A few questions for a two day Newbie to the forum

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Adrienne & Eli

Adrienne & Eli

Member Since 2012
I'm starting a new post today, b/c I think my later posts are getting lost in new ones. If you need any background info, please see my earlier post "New Diabetic".

I'm happy to report that I'm already seeing progress in Eli with removing the dry and wet Hills W/D. While I know the numbers are still high, I thrilled with the progress. Below is progress thus far since I've started home testing and completely removed the Hills dry food and gradually removed the Hills wet food:
10/14/12: AMPS 452, +1 HI, +3 399, +5 36. PMPS 444, +3 344, +6 291
10/15/15 AMPS 433, +3 249, +6 261, +9 366, PMPS 409
I'm planning to test +3, +6 and +9 today. A few questions:
1) I took off work today to do the three hour testing. I can't do all this testing on a regular basis - so other than the AMPS and PMPS, what is the other critical time I need to test - and can I get away with just one additional test in either the AM or PM? Or do I need to do at least one additional test in both?
2) I'm not sure how much to feed Eli and how often. He was on free range dry food. Yesterday (first day of taking away dry good) and fed him half a can of fancy feast at both AM and PM injections. And then about 1/4 a can every three hours. Today I'm starting on 1/2 can of Fancy Feast every four hours - is this too much? I can't do that much feeding while I'm at work or thru the night. What is his ideal amount to be fed and how often?
3) Given the above testing results, how many days do I wait to increase his dosage? He's had two full days of no dry food.
Thanks for ALL the help!!

Thanks again for any advice!
 
With regards to food and amount. Until he is regulated, it's hard to say how much he is going to need. For now, feed him as much as he wants. As he gets regulated, he will slow down on his own.

I'll give you Maui's example:

When she started she could eat 2-3 cans of FF in one sitting. As the insulin started doing it's job and her hunger slowed, she went down to 1 - 1 1/2 cans in one sitting.

I don't think 1/2 can of FF is a lot of food and personally I would be feeding more. Now to the question how much more.

Well, what I do is add one can of water to one can of food. This keeps it moist all day and ensures she gets plenty of water and helps fill her up. I'm not saying you need to add a whole can of water, but I suggest you add something.

I would give at least 1 full can of food at "meal times" and then leave an additional can of food out for grazing. You can even freeze the food, add water and freeze it. Leave out the frozen food and it will take a few hours to thaw, which will then be nice and fresh if/when your cat is ready to eat again, especially if it's before meal time.

There were days when Maui would eat more than normal and then days where she would eat 2 cans a day.

Experiment and see what your cat needs/wants. If you leave out food, is the dish empty or is food left over. This will help you to gauge how much to feed.

Just keep in mind, while you are regulating with the insulin, the food needs may be higher than normal.

hope that helps.
 
Thanks Hillary - I have been adding water, I noticed someone else recommeded that. I will increase the amount and see how that goes - I don't want him going hungry. Since I've been adding water to his good, I noticed he really isn't drinking out of his water bowl. I assume that is normal and he is now getting what he needs from what I add to the wet food?
 
Hi Adrienne-
Welcome. I’m a month old newbie and think you are off to a good start. I saw you were wanting to get more tests in before moving over to Lantus. You can join whenever you want. I posted once here and then just made the transfer. Had no clue what I was doing ( :smile: ) but everyone has been great. There is a lot more activity over on that link also so if you have questions they may get answered quicker.

We also like to post only one link per day and then link the previous days condo. It helps others when reviewing all your information to have it in one spot. Here's yours from 10/13.
Previous Condo

The next time you post, open your previous condo in a separate tab. Go into the browser window and copy the URL.Go to the new condo you're opening.

In there, type the following:

Previous Condo

(If you want the link to have a specfic name, instead of "Previous Condo" you can type the name you want.)

Hit "Preview" - that will tell you whether you did it right.

You are doing great. Keep asking questions as there are so many helpful volunteers on this site.

Karen
 
I just posted a thread yesterday asking about the food amount thing. Lee was eating everything in sight at the beginning when his numbers were in the 500's (!) Now that he has been in the normal range for a couple of months and OTJ his appetite has diminished drastically. But he is back to a normal morning nibble, then saving some to nibble the rest of the day then being ready for dinner and saving some for a midnight snack. I thought he was sick he was eating so little! But it is kind of like a human going on the Atkins diet, you are ravenous until your body gets used to processing proteins instead of carbs for energy. After a while you even out and you don't need as much food to make you full and happy.
 
If you can't be home to feed all the time you can add some water to the canned food and freeze it in ice cube trays. Then you can just pop a few in the dish before you go and they'll thaw out over a few hours and he'll have something to snack on. If you've got the money you could also get a timed auto feeder like the Petsafe 5 meal. My cat is a serial scarf and barfer, meaning he gorges himself on food so fast he pukes, so I can't feed him more than about 2 tablespoons of food at a time or I'll be scrubbing it out of the carpet 3 minutes later. The ice cubes work better for us because they thaw slowly and he licks them like a chicken popsicle as opposed to gobbling it all down at once. :lol:
 
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