? Cat sitter help - short on time

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shelaghc

shelaghc

Member Since 2017
I've posted in the Prozinc forum tagging the most knowledgeable folks there, but haven't heard anything since Sunday and I'm getting nervous.

This Friday I'm going away for the weekend. The cat sitter will be giving Jester his dosage but not testing. She's a new sitter and Jester is a shy boy.
She's familiar with giving insulin, but never tested her own kitty. On top of that, trying to get Jester to sit on the lap of a stranger is just about impossible.
So we're ruling out testing for simplicity's sake.

I need to come up with a dosage for Jester that will be as safe as possible for the 3.5 days I'll be away. I had hoped his BGs would have been a little lower by now on 1.5U so that if it goes up a bit it wouldn't be a big deal. Unfortunately he's been in mostly pinks and yellows for over a week.

There was a choice over the weekend to either increase his dosage or do a curve and it was suggested by one of the board members that a curve would be better and I could increase his dosage on Monday. But Monday his BG was lower and I can't be home to monitor him.
I don't know if I should increase or not now with time being so short. I don't know if it will do more harm than good if I increase but the sitter needs to decrease over the weekend. I showed her how to eyeball 1.25u, but we didn't get into 1.75u.

Now I only have till Friday morning to come up with a plan for the weekend and none of the people on the Prozinc board that said they'd help me with one is responding. The most communication I've had was with a totally different board member who scared the crap out of me when I said the sitter won't be testing because their kitty died while they were away.

Frankly, I'm starting to freak out.
 
Hopefully since you posted in main forum it will get noticed. I'm sorry I can't help. Hope something good happens!
 
I'm not familiar with Prozinc to give much guidance. Based on your ss 1.5 isn't doing much. And it is a bit early to advise yet. To much can change between now and Friday.
 
If it were my kitty I would hold off on any dose increase until you get back.. or maybe try a fat 1.5u? Unless you can get some mid-cycle data between increasing and when you leave, I tend to feel a slightly higher number is better than a possible hypo if your sitter is not going to be testing. Does Jester have a history of ketones?

Don't panic. The person you were mentioning whose kitty died while they were away had other preexisting conditions and a vet tech who didn't listen to instructions. If you trust your sitter to follow your instructions there is no reason to think Jester will be any worse for wear :bighug:
 
SpotsMom said:
maybe try a fat 1.5u
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What's a fat 1.5u?
Right now I'm eyeballing the 1.5u one single unit syringes because I have a limited number of syringes with half unit markings and I'd rather the sitter have those available to make things simpler for her.
 
shelaghc said:
What's a fat 1.5u?
Right now I'm eyeballing the 1.5u one single unit syringes because I have a limited number of syringes with half unit markings and I'd rather the sitter have those available to make things simpler for her.
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Its a little bit higher than 1.5u but not quite 1.75u. Without the half unit markings it may be hard to eyeball, but you could try just pulling it to where you normally would for 1.5u, then just a hair further.
 
SpotsMom said:
Its a little bit higher than 1.5u but not quite 1.75u. Without the half unit markings it may be hard to eyeball, but you could try just pulling it to where you normally would for 1.5u, then just a hair further.
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Hmmm... That's different.
btw, do you know if UK syringes are much different than US syringes? I got some from another member for the cost of shipping (still way less than buying them), but when I used them it just seemed like the reading were going up higher.
I wish I'd kept track of the dates so I could compare better.
 
shelaghc said:
Hmmm... That's different.
btw, do you know if UK syringes are much different than US syringes? I got some from another member for the cost of shipping (still way less than buying them), but when I used them it just seemed like the reading were going up higher.
I wish I'd kept track of the dates so I could compare better.
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That I don't know.. I would think there may be small variances between manufacturers but I couldn't say for sure...
 
Aren't the syringes marked with a capacity? My U-100 are 1/2 cc, same as 1/2 ml and there are 50 lines so each line is 0.01 cc. Metric is the same everywhere and insulin is measured by volume, not weight. Newbies reading this, 1 line does NOT necessarily mean one unit.
 
Noah & me (GA) said:
Aren't the syringes marked with a capacity? My U-100 are 1/2 cc, same as 1/2 ml and there are 50 lines so each line is 0.01 cc. Metric is the same everywhere and insulin is measured by volume, not weight. Newbies reading this, 1 line does NOT necessarily mean one unit.
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These are U40s. I've never been brave enough to try the conversion.
 
Noah & me (GA) said:
Agreed, why bother with the extra stress. Sorry, what days are you leaving/returning?
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Friday after AMPS and morning dosage / Monday after evening dosage - planning to do a mid-cycle after I get a short breather and hug my kitties.
Or, I might wait until morning so that Jester isn't getting a poke in the ear right after I get home. *g*
I want him to realize he missed me.
 
Just my two cents from someone who uses a pet sitter a lot. I wouldn't increase the dose when I'm not around to monitor. Better too high than too low. A couple of days a little higher won't harm your kitty. (And I've used the U100 syringes for a long time with the conversion chart. It's so much easier to see when you are giving smaller doses.)
 
Zoey & Carol said:
I wouldn't increase the dose when I'm not around to monitor. Better too high than too low. A couple of days a little higher won't harm your kitty.
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I know this is basic stuff you know. Noah still bounces and is unregulated after all this time so I haven't invested everything in getting him just right. He'll probably never be "just right". If I had to do this in a big hurry I'd cut the dose to 1/3 and deal later because Better too high than too low isn't just some clever saying.
Are you going to be in constant contact with us and the sitter; photos, video, the whole smart phone 9 yards? I'm still on a land line so I'm just groping with that.
 
