Help for Molly #3

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Kris & Teasel said:
That's what I use. All human meters read lower than pet meters like the AT. The difference will be larger at high BG levels and less at low BG levels. For example, if your AT meter reads 400 the FS meter might read 300. If your AT reads 65 your FS meter might read 50. There's no way to convert FS readings to AT readings. You just learn by using it what too high, OK and too low is on the FS meter.

On average the Freestyle Lite meter tends to read on the low side compared to other human meters too. That's not a bad thing when Molly drops lower. What you see on the FS meter is probably a little lower than another human meter would give you so it's a bit of a cushion. It's preferable to reading a little too high when BG has actually dropped low.
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Ok, just worried about the AMPS I won’t know what’s high or low?
 
You can try the new meter if you like. You can just note in the comments that the reading was taken with the Freestyle meter. It really does help to get at least one reading at night so we can put a picture together of how the insulin is working for Molly.
 
She may be down a bit but I think I would probably consider it more of a flat reading.........certainly not a significant drop. She is fine. That's great that you got the reading tonight. It looks like she is clearing the bounce nicely so we'll see how the lower dose works for her. Do you leave food out for her at night for a snack? If not, you can leave a bit of FF for her to eat if she needs/wants it. Sometimes giving them food to snack on at night helps even out the cycles a bit as many cats do tend to go a little lower at night. The only caveat to that is that you don't want her eating 2 hours before her AMPS test so if you don't get up that early, you won't know when she ate the food. A lot of folks use timed feeders to be able to leave a snack out at night. Something to think about going forward.
 
MrWorfMen's Mom said:
She may be down a bit but I think I would probably consider it more of a flat reading.........certainly not a significant drop. She is fine. That's great that you got the reading tonight. It looks like she is clearing the bounce nicely so we'll see how the lower dose works for her. Do you leave food out for her at night for a snack? If not, you can leave a bit of FF for her to eat if she needs/wants it. Sometimes giving them food to snack on at night helps even out the cycles a bit as many cats do tend to go a little lower at night. The only caveat to that is that you don't want her eating 2 hours before her AMPS test so if you don't get up that early, you won't know when she ate the food. A lot of folks use timed feeders to be able to leave a snack out at night. Something to think about going forward.
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Ok, how am I going to understand the readings now? Just worried about the AMPS? I’ll leave a little FF out tonight for her. Possibly look at a timed feeder.
 
With a human meter you would not give insulin for a reading under 11.0 mmol. If you happen to get a reading not far below 11, you can stall for 30 minutes without feeding Molly and then retest to see if her BG is rising on its own and post for assistance. Kris is usually online early but with her company she may be busy tomorrow. I'm usually up early and will check in to see how things are going.
Just to confirm, what time zone are you in and what time do you do Molly's shots? Not sure if my earlier guess was correct. If I know roughly when you might be posting I can make sure I check in at that time. :)
 
MrWorfMen's Mom said:
With a human meter you would not give insulin for a reading under 11.0 mmol. If you happen to get a reading not far below 11, you can stall for 30 minutes without feeding Molly and then retest to see if her BG is rising on its own and post for assistance. Kris is usually online early but with her company she may be busy tomorrow. I'm usually up early and will check in to see how things are going.
Just to confirm, what time zone are you in and what time do you do Molly's shots? Not sure if my earlier guess was correct. If I know roughly when you might be posting I can make sure I check in at that time. :)
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14.3 this morning do I give her insulin? She’s not hungry this morning either.
I’m 2 hours behind you. In the mountain time zone
 
Oh my you are an early bird!
Did Molly eat at all? You just need to know she will eat something. She doesn't need to eat a full meal. I guess since she loves her kibble, you could try a bit of that (tsp or so) to see if that gets her going.
 
MrWorfMen's Mom said:
Oh my you are an early bird!
Did Molly eat at all? You just need to know she will eat something. She doesn't need to eat a full meal. I guess since she loves her kibble, you could try a bit of that (tsp or so) to see if that gets her going.
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She ate a little kibble not much. Just a lick of her FF do I still give her insulin?
 
My goodness, considering she had no AM insulin yesterday this is quite a good AMPS. She also got out of the inflated bounce BGs quickly. Those are good patterns to know about.

You can give 1.25 u this AM even with that little bit of food. Try giving her a little bit more in the time after her shot. Lantus usually starts working about 2 to 3 hours after it's given.
 
Re appetite: her appetite might be reduced as she spends more time in lower BG range. You don't want her to go on a food strike because of the reduction in kibble and you want to keep an eye on how she's feeling, her behaviour, activity level, etc. Do as much as you can to reduce the kibble even if it takes longer than you thought it would.

I'll be around until mid day today and then out doing family stuff after that.
 
