@Marje and Gracie
A bit confusing. You said he didn't earn a reduction. If I had not given H CarbFF I'm sure he would have . So next time am I supposed to just see how low he's going to go?
I thought the very low #'s indicate the dose is too High for him? Should I shoot the 1 unit tonight? What happens when he keeps going real low & I need to keep giving High carb? Does he eventually just stay in green without the H Carb?
Under TR, a reduction is earned when the BG drops below 50 for a newly diagnosed cat (a cat that has been FD less than a year) and under 40 for a long-term diabetic. BGs in the 50s on a human meter are not considered to be “very low”.
Do we know that he would have absolutely dropped below 50 without intervention? We don’t because it is a hallmark of Levemir that numbers can stay super flat. Therefore, we, generally, don’t base reductions on what we think “might have” happened.
Usually, when a cat is ready for a reduction, you would not be able to keep him up above 50 even with HC.
No, you don’t need to just see how low he will go. On a daytime cycle when you are there to test, you can try MC foods and experiment with what gets him to stay flat but above 50. Some cats can surf on higher LC food. ECID. I never used more than 10-13% carbs most of the time. If Gracie dropped into the 30s, I did add a drop or so of Karo. But you have to do what is best for you and Ravan. There were two of us here caring for Gracie.
However, as I stated, you are the caregiver and you know what you can do and can’t do. If you feel that’s it’s difficult for you to handle those 50-type numbers at night and it worries you that you had to feed him so many carbs to keep him so flat, then the choice on reduction is yours. We need to keep him safe. If he fails a reduction, you can always go back up, as you’ve found.
I’m not one for hopping around doses. I’d see how he does on the skinny 1u for now. I will say that usually newly diagnosed cats do better with increases and decreases of 0.25u. Shaving doses is really used to fine tune it once you get to a good dose and it’s also used for cats that fail reductions consistently.
