Help For Molly

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Hurray! Thanks for doing this, Adrienne. :)

Aside from not liking the ear pokes, how is Molly feeling and behaving these days? Any word from the vet yet?
 
Kris & Teasel said:
Hurray! Thanks for doing this, Adrienne. :)

Aside from not liking the ear pokes, how is Molly feeling and behaving these days? Any word from the vet yet?
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Molly is feeling great! she has this tower that is three tier with balls on it. She plays with that at least 5 times a day or more. I think she thinks she's hungry? she'll stare at her food dish. I think she's testing me I'll put some dry out on the floor for her to eat. She's gained weight and looks better. She loves laying in front of our fireplace to keep warm :)
I do worry about her too much, she's a pretty spoiled cat!
No word from the vet, I have a feeling I won't hear from him.
 
Molly is going to be very hungry until she is better regulated, as her little system is just not able to utilize her food properly. More frequently fed small meals is a recommendation for our sugar cats. If you have to be away, you could use a timed feeder or freeze canned food in ice cube trays and leave a cube or two out for her to snack on.
 
Idjit's mom said:
Molly is going to be very hungry until she is better regulated, as her little system is just not able to utilize her food properly. More frequently fed small meals is a recommendation for our sugar cats. If you have to be away, you could use a timed feeder or freeze canned food in ice cube trays and leave a cube or two out for her to snack on.
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Ok, thank you for the advice. She had her wet food this morning. I only put 1/2 cup of dry in her dish. Gave her a couple of the freeeze dried treats. I find in the evening she’s worse for hunger! She’ll stare me down for food ☹️
 
Adrienne Vanderhoning said:
Just give her a little tablespoon of her wet? For a snack?
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Yes, that's a good idea for when you're home. It'll get her eating more wet food and maybe less dry. I mention a timed feeder. Many people use then so kitty has snacks through the day or night when they're at work or sleeping. If Molly is your only kitty it would work well for you.
 
I see that you dropped the dose to 2 u this AM. Are you starting the switch to low carb wet food in earnest? Please make sure you get a pre shot test in the evening and one before bed.
@MrWorfMen's Mom and I will rely on those to assess the insulin dosing. It's the only way we'll know what advice to give you in this important stage of the food switch.
 
Kris & Teasel said:
I see that you dropped the dose to 2 u this AM. Are you starting the switch to low carb wet food in earnest? Please make sure you get a pre shot test in the evening and one before bed.
@MrWorfMen's Mom and I will rely on those to assess the insulin dosing. It's the only way we'll know what advice to give you in this important stage of the food switch.
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I started to cut back her dry food. More SO wet maybe I misunderstood what @MrWorfMen's Mom had said? Yes I'll do a preshot after work today. Didn't yesterday wasn't home til late. Start doing one tonight before bed.
 
Here's what @MrWorfMen's Mom said and you're doing it. It's a good plan. I'm sorry if I confused you - I had to review it myself. ;)

Cut the dose back to 2u as soon as you start reducing the dry food amount.
Feed 3/4 cup of dry and continue with the wet SO but give her a bit more of the wet food to make up for the calories you have removed by reducing the dry food allotment.
Maintain that for 2 days. This will allow you to hone your testing skills and allow monitoring to see how the reduction in carbs is affecting Molly.
Then reduce the dry to 1/2 cup daily for a couple of days, again adding in more SO wet to make up for the calories in the 1/4 cup of dry you've taken away.
Repeat until the dry is out of the picture and all Molly is eating is the SO wet.
Then we'll get you to start reducing the amount of SO wet food and replacing it with the Low carb wet food. By this time, I'm sure you will be a testing pro!;)
 
You are right Adrienne. Cut back on the dry food and give more of the wet food to make up for less dry. Molly still needs her calories but we are changing where she gets them from.
Grab tests when you can so we can track how Molly's BG is being affected by the food change each day.:)
 
Kris & Teasel said:
Here's what @MrWorfMen's Mom said and you're doing it. It's a good plan. I'm sorry if I confused you - I had to review it myself. ;)

