New member Anne Smokey's mom

Status
Not open for further replies.
Anne and Smokey

Anne and Smokey

Member Since 2021
I signed up a few weeks ago after my cat had several hypo episodes as I wanted to learn more and get his BS under control. Smokey DSH will be 17 on May 3rd and was diagnosed November 10, 2017. He never lost weight and has maintained his weight around 14.6 lbs. I knew before I even got the results of the blood work back that he was a diabetic due to the massive amounts of urine he was producing and the amount of time that he was spending at the water dish. I have two other cats, Dutchess a Persian almost 19 (July 29th) who was recently diagnosed with renal failure who I give sub q fluids to 3x's a week and Neo DSH almost 11(March 3rd) who has no health issues, thank God!! Smokey was on Lantus twice a day but around Thanksgiving he started to have several episodes of low BS in the evening which required glucose and extra food to bring it up. Because of that the vet said to give him insulin only once a day which I have been doing since 12/11/2020. Since being on the message board I have switched him to mainly wet food, he was getting a small amount of wet before I gave insulin, 1/4 can but now his main food is Fancy Feast Chicken Pate. He eats 2-2.5 cans a day, 3 meals and I do leave out dry food for all the cats which is Redford Naturals Chicken. Previously I just checked his BS once a week on Mondays using the Alpha Trax monitor. and his vet was very surprised that I was even doing that. I started testing his BS daily starting on January 21st and now do it in the afternoon when I get home also and again around 7 when I feed him dinner. I switched to using the ReliOn meter on January 24th. He is on 3 units of Lantus as of today down from 5.5 back in November. I did fill out the spreadsheet to the best of my ability going back to the first of the month. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks Anne
 
Welcome to FDMB!

I can't open Smokey's spreadsheet (SS). Can you make sure you have the permissions set to "anyone with the link." If you need help, I'm tagging @Bandit's Mom who will be able to lend a hand.

I want to strongly encourage you to test before you give your cat a shot. It's the only way to know if your kitty is in safe numbers. Id like to see Smokely's SS to say this with even more confidence but, a cat's metabolism is faster than a humans and Lantus (and all insulin) needs to be dosed twice a day. Chances are you're seeing wide swings in Smokey's numbers with once a day dosing. In addition, once a day dosing means you do not get any benefit from the insulin depot which is what gives Lantus it's longer duration. You may want to take a look at the sticky notes at the top of the Lantus board. There's a great deal if information in those posts that will explain how Lantus works.
 
Thank you for your reply. I have been checking his blood sugar daily since January 21st and the more I read on this board the more I realize that I have been giving him too much insulin all along and that hopefully I will be able to get his blood sugar under control and get back to giving him insulin twice a day for better management of his diabetes. I did read some of the sticky notes and I appreciate your suggesting that. I have tried several times this morning to attach his spreadsheet again with no luck. I am following all the directions I think correctly but I get error message that the link might be spam!! Appreciate any help with that.
 
Anne and Smokey said:
Thank you for your reply. I have been checking his blood sugar daily since January 21st and the more I read on this board the more I realize that I have been giving him too much insulin all along and that hopefully I will be able to get his blood sugar under control and get back to giving him insulin twice a day for better management of his diabetes. I did read some of the sticky notes and I appreciate your suggesting that. I have tried several times this morning to attach his spreadsheet again with no luck. I am following all the directions I think correctly but I get error message that the link might be spam!! Appreciate any help with that.
Click to expand...

I believe I finally got the spreadsheet attached right after posting this message.
 
Hi Anne,

Welcome to yourself and Smokey. :) Some help to get your spreadsheet visible follows.

-----------------------------

To set spreadsheet sharing permissions and add a link to it in your forum signature:

* At the top right of the spreadsheet screen click on Share.

* In the pop-up dialog box click on the Get Link section.

* Change link access from 'Restricted' to 'Anyone with the link' and make sure that the permission on the right hand side is set to 'Viewer'.

* Click on Copy Link to copy the link text to your clipboard.

* Click Done to save the changes.

* Hover your mouse pointer over your forum member name at the top right of the FDMB screen. A menu will drop down. Select Signature (see example below).


upload_2021-1-31_15-7-49.png




* In the signature text entry box type in a label for the link, e.g. 'Tibbles' Spreadsheet'.

