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AshleyDiamond

AshleyDiamond

Member Since 2018
Our boy seems to be improving quite a bit over the last week or so. His numbers have changed dramatically. I would just like to hear from you all on how you think things are going or if there's anything I should do differently based off his spreadsheet. I'm not sure if he is going to low to quickly? Or if what we are seeing is actually really good. I'm loving those green numbers but I must admit they are a bit scary too. Its currently almost 3am where we are and I am waiting to test him again to make sure his numbers start to rise before I can finally head to bed for the night. This whole process is very overwhelming and tiring. The doctors don't even begin to tell you what your in for when you get the diabetes diagnosis. They make it seem like its nothing when in reality it has taken over my life. As always, I appreciate all the feedback from everyone on here.
 
I think he is doing really well (and you are, too :)). He never went too low last night, but if it was too close for your comfort, and because he was too low for you to just give your 2u dose without having to do the stall and check this morning, you could drop to 1.8 now and see how that goes.
 
We stalled for 20 minutes and he went up to 128. We stalled another 20 minutes and he stayed at 128. I think we are going to give 1.4units.
 
I'd definitely drop to 1.8 for the normal dose now. He was too low for you to give a shot this morning and you had to stall and wait...and he still didn't rise much. You want to be able to consistently give 2 shots without having to stall, so dropping the dose is a good plan.
 
So with the delays today we didn't give Tootsie his insulin injection until right around 8am. We just checked him which it is 12:45pm here, so almost +5 and he was 55. He is eating right now so hopefully that will bring him up a bit.
 
He's trying to cut it pretty close... little daredevil . :D Based on previous numbers for day time, it looks like his nadir may fall around +6, so he may drop further over the next hour or so. Gentle carb steering should keep him from going too low.

He is responding so well to the insulin. I would have loved those numbers just a couple of months in. Depending on his PMPS, you may end up having to go a little lower than 1.8 as his new dose. I hope this trend continues for you.. wouldn't remission be great!
 
@FurBabiesMama I'm going to check him again at +6. That has typically been where he gets the lowest (except for last night when he dropped a little more at the +7) You have no idea how much a remission would mean to us. The stress from losing our dog and then this happening right afterwards has been so hard on me. It would also make our vacation in August one we could enjoy because right now that's adding even more stress on me, especially with his numbers right now lol.
 
Right? Honestly it wouldn't even be happening if we could get a refund, but its not refundable. Its our trip to Mexico for our 8 year anniversary and we booked it after we lost our dog and before Toot was diagnosed :(
 
Yes, as FurBabiesMama said, you may have to go lower for PMPS. It's hard to say for sure what to do ahead of time, but if you get a similar number as you did for AMPS, I wouldn't go any higher than 1.2 since 1.4 dropped you to 55 at +5. Maybe even 1...kitties tend to run lower at night.
 
62 at +6. We will have to see what he is at pmps and then decide on his dose from there ;) Can you all explain to me a little better how remission works or when it happens? I've been reading about everything a lot but some things are a little hard to understand. I do know when/if it gets to that point he has to go 14 days without insulin to be considered in remission. But I guess what I'm wondering is at what point do you not give insulin?

Also another thing I've been wondering is how do you check his urine for the ketos? We haven't done this yet.
 
AshleyDiamond said:
Also another thing I've been wondering is how do you check his urine for the ketos? We haven't done this yet.
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You can do it with sticks intended to be held in their urine stream, or you can do it with a ketone meter which is like a glucose meter (sometimes one device does both).

AshleyDiamond said:
Can you all explain to me a little better how remission works or when it happens? I've been reading about everything a lot but some things are a little hard to understand. I do know when/if it gets to that point he has to go 14 days without insulin to be considered in remission. But I guess what I'm wondering is at what point do you not give insulin?
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As far as 'how it works', while insulin is keeping them in safe, healthy numbers, it allows their pancreas to heal and the beta cells begin producing insulin. As a result, their numbers start getting lower, and they require less and less insulin until they require none at all. I have read that it is important to taper them off of the insulin gradually rather than to stop too soon, but I have also seen people dispute that.

I imagine that you will start to have to reduce your dose more and more because he will go lower and lower on less and less until you get to the point that his PS number is too low too shoot (which you will have a feel for due to having gone through the process and gathered data on his responses). Then, if the next PS number is also too low, you again do not shoot and so on and so on. As you said, after 14 days with no shots, it is considered remission. Then, you just do periodic checks to make sure he is staying in good numbers. (Unfortunately, remission can end, so you would want to catch it if that was happening.)

