Nacho's balancing out...? Nadirs occuring at pre-shots

D & Nacho

D & Nacho

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I don't know how to describe what's going on with Nacho, the best way to provide info is to look at his spreadsheet.

We suspect it began when he started eating Weruva quick and quirky for breakfast (.4% carbs) - his numbers started dropping during the daytime cycle. He was eating Weruva Paw Lickin' Chicken and Meal or No Deal regularly, which are both around 4% carbs, and he was pretty evenly high-ish.

His lifetime brother passed away a few days ago; that's also when he began balancing out. Coincidence?

Today, his AM nadir could've been between +9-11, but we didn't test then. We stalled for about 1.5 hours and finally fed him - no insulin. Planning to retest in two hours to see if we can give him insulin.

Anyone have theories? @Suzanne & Darcy? Also going to re-post to the FB group...
 
Taco? You lost Taco? What happened? I am so so sorry to read this! I will look at Nacho’s spreadsheet. How old is Nacho? It doesn’t say in your signature.

Edit: I see on your SS that he’s 13. I have a few 13 year old kitties too.
 
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What is your usual shot time? 6 a.m. Time Zone? I can’t make sense of the times listed on the spreadsheet. And last night you really gave insulin at ten p.m. ? You will have a long time to work back to his usual shot time. We recommend 30 minutes per day. I am still looking and will have more questions, I am sure.
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
Taco? You lost Taco? What happened? I am so so sorry to read this! I will look at Nacho’s spreadsheet. How old is Nacho? It doesn’t say in your signature.

Edit: I see on your SS that he’s 13. I have a few 13 year old kitties too.
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They're both 13.5 years old - litter mates. Taco didn't show us he was sick until it was too late :( All labs pointed to cancer
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
What is your usual shot time? 6 a.m. Time Zone? I can’t make sense of the times listed on the spreadsheet. And last night you really gave insulin at ten p.m. ? You will have a long time to work back to his usual shot time. We recommend 30 minutes per day. I am still looking and will have more questions, I am sure.
Click to expand...

Yes, usual shot time was about 7am although we were working toward 6am. Every time we've skipped or given a token dose it's been really difficult to get him back. I suspect a combination of the Quick and Quirky recently being given in the morning (with the Paw Lickin' Chicken at night) and the stress of Taco is what's caused all the wonkiness. We're going to walk him back slowly and will see if he'll accept the Quick n Quirky for both meals so we can even out his AM and PM cycles.

I am starting to wonder however, if the gums in the Weruva food are contributing to the recent, intermittent digestive issues. I've ordered some EZ complete and am going to try to introduce that slowly with home cooked chicken as his mid-cycle snacks.

He finally has an internist appt coming up; will definitely check for a relapse of IBD
 
So for the last two days, we've been feeding the same food (.4% carb) for both breakfast and dinner, and all mid-cycle snacks consist of the same 2 options (freeze dried liver & boiled chicken)... he's going nicely low during the day, but staying pretty flat at night in the 200s.

His nadirs are intermittently at the end of the cycle vs middle.

I'm really puzzled at these new trends... and he's keeping us home every Sunday with low numbers regardless of the dose!

@Suzanne & Darcy have you seen this in other cats before?
 
I think the other night, it would have been better to shoot a small dose (1 unit) rather than wait three hours to shoot. He seems to be getting back to more normal cycles though. Today has been good so far.

He probably is missing Taco, too. He knows something is wrong. I am really sorry about Taco, too. I was so sad when I read what you wrote about him.

And that food is really .4 carbs? Sometimes cats do better with a few more carbs. And sometimes cats are sensitive to gums. I have been researching a lot of novel protein foods lately as I have a newly diagnosed IBD cat and my vet recommended the hydrolyzed protein foods, but I am going to try to find something else for him. My other IBD boy does fine on the Weruva BFF PLAY foods, but he does get 2.5 mg Pred every other day. Marcus seems to have a worse case. He also has very bad skin itching that he was previously taking Dexamethasone for because nothing else seemed to help.
 
I have seen cats with spreadsheets similar to Nacho’s.

https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/feeding-lowest-zero-carb-vs-lower-carb-foods.144220/

In case you are interested (and in case I haven't sent this before) here's a link to a discussion about whether feeding the lowest carb possible is best or if giving a few more carbs is best for some cats. I am not recommending anything, you do a fantastic job and need to find what will work for Nacho’s IBD, too. It’s just interesting. Do you know how many carbs are in the EZ Complete? I have a bag here because I have been toying with the idea of making food, but haven’t bit the bullet. I don’t remember anymore what the carb percentage is.
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
I have seen cats with spreadsheets similar to Nacho’s.

https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/feeding-lowest-zero-carb-vs-lower-carb-foods.144220/

In case you are interested (and in case I haven't sent this before) here's a link to a discussion about whether feeding the lowest carb possible is best or if giving a few more carbs is best for some cats. I am not recommending anything, you do a fantastic job and need to find what will work for Nacho’s IBD, too. It’s just interesting. Do you know how many carbs are in the EZ Complete? I have a bag here because I have been toying with the idea of making food, but haven’t bit the bullet. I don’t remember anymore what the carb percentage is.
Click to expand...

I've inquired with EZ Complete about the carb percentage but haven't heard back. I posed the question on the main FDMB forum (I think the health one) a couple days ago and a couple people responded that when they've used it they didn't notice a difference in BG levels

I'm thinking to reduce him to 2.25 due to the 53 but it's confusing as he's staying in the 200s at night!!

FYI - I started reading that external link on low vs lower carb and the web page got very spammy w/ suspicious pop-ups and redirects. Yikes!
 
Hi there. How is Nacho doing. I was just thinking about you and remembering what happened to poor Taco, and I just wanted to make sure Nacho is okay. He’s doing a bit better with his numbers on 2 units (looks like he can soon go to 2.25) but I see that his appetite is up and down. He went to the vet recently and had labs done, I see. How were his results?
 
Hi @Suzanne & Darcy, hope you're well!

Nacho has his ups and downs, per usual. His BG levels were doing really well for a few weeks now he's back to kinda flat lining in the 200s...

We got his diarrhea and vomiting under control by getting him off chicken and gums that were in the Weruva foods. However, he's been getting lesions now. We suspect it's another symptom of his IBD ... they started occurring when he was still eating the Weruva foods and haven't subsided.

He's now on a regimen of Cerenia and Animax ointment for IBD and lesions. I'm concerned that the steroids in the Animax may start affecting his BG levels
 
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