Kris & Teasel said:
Re appetite: her appetite might be reduced as she spends more time in lower BG range. You don't want her to go on a food strike because of the reduction in kibble and you want to keep an eye on how she's feeling, her behaviour, activity level, etc. Do as much as you can to reduce the kibble even if it takes longer than you thought it would.

I'll be around until mid day today and then out doing family stuff after that.
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I had to give her a bit of the kibble. She didn’t eat much of it. None of the FF just a lick, I find it hard to eyeball the 1.25. She’s playing so she must be feeling alright.
 
Adrienne Vanderhoning said:
I had to give her a bit of the kibble. She didn’t eat much of it. None of the FF just a lick, I find it hard to eyeball the 1.25. She’s playing so she must be feeling alright.
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You'll get better at eyeballing the 1.25 u. You might want to buy a pair of cheap drugstore reading glasses in a high-ish magnification even if you don't wear reading glasses. They can be very helpful in seeing the syringe lines.

I mentioned in an earlier post (I think) that making up a reference syringe with coloured water drawn up to your best estimate of 1.25 u is helpful. That way, you have something to compare your insulin level with every time you draw up 1.25 u. It helps you be consistent dose to dose.
 
Adrienne Vanderhoning said:
Ok did a test 12.5? It’s 830 here do I put it in the +2 or +3?
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If it was 2.5 hours after the shot put it in the +2 box. If you want to add "@+2.5" in the same box you can but then you have to manually colour in the box. To do that go to the menu bar at the top of your SS and find the little tilted can with the drop (paint can icon), click on it and choose bright yellow from the chart.
 
Kris & Teasel said:
If it was 2.5 hours after the shot put it in the +2 box. If you want to add "@+2.5" in the same box you can but then you have to manually colour in the box. To do that go to the menu bar at the top of your SS and find the little tilted can with the drop (paint can icon), click on it and choose bright yellow from the chart.
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I’ll just put in the +2 box. Is there something I can follow with these numbers? What’s good and what’s bad? To ease my mind
 
Normal with the human meter is 2.8 to 6.7. You don't want Molly to go below 2.8 and if she is that low, you need to intervene with food. That number doesn't mean she is hypoglycemic....it simply means she is low and needs to be propped up a bit. Right now Molly is a bit high but she is dropping but not fast or drastically so all is good.
 
MrWorfMen's Mom said:
Normal with the human meter is 2.8 to 6.7. You don't want Molly to go below 2.8 and if she is that low, you need to intervene with food. That number doesn't mean she is hypoglycemic....it simply means she is low and needs to be propped up a bit. Right now Molly is a bit high but she is dropping but not fast or drastically so all is good.
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Ok, so she is more a pink than a yellow?
 
Kris & Teasel said:
Do you mean would she be pink on the AT meter? Hard to say for sure. It's best once you switch meters to focus on only one and not try to imagine what the number would be on the AT meter. This will get easier over time.
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I kinda wish I didn’t switch meters now. I don’t know if she’s high or ok or what.
 
Adrienne Vanderhoning said:
I kinda wish I didn’t switch meters now. I don’t know if she’s high or ok or what.
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Give it time. You'll learn to love the cost savings of using the Freestyle Lite. Here's a very general guide:
  • blacks and reds - too high (but not dangerous in the short term)
  • pinks - high
  • yellows - high-ish but not bad
  • blues - pretty darn good
  • dark green - ideal
  • lime green - take action now because BG is dropping too low.
What you need to know about your SS: you have the pet meter version set up. It will give a lime green whenever BG drops below 3.8. Now that you're using a human meter the "take action" number is 2.7. Unless you switch spreadsheets to the human version you'll see a lime green if your Freestyle reads 3.8 or less when actually Molly is still safe.

There are people who can change your SS for you if you wish or you can try setting up a second one yourself in the human meter version.
 
Re that guide to BG colours above: you can see that how we understand the colours using the Freestyle meter is the same as how we understand then with an AT meter. The main - and most important - difference is where the "take action" boundary is. It's at 2.7 for the FS meter whereas it was 3.8 for the AT meter. That's really all you need to focus on.
 
Try to get another test with the Freestyle meter around +6 or +7 so we can see better how this 1.25 u dose is working. So far it seems this might be a good dose for tomorrow but more data is helpful.
 
Yes you can give her insulin but you may need to monitor a little longer tonight. Are you ok with monitoring till say 10:30 to 11pm.? Is Molly eating well again now?
 
Very nice. Molly is "surfing" in blue as we describe it. That means she's spent several hours staying flat at a nice BG level.
 
Adrienne Vanderhoning said:
I won’t be able to stay up that late. I have to get up at 5:30am. She’s not eating much
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You could try 1.25 u and test her at +2. It's possible she might drop into dark green tonight but you'd have to set an alarm for somewhere around +6 to see whether that happens.

Another possibility is to drop the dose to 1 u because you're at work tomorrow and won't be able to test. That might be the safest option for now. What do you think @MrWorfMen's Mom ?
 
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