curve time?

[Mandy S]

I talked to our vet on the phone yesterday. I had sent her Sissy's spreadsheet and she said we didn't have to come in for a sugar check, which was all they wanted us to do since it was a week out from starting insulin. I told her we had been adjusting Sissy's shot time back an hour and that the dose coming up (which was last night) she'd be on the time we wanted. She told me I could do the curve at home, but wanted me to wait til next week to do it so she'd be on the adjusted time for a week. Does the time adjustment of an hour change things a lot? Should I just go ahead and do one? She told me next Tuesday to email her and she'd check the spreadsheet that day for the curve.
We've been doing 1 unit of Lantus morning and night for just over a week now...I guess today is day 9.

Last night at her pmps she had the highest number since we started. The week she was diagnosed she was in upper 400's. At the vet the day before we started she was 376....and you can see the rest since starting in her spreadsheet.

 

[Briere Fur Mom]

Does the time adjustment of an hour change things a lot?

If you shoot an hour earlier from the previous shot, it can act like an increase in dose, reflected in the #s you will see. Adjusting shot times is to be done in 15 minutes per cycle or 30 minutes per day until you reach the desired time. So 1 hour would take 2 days. Hope that makes sense.
As far as curving....if you look at many of our SSs...we don't follow the vets advice by curving in a week. We curve everyday,depending on the dosing guidelines(TR/SLGS) your following. we want to make sure our babies are safe and testing is the only way to ensure such
Have you had a chance to look over the stickies at the top of the L&L forum regarding dosing methods? Any thoughts to what one would fit best for you and Sissy?

Other members should stop by and offer more thoughts and advice Hang in there and I'll help as much as I can

 

[Mandy S]

If you shoot an hour earlier from the previous shot, it can act like an increase in dose, reflected in the #s you will see. Adjusting shot times is to be done in 15 minutes per cycle or 30 minutes per day until you reach the desired time. So 1 hour would take 2 days. Hope that makes sense.
As far as curving....if you look at many of our SSs...we don't follow the vets advice by curving in a week. We curve everyday,depending on the dosing guidelines(TR/SLGS) your following. we want to make sure our babies are safe and testing is the only way to ensure such
Have you had a chance to look over the stickies at the top of the L&L forum regarding dosing methods? Any thoughts to what one would fit best for you and Sissy?

Other members should stop by and offer more thoughts and advice Hang in there and I'll help as much as I can

I adjusted her dose by 15 minutes over 2 days...we got to where we wanted to be last night.

I will start reading about the dosing methods. I read a little bit the first day, but someone mentioned I had time to figure it out so I have just been trying to get a handle on testing and giving her the shot and a schedule. A lot of my time this week has been on reading food labels. She has food allergies and had been refusing food and we were trying to find things that she would actually eat that was also low carb. I spent my available time doing that. But now we've settled on some foods that she is eating finally and I'm branching out to learn more everywhere else. There's just so much. So dosing methods are up next.

So when you say you curve every day? A curve is testing every 2 hours in a 12 hour period? How do you do that and still work or whatever you have during the day?
Maybe I'll answer my questions when I read the sticky in a bit.

 

[tiffmaxee]

Welcome. While the only curve Max had was after his first shot by my vet, that was because I tested a lot. Try and get tests at different times each day to try and see when she starts to drop and when she hits nadir, the lowest point in the cycle. So one day get a test at +2, +4 and 6-8 and another at different. For Max onset was around +2.5 because he got a pretty big food bump. Everyone here says to get a +1 and +2 because some onset earlier. That never helped with my boy. Then by testing I learned that Max hit nadir between +4-7. Where he was at onset helped me know how often to test and what to feed him. I fed him small amounts often and stopped at around +5 or 6 unless he was low and I needed to prop him back up. He dropped low at night like many do so a +3 let me know if more testing was needed. Kit nadirs late so from lots of testing they learned she needed a snack later at night. BTW it helps to look at other people’s condos to see what you might expect.
So to summarize for now, if you can’t get those extra test or vary the timing of tests
you might want to do a curve. If you decide to follow SLGS you will need one e dry 7th day. You won’t need to bring her to the vet for curves because you can do it at home and your vet realizes that. Cats are often higher at the vet due to stress but some are actually lower.

 

[Chris & China (GA)]

So when you say you curve every day? A curve is testing every 2 hours in a 12 hour period? How do you do that and still work or whatever you have during the day?

No, you don't need to do an "official" curve every day. If you choose SLGS, you need to test before every shot and if possible, get a mid-cycle on the AM cycle and always get at least 1 test "before bed" on the PM cycle....do a curve once a week (at least)

On TR, you always test before shots, but then you get tests sprinkled around at different points in the cycles to learn your cat's onset, nadir and duration. If you get enough tests kind of "all over", there's no need to do an official curve. China's spreadsheet is a good example of TR "all over the place" testing.....you can see that there was no reason for me to do a curve since I did enough testing (more than enough actually) to know what was going on each day

 

[Briere Fur Mom]

Thank y'all for stepping in

Mandy, I wasn't trying to scare you or dissuade you by any means. AS the gals above mentioned, peeps who work full time tend to follow the SLGS dosing guideline. No need to curve everyday. The more aggressive dosing guideline(TR) calls for more testing because the approach to dosing/shooting is well more aggressive. SLGS seems like it would be a great fit for you guys
There's a lot of info on this website. Take it slow and don't get info overload. Here's a link to a food chart, a little outdated, but still has a wide variety of foods available.https://catinfo.org/chart/index.php

Again I'm sorry that I cut my previous reply too short and may have scared you