'm away for hours and she might not have any food left. Actually that same rationale has driven the other dosing decisions. I would rather be too cautious than have Tzuri hypo when no one's there to help her and she may not have food left. Having said that, I am very mindful of higher numbers and ketones.

Sienne and Gabby said:
I'm not sure I'm following your rationale for changing doses. I see where you raised the dose from 0.25u to 0.50u. I'm not sure I see why the drop to 0.40u or the 0.10u this morning.
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My concern has been that she's dropping too low, hence the spiky numbers. Example 8/14 and 8/15. Then I second-guessed myself and thought I was being too cautious, so I tried the .5 but that resulted in a 291. So I dropped to .4. The +4 resulting in a +10 384 looked to me like a rebound. Some data showed .25 hadn't really worked, and I'd been considering .1 when I made my first post, so again having to leave her for hours... after a presumed rebound, I took the safe route of .1.

Sienne and Gabby said:
one other question: When was Tzuri diagnosed?
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I don't know for sure, but my understanding is that the diabetes is why her last family gave her up. So at least a year ago. There was no record of her dx in shelter file.
 
Libby and Lucy said:
I would pick a dose and hold it, to see where she goes after 5-6 cycles on the same dose. I liked the 0.25. Usually you need to give 4-6 cycles after something like a skipped shot to see what happens once the shed is full. She might have needed an increase if she lost momentum, but I'm thinking that maybe the increase to 0.5 was a little premature.

I think a good place to start would be to go back to 0.25 and hold it, and test as much as you can this weekend to see if that is bringing her down or not. The numbers were best on 0.25. Just my opinion...
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::scratching head:: the 8/14 - 8/15 results aren't suggestive of hypo to you? If it wasn't a hypo, why would she bring herself down 70 points from +14 to +24 ? It seemed to me like the results were getting worse on .25 over time.

seeking to understand,
laur
 
they can run on shed action for a few cycles. I do think she was bouncing that day, but you don't know from what she was bouncing. That one cycle still had some insulin affecting it, so you can't say that she brought herself down entirely on her own (we rarely pay attention to the cycle after a dose reduction, because that cycle still has momentum behind it from the previous dose, like when you ended up at 53 on 8/9 after a 0.5 shot, it really wasn't an 0.5 shot but an 0.5 with some 0.75 behind it).

Sheds are a funny thing, we don't see the full effect of a skipped shot until about 2 cycles later, and the bounce could take 5-6 cycles to clear. She could have gone lower overnight on the 14th but we can't see for sure. I'm curious if you thought she hypo'd on 0.25, why you increased to 0.5 just two days later?

Anyway, she's your cat and 0.1 might work, but you asked for opinions so there's mine. :smile: It seems like it is better to go back to a dose that you know worked, then get the data and adjust from there.

One thing I did when Lucy got down to tiny doses and green all the time, to make myself feel more comfortable going to work, was to experiment with feeding low carb food when she had low numbers. If she dropped to 40-50, but low carb food was enough to get her surfing safely, then I knew that I could go to work and leave out her regular food and she could feed her own curve. If you can start tracking Tzuri's response to food when you are home, then you'll be a lot more confident that you know what she's doing when you're not home.
 
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