Changing dosage times

Angus' mom

Angus' mom

Member
So we've been watching Angus' numbers and feeding time etc. That along with other factors we think changing dosage times may help. I'm just not sure how to go about this. He is currently checked at 930 am and pm, fed then shot at 10. He is a slow eater and easily distracted. We want/need to change the time to 8 and 8. Just not sure if this should be gradual or ??
Thanks for your time and patience with us everyone! He is a bit of a pain with all his extra issues, his 'pica' , dka, etc.
 
You can move his shot time back by 30 minutes per day. You can do 15 minutes earlier at both a.m. and p.m., which is what I would recommend for ProZinc.
 
I saw in your notes that he seems to be having trouble with his ears. I have had very good success with Surolan, but if it doesn’t get better you may want to take him to the vet.
 
I was thinking that too, worried the growth that was removed from the back of his mouth/throat may be growing back too. So I won't put it off too long just in case. They didn't think it was cancerous, but....
 
They did, it came back looking negative but was very dense and they couldn't 100% confirm. He does have polyp issues.(had to have major surgery during the lockdown for one in his ear)
I worry if it grows back they may have gotten it wrong, but either way, last time it got huge, another little bit and it would have completely blocked his throat. He could see it just by looking in angus' mouth, he was shocked at the size of it. The only reason I clued in was because it was causing major upper resp issues that wouldn't clear up.
Cause you know, they can never just have one issue at a time. Plus side the operation let us know he was diabetic...but then he went dka cause the upper resp wouldn't let him smell his food so he stopped eating. Fun times. Angus has been a trouble baby health wise since we got him, really wished we'd kept the health insurance on him, but the thought was always, well, he can't possibly get something else and the current problem is now a pre existing problem and won't be covered. ‍♀️
His numbers the next few days are going to be off as we try to sync of food demand times with dosage time. I'm sure he'll still snack a bit, but hopefully this will help. Thanks so much for all your time and input, it is appreciated!
 
So are you thinking that they will have to remove the growth in his throat again? :-( I understand about getting pathology reports that are not completely definitive. Has happened to me as well. Same thing with pet insurance, too. I currently have pet insurance on only two of my cats. They are two Siamese "foster fails" who I don't trust to stay well. The rest of my cats are too old to pay for pet insurance on anyway -- it would be too expensive -- although, it may be a way to ensure that nothing bad would happen to them/no sickness -- if I keep paying the premiums, they're sure to stay well! :confused:
 
I was out today so no tests :(
I'm going to wait a bit to check on his mouth/throat, they'll have to put him under to pull his soft pallette back, and he's been through so much already. So I'm hoping the surolan works.
 
So today he's been the lowest ever at dosage times, but we've only been going back the 15 minutes each time. I didn't test him during the day because my mom brought her cat over for the first time and I figured if anything he'd be high from the stress( seeing if he could be cat sat at our house when they go away, went pretty decent). Now pspm he was even lower and he is only eating 40g at ps times and maybe 40g each snack time(2× am, 2xpm). He can't decide if he wants pink or blues and greens bg. Thinking of skipping his shot due to how little he ate, but worried since Angus was dka. Called er vet just to check, they recommended skipping because even 30 min after eating he only went up to 8.9, and to call our vet in the morning. I'll check him tonight through the night a few times to get readings.
 
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Ya, I wasn't going to dose, but after 2 hours he was going higher so I gave him .5 units. Still not sure if it was enough, he was higher in the morning. But not sure what time he ate the food I left in his microchip feeder. It was after 3am because I got up and visually checked him then and gave them all a snack, and left the remainder in his bowl it was gone by 8 am. Today was a work day for me, so no one's been home for most of the afternoon, I agree it would have been nice to see. I'm off sat and sun so I'll try for a few extra checks then.
 
Angus' mom said:
Ya, I wasn't going to dose, but after 2 hours he was going higher so I gave him .5 units. Still not sure if it was enough, he was higher in the morning. But not sure what time he ate the food I left in his microchip feeder. It was after 3am because I got up and visually checked him then and gave them all a snack, and left the remainder in his bowl it was gone by 8 am. Today was a work day for me, so no one's been home for most of the afternoon, I agree it would have been nice to see. I'm off sat and sun so I'll try for a few extra checks then.
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You’re doing great. A reduced dose probably would have been preferable, which is what you ended up doing anyway, although a little later. He’s making very good progress. It will be good to see some more data on the weekend.
 
Angus' mom said:
I'm off sat and sun so I'll try for a few extra checks then.
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Can you try to get a few more tests today? A +3 and a +6 would be helpful (I pray he’s not bouncing). He’s dropping pretty low (not dangerous, a good green you recorded yesterday). We need to see how his cycle is progressing. Are you transitioning food? I’m trying to remember. Or is he on all wet low carb food already?
 
He is all wet carb, he may sneak some of his siblings dry at times, think he got a bit yesterday, but only 4 or 5 pieces. I don't feel like he's bouncing so much as we can't get the feeding schedule down for him and the benefits of feeding him out weigh the risks. We are doing better with it, just depending on work schedules it can get messed and sometimes he won't wait if in the 2 hour ps window. I wanted to get readings, life just didn't co operate this weekend.
 
Not tonight, he was at 6.7 ps, so we're holding, an hour after his ps meal, he aye 1 can ff, he was only up to 8.2, waiting a bit then I'll check again. Hoping he gets a bit higher before bed so we can give a token dose. Worried 8.2 is still a bit low to dose him.
 
