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Berta

Berta

Member Since 2022
Hi—My name is Berta and my cat is Samantha. She’s a 12 year old gal, diagnosed 3 weeks ago. I’ve been home Blood Sugar testing, administering Vetsulin and have made a 100% switch to low carb wet food. Just hoping to get feedback on her progress!!
 
Welcome to the FDMB. You will need to set up a spreadsheet and signature to get feedback on how she’s doing. It’s great that you are testing and how switched to a low carb diet. I will give you a link. If you need help we have people who can set you up.
 
If you can fill out what we call our signature that will be helpful,it's at the end of everyone's post in gray

To set up your signature which you will see is at the end of everyone's post in gray, click on your name up top and then tap on the word signature and add this information
  • Add info we need to help you:
    • Caregiver & kitty's name
    • DX: Date
    • Name of Insulin (do not include dose or frequency)
    • 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.

Take a look at mine


We also use a spreadsheet to track our cats BG so we know how the insulin is working and how low they are dropping so we know when to either increase or decrease the dose
We adjust the dose by 0.25 units at a time . We don't adjust the dose by going by the Pre Shots

About the spreadsheet
AMPS - means AM Pre Shot the first test you take in the AM ,you need to withhold food 2 hours before testing so it's not food influenced

Units is where you would put how much insulin you gave
+1 is one hour after giving insulin if you were to test then that's where you enter his _BG number
+2 two hours after giving insulin. ditto
+3 and so on until you get to PMPS - PM pre shot withhold food 2 hours before testing

+1 same as you do for AM cycle

We don't give times because we are all in different time zones that's why we use the + numbers
I'll give you the link to set it up , if you have trouble just ask and we have a member who will gladly do it for you


You can look at any members spreadsheet to see what it looks like, it's at the end of everyone's signature just tap on it

Samantha's a big kitty :cat:
 
Thank you everyone. I got my signature set up and also Samantha’s spreadsheet set up.
 
You need to start getting some tests after PMPS , you are only seeing half the picture :cat:
I noticed on your spreadsheet in the remarks section you give a lot of Temptation treats they are high carbs
You can give any freeze dried treats
Tap on this blue link and read post #64 the post numbers are to the right of each post and you can read about the freeze dried treats

https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/new-to-this-i-need-advice.269452/#post-3007388
 
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Do you have your hypo kit in case Samantha drops too low
Do you have any med and high carb wet food and some honey?
Such as

Fancy Feast Gravy Lovers Gourmet Beef Feast in Gravy 20% High Carbs

Fancy Feast Gravy Lovers Gourmet Chicken Feast in Gravy 15% Med Carbs

Fancy Feast Gravy Lovers Turkey Feast in Gravy 15% Med Carbs

Fancy Feast Gravy Lovers Chicken and Beef in Gravy 15% Med Carbs

Good idea to mark the cans with magic marker how many carbs

Or any on the food chart. Doesn't have to be Fancy Feast just an example about the med and high carb foods
And some honey in the house

https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/dr-pierson-new-food-

Between 11% and 17% is medium carbs.

18% and over is high carb.
 
Awesome job getting started!

Looks like diet really made a difference, and it looks like she's doing fairly well on Vetsulin (most cats don't).

When they drop below 90 on Vetsulin, you will want to take a 0.25U reduction. She's very close, so I'd suggest midcycle tests around +4 as often as you can, including nighttime as they often drop lower at night. If you can't get many due to work, etc I'd suggest reducing to 1.75U as a proactive measure.

You may not be seeing the full effects of diet change yet, can take up to 2 weeks to fully shake out. So she may continue to drop, vigilance in testing is key!
 
Thank you. I ordered and switched to freeze dried treats 8 days ago. And you’re right….I do need the other half of the picture. I’ll try to get some of those numbers this week.

Diane Tyler's Mom said:
You need to start getting some tests after PMPS , you are only seeing half the picture :cat:
I noticed on your spreadsheet in the remarks section you give a lot of Temptation treats they are high carbs
You can give any freeze dried treats
Tap on this blue link and read post #64 the post numbers are to the right of each post and you can read about the freeze dried treats

https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/new-to-this-i-need-advice.269452/#post-3007388
Click to expand...
 
