LT AMPS =137; +1=392(PS); +2=495; +6=415; +6.5 Ketones=neg; PMPS = 541(kibble theft involved)

Suzanne Burton

Suzanne Burton

Member Since 2019
Since I'm new, I don't know what to do with a AMPS of 137. I know it's posted here on the forum, but with it being the first time, I would kind of like someone to hold my hand. Thanks!
 
Welcome to the forum! I remember LT from FB :)

Are you going to be home today? Do you have medium and high carb wet food on hand? If you're not sure, check out the food charts and the foods you have on hand. http://catinfo.org/chart/index.php

Do you have plenty of test strips to check LT several times this morning. Since you're using a Pet Test Meter, similar to Alpha Trak the take action number is higher - 90 I believe - so you don't want LT going lower than that. If you're comfortable shooting and can answer yes to all the questions above, you can go ahead - it's really important to watch LT closely so as to avoid any hypoglycemia - make sure he's eating BEFORE giving his insulin so he has food in him to counter what the insulin is going to do. This will be an opportunity to see if he'll go lower or if this is just a low start ...it's difficult to tell since you don't have much data yet.

Others will join in and advise you as well. If you're terribly nervous you can reduce the dose this morning and see how he reacts to that - it's most important that you're going to be there to watch him.
 
Hi Sue, I do have a medium/high carb food on hand. I do have a few extra strips on hand, but not tons since I'm also testing my dog. New strips arrive on Thursday afternoon. He already inhaled his food and he always wants more. I'll wait a bit to see what others say. With dogs you wait after they eat and re-test, but I'm totally having to re-learn everything.
 
I was planning on doing a curve on Friday after a full 6 days on Lantus. But at that point I was planning on following the TR protocol. Don't know if that helps with advice.
 
Suzanne Burton said:
Hi Sue, I do have a medium/high carb food on hand. I do have a few extra strips on hand, but not tons since I'm also testing my dog. New strips arrive on Thursday afternoon. He already inhaled his food and he always wants more. I'll wait a bit to see what others say. With dogs you wait after they eat and re-test, but I'm totally having to re-learn everything.
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Great idea - you may want to take this opportunity to read the intro sticky at the top of this forum - they have yellow tabs next to them. Tons of info there - it'll take time to re-group your thinking for cats - we typically test / feed / shoot within 15-20 minutes. Cats metabolize quickly so we want to make sure we're giving the insulin at about the same time as they're eating so they'll work together to level off that blood glucose - which the food intake will cause to rise and the insulin will push down...

You may want to add the '?' mark to the beginning of your title to catch more attention. It's in the little pull down menu - and you can change your title by clicking on 'Edit' underneath the title...
 
I'm coming up on an hour and I need to inject if I'm going to. I'm thinking of giving a half dose which is 0.5 units, but I'm not comfortable with any of this.
 
I know the test for this a.m's BG was correct - great sample. But I waited too long to retest and at 1+ he was 392. We gave him a full unit and will test him throughout the day. Have a good one everyone.
 
Suzanne Burton said:
I'm coming up on an hour and I need to inject if I'm going to. I'm thinking of giving a half dose which is 0.5 units, but I'm not comfortable with any of this.
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You can still shoot an hour late and make up your schedule. As long as you have the medium carb food and can test . A good test to start with would be the +2. If that number is lower than the preshot then it could be an active cycle.


The way to make up a shooting schedule is by shooting 1/2 earlier in a 24 hour period or 15 minutes earlier in each 12 hour cycle.
You can shoot 1/2 hour earlier tonight ( as long as the preshot number isn't too low )

It's your call as you hold the syringe
 
Suzanne Burton said:
Still want to know what the correct protocol would have been.:rolleyes:
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The correct protocol would have been to stall without feeding and retest in 30 minutes to see if the number came up to 150 or higher, then feed and shoot. It's always a bit nerve racking to see the first lower pre shot number. Usually, they start to bounce up like he did today from seeing a lower number than they are used to seeing.

Eventually with more data on LT you will be shooting anything over 50.
 
So since we gave shot at 8:20, I, assuming an adequately high BG tonight, could give the next shot at 7:50? And then 15 minutes back at each 12 hour cycle until we are back to our 7/7 schedule?
 
Thanks Bobbie for chiming in on this. I really couldn't find that info this a.m., but now that you've posted it, it sounds very familiar. Now I know what to do and will write it down in LTs log book so it's handy for next time :joyful:. There's a bit of a steep learning curve with the feline diabetes stuff. Looking forward to getting better at this and getting LT started on TR come Friday evening if possible.
 
Suzanne Burton said:
So since we gave shot at 8:20, I, assuming an adequately high BG tonight, could give the next shot at 7:50? And then 15 minutes back at each 12 hour cycle until we are back to our 7/7 schedule?
Click to expand...

Yes to the above.

Hi Suzanne,sorry I didn't see this earlier. I got a late start this morning as DH wrenched his knee trying to avoid stepping on Idjit during a bathroom trip in the deep night and I didn't know till this morning. So was giving home care to Mr. Gimpy in pain.

It is a really steep learning curve and you will get better at this. It has not even been a week and you have already learned so much about feline diabetes.

Don't let the 137 BG jump to 392 BG scare you. It's just LT's little body reacting to a number that it perceives as "too low" and "gotta do something about this". He's going to get better at this too, it just takes time.

