? 9/17 Charlie AMPS 116, +3 90 reduce to drop dose or lower threshold?

Charlie'sMom22

Charlie'sMom22

Active Member
Hi friends!

It’s been a while since I’ve posted on here. I hope everyone is doing well. I’m sorry I haven’t been able to post, FD is a roller coaster as you know and I've been trying to balance Charlie's needs and mine.

We've been plugging along and continuing to come down the dosing ladder. His numbers have been steady. I moved the threshold down a little so as not to reduce too quickly, but I do think he’s been genuinely in need of these last few reductions because he’s been HUNGRY lately, particularly right before he earns them.

Anyways, he just earned another one last night and we’re already at the bottom of the ladder. I gave him 0.25 skinny this morning because I couldn't post last night and I wasn't sure what to do. It seems like I could either:
  • Reduce to a drop dose now or
  • Lower my threshold further to 80, ignore last night's little dip, and keep him at 0.25 to see if his numbers tighten up more first
I want to be very careful about taking reductions since he's apparently one of those cats that's just going to have frequent pancreatitis episodes. He just had one the other night (you can see on the SS where his numbers spiked for a couple hours). Luckily I know his signs now and I have a lot of meds on hand, so I've kind of made a little Pancreatitis Protocol for us. But I know it can affect dosage and it's going to make keeping his BG steady on a drop dose tricky.

Any other chronic pancreatitis kitties here?
 
Charlie'sMom22 said:
Hi friends!

It’s been a while since I’ve posted on here. I hope everyone is doing well. I’m sorry I haven’t been able to post, FD is a roller coaster as you know and I've been trying to balance Charlie's needs and mine.

We've been plugging along and continuing to come down the dosing ladder. His numbers have been steady. I moved the threshold down a little so as not to reduce too quickly, but I do think he’s been genuinely in need of these last few reductions because he’s been HUNGRY lately, particularly right before he earns them.

Anyways, he just earned another one last night and we’re already at the bottom of the ladder. I gave him 0.25 skinny this morning because I couldn't post last night and I wasn't sure what to do. It seems like I could either:
  • Reduce to a drop dose now or
  • Lower my threshold further to 80, ignore last night's little dip, and keep him at 0.25 to see if his numbers tighten up more first
I want to be very careful about taking reductions since he's apparently one of those cats that's just going to have frequent pancreatitis episodes. He just had one the other night (you can see on the SS where his numbers spiked for a couple hours). Luckily I know his signs now and I have a lot of meds on hand, so I've kind of made a little Pancreatitis Protocol for us. But I know it can affect dosage and it's going to make keeping his BG steady on a drop dose tricky.

Any other chronic pancreatitis kitties here?
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Hi Jess, so glad to hear Charlie is doing so well.
I’m sorry to hear about the pancreatitis. It seems like you’ve figured out how to treat him quickly and do well. That’s wonderful news!

His BG looks so good lately! Glad he’s surfing so well.

Sending you both lots of good wishes 💕🏄‍♂️🌊❤️‍😻
 
Good to see you back over here on .com Jess.

Lots of chronic pancreatitis kitties unfortunately! @tiffmaxee had lots of experience with her kitty Max. Getting on it as soon as possible does seem to help.

The "bottom of the ladder" so to speak is a 0.1 unit dose. A picture is in the Sticky Note Insulin Care & Syringe Info: Proper Handling, Drawing, Fine Dosing. Charlie is still seeing quite a bit of blues and we'd expect them to be the exception, not the everyday when they are ready to go off of insulin. How are you feeding Charlie now? It might help him to see more greens if you gave him a little snack (couple tsps LC) in the +8 to +9 time frame each cycle. If his pancreas is sputtering, that food should be enough to bring his preshots down.
 
Staci & Ivy said:
Hi Jess, so glad to hear Charlie is doing so well.
I’m sorry to hear about the pancreatitis. It seems like you’ve figured out how to treat him quickly and do well. That’s wonderful news!

His BG looks so good lately! Glad he’s surfing so well.

Sending you both lots of good wishes 💕🏄‍♂️🌊❤️‍😻
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Hi Staci!! Thank you so much! I love Ivy's new pic, she's looking very pretty and polite 😻💅
 
Wendy&Neko said:
Good to see you back over here on .com Jess.

Lots of chronic pancreatitis kitties unfortunately! @tiffmaxee had lots of experience with her kitty Max. Getting on it as soon as possible does seem to help.

