Inverted curve--continuation of Snowflake saga

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equine99

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So for the last few days I've been dosing snowflake 1 full unit, per the vet's recommendation, and have been hoping she would settle into it. Well, she hasn't and she's developing an inverted curve with some ugly ugly numbers. Is it too soon to decide that it's an inverted curve? She's had the lowest readings of her cycle at PS.

If I'm remembering correctly, I should decrease the dose, right? I'm thinking about taking her down to 0.8 but I'm willing to try 0.6 also. Has anyone dealt with this before? Should I keep going with the one unit or drop it?
 
Kathryn
Nice to see you back!
Is there any chance that any of the past three or four days have been "fur shots"? I only see one cycle that looks not terrible. Flat but not inverse, and that was the AM cycle on the 30th. The PMPS is at +14, so it makes sense that the number was a little bit higher than the AMPS was. But looks like no movement during the cycle at all...

Those black numbers look like either the insulin is doing absolutely nothing, or it's too much insulin that is constantly causing her liver to dump sugar. Problem is, I don't see any low numbers that would be causing that, although it is possible they happened in between tests. Today's AM cycle looks, to me, like just an inverse curve. She went up 100 points and then back down and finished just about exactly where she started.

What continues to confuse the heck out of me is "where did all the good numbers go?" She was having awesome cycles in April and it looked like she was going OTJ. I understand that the DKA threw all what happened before out the window, and what worked before might not necessarily work now and all that stuff. But I'm at a total loss as to what is going on now.

She's not on any other meds currently, right? And you said negative for ketones and bacteria in her urine, but still blood in the urine?

The numbers say she either needs a lot less, or a lot more, insulin. Increasing radically is scary as hell, but so is reducing with ketones so close in the rear view mirror. If you were thinking "less", then .6 makes more sense to me, because it's a big enough difference to "make a difference". But ketones scare me...
Carl
 
They definitely have not been fur shots. I still have her on the anti-biotic, per the vet's suggestion (until it's used up) and I am thoroughly confused too. I've held off on giving her her shot (and am contemplating giving her nothing to compare that to the days with the insulin), but think I'll give 0.6. We were doing SO well with 0.5, so I think 1 whole unit may be too much, especially since it doesn't seem to be helping and is in fact making it worse (never had numbers so in the black before).

Thanks for confirming that this looks wrong. Even if all we do is get back to the 300's, that's better than 400's and 500's.

And yes, on Thursday we went into the vet and she tested negative for ketones, and negative for bacteria in her urine and the rest of her blood work was significantly closer to normal/only barely out of normal. The only remaining problem was blood in her urine. So he had me keep her on the antibiotic incase there was some lingering infection somewhere. He said her left kidney felt small, so the blood in the urine could be kidney related, but he's not sure of exactly how.
 
You asked if anyone has dealt with listening to the vet & increasing? In turn you see higher numbers?

Yes! Yes! It happen to Baxter & I. My vet told me to increase to 1.5. It gave us pinks & reds. I never had reds before that point. Expect when he was DX @468. I had the hardest time get his numbers down..it took a very long time. It was at that point I started Baxters sliding scale.

I hope you are able to get her numbers down soon.
 
I know we have nagged about this before, but if you reduce, test for ketones. She is a prime candidate with her continuing infection. We think it looks like less would be better, but until you are sure, test for ketones daily. Too little insulin + infection + not eating = ketones.

I would be testing for ketones daily. Is she easy to test at home? If not, have we given you all our tips for catching a sample?
 
I haven't been able to catch her in the letterbox in a few days. On Thursday she was negative at the vet. She's had a very healthy appetite and the vet hasn't actually found any infection--he's just having me keep her on the ab as a just-in-case. But I'll continue to try to catch her peeing to check anyways.

So far I think she's doing a little better with the lower dose, but it's still inverted. I'll try another full day with this dose and then re-evaluate if she hasn't decreased more.
 
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