* Click and drag your mouse over the label text to highlight it.

* Click on the Link icon (paperclip) at the top of the signature text box.

* Paste your spreadsheet link from the clipboard to the URL field, then click Insert Link.

* The link label should now appear in blue text. Click Save Changes to complete the update to your signature.

The spreadsheet link should now appear under all your forum posts. You can add further information to your signature later.


Mogs
.
 

Attachments

  • upload_2021-1-31_15-7-49.png
    upload_2021-1-31_15-7-49.png
    62.4 KB · Views: 134
  • when you get a chance ,It would be helpful if you can set up your signature so we don't have to ask you the same questions over again. Members will look at this first . Members would have to look up your previous posts to see what insulin you are using
  • It appears after each post in gray, look at mine,



  • On the left, under Settings, Click on Signature. This is where you will put information that helps us give you feedback.
    • There is a limit of two lines which may include two links; you may separate pieces with commas, dashes, | etc. This is where you paste the link for your spreadsheet, once it is set up.
    • Add any other text, such as
    • Caregiver & kitty's name (optional)
    • DX: Date
    • Name of Insulin
    • Name of your meter
    • Diet: "LC wet" or "dry food" or "combo"
    • Dosing: TR or SLGS or Custom (if applicable)
    • DKA or other recent health issue (if applicable)
    • Acro, IAA, or Cushings (if applicable)
    • Spreadsheet link. Please put the signature link on the bottom line of your signature information, on its own, so it is easy to find.
    • Please do not put any information about your location in the signature for security reasons. If you wish to add your country location, please add it to your profile.
Be sure to click the 'Save Changes' button at the bottom. If you need help urgently it is important we know these things at a glance. We don’t want to waste valuable time finding out information.


tap on your avatar where it says your name ,then hit profile page ,tap on that ,then go up to the very top, upper right hand side and tap on your name ,it will bring down a drop box, tap on signature, the signature will be under settings, tap on the signature then and you can start to add what I posted above, make sure you hit save ,
Welcome to the best place you could ever be and an awesome group of people
You can also add where you live in your profile, not your signature

This is at the bottom of every ones post in gray
 
You did it!! The spreadsheet is visible.

So, there are a few things....

Since Smokey is getting some dry food, you are constrained to using the Start Low Go Slow method for dosing Lantus. With that method, if numbers drop below 90, you reduce Smokely's dose by 0.25u. (If you were able to use Tight Regulation, the point where you would reduce is 50.) I'm pointing this out because you have a couple tif times when Smokey's dose should have been reduced and I have no clue why your vet didn't suggest this.

With the way you're dosing, it's not surprising that your AMPS numbers are high. It's essentially a double whammy. The dose is likely too high so it's dropping numbers. The big drop is followed by a bounce. Since there's no PM insulin, numbers continue to rise until you dose in the AM and this cycle starts all over again. In addition, you are not getting the benefit of using a depot-type of insulin by giving only one shot a day.

Rather than shoot once a day, you would be better off giving half of the amount of insulin and shooting twice a day. I'm not sure if 1.5u twice a day will be enough insulin but it would be worth trying. It will likely take up to 5 - 7 days for you to see much of an effect since you need to build the depot.

You will also need to get PM tests. Your AM cycle testing is fine although. you will want to get a curve (i.e., testing every 2 hours for a 12-hour cycle) so you can begin to see where Lantus onset and nadir fall. You will need to get a test every PMPS, just like you've been doing at AMPS. At the minimum, you will want to get a test every night before you go to bed so you know that Smokey is in safe numbers.

If there is any way you can get rid of the dry food it would be a benefit to Smokey. Even a tablespoon of dry food can keep his numbers high. Dr. Elsey's Clean Protein or Young Again Zero Carb (it's not really zero carb but it's low) are the only kinds of kibble that are low in carbs. Dry food is really terrible for all of your cats. Cats are obligate carnivores and do not need the plant matter that is typically in dry food -- they can't digest it. They also do not have that much of a thirst drive so the moisture in canned food helps to keep they hydrated much like their eating prey in the wild. This is a link to a site on feline nutrition and the food chart on the site.
 
