8/4 Buzz AMPS: 330, +3: 293/Dose,insulin,dental?

[Sarah and Buzz]

Yesterday's condo: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=21485
Buzz started bouncing at +5 last night, but she did have a good run of green surf in the middle. :smile: This morning she wasn't quite as high as I expected, so hooray for that!

WCR: Not much to report, but she is doing fine. She's been lazing around on her testing towel, maybe hoping for more food.

My questions are these:
1) When insulin goes bad, does it become completely ineffective or does it become inconsistent? If it's the former, I would say my vial is still good. If it's the latter, I will switch to a new pen in hopes of getting more consistent numbers.
2) In light of last night's cycle, should I still do a dosecrease?
3) When I was at the vet, she said that if the C&S turned up nothing, she would do BW to make sure there wasn't another kind of infection. Do you think it's worth doing since nothing really showed up on the C&S? I don't want to be the person who is always running to the vet when nothing's wrong, but I also want to just put all this to rest once and for all. The vet looked at Buzz's teeth and said there is plaque and tartar but, in an unprecedented move, didn't push to do a service which would generate income for her, so I'm not sure what to make of it.

Thanks again!

 

[Ronnie & Luna]

Hi Sarah

I can help answer one of the questions...

1) When insulin goes bad, does it become completely ineffective or does it become inconsistent? If it's the former, I would say my vial is still good. If it's the latter, I will switch to a new pen in hopes of getting more consistent numbers.

From what I understand if numbers seem to be rising after a string of nice numbers, and you're near the 28 days or over it, and the doubts begin, toss it and start a new one.
If there's a chance it was left out or dropped or Buzz played with it, during the usage, when in doubt - replace it.
And if you actually see some weirdness floating in it - I would replace it too.

Hope that helps, but wait for more feedback k?

Glad to hear Buzz kitty being a good girl!

 

[Ella & Rusty & Stu(GA)]

Hi Sarah, Sorry I can't answer your medical questions: I don't even know what C&S is! How long have you had the insulin? If it's longer than 35 days or so, I would think about replacing it. You can save the old cartridge for use in an emergency. I always keep the penultimate cartridge just in case.
I think you could wait to see what Buzz does tonight and decide tomorrow whether or not to do the dosecrease.

The cat cubes are really neat. Google "cat cube" and you will get the links on where to buy them. I ordered mine through Amazon (as suggested by Sienne), but they came from Target.

Later,

Ella & Stu (who is waiting on the beach for his friends to go surfing)

 

[Pat+Raja+Shadow (GA)]

Here is the link for the cubes... http://www.amazon.com/Set-Cat-Cubes-96- ... B000ACR18C
I think it was Sienne who first talked about them. There are pieces of velcro that attach the two together...they are so cute! Raja has only left hers to eat. LOL!

You opened this vial on 6/17 or so right? Lantus is good for 28 days, right?
I use Lev and push it to 6 weeks but have never tried to get more mileage than that out of it.
If I were you, I would try a new cartridge...but it seems that you are reluctant to do that. You have been using that for way more than the manufacturer says so I would say you got your money's worth. Once there is a question about it I think it's time to throw it out. No one can actually SAY if it's still good or not so you have to use the guidelines for yourself, but if you are questioning it, then I say dump it.
Their pancreas can kick in at any time, right? So the lower numbers can be from that...that vial is way over the regular usable time...but, that's MHO. :mrgreen:
Just checked your SS...this is the longest you have stayed with the same vial, isn't it?

Shadow had a dental in early March and previously in late August. He does seem to have plaque buildup frequently and needs a dental every 6 months or so. I decided to have a complete check on him and there was no indication of an infection. However, he did have the plaque & as Sienne said in our condo the inflammation can cause higher numbers. I don't think that having a dental is running to the vet too often. I mean, how long do we wait for the plaque to start a big infection?

If your vet saw signs of plaque then maybe it's time to do a dental before any real infections manifest.
She can only do a quick look in the mouth anyway and maybe there is something that she couldn't readily see. We all brush our teeth a couple of times a day, but the kitties don't. My thought is that we will start with clean teeth and then dose aggressively from now on. I can't blame his lousy numbers on something unknown. It gave me peace of mind at the very least. And I HATE dentals as much as the next person! :lol: The plaque remains...and builds if we don't do something about it, right?

Well, those are my thoughts anyway. Shadow didn't get miraculously wonderful numbers today....and there is a lot of stress involved with the stupid dentals. I gave him a reduced dose the night before and nothing yesterday morning...so his insulin is all messed up. But I do have hope that now I know his teeth are okay. I have questions answered and that is soooo good for me.

