Fluffles still dropping at 52 pls advise

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Fluffles

Fluffles

Member Since 2017
Hi everyone, Fluffles seems to be holding steady in the blues with new decrease from 1.5 to 1.25 and curve yesterday. He is somewhat lethargic but overall feeling so much better than he was when vet increased dose from 1 to 2. Ive since decreased down to 1.5 and more recently to 1.25. feedback is appreciated

So a little history about Fluffles. I got Fluffles when he was approx 3yo and he was a whopping 24 lbs with a voracious appetite. I fed him dry food (as that is all he would eat) and limited the calories. I got him down to about 19lbs. At diagnosis he had dropped some more weight and was at 17.8. He is big cat, Im thinking ideal for him would be around 15 or 16 lbs.

When I switched to ff at diagnosis (which he will now eat) I read somewhere on here about converting weight to kg, using ideal weight etc and I think I may have computed something wrong. I have been giving him 2 cans of the small ff classic chicken in the morning and 2 at night. I believe each can is about 95 cal so about 380 cal per day. I weighed him a week ago and he was 18.2 and this week 18.4. I think I need to cut back how much I am feeding him. Looking for input on if this will affect his lantus dosing or if I should hold off on doing this since I just decreased his dose or start right away with decreasing his food. If anyone has advice on how much to decrease to food, if I need to gradually decrease etc I would really appreciate it! Thanks!
 
Hi and welcome. I do think he needs less food. One of my friends let her cat get up to nearly 20 pounds. I had her get a scale and he’s down to under17 and needs to lose a couple more. He’s now getting two cans of fancy feast and a few treats a day. I would cut down to three cans and divide it into more meals. You might want to invest in an auto feeder to space it out for while you are at work and give a before bed snack. That might help keep him from missing the extra food and help with his BG too.
 
Thank you, I will look into a feeder. Any advice on a good one/brand? Advice on how to use? I've read some people use ice or freeze the food.
Also will the decrease in food/change in schedule of feeding affect his lantus dose or just stay the course and do whatever the number tell me to do?
 
I understand your dilema, George (aka BFG) got up to almost 20lb before diagnosis, we fed him 65g of Hills metabolic, this was advised by vet in order to try and get his weight down, never worked.
He's down to just under 17lb now, he's a big cat too, I'd like to see him at 16lb, and he is slowly getting there, but it was/is a struggle.

If Fluffles is putting on weight, then it makes sense that you need to reduce the food intake, FWIW, I didn't find the calcuclations very useful, George is soooooo sedentary (his an old boy and worse than that he's a lazy ole boy), I found that if I used the calculations he would put weight on. So my approach has been to use the scales as my guide, I cut back a little at a time and monitored his weight, until I was getting the results I wanted.

FWIW when he was on insulin, I gradually changed his regular food portions, and adjusted dose as he earned reductions, that kept things safe. Of course if there were days when he was low and I had to steer his low numbers his 'diet' went out the window, it was more important to keep him safe than to worry about claories at that point.
 
@Gill & George , Fluffles is a big lazy guy too, if he's in the mood (rarely) he will play but only for about 1 minute then he's done! Weight comes off really slowly. Whenever I start to walk anywhere he tries to trip me to lead me to his food. If I'm still he climbs on me and lightly nips at me until I get up then we start all over again with him trying to trip me and lead me to his food. He's always been this way but the diabetes put it in overdrive with him getting into the trash etc. The struggle is real lol But he's a really sweet, gentle, and snuggly cat and wouldn't trade him for the world! We'll get there with time
 
Fluffles said:
@Gill & George , Fluffles is a big lazy guy too, if he's in the mood (rarely) he will play but only for about 1 minute then he's done! Weight comes off really slowly. Whenever I start to walk anywhere he tries to trip me to lead me to his food. If I'm still he climbs on me and lightly nips at me until I get up then we start all over again with him trying to trip me and lead me to his food. He's always been this way but the diabetes put it in overdrive with him getting into the trash etc. The struggle is real lol But he's a really sweet, gentle, and snuggly cat and wouldn't trade him for the world! We'll get there with time
Click to expand...
Omg seperated at birth these two lol.

I try to get him to exercise, then after a while I realise it's me chasing the toy around the house while bfg watches:rolleyes:
George has recently got a new bro and sis, the kittens give him a ride. For his money and he's been more playful than he's been in years, downside he steals their fuds if I don't watch him like a hawk.