Anne and Smokey said:
Thank you for your reply. I have been checking his blood sugar daily since January 21st and the more I read on this board the more I realize that I have been giving him too much insulin all along and that hopefully I will be able to get his blood sugar under control and get back to giving him insulin twice a day for better management of his diabetes. I did read some of the sticky notes and I appreciate your suggesting that. I have tried several times this morning to attach his spreadsheet again with no luck. I am following all the directions I think correctly but I get error message that the link might be spam!! Appreciate any help with that.
Click to expand...
I’m going to send you a private message and I’ll fix the SS link for you. Just check your inbox, upper right corner of this page.
 
Diane Tyler's Mom said:
  • when you get a chance ,It would be helpful if you can set up your signature so we don't have to ask you the same questions over again. Members will look at this first . Members would have to look up your previous posts to see what insulin you are using
  • It appears after each post in gray, look at mine,


  • On the left, under Settings, Click on Signature. This is where you will put information that helps us give you feedback.
    • There is a limit of two lines which may include two links; you may separate pieces with commas, dashes, | etc. This is where you paste the link for your spreadsheet, once it is set up.
    • Add any other text, such as
    • Caregiver & kitty's name (optional)
    • DX: Date
    • Name of Insulin
    • Name of your meter
    • Diet: "LC wet" or "dry food" or "combo"
    • Dosing: TR or SLGS or Custom (if applicable)
    • DKA or other recent health issue (if applicable)
    • Acro, IAA, or Cushings (if applicable)
    • Spreadsheet link. Please put the signature link on the bottom line of your signature information, on its own, so it is easy to find.
    • Please do not put any information about your location in the signature for security reasons. If you wish to add your country location, please add it to your profile.
Be sure to click the 'Save Changes' button at the bottom. If you need help urgently it is important we know these things at a glance. We don’t want to waste valuable time finding out information.


tap on your avatar where it says your name ,then hit profile page ,tap on that ,then go up to the very top, upper right hand side and tap on your name ,it will bring down a drop box, tap on signature, the signature will be under settings, tap on the signature then and you can start to add what I posted above, make sure you hit save ,
Welcome to the best place you could ever be and an awesome group of people
You can also add where you live in your profile, not your signature

This is at the bottom of every ones post in gray
Click to expand...
 
Sienne and Gabby (GA) said:
You did it!! The spreadsheet is visible.

So, there are a few things....

Since Smokey is getting some dry food, you are constrained to using the Start Low Go Slow method for dosing Lantus. With that method, if numbers drop below 90, you reduce Smokely's dose by 0.25u. (If you were able to use Tight Regulation, the point where you would reduce is 50.) I'm pointing this out because you have a couple tif times when Smokey's dose should have been reduced and I have no clue why your vet didn't suggest this.

With the way you're dosing, it's not surprising that your AMPS numbers are high. It's essentially a double whammy. The dose is likely too high so it's dropping numbers. The big drop is followed by a bounce. Since there's no PM insulin, numbers continue to rise until you dose in the AM and this cycle starts all over again. In addition, you are not getting the benefit of using a depot-type of insulin by giving only one shot a day.

Rather than shoot once a day, you would be better off giving half of the amount of insulin and shooting twice a day. I'm not sure if 1.5u twice a day will be enough insulin but it would be worth trying. It will likely take up to 5 - 7 days for you to see much of an effect since you need to build the depot.

You will also need to get PM tests. Your AM cycle testing is fine although. you will want to get a curve (i.e., testing every 2 hours for a 12-hour cycle) so you can begin to see where Lantus onset and nadir fall. You will need to get a test every PMPS, just like you've been doing at AMPS. At the minimum, you will want to get a test every night before you go to bed so you know that Smokey is in safe numbers.

If there is any way you can get rid of the dry food it would be a benefit to Smokey. Even a tablespoon of dry food can keep his numbers high. Dr. Elsey's Clean Protein or Young Again Zero Carb (it's not really zero carb but it's low) are the only kinds of kibble that are low in carbs. Dry food is really terrible for all of your cats. Cats are obligate carnivores and do not need the plant matter that is typically in dry food -- they can't digest it. They also do not have that much of a thirst drive so the moisture in canned food helps to keep they hydrated much like their eating prey in the wild. This is a link to a site on feline nutrition and the food chart on the site.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice. I already gave insulin today and will start to check before I go to bed. Will be unable to do a curve until next Saturday but will plan for that. Do you suggest tomorrow morning that I only give 1.5 units and then in the evening the other 1.5.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top