? Dropping doses quickly

Sofina & Chester

Sofina & Chester

Member Since 2020
I was wondering if it would be at all advised to drop Chesters dose by .5u instead of .25u? He’s been dropping below 50 for the passed 3-4 days as I’ve been reducing by .25u. He will be again receiving a dose decrease tonight, as well as already having one last night.
 
Great job catching those drops! I'll let the more experienced folks weigh in but generally speaking the 0.25 reductions are recommended. As your dose gets lower, the reduction also becomes a higher percentage of the dose too (e.g., 0.25 reduction on 2u is 12.5% while 0.25 reduction on 1.5u is 16.6%). Also, the depot is still in play...here's info on the depot in case you haven't read about it before.

Here's a relevant quote from it:
A dose reduction will usually result in a need for less stored insulin. The excess may be released into the bloodstream faster than usual, especially if several dose reductions are done back-to-back.
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Go Chester :D:D:D (and leave your question up to get help from others :))
 
Could I ask for a little clarification? On the am cycle of November 1st, what does 46/95 mean? Did you get 46 stall, not feed and retest in 20 minutes? Also, what is your feeding schedule like? Snacks between meals? Normally back to back reductions don't end up working, but it is possible Chester didn't read the rules.
 
@Christie & Maverick that 46/95 was a feed retest and shoot (see previous condo) I’m not sure whether this morning might have been the same? Sofina noted that Chester doesn’t get much of a food bump and his spreadsheet seems to show that too.

Rather than reducing by .5U at this stage my suggestion would be not to feed a preshot that’s too low to shoot and to skip a cycle instead - hopefully that happens on a night cycle so you can get a really good sleep too ;) You can see when you did that on 10/30 that Chester didn’t go too high and got straight back to business so no worries there. This will give the depot a chance to reduce a bit so we can get a better idea of what the current dose is doing. At the moment the depot is still being influenced by the previous higher doses (the doses for around 6 cycles back can be influencing the current cycle) so it may not be that the current dose is too high.

If you take a .5U reduction instead you’re still going to have the previous higher doses influencing the cycle and he might still go low and we still won’t know whether it’s because the new dose is too much. This is why back to back reductions often fail, you go down quickly because the dose still appears to be too high when it is in fact the influence of the previous larger doses that is making it appear that way and then when the depot catches up the numbers go back up and you need to start increasing the insulin again. Of course it may turn out that it is still too high for his needs now but if it is he’ll prove that soon enough :D Go Chester
 
I agree with the other, 0.5 units is too big a reduction, at Chester's size of dose. Note, there are exceptions for cats on much larger doses. The other thing to consider is that the larger depot can influence 4-6 cycles after a reduction. Today's cycle could still be seeing some of the effect of the 2.0 and even 2.25 units you shot not long ago.
 
This morning Chester was able to go up on his own without food. He’s 63 right now and I think I’m going to still wait just 20-30 minutes before I shoot him to see if he’s going up or down. Because you’re totally right he definitely went right back to normal on 10/30 and I want to make sure he’s not going too low right at shot time.

it definitely makes sense what you’re saying about dose decreases. I will be giving his 1.25u tonight if I end up giving him a shot; which I probably will but I’d rather be safe than up all night worried. Just on the off chance that he takes a dip

thank you guys so much for your encouragement and support! I was really dreading all of this and thinking the worst at times. You all really helped me and Chester get to where we are, we literally couldn’t have done it without you all.
 
Christie & Maverick said:
Could I ask for a little clarification? On the am cycle of November 1st, what does 46/95 mean? Did you get 46 stall, not feed and retest in 20 minutes? Also, what is your feeding schedule like? Snacks between meals? Normally back to back reductions don't end up working, but it is possible Chester didn't read the rules.
Click to expand...
Chester gets the same amount of food everyday. He Eats a raw diet. And I feed him throughout the day in a graze feed-esque kind of way. Basically if he’s hanging around in the kitchen I’ll let him nibble on his food. He’s a very reliable eater so I have no problem getting him to eat at shot time
 
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