Advice on when to try OTJ

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Snuggles and Danny

Snuggles and Danny

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Hi,

Snuggles has been doing very well on Caninsulin and his new diet of whiskas (I'm in the UK) - his blood glucose has been coming down steadily (with the odd blip). With the help of this forum I found a vet who support home testing, and I'm giving her regular updates, but I also wondered what people here think of his bg results, and when I should try taking him off the insulin. I've attached his spreadsheet to my signature. His nadir is 4/5 hours after insulin, and it's now usually not that much lower than his pre-shoot level.

Thanks!

Amy
 
Hi Amy,

You have done an amazing job getting these numbers on Canninsulin. Usually cats shoot up much higher at preshots. I have never seen a Canninsulin kitty so even. He is certainly what we would call regulated.

Our guidelines are from around 2.5 to 6.6 without insulin for 2 weeks to be OTJ. Generally when they are in the lower greens pretty consistently, people try mini doses and then an OTJ trial.


You might a dash more insulin - maybe a fat one unit. Be sure you can test and monitor if you do. It may be that he will have a lower nadir then and lower preshots. It could mess him up with highs and lows, though. You can't be sure until you try. But be sure you monitor him if you try it.

When do you feed? If he can graze, it may help your numbers go down. If his pancreas is helping out, then food should bring his numbers down and having it available all day may make his numbers generally lower.
 
Hi,

Thanks - that's an interesting suggestion about free feeding, I currently feed just before I shoot and 4-6 hours later, but I have noticed that when he's asking for food hours before the next shot the reading is sometimes higher. Historically he tends to overeat a bit, but I could try putting out frozen whiskas while I'm at work and overnight so he can snack, and see what that does to the glucose levels.

Amy
 
Snuggles and Danny said:
Hi,

Thanks - that's an interesting suggestion about free feeding, I currently feed just before I shoot and 4-6 hours later, but I have noticed that when he's asking for food hours before the next shot the reading is sometimes higher. Historically he tends to overeat a bit, but I could try putting out frozen whiskas while I'm at work and overnight so he can snack, and see what that does to the glucose levels.

Amy
Click to expand...

I think you will find that human diabetics will say they use food in ways to help even their numbers and it is done with smaller more frequent amounts.
You can stick to the same total amount of food but dividing it into 6 or more mini meals you may have even better numbers.
Many people use an auto feeder so you could still leave the frozen portions, but you can set the timer for the intervals you want food eaten.
Petsafe 5-meal Auto Feeder
 
I tried an automatic feeder before and Snuggles broke it and helped himself, but I could try to find a more robust one :) He's currently getting 4 meals a day so not too bad. Things are somewhat complicated by also having a civvie cat (Danny) who refuses to completely convert to wet food. I'm working on him...
 
Our Oliver destroyed 3 feeders before we got the PetSafe. He couldn't get into it.

Maybe if the wet is available during the day and dry isn't, your civie may give up and eat it?
 
I could certainly try and see what happens. Danny can always have some dry when I'm home - I'm using the most healthy dry food I can find (47% protein, less than 15% carbs) but wet would obviously be better. He's quite stubborn and I don't want him to stop eating and get sick - I'm gradually upping the amount of wet he gets vs dry.
 
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