more HELP please ! Squamee 88 at +3

[judy and squamee(GA)]

Sorry to be such a panicker---but she went down from 275 to 88 on .5U in 3 hours. This is the fastest ever, I think. And I am more concerned because today she is having more trouble eating---so I don't know if she can regulate herself. I will stay up for awhile and retest, but I am wondering if I should give her some higher carb food with gravy---if she can eat it. Any thoughts?

 

[Gator & H (GA)]

I think 88 is fine - it is a big drop. But keep an eye on it.

Sometimes they "bounce" when they do big drops like that. "Bounce" = some panicky liver type rebound which would result in a likely fast return to high numbers that can [but does not always] last a couple days. We'll see how this plays out.

EDIT: That +3,+4 time for you guys seems to be the witching hour currently. I really don't have much input for you on your dosing at this time, maybe others might have some input?

Do keep normal food out for her eat of course. Maybe you can take her over to the food bowl if she is feeling wobbly as you said she was? Or make the food convenient to her?

H would do drops like that when his eating had slowed too. He always kept me on my toes and that's why I was more cautious in my dosing.

 

[Gator & H (GA)]

When she hypo'ed before did she have any clinical signs of it?

When I would go though the eating waning thing with H if I felt his eating was looking like it was falling off and I would be choosing between two doses [like, "do I give .4 or .5 tonight?"] I would generally chose the lower dose just to be safe [some might say I was a little chicken].

Anyway, I'm hoping this fast drop thing at +3, +4 wears off and the curves start looking a little more sane. :smile: I got an unexpected big drop with H when I started the ProZinc and I was like, "WTF?!" really got my attention. It looks like a backed off the dose a little to about .4u then started ooching up the dose in "0.05" unit incriments - Start Low Go Slow style. I never caught that style drop again. It just seemed to go away. Once I got more confidence the SLGS went out the window and it was back to the fast and loose variable dosing. I have "instructions" on how to achieve 0.05u incriments - if you think need them let me know and I'll search them out.

Also you might want to set a level at which you would start with the HC food. Like below 70 or something? That would seem pretty darn safe to me - others here might say even lower?? And then you could do it in a more relaxed way too and not be uber stressing about it? That's a judgment you would have to make - whatever you feel is appropriate.

 

[judy and squamee(GA)]

Thanks for all your info, Gator, and also your kind words. It's nice to feel someone knows how hard I have tried. Good news is that at +4.5 she is 119. SO I am going to bed. She never did hypo---just had some scary numbers. Unless, by definition, 35 is a hypo. When that happened she had no symptoms. (and if I had been following my vet's advice at that time and not testing, I would have shot 2u!!!) So far she has been great at using food when she needs to---and I leave many kinds accessible to her at all times, but because she has had increasing trouble eating, it makes me think she might not be able to get in enough carbs when she really needs to. I have had the thought that if that were to happen, it might be better than starving to death or being euthanized by me.

 

[Gator & H (GA)]

I'm not sure if it would help you but here's our old SS: https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key ... XYwVFJ4M0E I don't have it in my sig because our situation was not normal [a little bit like yours] and so much went into the dose choices that is not in the SS that I would hesitate for someone to say, "hey that's what a typical cat on ProZinc does - maybe I should do that with my cat." So every time I post it I try to emphasize that experience is not for a normal cat. You may need to flip to the tab with the start of our switch to ProZinc. As things went on I did start to note my impressions of his appetite because it had so much to do with our choices and ultimately the day to day results.

Also I knew how much he was eating because I weighed all the food I put down for him [in grams on a kitchen scale]. I would put down a set X grams then I became pretty good at eyeballing what he did not end up eating to make my judgments as to how much he actually ate. That's the best way about it I think if one truly does free feeding. LOL or it might just be a little crazy too. They used to rib me a little in here about weighing the food.