? New Member - up to 5U, how to reduce?

[Panic]

The session started with lots of lovin' and cudding, fussing with ears, then eventually the poke.

This too - I'd put Panic in my lap and then we'd just cuddle for a minute before getting down to business. Kisses and scritches.

 

[pktneli]

Eli’s not the most cuddly boy he’s really only started sitting in my lap the past couple years, in his “old age.” He’ll be 12 on Sept 11!

 

[Lisa & Oberon]

Pre-shot is sometimes tough for us, too, especially in the morning when he hasn't been fed all night. (We leave food out for him, but there's not much left by 5 am when my husband gets up.) He gets cranky and bitey. Sometimes I just go ahead and feed him a bit to settle him down and then test him just a few minutes later.

 

[pktneli]

Pre-shot is sometimes tough for us, too, especially in the morning when he hasn't been fed all night. (We leave food out for him, but there's not much left by 5 am when my husband gets up.) He gets cranky and bitey. Sometimes I just go ahead and feed him a bit to settle him down and then test him just a few minutes later.

Thats really helpful! I didn’t know I could give him a little food first. I will try that in the morning.

 

[tiffmaxee]

Thats really helpful! I didn’t know I could give him a little food first. I will try that in the morning.

You don’t want to feed two hours before am/pmps. Treats like freeze dried protein are fine.in a ouch if you just can’t test you could give a tad if very low carb food but test within a few minutes.

 

[Panic]

Thats really helpful! I didn’t know I could give him a little food first. I will try that in the morning.

This is not something you have to worry about anytime soon, but later on down the road many caregivers have to stall feeding to wait for the pre-shot number to increase on its own to see if the numbers go high enough for insulin. So if you feed before testing you ruin your chances of stalling when needed. Again, not something to worry about right now, just something to keep in mind later on.

 

[Lisa & Oberon]

This is not something you have to worry about anytime soon, but later on down the road many caregivers have to stall feeding to wait for the pre-shot number to increase on its own to see if the numbers go high enough for insulin. So if you feed before testing you ruin your chances of stalling when needed. Again, not something to worry about right now, just something to keep in mind later on.

I was just coming to say this! Hopefully by the time it's an issue for you because his numbers are lower, testing will be going more smoothly so you won't have to feed first.

 

[Panic]

I was just coming to say this! Hopefully by the time it's an issue for you because his numbers are lower, testing will be going more smoothly so you won't have to feed first.

Exactly!

Don't worry about it right now, you have enough to deal with atm - just keep it in mind so it doesn't sound like we're changing our tune later.

 

[Briere Fur Mom]

It helped me when first beginning to test(I was dealing with 2 diabetics at once) to use the couch. I would put kitty in between me and the arm of the couch on my right side. All of the testing supplies were on the arm of the couch ready to go. The couch arm aided to keep the kitties in place. They complained a bit in the beginning but, once they learned rewards were involved they began to comply. I tested unassisted.
Most kitties learn to come to the sound of test strips in the container. They do get used to all the testing. You just have to make the reward worth the poke

Welcome to the L&L forum. I look forward to seeing your journey with Eli(what a lovely name).
Have a wonderful evening

 

[Panic]

How are you and Eli doing?

 

[Sarah Gamm]

If you look at Oberon's spreadsheet (and especially the graph tab), you can see a pretty clear example of a bounce this week. I've been increasing his dose following the TR protocol, and he had been staying mostly in the 300s pretty much all the time, with occasional brief dips lower. A couple of days ago he moved up from 2.0 to 2.5 U, and it had a really dramatic effect. He went from 318 preshot to 96 7 hours later, and then by the next preshot check he was right back up to 324. He then overshot that and popped up into the 400s for a bit, then back down into the 300s for a day or so. Now it looks like he might be coming back down again. So in this case he didn't dip into dangerous territory, but his body reacted as if it had and dumped excess glucose into his blood to get it back to what it thinks of as "normal."

One thing you could try is fake "test sessions" where you just handle Eli and rub his ears, etc. and give him a treat, to start to get him (and you) used to testing. Also, watch out for odd things that might be offputting... for some reason Oberon really doesn't like the smell of the test strip vial, and backs away from it. I've learned to open it away from him so it doesn't bother him. I think at this point he's convinced that he has trained me to give him treats when he lies down in from of me on the table, and he hardly even notices the poke.

Unrelated question... how did you get the graph in your spreadsheet?

 

[Lisa & Oberon]

Unrelated question... how did you get the graph in your spreadsheet?

I made a new tab in the SS called Data and put the raw data there (columns for date/time, BG, dose, notes, etc.). Then I used the Insert Chart function and selected the appropriate data columns to make a BG vs. day/time graph. There's all sorts of formatting options you can play with, too. I really like it for seeing overall trends, but the regular SS everyone uses is better for seeing patterns based on shot times. The one annoying thing is that it means I'm entering the same info three times (main SS, graph data tab, and condo title), but it's not a big deal.