? Martini 02/18 She's hit my 'feed good' # or rather hers

[SMM]

Yesterday

I have shot 2.5 twice now as recommended, since giving her reduced doses. She's hit 55 and I've given gravy food and 3 temptations treats. This cannot possibly serve as a reduction after I messed up her depot by shooting lower as she was sick before can it? She is thirsty like always when she is high and when she low. Jeepers, I wish this stuff was more straight forward and then I wouldn't have to ask all these (silly I'm sure) questions. I am home today luckily (Family Day) to test.Major concern is she will go too low when I am not home.

Any comments are appreciated.

 

[Steph & Quintus & L & O]

No silly questions! It's by asking that we learn. If you were doing SLGS you would reduce the dose after this. Here's what TR says:

• If kitty drops below 40 (long term diabetic) or 50 (newly diagnosed diabetic) reduce the dose by 0.25 unit. If kitty has a history of not holding reductions well or if reductions are close together... sneak the dose down by shaving the dose rather than reducing by a full quarter unit. See additional notes in the next paragraph about drops into the 20s and 30s. Alternatively, at each newly reduced dose... try to make sure kitty maintains numbers in the normal range for seven days before reducing the dose further.
• If your cat drops into the 30s, a full reduction of 0.25u is recommended. There are very few exceptions given for caregivers who have collected years of data and KNOW their cat's response to the combination of insulin and food backwards, forwards, and inside out.

So... you fed at 55, so we don't know if she would have dropped further. Has she earned a reduction or not? I'm assuming she ate OK today? The fact that you have two lower doses in the depot would in my opinion make me lean more strongly towards a reduction, even if in theory she didn't hit 50.

I'd personally move to 2.25 if this were my cat, but keep in mind I'm the kind of person who will pounce on a reduction.

Also, will you be here tonight to keep an eye on her if you shoot 2.5 and she goes low? What about tomorrow, are you away from home for work or are you there with her?

 

[SMM]

Thanks Stephanie. My signature has my and her limit of 55 (3.1) in it because when she was lower in the 2's - she couldn't really stand up and was visibly not alright. She would have not been in good shape if I let her drop lower. She ate just like normal today.
I may or may not be able to watch her tonight (I'm oncall most of the time - but luckily not too far from home most days) Tomorrow who knows - (I sneak out a lot to test her but don't tell my boss! ) I'm leaning toward trying a reduction as you say also. I'm not sure this is protocol to reduce but no one else has given any other input. Again, thank you for your thoughts!

 

[Wendy&Neko]

She didn't go below 55 today - would have been interesting to hold off the gravy and high carb treats for 20-30 minutes and see if she would hold it there and surf or drop into reduction territory. Maximizing time in green by surfing is how they get used to those numbers. Typically on TR we don't reduce unless we see a number under the reduction point. At this point, it's your call if you want to reduce.

 

[SMM]

She didn't go below 55 today - would have been interesting to hold off the gravy and high carb treats for 20-30 minutes and see if she would hold it there and surf or drop into reduction territory. Maximizing time in green by surfing is how they get used to those numbers. Typically on TR we don't reduce unless we see a number under the reduction point. At this point, it's your call if you want to reduce.

Thanks Wendy. I didn't want to let her go down as she does not take the 40's well. Very disorientated, afraid to stand and howling. I guess I should have let her fall more, but I am the BCS. Sienne once told me to pick a number that I feel comfortable with and mostly she is comfortable with so I picked 3.1 (55). Yes, I'm not being typical, that could be the reason I need so much help eh? I do truly appreciate your input having so much experience and Stephanie too with her input after getting her kitty off insulin so quickly.

 

[Wendy&Neko]

You didn't know for sure whether she would drop more or surf because you gave HC. That's why I would have given a tsp or two of LC to see if she would surf, and would have retested fairly quickly.

Some kitties are harder than others to regulate. ECID. You just do what you can.

 

[SMM]

LC does nothing for her, I learned that from many times sadly. She probably would have surfed but I am obviously the BCS. I have been at this year now and she throws me curves (at least to me) all the time. She is 'different' for sure, I love her to bits and I do try the best for her. Thank you for saying that - I needed that..
Again thank you for any valued experience you give us....

 

[Stacy & Asia]

LC does nothing for her, I learned that from many times sadly. She probably would have surfed but I am obviously the BCS. I have been at this year now and she throws me curves (at least to me) all the time. She is 'different' for sure, I love her to bits and I do try the best for her. Thank you for saying that - I needed that..
Again thank you for any valued experience you give us....

Where the number is in a cycle makes a difference too. She gave you the 55 at a +7 and with the data you have collected, she's almost always going up by +8 anyway. If it's later in the cycle and the number isn't too low and you're not in panic mode, try giving her some of her regular low carb food and like Wendy suggested, test again soon, say in 30 minutes and see what happens. She just may surprise you.

I'm seeing a lot more green on this 2.5 dose, it's a big improvement. I'm seeing less crazy bouncing and the bounces are lower, that's awesome! The biggest thing is that you need some consistency. It's hard to see what is what with the BCS shots. I know it can be scary, but you are getting a lot of nice preshot numbers that you could grab hold of and it might flatten Martini out and help her stay in blues and greens longer.

 

[Steph & Quintus & L & O]

Having read the rest of the conversation, I'd say two things:

- definitely worth seeing if she can surf if this happens again
- if your "cutoff" number is 55 instead of 50, then that means that you would use that as your reduction number too. but the question is whether to reduce the first time she peeks at 55, or if you hold on a bit more

And a third: like Stacy says, WHERE in the cycle the low number happens is super important to take into account.