Cut the dose back to 2u as soon as you start reducing the dry food amount.
Feed 3/4 cup of dry and continue with the wet SO but give her a bit more of the wet food to make up for the calories you have removed by reducing the dry food allotment.
Maintain that for 2 days. This will allow you to hone your testing skills and allow monitoring to see how the reduction in carbs is affecting Molly.
Then reduce the dry to 1/2 cup daily for a couple of days, again adding in more SO wet to make up for the calories in the 1/4 cup of dry you've taken away.
Repeat until the dry is out of the picture and all Molly is eating is the SO wet.
Then we'll get you to start reducing the amount of SO wet food and replacing it with the Low carb wet food. By this time, I'm sure you will be a testing pro!;)
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No, you didn't confuse me just thought maybe I read it wrong. I printed off ^^ and put on my fridge. Molly was really hyper this morning, she was literally climbing the walls.
 
MrWorfMen's Mom said:
You are right Adrienne. Cut back on the dry food and give more of the wet food to make up for less dry. Molly still needs her calories but we are changing where she gets them from.
Grab tests when you can so we can track how Molly's BG is being affected by the food change each day.:)
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Ok Perfect, I noticed she's hungry more and looking for more food. How often can and how many of the dried freeze treats can I give her? I poke on the edge of the year and just a little blood comes out. I use the rice sock. I have to keep going in the ear a little more. Then she really bleeds :(
 
As you test more, Molly's ears will grow more capillaries and it should get easier to get a sample with one poke most of the time. You are doing everything right. You can try massaging Molly's ear from her head up to where you poked to encourage a blood bead to form. If she suddenly is bleeding a lot, yo umay have hit the vein. Try to poke just outside the vein right along the outer edge of her ear. We've all hit the vein on occasion but it can be messy and cause some bruising.

Right now, you can feed Molly a little more than you normally would. Diabetics cannot process the food they eat efficiently so they tend to be hungry all the time. Giving Molly some extra food to eat as a snack between meals might help calm down her angst for food at shot time.

The freeze dried treats have zero carbs so you can give her a few pieces without any worries. I tend to be pretty liberal with the freeze dried treats with my crew. :D
 
Adrienne Vanderhoning said:
Ok Perfect, I noticed she's hungry more and looking for more food. How often can and how many of the dried freeze treats can I give her? I poke on the edge of the year and just a little blood comes out. I use the rice sock. I have to keep going in the ear a little more. Then she really bleeds :(
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Give her snacks of S/O wet food if she's really hungry. It might satisfy her more. In the short term it'll be fine carb-wise, calorie-wise, etc. The S/O dry is very likely higher in both carbs and calories. More of the freeze dried treats is fine too.

She'll bleed more if you happen to hit the little vein. Some people have better luck just pressing on the edge of the ear with the lancet and not doing a jabbing poke. Some poke twice very close together and that works better for them. You'll figure out what works best for you. Keeping calm through it all is key though.
 
Adrienne Vanderhoning said:
I just tested her BG still high. Only 3/4 cup of food today increased her wet. I guess I’m expecting a miracle!
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Keep up the plan. Caution is important. I think you see a significant drop in BG down the line when she's eating only low carb wet fod and freeze dried treats. It takes time to do it safely. :)
 
Adrienne Vanderhoning said:
The decrease in insulin won’t hurt her?
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No, because it won't go on for a long time. She should be eating only S/O wet in a week or so. Removing all S/O dry might lower her BG because it's likely even higher in carbs than the wet. If you want to speed up the removal of the dry S/O it shouldn't affect her tummy or be unsafe. You can then introduce fractions of low carb wet sooner while still being cautious.
 
Kris & Teasel said:
No, because it won't go on for a long time. She should be eating only S/O wet in a week or so. Removing all S/O dry might lower her BG because it's likely even higher in carbs than the wet. If you want to speed up the removal of the dry S/O it shouldn't affect her tummy or be unsafe. You can then introduce fractions of low carb wet sooner while still being cautious.
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Ok I was talking to my mother. She put the scare in me. About decreasing her dose. She’s looking for more of the dry. She has some left out of the 3/4 cup. But I fed her wet this morning and at 4pm. Plus a little a lunch about a tablespoon.
 