The "bottom of the ladder" so to speak is a 0.1 unit dose. A picture is in the Sticky Note Insulin Care & Syringe Info: Proper Handling, Drawing, Fine Dosing. Charlie is still seeing quite a bit of blues and we'd expect them to be the exception, not the everyday when they are ready to go off of insulin. How are you feeding Charlie now? It might help him to see more greens if you gave him a little snack (couple tsps LC) in the +8 to +9 time frame each cycle. If his pancreas is sputtering, that food should be enough to bring his preshots down.
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Hi Wendy! It definitely does seem like swooping in with meds as soon as I see symptoms has been helpful. Although that's had the side effect of reinforcing my medical trauma-induced hypervigilance problem 🤣. Oh well, what can ya do.

He gets a lot of small meals. I'm almost embarrassed to admit this, but he gets about 13 small meals a day (6-7 a cycle). Most of them are at the front of each cycle when he's hungriest, but he does get a +8/+9 snack. I've tried consolidating some of them but it hasn't worked for various reasons. It does seem like he's been a lot more steady on this crazy feeding schedule though, so maybe he just needs more time on it? Could being better about taking him for regular walks help?
 
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You are lucky he’s doing so well. Max had chronic pancreatitis first a few years before fd and never made it to such a small dose. Frequently small meals which you are doing and treating symptoms the minute I saw them really helped him. He was a shy sensitive cat and just going to the vet led to a bout. He would go there feeling fine and get sick that night!
 
Not sure the regular walks would make a lot of difference. But you could record on the SS when you do a walk and see if that makes a difference over time.

Does he get any food after +8 or +9, or is that it for the cycle?
 
tiffmaxee said:
You are lucky he’s doing so well. Max had chronic pancreatitis first a few years before fd and never made it to such a small dose. Frequently small meals which you are doing and treating symptoms the minute I saw them really helped him. He was a shy sensitive cat and just going to the vet led to a bout. He would go there feeling fine and get sick that night!
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I know, I’m really lucky and surprised and proud of him. It has me on edge all the time though, but there’s not much I can do about that aside from being as prepared as possible and trying to keep myself in check.

He’s really shy and sensitive too, and I think I’m just starting to learn his triggers. The very first bout he had a friend had been staying here all weekend, which really disrupted his routine. He seemed fine at the time but the pancreatitis started a day or two later. I’t’s been in the back of my mind ever since. I’m pretty sure anything more than ultra-low fat in his food is a trigger for him as well.
 
Wendy&Neko said:
Not sure the regular walks would make a lot of difference. But you could record on the SS when you do a walk and see if that makes a difference over time.

Does he get any food after +8 or +9, or is that it for the cycle?
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Will do. There’s been a couple times where he’s gone a little lower longer after a walk, but I don’t know if that’s just coincidence.

During the AM cycle he doesn’t eat again until PMPS. At night he gets food up until +4 (sometimes we skip +3), then a +8 and +10.5 via the auto feeder. I’m still tweaking that schedule because he’s been waking me up in the early AM. I think some of that might be him getting used to the new feeder noises though. He didn’t wake me up this morning at all until AMPS.
 
@Wendy&Neko so from what you said earlier (thank you for the link btw, that visual guide is super helpful), there’s a step between .25 and a drop, right? And that would be the .1? Does it seem like he’s ready to try .1 or should I try another cycle at .25 and see what happens?

Sorry for all the questions!
 
Hey Jess! Great to see you! I haven't been here much lately either.

Incredible to see how well Charlie's doing and how quickly he's racing down the ladder! Crazy to remember where he was not so long ago.
 
Wendy&Neko said:
Yes, typical dosing is 0.25 units, then 0.1 units, then a drop if kitty is not all green at that point. Whether you reduce depends on what your reduction criteria is.
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Got it, thank you. I guess what I'm getting at is if I want to encourage him to have more greens and lower preshots, would staying at .25 be the best way to do that?
 
Brianna & Xander said:
Hey Jess! Great to see you! I haven't been here much lately either.

Incredible to see how well Charlie's doing and how quickly he's racing down the ladder! Crazy to remember where he was not so long ago.
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Great to see you too Brianna! I was looking for your recent posts! I hope both you and Xander are doing a bit better. Sounds like you had a scary night the other night with him being so hungry. Did you figure out what that was? Charlie's been super hungry too. Maybe they're bulking 🤣🤣
 
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