Maybe someone who has actually had the privilege of going through this will chime in with insights for you. Or you could snoop around in the OTJ forum.
 
Thanks! Maybe I'll make a post under that section just for some extra pointers. He was 73 at +8. He is seriously responding so well with the Prozinc. It makes me really happy. I feel like most people look down on Prozinc and they only want to use Lantus or Levemeir. I understand though that ECID.
 
FurBabiesMama said:
Maybe someone who has actually had the privilege of going through this will chime in with insights for you.
Click to expand...

You're exactly right. I might add that you want his numbers to stay under 120, with most numbers between 50-80 before you relax. When a cat is headed towards a quick remission like this, you'll likely go to micro-doses (0.25u, 0.1u, drop) and may need to stop giving shots even a little above those ideal numbers, but within a day or two, you should see the numbers settle into the greens. You'll also want to see that after eating, his numbers stay roughly the same or go down. A cat in remission won't have a food spike from low carb food.

You might find it helpful to pull up the spreadsheets of the cats in the OTJ forum and see how things went their last couple of weeks. It can get a little messy. On Sam's spreadsheet, there is a tab for Dx #1Prozinc that shows his remission. It went pretty quickly.
 
Wow. First though,, wasn't his morning shot an hour late? So, technically it is +11 and not shot time - correct??
 
Yes his morning shot was 8am today instead of 7am. But I was told he would be good to stay on schedule with his 7pm shot tonight. I am stalling right now but how do we get back to our normal times now?
 
ProZinc does allow you up to an hour of 'play' time, but I would split the difference and consider 7:30 the shot time tonight and back to 7 in the AM... BUT if he stays this low, I would not give a shot tonight.
 
I'm going to check one last time at 7:30pm to see what he's at and decide then. I feel like I want to give something because he is doing so well. But probably a smaller dose?
 
You could even push it to 8 ?? You gave 1.4 at 128 this morning, and he went to 55, and he goes lower at night than in the day. So, if you do decide give a dose tonight, please use caution.. it would need to be a greatly reduced dose, and you are going to want to be sure to check him (meaning possibly another night without much sleep).
 
I'd be very wary about giving anything if he doesn't rise more. You're stalling without food right?
 
That's GREAT! I know it seems bad in a way because you're afraid to lose momentum, but it's really good. Try testing at +2 if you don't mind...I'd be interested to see if there's a food spike or not....that can indicate the pancreas are working if there isn't much of a spike.
 
If it's two hours after he eats, the food impact would have cleared. So, I think she meant +2 from the shot time when you started stalling - maybe she will pop on to say for sure, but if she doesn't get a chance to, go with that. :D
 
Yes, from the time you were going to give the shot but started stalling instead. That would be like an hour or so after he finished eating then, correct?
 
We first tested him at about 6:50pm. Then 7:10pm. Then about 7:35pm. He ate about 7:40pm after the 3rd test and he had it all gone by 7:50pm. I just checked him at 8:50pm and he was 135.
 
Oops sorry! I'm not doing a good job of being clear today (I have days like this where I think everyone is already in my head I guess...). I was thinking 2 hours after you feed him. The reason for that is he usually gets a pretty good spike around +2 on your SS so I was wondering if the food spike would be there still or would be lower...usually around +2 the food spike hits its peak and starts to clear as FurBabiesMama points out, so if it wasn't that much higher than AMPS, it might show us that the pancreas were working.
 
Okay well I can check him again when it's at the 2 hour mark from when he ate. He was just 135 and that's 2 hours from his first preshot check. Another hour will be 2 hours from when he finished eating. That's where I would record the +2 on my spreadsheet right?
 
+2 on spreadsheet should be 2 hours after shot time or time you would have given it. Same time you got the 248 last night.
 
But I'll test him again in another hour and post the number here for @Rachel. That number will be 2 hours since he finished eating. But the 135 is 1 hour after he finished eating.
 
The next one will also be +3 for the spreadsheet, unless I have gotten confused. o_O (You said it will be one hour from the test you just did.)
 
Sounds good! To clarify further (though I'm sure you don't need it...I now feel like I didn't explain myself well earlier though), 2 hours after he eats, the food spike should be clearing like FurBabiesMama said earlier. The reason I would be interested in that number is because with no insulin on board, I want to see if it's actually clearing on its own or if it keeps going. If it clears like it should after no insulin, that's a good sign!
 
@FurBabiesMama yeah but that's okay. I still feel like we are definitely making progress. I'm wondering though if I should start him back at 2units tomorrow morning or try the 1.8units?
 
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