AMPS - 500

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KittyMom777

KittyMom777

Member Since 2014
Why so high when his numbers were good last night?

And I'm still trying to understand my vets curve - first line of my SS. I've never seen numbers so low. I'm almost tempted to believe there should have been a '1' in front of the low numbers!
 
Firstly, Welcome! I take it kitty's name is Silver? How old is he/she? I see on your SS that Silver is on antibiotics. Please know that infection can cause Blood Glucose to shoot way up, and when the medication kicks in, the BG can drop very quickly. Test as much as you are able to watch for quick drops.

As for the 500 today, that is completely normal. The quick drop kitty did yesterday (which might have gone quite low last night) caused kitty to "bounce" . Simply put, a bounce is a reaction by a body that is used to running with high BG being suddenly low. The liver panics and kicks out glucose, thinking" oh dear, we are in trouble here, we need sugar in case we have to fight or run!" It is extremely common, and takes a long time for the liver to be retrained and calm down as more and more normal levels are achieved.

I am concerned about Silver being started on 2 units while fighting infection though. That is a lot of insulin for a starting dose. Also, what are you feeding Silver? If you have changed to low carb wet food (and we highly recommend that you do), then I would immediately reduce the insulin dose to 1 unit

We say here "better high for a day than too low for a moment"

Please introduce us to yourself and your dear Silver, and we look forward to helping you while we get to know you. This community has more combined knowledge about feline diabetes than many vets, so know you have landed in the right place. Had I not had this group, I am sure I would have lost my Samantha, as my vet advised a huge insulin increase after just 5 days, that I now know would have likely been lethal.

After 142 days of insulin shots, testing, etc, Samantha went off insulin last spring and is doing great. She had an infection this summer which drove her BG up for a week or so, but once she was antibiotics it came right back into normal ranges and she is doing great.
 
Hi. See my other posts. Silver doesn't have an infection the vet thought he did but it came back clear. He didn't bounce as far as I can see. The drop was not huge yesterday at all - 20 to 16 is good. I recently started the spreadsheet so it looks like he's started at 2 units but he started lower and worked up to 2.
 
Sorry, I misunderstood. However, Sammy's bloodwork and urine tests didnt show any infection either, but I kept telling them she had a fever. No one believed me, but I knew her ears were hotter than normal (as if a diabetic cats Mom would not be familiar with those ears!). They finally took her temp, found it elevated, and started the meds. And they worked.
 
Hi

I think you identified the reason for the high numbers in your comments. Lantus needs to be shot at 12 hours apart with really just a maximum increase of 15 minutes. So if you didn't take a reading and shot the next dose for another 1.5 hours there would be no lantus left in his system. It really is that simple. Lantus needs you to be consistent and then you will start seeing the numbers come down. Leave it too long and the shed you have built up gets drained.
 
phlika29 said:
Hi

I think you identified the reason for the high numbers in your comments. Lantus needs to be shot at 12 hours apart with really just a maximum increase of 15 minutes. So if you didn't take a reading and shot the next dose for another 1.5 hours there would be no lantus left in his system. It really is that simple. Lantus needs you to be consistent and then you will start seeing the numbers come down. Leave it too long and the shed you have built up gets drained.
Click to expand...

Thanks. I'm doing my best but at the weekend the schedule is harder to keep to.

Linda I had thd vet do a full culture which came back clear. If you look at my post in the main forum I've posted pics of Silver and his sister Sasha. They are both 8 from the same litter and theyvs been with me since they were 5 weeks old.
 
Okay several things happened all at once which is why the high amps this morning. First you just started a new dose by going to 2u/2u, that set off what is known around here as new dose wonkyness or NDW. In some cats their numbers will go higher for a couple of cycles when a dose is changed, it's kind of like at first their bodies fight off some of the insulin. Mostly because while insulin is a naturally occuring hormone in the body, we aren't injecting feline insulin into a feline, we are using human insulin in a feline so some small part of it is killed off by the body until it adapts to using it like it's own insulin.

