Re: 8/27 mocha amps 106 +3 160 +5 118
not sienne or libby, but happen to know a little bit about using food to manipulate the curve.
hope you don't mind me expanding on your comments...
Ann & Tess said:
Devon, the way I understand the food manipulation is this:
❖ Several small meals spread out the carb load and even out the BG numbers. It's the way cats eat in nature, catch a mouse, eat it, go hunting again.
this concept may be true as far as treating feline diabetes. smaller meals spread out throughout the day do *seem to* take the burden off the pancreas. however, there are some cats who do just fine eating 2 - 3 meals per day. ECID.
Ann & Tess said:
❖ A high number gets LC food at meals to help ease the strain of the high BG.
lc is normally fed to all numbers except possibly in the case of a significant or fast drop or fed to a drop below 50. more on that below.
Ann & Tess said:
❖ A low number at mealtime, gets a little higher carb % food, to maintain or bring up if a little too low.
presuming we're talking about preshot numbers greater than 50, the only time you might want to feed a little higher carb food at shot time is to bump the numbers up so the insulin is starting from a higher number when onset occurs if you're running out the door and will be unable to monitor.
if you're around to monitor, there's no reason to bump the numbers up at shot time. the beauty of lantus and levemir is being able to shoot low to stay low. shooting low is how you obtain the low flat curve with lantus and levemir.
Ann & Tess said:
❖ If you have a fast drop in BG, feed MC or HC depending on how your cat responds, to slow the drop. Extra food is useful here, but only small amounts.
whether you'd want to feed lc, mc, or hc to slow a drop depends on two things:
1. the carb sensitivity or lack of of your particular cat.
2. the point you're at in the cycle. a drop early in the cycle *may* require big guns. a drop at nadir (unless nadir is less than 40) or late in the cycle usually only requires lc to bump the numbers up. however, if you have a carb sensitive kitty, you may not have to use anything except lc to bump up the numbers. "KNOW THY CAT".
Ann & Tess said:
❖ If you have a sharply rising number, feed LC, to slow the bounce, IF, she is due for more food.
lc is the *norm* for all mini-meals.
i'm sorry. i don't know of any situations where a bounce will be slowed down by feeding lc to a sharply rising number.
Ann & Tess said:
❖ I don't think (?) extra food, even if LC, is effective in slowing a rise unless there is some insulin being produced by the pancreas. If there is, feed just a little to stimulate the pancreas to produce some extra insulin. This is the idea behind the +9 snack and for feeding, then retesting OTJ kitties 4 hours later.
yes, the idea behind feeding a snack at +8, +9, or +10 *may* help bring the numbers down by the next shot time if there's a sputtering pancreas in the house. if not, all it will do with most kitties is hinder or stop whatever action is left on the insulin.
Ann & Tess said:
❖ ECID, you have to experiment to see what foods work for your cat.
yes! experimenting is how YOU learn how YOUR cat responds not only to food, but to the insulin itself. no one feeding plan will effect two different cats in the exact same ways. experimenting, testing, recording your observations... these are the things which will help YOU with YOUR kitty. ECID.
ok, so what is meant by using food to manipulate the curve?
simply put, it's a method of feeding used to prevent kitty from dropping too fast and/or too low.
the amount of food normally fed to the cat is broken down into several mini-meals fed throughout the course of the day with the intention of flattening out the curve.
why would you want to manipulate the curve with food?
---
bouncers: kitties who drop low and then bounce to the moon benefit from food manipulation. using food to manipulate the curve will tend to flatten out the curve. flattening out the curve helps to prevent huge bounces.
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carb sensitive kitties: kitties who experience large food spikes when consuming even lc benefit from manipulating the curve with food. strategically spacing out meal times will help flatten out the curve.
why do i want to use food to flatten out the curve ?
--- flattening out the curve allows you to get as much insulin into the cat as safely possible without having kitty bottom out on you.
--- flattening out the curve *usually* allows you to hang onto a dose longer
--- flattening out the curve allows you to shoot higher doses of insulin than you would have been able to otherwise.
why would i want to get as much insulin as possible into the cat?
lantus and levemir are known to have a harder time bringing down higher numbers. more insulin helps bring down the higher numbers in a bouncer's cycle. more insulin will help counteract the spikes in a food spiker. using food to manipulate the curve will flatten out the curve and help keep your kitty safe.
when implementing food manipulation, i generally recommend starting with dividing up the normal amount of food your kitty should be eating into 8 mini-meals to be fed at preshot, +1, +2, and +3 of each cycle. however, that recommendation is strictly a starting point. a plan customized for YOUR cat is YOUR goal. frequent testing and learning how YOUR cat responds not only to food, but to the insulin itself will help you tweak the plan.
just my thoughts...
) I think a lot of us were looking for a more detailed explanation. As I said that was only what I understood, now I know more. 