When I need to feed a HC food when Opie goes hypo, I always see a big spike the next cycle. Now I know that I am told to check and test afterwards up to 2 hours later to see if the BG remains high because it can wear off and go down again so this makes me assume that the HC doesn't stay much longer than that. So if he goes high after that amount of time am I correct in assuming that it is a bounce and not the food having a leftover effect? Opie is doing well after his antibiotics for the ruptured anal gland. His numbers have gone down enough that he had a couple of dose decreases.
Realize that this is not necessarily due to the HC food, which will wear off in at least 2 hours, but the big spike is more likely due to the low/hypo.
I would say that, generally, yes. He drops low, you feed HC, you get the desired effect of his BG going up in the short term. However, depending on where he is in the cycle too, his body reacts to the low and spikes higher at the next preshot test- or a bit later. With some cats this will last for a while— for others, they will get back into more normal numbers quickly.
Don’t ever hesitate to give him HC when he is in the lime numbers. You have managed these recent cycles very well, and Opie has gotten back into green (like this morning) very quickly.
Thanks Suzanne, I know this is wrong but I try real hard to keep him as low as possible so I give as little HC, or only as much as I need to keep him just above the lime for as long as possible even if it means I miss a lot of sleep.
Tonight will be five cycles that I have not seen green. I am thinking of increasing the dose. What are your thoughts?
We are actually going to DECREASE the dose tonight and no, I can't believe I am saying this. He went down to 37 not once but twice this morning. Now, I don't believe that I have to decrease when he goes down to 50 or even 40 but I draw the mark at the 30's, I hope you agree. Having said that, I hate going down because it usually just doesn't do enough but it will have to be for awhile again. A real shame. I know there would be a problem since we shot in the low 100's. Yesterday I tried to ward it off by giving MC food right away but that only made him go up and stay there for the cycle.
I would have shot a slightly reduced dose (1.25) as a trial to see how he does when he’s in the low 100s at preshot time - that would be a temporary reduction based on a low preshot number. It’s ProZinc, sometimes you have to do that. But also, I would not skip the +2 for Opie. Several times when he’s gone lime, there were warnings at +2 that he was headed that way. Good job with bringing him back up into safer numbers.
I think yesterday he was breaking the short-lived bounce. I’m glad you shot only one unit when he started at 100. This morning’s red, however, makes me wonder how low he went last night, if he dropped back down, or if it is just his standard bounce from being in green. I am not thinking he went lime last night anyway.
Since the day he was at 100 and I shot 1 unit instead of the 1.25, Opie has been really bonkers. We decided to stay at the 1 unit to see if it would be enough for him. After 6 cycles he is still. . . well, bonkers. Tonight we went to 1.25 again and hopefully he will improve. I guess I was wrong to try the 1 unit and even a fat 1 unit.
The shooting of 1 unit was only supposed to be a single cycle temporary reduction for the cycle where his Pmps was 100. The next cycle he started in pink and should have gone back up to his normal dose, which was 1.25.
Opie is wonky again. The last two days he had some green in the AM cycle but went pink in the PM. Today it is pink all the way through. Since he did go down to green do I still think of increasing or do I wait it out? I am just not understanding why he is doing this again. I thought we had him doing better when we decreased after the antibiotics, this is just awful to see again.
We already shot the usual for tonight. Thank you for your quick response. Always a waiting game. . . we will see tomorrow.
It’s been quite a few cycles since Opie was in the green. It seems like he’s kind of stuck. Today’s cycle went the wrong way. Do you think you should bump him up a quarter of a unit? The only reason I would feel comfortable with you doing this is that you test a lot and are experienced in bringing up his low numbers. And of course you are following MPM. I will be interested to see hpw he does for the rest of the day and see what his PMPS is. Right now it looks like perhaps he is starting a bounce.
well I increased the dose and he had a good cycle last night but this morning at +3 he went up to pink again. I thought, oh boy, he looks like he feels better and he is eating more like his old self when I took the +3 test and saw he went high again. I would assume it is another bounce but he never went into a bounce at +3 like this before. I don't quite know what to think. The insulin is about 6 weeks old but the last time I tossed it and started a new bottle when I suspected it could be off, I found it wasn't that after all. Not sure I want to toss it again for nothing and he did go into green last night so I think it is still good. Any thoughts? and tell me somebody, how do you tag someone if you want them to see this?
And I see he’s back down to yellow tonight. So I hope this will be a short-lived bounce from last night’s absolutely gorgeous cycle.
He is still going flat pink. I am suspecting that the insulin bottle may be getting old at about 2 months now. Perhaps I will switch it to a new one in the morning, otherwise it is another increase.
Yes he has gone down into the 40's every day and I was told that since I was vigilant in testing that I did not need to necessarily decrease the dose.
I would say he’s earned a reduction at least back to a flat two units. He’s gone lime four days in a row. Now maybe someone will come along and contradict me, and I know that you have kept him safe with all of your vigilant testing, but even for a long-term diabetic following MPM, the recommendation is to reduce if the cat drops into the 40s on several consecutive days/cycles.
You may want to consider just reducing back to a regular 2 units instead of the fat 2 that you have been shooting. That may be enough of a reduction in Opie’s particular case. For those reading along: this is based on the fact that there’s tons of spreadsheet data on Opie, and that he is following the Modified ProZinc Method, and that Julie tests him all the time to make sure he is safe. So this recommendation is very specific to Opie and does not apply to all ProZinc kitties.