Second the isn't competely adjusted to the new dose either and by giving a late shot, it also acted as a dose reduction. Because part of the shed was drained. And since it isn't full formed yet, it depleted more than say it would have if you would have given a late shot after you had been at this dose for a week or two.

And lastly he bounced, it isn't that he went dangerously low, it's that he went lower than he's been in awhile. And his liver panicked ..Upside is you know his liver is functioning fine. :-D When you start brining down high numbers you can do it one of two ways, either give a large enough dose to slam them into low numbers and watch them bounce like rubber balls until they stop with runs of good numbers and then days in the high numbers like a roller coaster. Or you give a dose that drops then around a 100 pts at nadir, let that dose sit a few days and their bodies adjust to what that feels like before inching up the dose to bring the overall curve down another 100pts by nadir with the preshots also around 100 pts lower and so on until you have adjusted their dose so that it holds like in that 40-120 range most of the time.

Mel and The Fur Gang
 
I do understand it is hard to get the balance right but if you put e effort in early on Silver will stand a much better chance of going into remission and so it is worth it. For it to work for me I get up just before six every morning and then dose again at six at night. That way it fits into my schedule better. If you do go about changing the times you need to just change it by 15 minutes every day. What you also have to remember is if you shot late one day and the normal time the next dose you are actually giving an increase because of the shed/depot. Lantus likes consistency
 
Thanks Mel. I find your explanations really easy to understand.

Doing my best to be consistent. I've even asked my boss to allow me to leave work early to catch an earlier train home. Typically with a two hour commute each way to work I can barely make it home in the 12 hrs. He just started evening doses this weekend so I will try hard to make it work in the week although it's likely I will only manage AMPS and PMPS plus a +2 or +3 in the evenings. Weekends will be easier to test.

Mel, how will I really get a sense of what is going on during the week with limited testing?
 
Just home from church and did a test - +8 is 23 (414) hmm didn't drop much.

Also came home to find he'd pooed on the floor again. I think I know why he's doing it. I watched him in the litter box yesterday. Coz his legs are bad he lies down to pee. When done he stays in for ages before coming out. I think if my other car had been in he obviously won't lie down in if so uses the floor. Any other thoughts? I have two large boxes already and just got another one so that might help? I'm in a one bedroom basement apartment so all in same room in different locations.
 
My remi has weak back legs and it seems it can be down to one of two things. Low levels of Vitamin b12 or low potassium. I just had remi tested and it turned out to be low potassium for him and so the vet advised to buy a supplement. But you only do this when you know it is low. My best advice would be to ask for a blood test at the vets as you should treat potassium if it is low as it can lead onto kidney damage.

With regards the vitamin b12 you want to buy the MethylCobalamin form as a supplement that may help. Zobaline was the one I went for as it was recommended to me by members on the forum as it is specifically for diabetic cats. http://www.ilifelink.com/zobaline-for_d ... blets.html apparently you just crumble them over the food.

Alternatively the doctors best fully active B12 are another one that has been recommended. But they aren't as strong and you would need to use two capsules

http://www.amazon.com/Doctors-Best-Acti ... B008NIHCZC
 
I started him on methyl b12 this weekend so hoping that makes a difference. Not sure how long til I see improvement. He had full blood panel done very recently so I'm sure the vet would have said if potassium was low? Anyways I'm out of funds for now. the bloodwork alone was nearly $300. I'm canceling Christmas gift giving this year :-)
 
Yeah me too :lol:

Could you just ask whether it was done and what the result was. That way you can set your mind at ease. I don't think the neuropathy will fully go until you get the blood glucose under control ie under the renal threshold for most of the time so just keep going with the insulin and the b12 and it will hopefully resolve .
 
Thanks. The vet said the same thing re the neuropathy. We need to focus on getting him regulated.

I got b12 from Vitacost per recommendation on here.
 
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