Adrienne Vanderhoning said:
Ok I was talking to my mother. She put the scare in me. About decreasing her dose. She’s looking for more of the dry. She has some left out of the 3/4 cup. But I fed her wet this morning and at 4pm. Plus a little a lunch about a tablespoon.
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Well, you'll have to think about what you want to do yourself. We'll help any way we can.
 
OOOOOHHHHH! I love that pink start today! :D

You could get some low carb wet to give her for snacks and that would allow you to see what flavours Molly likes going forward. It would be good to know what to buy when you are ready to transition her over to the low carb wet for meals.
 
MrWorfMen's Mom said:
OOOOOHHHHH! I love that pink start today! :D

You could get some low carb wet to give her for snacks and that would allow you to see what flavours Molly likes going forward. It would be good to know what to buy when you are ready to transition her over to the low carb wet for meals.
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I know I was soo happy to see the pink today :) :) I hope the afternoon numbers are not higher. Now where she has had history with urinary crystals. Do I mix the wet with water?
 
That rise could be a few things. For starters, the depot from the higher dose of Lantus is waning at this point in time and you have only reduced the carbs in Molly's diet by a small amount so far. She could also be bouncing a bit from a lower BG sometime last night or earlier in this cycle. Usual nadir with Lantus would be between 4 and 7 hours post shot but every cat is different. The more data we have, the easier it is to determine what is going on. The reduced dose may cause a bit of a rise temporarily but for safety reasons while you transition to low carb food, it's better for Molly run a bit high than too low.
 
Ok, the vet called and said to raise her insulin to 6 units. Wow that’s high he was away. He left me a voicemail. I’ve noticed she’s not eating as much dry today. I bought the fancy feast and she likes it.
 
I definitely would NOT raise the dose to 6u under any circumstances. First of all, 1u dose changes are too much all at once and can cause you to totally pass over the ideal dose for your kitty. In Molly's case you are changing her diet which will no doubt result in her needing less insulin so an increase now could be dangerous. I would stick with the plan right now and if Molly's BG continues to be high as the transition to low carb food continues, we can re-evaluate the insulin dose.
 
MrWorfMen's Mom said:
I definitely would NOT raise the dose to 6u under any circumstances. First of all, 1u dose changes are too much all at once and can cause you to totally pass over the ideal dose for your kitty. In Molly's case you are changing her diet which will no doubt result in her needing less insulin so an increase now could be dangerous. I would stick with the plan right now and if Molly's BG continues to be high as the transition to low carb food continues, we can re-evaluate the insulin dose.
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I’m not increasing her dose. Leaving it as is! I just pray that we. Can get her BG down!
 
Without more info during the cycles it's hard to say. It could be that Molly is dropping more during the day cycle than we know about. Is it possible to get a test earlier in the day cycle? That might offer a clue. I'm thinking sometime between +4 and +7 instead of at +9 would be helpful. It would also be veyr helpful if you could get another test at night like right before you go to bed for instance. The more readings we can get over time at different times, the easier it gets to guess/know what is going on. Every cat is different.
 
@MrWorfMen's Mom I think the daytime +9 is because of a suggestion I made to Adrienne to get a test as she comes in the door from work because other earlier tests can't be done on work days. It would be a good idea to get some +4 to +7 tests on the weekend.
 
MrWorfMen's Mom said:
Without more info during the cycles it's hard to say. It could be that Molly is dropping more during the day cycle than we know about. Is it possible to get a test earlier in the day cycle? That might offer a clue. I'm thinking sometime between +4 and +7 instead of at +9 would be helpful. It would also be veyr helpful if you could get another test at night like right before you go to bed for instance. The more readings we can get over time at different times, the easier it gets to guess/know what is going on. Every cat is different.
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The last two night now I've been testing before bedtime. I usually test in the afternoon it's on the spreadsheet
 
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