Maggy's Status Page

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rowley978

Member Since 2013
So this is a continuation of a previous board, just started fresh.

Maggy is/was high tonight as expected, after skipping his morning shot. He was 429. I gave .75 to him tonight. I'll do the same tomorrow. I'll also get a before bed number as well.
 
Sorry about the lack of updates on Maggy. Just been so busy with family/work and took a vacation as well.

Maggy has been bouncing (I believe, see ss) since vacation. I'm trying to do a curve on him, hopefully will get one done this Sunday. He's been extra thirsty. I'm hoping he'll calm down a bit this week/weekend.

Otherwise, he's eating fine, active, and his weight seems fine.
 
If Maggy is drinking a lot more water, it's a clinical sign that he isn't getting enough insulin. I know Maggy can be difficult to test, but a regular before bed test could help us very much on determining if we need a dose increase.

What is the dry food you have out for Bones? I think Maggy is eating more of that food than you think.

Would you please add the dose to your SS for the last 11 days?

I think Maggy needs to go up to 1U.
 
If Maggy is eating that, it would explain a lot. The Natures variety raw instinct version of the dry is better as its only 7% carbs.
 
The lower the carb food, the better for your diabetic.

That said, drinking more water despite stable glucose levels may indicate renal disease or hyperthyroidism, too.
 
Maggy seems totally indifferent to the whole situation. He definitely loves his wet food these days, though eats dry food when he can get his paws on it. I make it a point to put it out of his reach, and make sure to put my dry food only girl in the bathroom alone with the bowl a few times a day. We figured that some of Maggy's high numbers were possibly coming from him sneaking too much dry food. Its low carb food, but not the lowest.... so I'm choosing to try and make sure he doesn't eat it vs. buying other stuff.
Otherwise, Maggy is Maggy. He's the house bully, but also the most lovey cat to my kids, my wife, and myself. To everyone else, though, he's a bit of an animal... no pun intended.

We're trying to stay blue and yellow as much as possible. We're on a 3 day roll right now.
 
Try seeing if you can get a couple more "Before Bed" tests and maybe some mid-day tests too on your next day off. There isn't enough data to say for sure right now whether Maggy might need another increase or a decrease without a few more spot checks, if you can. ;-)

rowley978 said:
He's the house bully, but also the most lovey cat to my kids, my wife, and myself. To everyone else, though, he's a bit of an animal... no pun intended.
Click to expand...

Hehe! This is exactly how Michelangelo is, except it's only with me. My own brother (who lives with me) is treated by him like he's a stranger invading Mikey's home. ohmygod_smile :lol:
 
I should have knocked on wood after I wrote that Maggy had a good 3 day streak going, because tonight his preshot test was 359, and his +2 was just 436. :(

He didn't have any dry food at all today, and I didn't have a fur shot or anything... so, not sure here.. must be a bounce of some sort. ?
 
It could be. Try to get some more mid-cycle tests and that should show us if he's bouncing. It could also be a "delayed" fur shot. With Michelangelo, whenever I use short needles on him, I don't go deep enough (cuz I'm skilled like that :lol: ). The insulin then leaks back out and sometimes out of the blue, I'll smell the insulin a short while later, sometimes it's just reflected by higher numbers.
 
Well, according to maggys ss, and his water consumption (though I'm adding a bit more water to his wet food these days), he's doing better. He's got all mid yellows in the morning preshot, and seems to be in the blue in the evening preshot. I feel pretty content with it. I'm giving .75 still, or as close to it as I can see on these needles... Even leaning more toward 1 full unit as opposed to .5. I feel that when I remember that I was trying to get too close to .75, but felt I got less than that, I'd see his numbers rise.
 
It does look like he's stabilized a bit, however, he could still be dropping too low during the middle of his cycles. Try grabbing a couple more tests about halfway through his cycles whenever your able and also try grabbing a few more tests throughout the day when you're able (on your days off, perhaps).
 
The numbers do look good but I hope you can get mid cycle tests soon. Even if the numbers are ok now he could be dropping low at night, or staying yellow and blue. And yellow and blue is ok but over time glucose toxicity can develop and he will start to creep into yellow and pink..
 
Ok, I'll try sat and sun.

What's the goal here for Maggy? What are the lows and highs supposed to be, in your opinions based on his ss.?
 
Really my goal is to keep him in normal numbers for as long as possible to allow his pancreas to heal ie 50-130. However that may be hard with your schedule impacting how many tests you can do.

Hard to tell whether he is getting normal numbers all day though without the tests.. He could be there already. So a few extra tests on the weekends would help a lot!

Wendy
 
Well he apparently bounced overnight, because his pretest shot this morning was 344..