When was Buzz's last dental?
So Sarah...I am heading up to the ledge....thanks to Myla, I have rice pudding with cinnamon, coconut cream pie, carrot cake and Klondike Bars. Do you think I need anything else? What do you want? I will pick it up and have it ready for you when you come. I will share my stuff with you too...uh...IF there is any left by the time you get there. :lol: You better hurry! His numbers are driving me up there....I can't help myself. He has no infection, nice clean teeth, a fine working thyroid and HOWWWIBLE NUMBERS!!!
HELP!!! :lol:

 

[Sarah and Buzz]

Thanks, Ronnie and Ella!

The insulin didn't get left out or dropped or played with, but it IS well past 28 days; I started it on June 17th. I think I will start a new pen tonight just to be on the safe side. Good idea about keeping it on hand, Ella.

C&S is Culture & Sensitivity. It's a test they run to determine what kind of infection is present so that you can use the right ABs for the infection, rather than just throwing general ABs at it. I have just had the regular UA done at the vet's previously, but I read on here that a C&S is the best way to dx, so I had them do that this time. They had to send it out to a lab so it took a few days.

 

[Ann & Tess GA]

That's the nice thing about the cartridges, you can switch them out for peace of mind when they get old and not have to get rid of a whole vial. I used my cartridge for 2 months because I was still getting really good results. That is what I think you have to look at after the 28 days, it may still be good but no guarantees.

 

[Sienne and Gabby (GA)]

Sarah:

I think the first thing you need to do is increase Buzz's dose. Overall, I think you're holding on to doses too long. If you're not seeing movement at a dose, the longer you you let Buzz sit in yellows, for example, the more used to being in those numbers Buzz's system becomes. Just like last night, if you get a green, you want to use food to keep Buzz in the greens for as long as possible. There are times with Gabby that even if I have a low blue early in the cycle, she may get some gravy to slow things down. Rather than thinking about going for a reduction, think about flat green and keeping Buzz's numbers out of the earned reduction range. In fact, you want to increase the dose so you start seeing the pre-shots as blue and the mid-cycle as green and then work toward getting green pre-shots. It may be that you'll need to increase the dose a drop at a time, even if you're seeing greens.

The caveat is that you have to test to stay on top of the numbers.

Brutus' SS is a good example of how well this can work. Likewise, you know how bouncy Gabby can be and that she doesn't hold reductions well. If you look at where I started using Jill's suggestion regarding food to manipulate the curve on 4/30, you can see how Gabby's numbers are gradually coming down. Right now, I'll probably be increasing her dose since she hasn't seen any green in a couple of days.

 

[Ele & Blackie (GA)]

Since no one answered your #3 question, I'm going to give my opinion. First of all, I would have asked for abs even though the C&S didn't show anything. Your vet saw bacteria and the C&S could have come back negative because the culture had to be sent out. I know this probably isn't the mainstream advice, but it is what I would have done. Second, if it was me I would go ahead with bloodwork as long as you can afford it. Here its costs about $70 to $80 for a kidney panel, but a full bloodwork would probably be over $100. If I remember right, Buzz had bloodwork last year, so you could compare the results and it might give the vet some idea if anything is wrong.

I know you are frustrated and believe me, I understand that! If it would help, we should stage a sit-in or a protest against pink & red numbers, but unfortunately the kitties' bodies aren't listening. :roll:

 

[Libby and Lucy]

I don't really see dead insulin, I just see bouncing. What I would do to combat the bouncing, as Sienne suggested, is increase Buzz's dose by 0.1, just to a fat 1 unit. Do that every 6 cycles until she quits bouncing. Then feed to prevent big drops.

Let's look at last night just as an example of how to do that:

PMPS 181 (feed LC)
+1 (feed LC)
+1.25 = 155 (oops, that's already lower than PS, should be higher, let's feed some MC)
+2 (feedMC)
+2.25 = 75 (oops, that's way lower than PS, don't want her going any lower, lets feed gravy here)

Although hopefully with all the MC, she wouldn't have gotten to 75. If she hadn't gotten to 75, she might not have bounced as much. And yes, this requires a lot of testing so you can tell what to feed when and so you can learn how food affects her cycles.

Buzz needs a higher dose of insulin to cut down the high numbers, but you have to test/feed appropriately to keep her safe while you're doing that. Make sense? Are you ready for 1.1 units?