Chuck's bouncy journey.

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380 +2. Looks like it might be a day like the night before last. I'm going to try to check again in 2 hours but I will probably end up checking again in an hour. I get nervous. I have to run to walmart to get more strips. We go through them quick. But I rather be safe than sorry!
 
Hi Steph,
Just thinking "out loud" here:
I read Meya14's post to you on another thread about maybe trying Lantus or, if sticking with ProZinc, giving a consistent dose to Chuck for a bit. She was also discussing your concerns about Chuck's weight. I know he's been driving you nuts lately with spikes and dives and you're trying to address this by responding with doses tailored to those numbers at AM/PMPS. I think Chuck has that ultra-responsiveness to insulin dose that Teasel has. In Teasel's case, I'm keeping my dose changes micro in size and holding them as long as I see some positive effect even if some numbers are wacky. I know he can't tolerate frequent or large changes - they'd make him bounce into high numbers and get stuck up on the ceiling. He becomes insulin resistant quite easily. That's what happened before his DKA at the end of March this year.

Chuck needs to gain weight, as you've said. I don't know the details of your feeding regimen other than your comments about him starving all the time - consistent with high BGs. Meya14 has said elsewhere that some cats need higher carb food to support larger insulin doses so that their BG numbers improve and they'll gain weight. Then they can gradually have the doses and feeding changed to reflect an improved FD status.

I'll flag @Sue and Oliver (GA) and @Meya14 for their thoughts.
 
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Glad the ketones is negative. Sorry about the high numbers. I am sure he'll come down. Is it possible he is getting into HC food? Also, maybe try a lower carb wet food like the Fancy Feast Classics to see if that helps bring down the numbers.
 
Yes. Even when he's in the 100's he is always yelling at us to feed him. I started giving him 4.5 ounces at a time but told DH only 4oz this morning because I plan on giving him 1oz snacks twice today. Which will give him a total of 10oz of food. Almost 2 whole cans. That's why I wasn't too afraid to give him the 3 units this morning because he will get a snack and will most likely need it the extra. Usually 0.5 oz to 1 oz will stall or slow down his drop if he's going to quick so I didn't want him to get to 350ish then stall and go back up after 3 or 4 hours. I still have to call the new vet this morning to try to get him in this week instead of next week.
I rather keep him under 300 if possible, under the 250 mark would be best. I think Sue and Oliver told me that was the renal threshold where it can rest or hopefully start to repair/heal itself. Hopefully keeping his numbers down will help him gain the weight too. I feel like the first two weeks he had no shot of gaining or healing because of the slow restart with insulin- which I don't regret- rather safe than sorry! I was thinking about trying a 2.5 unit or 3 unit dose for a couple days but just won't be able to shoot that much if he's below 200 so I would be more willing to try a 2 unit dose every shot... but it won't work for a 400+ reading. IDK. I'll discuss it with the new vet- hopefully tomorrow or Wednesday. I use to give him the same dose for 3 cycles when it was lower doses but now as you can see he gets high for PMPS because I'm too safe with the AM dose. Oy' my head. It just gets spinning. Sorry to ramble on.
 
Another thing is, I was looking into making some high calorie-low carb food for him but got very overwhelmed with all the info. I read about it for hours and by the end I just had to walk away. I plan on looking for a simple recipe and try it. I don't have a grinder but do have a food processor.
 
Kris & Teasel said:
Hi Steph,
Just thinking "out loud" here:
I read Meya14's post to you on another thread about maybe trying Lantus or, if sticking with ProZinc, giving a consistent dose to Chuck for a bit. She was also discussing your concerns about Chuck's weight. I know he's been driving you nuts lately with spikes and dives and you're trying to address this by responding with doses tailored to those numbers at AM/PMPS. I think Chuck has that ultra-responsiveness to insulin dose that Teasel has. In Teasel's case, I'm keeping my dose changes micro in size and holding them as long as I see some positive effect even if some numbers are wacky. I know he can't tolerate frequent or large changes - they'd make him bounce into high numbers and get stuck up on the ceiling. He becomes insulin resistant quite easily. That's what happened before his DKA at the end of March this year.

Chuck needs to gain weight, as you've said. I don't know the details of your feeding regimen other than your comments about him starving all the time - consistent with high BGs. Meya14 has said elsewhere that some cats need higher carb food to support larger insulin doses so that their BG numbers improve and they'll gain weight. Then they can gradually have the doses and feeding changed to reflect an improved FD status.

I'll flag @Sue and Oliver (GA) and @Meya14 for their thoughts.
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If Chuck is underweight how about feeding smaller amounts more often to take the edge off him being starving all the time . Maybe divide up his calories a day into equal amounts and feed every 4 hours. That is what I did with Bubba and I started to see really nice results.
 
StephG said:
Yes. Even when he's in the 100's he is always yelling at us to feed him. I started giving him 4.5 ounces at a time but told DH only 4oz this morning because I plan on giving him 1oz snacks twice today. Which will give him a total of 10oz of food. Almost 2 whole cans. That's why I wasn't too afraid to give him the 3 units this morning because he will get a snack and will most likely need it the extra. Usually 0.5 oz to 1 oz will stall or slow down his drop if he's going to quick so I didn't want him to get to 350ish then stall and go back up after 3 or 4 hours. I still have to call the new vet this morning to try to get him in this week instead of next week.
I rather keep him under 300 if possible, under the 250 mark would be best. I think Sue and Oliver told me that was the renal threshold where it can rest or hopefully start to repair/heal itself. Hopefully keeping his numbers down will help him gain the weight too. I feel like the first two weeks he had no shot of gaining or healing because of the slow restart with insulin- which I don't regret- rather safe than sorry! I was thinking about trying a 2.5 unit or 3 unit dose for a couple days but just won't be able to shoot that much if he's below 200 so I would be more willing to try a 2 unit dose every shot... but it won't work for a 400+ reading. IDK. I'll discuss it with the new vet- hopefully tomorrow or Wednesday. I use to give him the same dose for 3 cycles when it was lower doses but now as you can see he gets high for PMPS because I'm too safe with the AM dose. Oy' my head. It just gets spinning. Sorry to ramble on.
Click to expand...

Steph, I apologize if I've added to the confusion. And I just found the discussion between you, Meya and Sue on another thread so they've already given their input.

FYI, Teasel had lost some weight but nothing drastic. Since his diagnosis in January 2016, he's been eating a total of 1.75 cans of wet food daily. These are the 5.5 oz cans. One can of this is prescription DM wet food and the other 0.75 can is Friskies LC of some sort to vary the flavour of the DM. I mention this only as an example of quantity of food. The DM is 191 cal/can (Purina site) and the Friskies are in the same ball park according to what I could find online. So, Teasel was getting about 370 calories a day, not counting ample freeze dried treats that go with testing and shots. I'm slowly reducing this because his weight is good now. If he wasn't diabetic he might get by on 200 cal/day.
 
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