Oliver's Rollercoaster... Time for a decrease?

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Wendy and Oliver

Member Since 2012
Well I finally got Oliver's profile and spreadsheet uploaded. Now I'm hoping someone can tell me how to handle today's rollercoaster ride. He started out with a really good number for him and then dipped really low and is now scary high.

AlphaTrak
AMPS 214
2u Lantus
+4 = 79
+5 = 69
+6 = 94
+7 = 126
+11.5 = 505
Have a feeling that 2u is too much so I shot 1.5u tonight

We went thru something similar to this about a week and a half ago as well. I lowered his dose then and his numbers stayed consistently high for a few days so I upped his dose again. I'm not sure if I just didn't wait long enough at the 1.5 unit dose, or if 2 units is too much and I should try 1.75, or if he's having some kind of adjustment period. I sure would like to find his happy place so we could both breathe a little easier. This is causing me major anxiety since I have another business trip coming up in a couple of days and my cat sitter can only visit twice a day at injection time. Any input you have would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Wendy and Oliver
 
Wendy

I see a lot of things going on that cause me concern. If you remember a while back, Sienne suggested that you shoot a dose that you can shoot safely twice a day. Since 9/26, you've given him five different doses including a no shot. That is a lot of the reason for his wonky numbers.

You have been taking some large increases (.5u) without enough tests to show you that he needs that much of an increase.

Cats often experience lower BGs at night. If you are not getting any tests at night, you are missing half your data. He could be going low at night, bouncing up the next morning leading you to believe he needs more insulin.

The other issue is keeping dry food in the mix. We don't use dry food to bring up low numbers because it takes more time to raise the BG and then you end up with a high number like tonight which is probably a combination of bouncing off the low number and the dry food.

Normally, when they earn a reduction, we reduce only by .25u. I would also not increase his insulin by more than .25u without more tests.

Where to go from here?

--- leave the dose at 1.5u for now and shoot it consistently; if you get a number below 200 that you worry about shooting, don't feed him but post here and let us help you decide what to do; the more you shoot consistently when it is safe, the better his numbers will be
--- try to get a +2 test or a before bed test every night
--- try to get a +10 or +11 number for the pm cycle so you can see where he is headed before his AMPS
--- if you can alter his shot time to be able to get a +2 every morning, that would be helpful
--- don't dose him on preshots
--- no dry food to control his numbers; be sure you have MC and HC food and syrup or honey on hand to control his numbers
--- post when you have questions or need help; there's almost always someone around to help you with low numbers.

Please let us know if you have other questions.
 
Thank you Marje and Sienne.

I will stick with the 1.5u and try to be more patient this time. When his numbers kept rising on our last try on 1.5 I guess I assumed wrongly that it wasn't enough. I just so desperately want him to be better. I worry and obsess about him constantly. And I gave up asking my vet for advice when she told me after his reduction to 2.5 to just leave his dose there for 7 days and not to test him unless I saw something that bothered me. How scary is that?! It is good to know there are people here who care and have more experience.

I will definitely start working on getting those pm tests in and try for the am tests you mentioned too. Oliver had been very patient with me pricking his ear up to this point as I was only testing 3 times a day and it was spread out. After this morning's ordeal he has become skittish and even bribing him with treats is becoming more difficult. Injections are starting to be a bit of an ordeal too. He had been much more relaxed about it, but he has become a lot less tolerant of that in the last week or two and tries to run away. Not good. I didn't think I'd been doing anything differently. Maybe he's just picking up on my stress.

As I mentioned in his profile, Oliver had lost a significant amount of weight between his food allergies and diabetes. At one point he was down to 6.3 lbs so it was most important to get him to eat... and whatever food it took to get him eating again. Considering he has been a kibble crack head his whole life I think it is nothing short of a miracle that we finally have him eating some wet food. The goal is to get him off the dry food entirely but we're not quite ready to go cold turkey yet. We can't afford to have him go off his food again now that we are making progress in gaining weight.

Oliver is a grazer and prefers several small meals spaced throughout the day. This works well on days when I am working from home, but not when I am away on business for days on end. My cat sitter comes in twice a day for his injections and feeds him wet food then. But since he only eats small amounts at a time some of that food ends up going to waste because it's all dried up before he's ready to eat again. And I think he ends up eating less wet food and maybe resorts to nibbling on dry food. I just bought one of those timed feeders in hopes of remedying that problem. So far I have not had any luck in getting Oliver to eat from it. His regular plate for wet food is ceramic and flat. The feeder "bowls" are square and plastic. Even with fresh food in it and leaving it open has not enticed him. Any ideas on how to get him interested?

Thank you again for all your help. Off now to see if Oliver will allow me to prick his ear one last time for tonight!

Wendy and Oliver
 
A couple of things may help on the food front. First, add water to Oliver's food. It will help to keep it moist.

Catsickles: You mix low carb canned food with enough water to make it soupy and then freeze it in ice cube trays. You can then put out the frozen food whick will defrost over the next few hours.

Top the food in the feeder with something that Oliver likes -- freeze dried chicken, parmesan cheese, treats, etc. That may get him interested enough to eat from the feeder. You may want to see if you can find a small glass dish to use in the compartments.
 
You might also want to PM Ann/Tess. She makes pottery and I believe she has made some pottery inserts for timed feeders to address the issue you mention.
 
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