The FD certainly put the food obsession into overdrive, he was jumping up onto kitchen table and stealing my breakfast, toast and blueberry jelly :rolleyes:

He still loooooves food, but now he's in remission and he's on an all wet high protein LC diet he's better about food than he's ever been.

As he got more regulated his appetite normalised, at first when his numbers were high he was hungry Al the time, then when he started seeing lower numbers that made him extra hungry too. In some ways this was useful, he'd come find me and get pretty insistent when he dropped low.
Having a kitty that is a member of the CPC (clean plate club) is a blessing when trying to manage FD, I could always count on him eating if his numbers were diving, this made it less stressful for me to steer his numbers.

I see that flufles has made it to green and dropped below 90 again.
Because of the depot nature of lantus, we don't usually recommend back to back reductions, the depot of the larger dose can influence the numbers for up to 4 cycles. That said, you did skip 4 cycles ago so the 1.5 depot should have been drained some, so not convinced these greens are all depot.
Also with the lack of data when your meter broke just recently, we don't know how low he'd been getting.

So in this case I might possibly take a more conservative approach and reduce by 0.25u.

If you are able to keep a close eye on him over the weekend, you could hold and see if he continues to give you lower nadirs and demand the reduction.

In an ideal world we want the reduction to stick, and if we reduce too quickly we can see them fail, on slgs this can see a cat spend a week in high numbers before you're able to take the dose back up, the issue with this is that glucose toxicity can set in and we end up having to go further up the dosing ladder before we start to break through into nice numbers again.
 
Remember On slgs, your no shoot number is 90.

I'm going to put. Call out to see if someone can stop buy as it looks like tu our might need some guidance at pmps if his BG is still low.
 
I literally watched you update your spreadsheet! :joyful:

He really dropped for the PMPS. I would grab a +2 to be sure he's safe and above 50. +1 is usually bumped up from the meal. He's saying he wants the reduction.
 
Well, it looks like Fluffles is thinking about an exiting evening. I would encourage you to get a test at what would be +1 and definitely at +2. Even without shooting, it's helpful to see where the numbers are going without insulin.

Tomorrow is going to be a bit of a conundrum. Generally, you don't want to give dose reductions too close together. However, it's looking like Fluffles is on a bit of a mission -- even with a previously skipped shot and another skipped shot tonight, his numbers have been good. If his numbers are hight (over 300) at AMPS, I'd think about shooting the 1.25u dose and then reducing the dose at PMPS tomorrow. If his numbers are still good, I'd reduce in the morning.

 
Its as if you were all reading mind. I will be around most of the weekend (other than a few hours tomorrow afternoon) so I can try to get in as many tests as possible. But is seems the consensus is 1u in the am unless his number really shoots up then stick with 1.25u at least for the morning. Thanks so much everyone for your advice!!
 
Ok so at +2 (do you still call it +2 even if he got no shot?) he ate all his dinner and still dropping now down to 52. He has been pretty lethargic all day except for a couple of hours before dinner where he was active and very hungry. Now he's sleeping. Should I give him some honey? or test again?
 
He's sleeping and showing no interest in food. 53 @15. I guess I'll keep watching him and testing for now and keep the food nearby if he wants it.
 
Wow. I stepped out for a bit and came back to all this excitement. :D:D

Is Fluffles still lethargic? It could be he's not used to being in low numbers.

ETA: We cross posted. Just keep an eye on him.
 
Hi @Mandy & Rex lol yes I was starting to get a little nervous but we are coming back up now, 74 @15.5 phew

Yes he's been really lethargic since he started insulin, he seems to perk up a little towards the end of his cycle and then right back to lethargy after eating and /or dose. The worst was when he first started and then again when the vet reccomended that he jump from 1u to 2u. That was too much for him and after reducing (by advice of my friends on here) he improved but still struggles to even just keep himself awake sometimes. Hoping maybe when I bring him down a little again this time he will have a little more pep in his step! Thanks so much for checking in on us and keeping an eye out, I really appreciate it
 
Seeing how he's surfing in the 50s-70s on no insulin since this morning, I vote for 1.0 in the morning - assuming he comes up to a number that you are comfortable shooting. If possible, you might grab a +11 or +11.5 and post for advice if you have any doubts.
 
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