Diane Tyler's Mom said:
Do you have your hypo kit in case Samantha drops too low
Do you have any med and high carb wet food and some honey?
Such as

Fancy Feast Gravy Lovers Gourmet Beef Feast in Gravy 20% High Carbs

Fancy Feast Gravy Lovers Gourmet Chicken Feast in Gravy 15% Med Carbs

Fancy Feast Gravy Lovers Turkey Feast in Gravy 15% Med Carbs

Fancy Feast Gravy Lovers Chicken and Beef in Gravy 15% Med Carbs

Good idea to mark the cans with magic marker how many carbs

Or any on the food chart. Doesn't have to be Fancy Feast just an example about the med and high carb foods
And some honey in the house

https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/dr-pierson-new-food-

Between 11% and 17% is medium carbs.

18% and over is high carb.
Click to expand...

Yes I have all of the above available. Thank you.
 
She’s been exclusively on LC wet food (different brands to see what worked/didn’t work) since 9/28, but transitioned her to only Fancy Feast Naturals, Wellness Complete pate and freeze dried treats for 8 days now and it really seems to have made a difference. I was thinking she may only need 1.5U (per info I’ve read on this site), but was going to give it a few days and get some PMPS numbers to see what the numbers were and what advice y’all had at that time. Thank you!!

FrostD said:
Awesome job getting started!

Looks like diet really made a difference, and it looks like she's doing fairly well on Vetsulin (most cats don't).

When they drop below 90 on Vetsulin, you will want to take a 0.25U reduction. She's very close, so I'd suggest midcycle tests around +4 as often as you can, including nighttime as they often drop lower at night. If you can't get many due to work, etc I'd suggest reducing to 1.75U as a proactive measure.

You may not be seeing the full effects of diet change yet, can take up to 2 weeks to fully shake out. So she may continue to drop, vigilance in testing is key!
Click to expand...
 
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Good morning. I’m hoping y’all can take a look at Sam’s spreadsheet and tell me what you see. She did well on a decrease to 1.5U last week, so I did drop her to 1U this week, but she’s been in range on some days with no insulin. At what point do I not shoot?
 
Unfortunately it's a little hard to say without many midcycle tests, but I'd try 0.5U and see if that allows you to shoot twice a day. Preshots are still a little higher than we like to see before going OTJ, but it's nadir that's more important.
 
Thank you. I’ll be home for the next 2 days so I’ll try to do more frequent testing and see how she does. I didn’t want to go OTJ yet, but with my going to work and her being on the borderline, I was too afraid she’d go hypo when I wasn’t home….
 
Hello again! I’m hoping y’all can take a look at Samantha’s latest numbers and tell me what you see/recommend. She’s only on 0.25U 2x/day, so I’m just wondering if I should: A. stay at that dosage and keep getting +4 numbers B. take her off insulin and continue to monitor C. None of the above
Thank y’all!!
 
Berta said:
Hello again! I’m hoping y’all can take a look at Samantha’s latest numbers and tell me what you see/recommend. She’s only on 0.25U 2x/day, so I’m just wondering if I should: A. stay at that dosage and keep getting +4 numbers B. take her off insulin and continue to monitor C. None of the above
Thank y’all!!
Click to expand...
Tagging Suzanne for you
@Suzanne & Darcy

I can tag Melissa also don't know if she'll be in, she just had a baby
@FrostD ( Happy to hear you are finally home with your bundle of joy, Evelyn , your other children must be so excited )
 
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I didn’t give any insulin at dinner, rechecked 4 hrs later, she was 91…..this am she was 122, so I gave her usual dose of 0.25U? What kind of syringe do I use to measure 0.1U? Thanks!!
 
Unfortunately none of them measure that small, have to eyeball it. These are U100 syringes but the same concept applies.

upload_2022-12-6_19-41-6.png


Without the midcycle tests, I would drop down to 0.1U...id rather her run a little higher than possibly drop too low!
 

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I’ve been able to do +4 in the evening, but only 3 days a week during the day…..I’ve got the U40, so I’ll just eyeball it. Thank you!!!
 
Hello again! I’ve taken Sam off her insulin 12 days ago, as she was dropping below 90 on 0.1 units. If y’all could take a look at her spreadsheet and let me know what you think of her OTJ numbers, I would appreciate it. Should I continue with no insulin or does it look like she needs a “whiff”, i.e. 0.1U? Or do I need to do more +4 checks? Some of the higher am numbers were not fasting, as I put out food before I went to bed and she grazed during the night……thank you!!!
 
Normal us 50-90 on a human meter and Sam is often over 100. I would try a drop dose and test 3-4 hoyrs after eating.
 
To draw a drop dose you hold tge plunger in all tge way as you insert it into the vial and then release it. The syringe will draw up a drop.

For a strong remission you don’t want to see lots of bg over 100. Sometimes giving a snack at +8-9 will bring down the Ambg and pmbg. A working pancreas brings down the bg 3-4 hours after eating.
 
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