Here is some info on "bouncing":

BG goes low OR lower than usual OR drops too quickly.
Kitty's body panics and thinks there's danger (OMG! My BG is too low!).
Complex physiologic processes take glycogen stored in the liver ( think of it as "bounce fuel"), convert it to glucose and dump it into the bloodstream to counteract the perceived dangerously low BG.
These processes go into overdrive in kitties who are bounce prone and keep the BG propped up varying lengths of time (AKA bouncing).
Bounce prone kitty repeats this until his body learns that healthy low numbers are safe. Some kitties are slow learners.

I hope your day goes well.
 
Suzanne Burton said:
So since we gave shot at 8:20, I, assuming an adequately high BG tonight, could give the next shot at 7:50? And then 15 minutes back at each 12 hour cycle until we are back to our 7/7 schedule?
Click to expand...
Yes, you’ve got! It really is a steep learning curve. And can feel overwhelming for a while. But , keep posting and asking questions as that is how we all learn. Also, besides reading all the stickies ( I had to read and reread, lots ) , read as many other condos a day as you can. I learned a lot that way too.
 
Idjit's mom said:
Yes to the above.

Hi Suzanne,sorry I didn't see this earlier. I got a late start this morning as DH wrenched his knee trying to avoid stepping on Idjit during a bathroom trip in the deep night and I didn't know till this morning. So was giving home care to Mr. Gimpy in pain.

It is a really steep learning curve and you will get better at this. It has not even been a week and you have already learned so much about feline diabetes.

Don't let the 137 BG jump to 392 BG scare you. It's just LT's little body reacting to a number that it perceives as "too low" and "gotta do something about this". He's going to get better at this too, it just takes time.

Here is some info on "bouncing":

BG goes low OR lower than usual OR drops too quickly.
Kitty's body panics and thinks there's danger (OMG! My BG is too low!).
Complex physiologic processes take glycogen stored in the liver ( think of it as "bounce fuel"), convert it to glucose and dump it into the bloodstream to counteract the perceived dangerously low BG.
These processes go into overdrive in kitties who are bounce prone and keep the BG propped up varying lengths of time (AKA bouncing).
Bounce prone kitty repeats this until his body learns that healthy low numbers are safe. Some kitties are slow learners.

I hope your day goes well.
Click to expand...
Good luck to Mr Gimpy!
 
Thanks Lou, I hope your husband's knee gets better. I'm copying your reply (and Bobbie's) into LT's diabetic document. So, my question is, should I wait on doing a curve until his gets more stable day to day on his number, or go into it full speed ahead? I just don't know if today's episode will affect numbers going into Friday.
 
Suzanne Burton said:
Thanks Lou, I hope your husband's knee gets better. I'm copying your reply (and Bobbie's) into LT's diabetic document. So, my question is, should I wait on doing a curve until his gets more stable day to day on his number, or go into it full speed ahead? I just don't know if today's episode will affect numbers going into Friday.
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He's going to be fine and get lots of TLC today, which he won't mind at all. As far as the curve, see what LT does today and tomorrow, the bounce may clear and you can go ahead on Friday.
 
If you're home, you could use today to get as many tests as you feel comfortable doing - the more you test - the more data you'll have and you'll begin to see the effects of the insulin on his numbers and food. Take a look at other spreadsheets and you'll see the trends...although all of our kitties are different - many do respond within hours to the insulin - there's a dip - sometimes early, sometimes later and then the numbers generally start to rise again. As you continue to test over the next few weeks you'll see trends in LT's numbers ... it's really a puzzle and you'll be filling in all the missing pieces with data.

:)
 
So, we are riding the roller coaster today, sugar got way ahead and 2 hours after insulin a 495. I think I'll wait until 6 hours post shot to test him again.
 
Wheeeee! hang on Suzanne, LT's body is just going to need some conditioning, it's very early days. Scrounge around for your running shoes and patience pants, a saying I have seen here so many times "it's a marathon, not a sprint" is so true. And if you like, you can also wear a funny hat. :) I am partial to ridiculous head wear.
 
I forgot to hide the other cat's kibble in the microwave (yes that's the only place to hide it) and LT just now got into it; probably had several mouthfuls and he was already high today! I am kicking myself:arghh:. Should I feed him his regular meal? Increase his insulin a tad tonight?
 
Suzanne Burton said:
I forgot to hide the other cat's kibble in the microwave (yes that's the only place to hide it) and LT just now got into it; probably had several mouthfuls and he was already high today! I am kicking myself:arghh:. Should I feed him his regular meal? Increase his insulin a tad tonight?
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Feed him his regular meal - don't change his insulin based on just this one slip up. He's hungry - and those kibbles are irresistible to a diabetic cat anyway. You don't want to have a 'knee-jerk' reaction to anything sudden like this. Just try to go with the flow and hope he'll come back down soon - from already being high to having a carb meal, his numbers are likely going to be a little wonky for a little while.
 
Sue, that's what I thought about food and insulin, but being new to FD, I just want to confirm everything. Thanks for your help today.
 
Suzanne Burton said:
Sue, that's what I thought about food and insulin, but being new to FD, I just want to confirm everything. Thanks for your help today.
Click to expand...

You are so welcome! You're surrounded by lots of people here who can help and support you as you begin your journey to help LT get better! We've all been exactly where you're at - so don't hesitate to ask questions and keep asking and learning - believe it or not, you'll be helping someone too! These kitties deserve our help! And I'm so happy that you've chosen to help your furbaby:D

So, for today, if you could please start a new thread aka condo - like this: 8/15 LT AMPS ### - if you have a question; add it there too...and then copy/paste the url from this condo - as the first line of your new condo so people will know what happened yesterday...and then write your comments - hope this is helpful...sounds like you're getting there! :bighug::bighug:
 
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