? Dosing advice again - she's all over the place

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Mancat

Mancat

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Due to the holiday I went ahead and posted on the main health forum because I was worried about her numbers coming in red and having increased her to dose too highly/quickly. She came in super low this morning at 175 AMPS. After testing 30 minutes later she was at 159. I waited another 30 minutes and she went up to 211 so I went ahead and gave her .5 u. She held steady for awhile and then jumped to 285 so I went ahead and dosed her another .5u. I was initially switching her back to 1.4u per Sue's advice so I figured the 1u total thus far wouldn't be a problem. I'm trying to keep her in the low yellows/into the blues today. Sue said I might as well bring the thread back over here since her numbers are becoming more controlled and there's less of a chance of an emergency and people here have the most experience with her insulin :) So I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season as well.
 
Just be sure you to test for the nadir for both doses so you don't give insulin tonight before she is at her lowest point for the second dose. (We try to stay away from dosing twice as it makes the nadirs tricky.)

After the lower amps this am, I am thinking she'll do well under 1.4/1.6 for the higher numbers and one unit for the lower ones, but let's see how things go. Her SS definitely looks like she may have been bouncing around.
 
Yeah I'm still testing every 2 hours and if she comes in super low for the evening I'll delay or skip it.
 
Ok so I'm thinking it's a bounce. She was low this morning so I held off an hour and did .5u at 6:30am and then .5u at 11:30am. I am going to try and give her 1.4 again and test a few times to see what happens. She was red yesterday so if she's blue tomorrow morning then I'll have a better idea on the dose.
 
I've been holding her at 1.4 but her numbers are increasing after the dose. I will keep her at this for awhile to see what happens. I know she has a late nadir but I can't imagine her hitting it near AMPS.
 
The amps was yellow which is a nice change. Interesting that she went up right after - maybe a food spike? What kind and carb value of food? How much does she eat at each meal?
 
She's been on the same food since the beginning. Canned wet food that's always below 8%. I did my research up and down. She's been doing well on it. She gets 1 can per meal so 2 cans a day total.
 
Good, no issues there. Then it looks like a matter of testing, analyzing and tweaking the dose until we figure out what will work best for her.
 
It's that Every Cat Is Different thing. Some cats do exactly what we think they should with each dose; some are a continual surprise. It helps to remember that insulin is a hormone. Think of menopausal women or hormonal teenagers and it may make more sense. Your job is to try to figure out what is happening for her and how best to work with that.

There are cats that go off insulin with a diet change; some are on insulin for a couple months or a year or so and then gradually need less insulin; some are on insulin for years and then go off and some are on insulin and never stop needing it.
 
The nice thing about Prozinc is that it is flexible - once you've got some mid-cycle data on the effects of various doses, you may be able to use a sliding scale and 'shoot what you see' based on pre-shot tests and that data. You'll still need some mid-cycle testing as things can change (!) And the scale can need occasional adjusting.
For the exceptionally rare cat, the 2 shots staggered, aka split and lagged dosing can work - it just needs really good data, very, very consistent timing, and more intensive testing to make sure the nadirs haven't shifted and overlapped. Right now, you don't need to do that. You need patience, as this doesn't get stabilized, nor regulated quickly. (A drag, I know!)
 
Well at this point I'm about to rip my shirt off and hulk out over here lol. I just want her happy, healthy and properly regulated. She deserves it.

You're completely right on the patience, BJM. I've just never been a very patient woman <3
 
She did eat. She came in at 159 for AMPS then I fed her her morning can of food. Sue asked about the type of food yesterday. She had the same idea about it as you did, but prior to buying food last time I researched through the link posted on the forum and she's on very low carb wet canned food. She's been on that for a long time now and doing well. It's the only kind I feed her. No treats, snacks, errant dog food she steals. Nothing of the sort. Just her food.
 
That would be a huge jump but it does look like she bounced plus the food. The nice thing is that she does seem to come down after that initial jump.

So I am thinking 1.4 is too much for a yellow preshot (since you got the low amps) - maybe 1.2? But 1.4 still ill looks good for the pinks.
 
Yeah I pulled her back to 1 tonight because she came in low again in the blues. I want to see how that does her and if needed I'll bring it up slightly to 1.2. I know its early but I'm kind of excited a little because this is the most blues/yellows I've seen since she's been diagnosed.
 
Ok so I'm seeing a pattern here. She appears to be spiking after she eats. For about the past 3-4 days she's consistently bounced after eating and then come down. I'm not sure why that is.
 
Mancat said:
Ok so I'm seeing a pattern here. She appears to be spiking after she eats. For about the past 3-4 days she's consistently bounced after eating and then come down. I'm not sure why that is.
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Agreed. Some cats are supersensitive to carbs. It might help to see if you can feed the lowest carb, while only feeding fish once a week for so. @Cara and Wynken has been looking for really low carb because Wynken needs to lose weight.
 
My Gypsy couldn't handle even low carb...she needed super low carb. It definitely could help to have even lower carb than you feed now.
 
Ok well I've found an even lower carb wet food. It's anywhere from 0-4% which is half of what she's at now. Hers currently ranges 7-9% depending on flavor. Perfect timing too because I have to buy more food tomorrow and I have a coupon for the brand lol.
 
Watch the fat content if you want weight loss, too. Fat has about double the calories per gram.
Per Cat Info, you can boost the protein by adding 1 ounce lean meat or poultry to 5 ounces of canned food, mix well, then portion out.
 
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