You should be safe shooting half a dose. Recheck him and if he is stable or rising then you should be fine. It looks like you have shot the full dose before at 167/169. You can also leave put some wet food for him (if another cat won’t eat it.)
 
I'm wondering with his feeding schedule not every 12, if he would be better on a different insulin. I don't think he's bouncing, but his numbers fluctuate a lot day to day. My friend who has diabetes says that's kinda normal for her so...? He goes in for a fructosamine test next Wednesday. The vet seems happy with how he's doing.
 
Please tell me about his feeding schedule again. He is doing well on the ProZinc, but that doesn’t mean he would not do well on Lantus. But honestly, “feeding the curve” is just as important with Lantus as it is with ProZinc. Giving a snack at around +2 and them giving snacks in the early portion of the cycle before nadir is a strategy that is important for both ProZinc and Lantus or Levemir. A lot of people use the automatic feeders that we may have talked about.

For today’s cycle, I think he probably was in green since he was in low blue at +4.
 
Unfortunately due to the fact we think he has an eating disorder and if not fed when he's hungry, he'll eat anything plastic and then threw up everywhere if we're lucky, if not it's x-rays and surgery. He tends to demand food every 4 hours, I'm trying to keep portions down by making him share with 3 of his siblings, it's usually can of ff pate. Tonights numbers were quite low, held off until he ate twice for is to give him a half dose. He ate about 1 can. I'll prob test him during the night to make sure he's ok.
 
Do you mean he has pica, which is eating inappropriate things that are not food? I do have a cat who will eat plastic— particularly bags and spot plastic — and I have to be extremely careful about leaving anything plastic around, but sometimes she still finds it somehow. Fortunately, it makes her vomit it back up. I used to have a cat who ate fabric(particularly cashmere) and blankets (fleece or chenille) but she also vomited it back up eventually.

Are you saying he won’t eat when you need him to? And he’s eating plastic every day? What kind of plastic? He is not willing to eat at shot time or during the day? I’m trying to understand.
 
So it sounds like you have to feed him whenever he is hungry. Well, if that is the case, then you just have to work with the situation as best you can— and that sounds like what you’re already doing. Just try to keep to low carb wet food and feed him when you must. Hopefully you can feed him before the two hour window where it’s best not to feed prior to the AMPS and PMPS tests so that you can get an accurate reading that is not inflated by the food and you can know if it’s safe to give insulin and how much. Considering the challenges that he is giving you, I think you are doing a great job and seeing very good numbers.
 
Angus' mom said:
Unfortunately due to the fact we think he has an eating disorder and if not fed when he's hungry, he'll eat anything plastic and then threw up everywhere if we're lucky, if not it's x-rays and surgery. He tends to demand food every 4 hours, I'm trying to keep portions down by making him share with 3 of his siblings, it's usually can of ff pate. Tonights numbers were quite low, held off until he ate twice for is to give him a half dose. He ate about 1 can. I'll prob test him during the night to make sure he's ok.
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How much did you shoot last night? His spreadsheet says “held” in the units column. I see he got into a bag of cat treats as well. Are they high carb cat treats? It would not be as bad if he got into low carb treats like Pure Bites freeze dried all meat treats (or another brand of all meat treats.). Can you put those bags of treats in a sealed container that he can’t break into. I have to do this at home too with my cats. Of course, if one of us slips up and forgets to put the treats either way up high in a cabinet or into the hard plastic bin with a strong lid then anything can happen.:confused:
 
He ended up getting .5 thst night, and we did .75 last night and this mornings numbers were nice! Maybe he was bouncing at night, because the food situation was the same as always. I stayed up and fed him at 1 am which is +5, and left half a can in is feeder. It was gone this morning. He was 8.7(156) amps which is the lowest he's been amps. It'll prob annoy my vet a bit that I reduced him, but it's hard to say. I've been sending him my spreadsheet and he's been super happy with our progress. Originally he said he'd be happy if we dropped him to between 15-20 (270 to 360) on a fructosamine. I have a feeling is going to average around 10 (180). My boys making some progress despite the issues he's giving us. Thanks for all your help with him. I know it's not always clear what I'm trying to say.
 
Angus' mom said:
He ended up getting .5 thst night, and we did .75 last night and this mornings numbers were nice! Maybe he was bouncing at night, because the food situation was the same as always. I stayed up and fed him at 1 am which is +5, and left half a can in is feeder. It was gone this morning. He was 8.7(156) amps which is the lowest he's been amps. It'll prob annoy my vet a bit that I reduced him, but it's hard to say. I've been sending him my spreadsheet and he's been super happy with our progress. Originally he said he'd be happy if we dropped him to between 15-20 (270 to 360) on a fructosamine. I have a feeling is going to average around 10 (180). My boys making some progress despite the issues he's giving us. Thanks for all your help with him. I know it's not always clear what I'm trying to say.
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Well hopefully your vet will see that you are taking great care of him and he's getting really good numbers and not diving into lime green territory. 68 on your pet meter is the place where you do not want to go below (I was just noticing that you use a pet meter and that you had a 68 the evening of November 6. If you get a 68 (3.7) then start by feeding a little medium carb food and retest in 30 minutes to make sure he's stable or rising. If not, you can always go with higher carb. Fortunately, he seems to like staying fairly stable. Yesterday, when you had the low AMPS preshot, you should have tried to get a test or two in during that cycle. We can't know for certain what happened, but his PMPS yellow preshot may indicate that he dropped a little lower than his body was used to (or if you left him some higher carb food out because you were not going to be home?) He still did very well in the evening cycle though... going down into blue and probably green before you recorded that 121. Angus really is making progress here.
 
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