Noah & me (GA) said:
Aren't the syringes marked with a capacity? My U-100 are 1/2 cc, same as 1/2 ml and there are 50 lines so each line is 0.01 cc. Metric is the same everywhere and insulin is measured by volume, not weight. Newbies reading this, 1 line does NOT necessarily mean one unit.
Click to expand...
Found that out! Sent DH for U100, 1/2 Unit markings, he came home with what you describe. Can't return ,opened a 10 pack and went "what"?
 
SpotsMom said:
If it were my kitty I would hold off on any dose increase until you get back.. or maybe try a fat 1.5u? Unless you can get some mid-cycle data between increasing and when you leave, I tend to feel a slightly higher number is better than a possible hypo if your sitter is not going to be testing. Does Jester have a history of ketones?

Don't panic. The person you were mentioning whose kitty died while they were away had other preexisting conditions and a vet tech who didn't listen to instructions. If you trust your sitter to follow your instructions there is no reason to think Jester will be any worse for wear :bighug:
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I agree, don’t make any changes. He won’t die of sugars in 300s - as my poor boy has demonstrated over the last 3 MONTH (we are working him up for a more serious metabolic condition which is causing this, but as you can see higher is safer than lower LOL). Go with the current dose and adjust when you get back.

I also went away for 10 days before and my pet sitter didn’t test. Cat was fine. Better err on the higher side than lower.
 
Noah & me (GA) said:
Are you going to be in constant contact with us and the sitter; photos, video, the whole smart phone 9 yards? I'm still on a land line so I'm just groping with that.
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Contact - yes.
Constant? Depends on what you call that. There are two sitters - one who's taking care of food, litter, etc.; the other is taking care of the insulin.
It's a long story.
Neither of them are going to be with the kids 27/7.
But they're going to check in with me daily with info on how much Jester is eating and how he and the other kids are handling everything, along with what time Jester gets his insulin.

I actually bought a nanny cam so I can keep an eye on the kids myself, but there have been problems with connectivity and I'm not sure if that's going to work.
 
Zoey & Carol said:
I wouldn't increase the dose when I'm not around to monitor.
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I wasn't actually planning to increase while I'm away. But I've been a bit worried about the pinks and yellows and had been trying to decide if it would be okay to increase for a couple of days while I'm still home.

The Prozinc folks have been weighing in this evening and we're now discussing in more depth.

Thanks everyone for hand-holding me today. This has all been very calming for me.
 
@SpotsMom I tried the "fat 1.5U" tonight and am going to check at +5 (about midnight) to see what that does for him. Thanks for the suggestion!

UPDATE:
Wow! I got one of the lowest readings I've had this month on that +5!
 
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shelaghc said:
And we're back to a pink AMPS.
Oh Jester, you're so changeable.
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Spot does he same thing. Every time he gets a good number for the first time in a while he bounces up for the next PS. The life of a bouncy kitty haha. I wouldn’t change anything else for him until after you get back. He is definitely very responsive to small dose adjustments!
 
SpotsMom said:
Spot does he same thing. Every time he gets a good number for the first time in a while he bounces up for the next PS. The life of a bouncy kitty haha. I wouldn’t change anything else for him until after you get back. He is definitely very responsive to small dose adjustments!
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And that backfired on me.

Jester's BG when I got home this afternoon was 146. Mind you, that was a +10 and he isn't due for an injection until about 7:00pm. But I hate to make him wait until then for "dinner" so I use it as a sort of guide.

Except his +10/+11 after work hasn't been this low in nearly a month. And I never think about stalling.

And now I don't know what to do with just over 36 hours until I leave.
 
Wow Jester!! Normally this would be a great number but I understand your concern since you’re leaving this weekend. It is only Tuesday so you have a few days to see what happens. Are you comfortable keeping him there til Thursday to see if he settles, then maybe reducing to 1.25u for the sitter?
 
SpotsMom said:
Wow Jester!! Normally this would be a great number but I understand your concern since you’re leaving this weekend. It is only Tuesday so you have a few days to see what happens. Are you comfortable keeping him there til Thursday to see if he settles, then maybe reducing to 1.25u for the sitter?
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And I just realized it’s not actually Tuesday haha. Long week. Well you have one more day......
 
shelaghc said:
Today is Wednesday .
I leave Friday after his AM injection.
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I think at this point I wouldn’t go any higher than 1.25u for the weekend. A little high is safer than too low. Fat 1.5u looks good for him once you get back but no need to experiment while you’re not there to monitor.
 
I can't even do a proper PMPS because he ate a full can of food.

This hasn't been an issue for most of the year since I started working.
I get home, get a bg at about +10 or +11, feed everyone, and - unless something weird has happened- give Jester his insulin at the 12-hour point.
 
I think he should still get his shot tonight. Based on his previous numbers, you have shot 1.5 & 1.25 on preshots that were only a little higher than where he was at +10 today. He probably would have come up quite a bit in that last 2 hours. Test him again at shot time, which will be food influenced but that’s ok. If it’s still under 250, maybe reconsider, but if it’s over give a maybe slightly reduced dose.... 1u or 1.25u.
 
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