So, does that mean that his dosage is too high? or right on? and I shouldn't have given a shot last night? This is where i get confused. If I dont shoot, he goes way up. If I shoot, he goes low, and then way up. What one is the right choice? I can't give less than the dosage right? or could I, for when he's relatively low, but not too low...? I know there are "rules", but isn't every cat/situation different?
 
You need some mid-cycle numbers to evaluate how well the dose is working.

Here are some glucose reference ranges used for decision making using a human glucometer. Numbers in parentheses are for non-US meters.

< 40 mg/dL (2.2)
- Treat as if HYPO if on insulin
- At nadir (lowest point between shots) in a long term diabetic (more than a year), may earn a reduction.

< 50 mg/dL (2.8)
- If before nadir, steer with food, ie, give modest amounts of medium carb food to keep from going below 50.
- At nadir, often indicates dose reduction is earned.

50 - 130 mg/dL (2.8 - 7.2)
- On insulin - great control when following a tight regulation protocol.
- Off insulin - normal numbers. (May even go as low as the upper 30s (1.7); if not on insulin, this can be safe.

> 150 mg/dL (8.3)
- At nadir, indicates a dose increase may be needed when following a tight regulation protocol.

200 mg/dL (11.1)
- no shot level for beginners; may slowly reduce to 150 mg/dL ( 8.3) for long-acting insulins (Lantus, Levemir, and ProZinc) as data collection shows it is safe

180 - 280 mg/dL (10 - 15.6)
- Any time - The renal threshold (depending on data source and cat's renal function) where glucose spills into the urine.
- Test for ketones, glucose is too high.

>= 280 mg/dL (15.6), if for most of the cycle between shots
- Uncontrolled diabetes and thus at risk for diabetic ketoacidosis and hepatic lipidosis
- Follow your insulin protocol for dose adjustments
- Test for ketones; if more than a trace level of ketones, go to vet ASAP.
 
rowley978 said:
Well he apparently bounced overnight, because his pretest shot this morning was 344..

So, does that mean that his dosage is too high? or right on? and I shouldn't have given a shot last night? This is where i get confused. If I dont shoot, he goes way up. If I shoot, he goes low, and then way up. What one is the right choice? I can't give less than the dosage right? or could I, for when he's relatively low, but not too low...? I know there are "rules", but isn't every cat/situation different?
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Since you're not getting very many mid-cycle tests, there's no way to see how low he might be going. But, based on your pre-shots, you might have a bit of room to drop the dose down to .5u across the board. We'll be able to see fairly quickly if .5u is too low since his numbers will go up higher than the blues you've been seeing at pre-shot. Either way, you definitely want to try getting some more mid-cycle tests. :thumbup
 
I'm updating Maggy's ss right now. This is the first time he's been under 100 in a very long time. Just looking for advice to shoot or not. I know I don't have enough data so I'm guessing the answers will be "you don't really have enough data to safely shoot", but just looking for advice. I have been content with maggy being in this range of 100s and 200s. He eats fine, he drinks adequate water, he pees normal, and his temperament is totally fine. I just havent been able to get correct curves, so I havent been able to adjust his dosage. I just know that when I have had him at .5, he never got low enough, and the few times I did closer to 1 unit, he bounced.

If anyones on, I"m going to wait a bit and retest, and then feed and probably not give his shot tonight.

Thanks
 
I don't see it yet.

How low is he? And what kind of meter are you using? Not an alphatrak?

Do you have lots of strips and syrup and HC gravy food? Can you stay up and test through the night if need be?
 
Yeah. Not enough data. Maybe shoot a reduced dose if you are willing to stay up and get more tests past +2.. Ie +5 or 6.
 
If you can't get tests through the night to make sure he isn't dropping too low, then yes I would skip. Shame though not to maintain the momentum.? Set the alarm?
 
Hi Everyone (if anyone still looks at this).

Maggy has been doing alright. He bounces between, lets say 75 up to 350. He's normally in the high 100s or mid 200s. Every week or so, he gets too low for me to shoot, and it sort of throws him off for a day or two. I reduced his insulin the slightest amount, and he never got below 275.. so I put it back up again... but hardly noticable. its been between .5 and .75 (as close as i can see that with my eyes).

Anyways, he's living, not suffering, and eating, and not losing weight or hair .. not peeing as much, and not drinking as much (as when he was doing all of those things badly).

All is good in my book!
 
rowley978 said:
... its been between .5 and .75 (as close as i can see that with my eyes). ...
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Magnifiers may be your best friend for this ;-)

If you have glasses already, the Carson Clip and Flip are wonderful (Miss Myopia here!) and may be ordered from our shopping partner Amazon (link at top of page).

If you don't have glasses, they make readers which magnify from 1 to 4 times and may be found at drugstores, or they make visor versions of these, again, available on Amazon.

If you prefer a stand magnifier, those can work well, too.
 
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