Our cat was diagnosed yesterday... I'm lost

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Phoenix R. said:
Unfortunately I don't have anyone that can give it... Especially not at 10pm.
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What hours do you work, what time do you get home at night.
The only thing to suggest is to change your shooting times so you can be home when it's time for the PMPS test and give insulin and get one more text in after that
You would have to post and ask how to go about changing your times
@Phoenix R.
 
Diane Tyler's Mom said:
@Phoenix R.
Hi you need to fill in how many units of vetsulin you gave on your Spreadsheet in the column that says U
It would be also good if you can get one more test in after the PMPS shot at +2 since it's Vetsulin :cat:
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Ok I'll fill that in, thank you... Wasn't sure what I was suppose to put there.
Diane Tyler's Mom said:
@Phoenix R.
Hi you need to fill in how many units of vetsulin you gave on your Spreadsheet in the column that says U
It would be also good if you can get one more test in after the PMPS shot at +2 since it's Vetsulin :cat:
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Ok... Wasn't sure what I was suppose to put there, thank you I do a +2 test at night just forgot to fill it in.
 
Diane Tyler's Mom said:
What hours do you work, what time do you get home at night.
The only thing to suggest is to change your shooting times so you can be home when it's time for the PMPS test and give insulin and get one more text in after that
You would have to post and ask how to go about changing your times
@Phoenix R.
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10am and 10pm are the only times that fit my regular schedule so that's why we have shots set up for those times, on the rare occasion I can't be home by 10pm. This is not always the case but 1 or 2 nights / month at most.
 
Phoenix R. said:
10am and 10pm are the only times that fit my regular schedule so that's why we have shots set up for those times, on the rare occasion I can't be home by 10pm. This is not always the case but 1 or 2 nights / month at most.
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How late will you be? You may just have to skip the shot otherwise you’ll change your am shot time the next day and you won’t be able to get back on schedule. I’m not sure about Vetsulin though @Diane Tyler's Mom is there a vet user we can tag and ask? Since Vetsulin doesn’t last a full 12 hours anyway maybe she can give the shot late
 
Phoenix R. said:
I tried to search for what to do if you can't be home when it's time for your sugar kitties shot but couldn't find anything.
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Ale & Bobo & Minnie (GA) said:
The only thing you can do is have someone else give the shot. You really don’t want to skip it. Is that an option
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Phoenix R. said:
Unfortunately I don't have anyone that can give it... Especially not at 10pm.
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Diane Tyler's Mom said:
What hours do you work, what time do you get home at night.
The only thing to suggest is to change your shooting times so you can be home when it's time for the PMPS test and give insulin and get one more test in after that
You would have to post and ask how to go about changing your times
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Phoenix R. said:
10am and 10pm are the only times that fit my regular schedule so that's why we have shots set up for those times, on the rare occasion I can't be home by 10pm. This is not always the case but 1 or 2 nights / month at most.
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Ale & Bobo & Minnie (GA) said:
How late will you be? You may just have to skip the shot otherwise you’ll change your am shot time the next day and you won’t be able to get back on schedule. I’m not sure about Vetsulin though @Diane Tyler's Mom is there a vet user we can tag and ask? Since Vetsulin doesn’t last a full 12 hours anyway maybe she can give the shot late
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@Suzanne & Darcy
Hi Suzanne this is a new member ,cat is on Vetsulin right now Me and Ale have been giving some information, as you can see what I posted because, just start reading after post #54 this was the only way I could post it so you can understand what the question is
Ale tagged me
The new members shot times are 10:00 AM and 10:00 PM
On a rare occasion he/she said
I can't be home by 10pm. This is not always the case but 1 or 2 nights / month at most.
Hasn't gotten back to Ale about how late he/she would be back when this happens
Any ideas what he/she can do about the shots when this happens
She/he might switch to lantus down the road
Thanks Suzanne:cat:
 
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Ale & Bobo & Minnie (GA) said:
How late will you be? You may just have to skip the shot otherwise you’ll change your am shot time the next day and you won’t be able to get back on schedule. I’m not sure about Vetsulin though @Diane Tyler's Mom is there a vet user we can tag and ask? Since Vetsulin doesn’t last a full 12 hours anyway maybe she can give the shot late
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Shouldn't be any later than 11pm/ midnight at the latest.
 
I would say that occasionally it would be okay. Vetsulin does not last a long time in the cat’s body. Of course the normal preshot test must be taken to ensure the BG is high enough to shoot. And the next shot would perhaps need to be adjusted as well (the time of the subsequent shot.). But I would base it on numbers.
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
I would say that occasionally it would be okay. Vetsulin does not last a long time in the cat’s body. Of course the normal preshot test must be taken to ensure the BG is high enough to shoot. And the next shot would perhaps need to be adjusted as well (the time of the subsequent shot.). But I would base it on numbers.
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thank you Suzanne!

She’s considering switching to a longer lasting insulin after she’s done with the bottle of Vetsulin. Would prozinc be better than Lantus given her schedule?
 
What do you do if your cat won't eat their pre shot meal but pre shot BG is 432? She just ate a snack around 6:30pm we remove food at 7pm, it's 9:03pm here and she's due for her shot at 10:00 pm. She's on vetsulin so we wait a half hour after she's done eating to give her shot. We were suppose to go to the vet today but it was in the 90s here and it was too hot to drive her the 45 min. to the vet. (The a/c in our truck isn't working )
 
From the Vetsulin forum
After 1 week at a given dose perform a 12-hour curve (i.e., testing every 2 hours) OR perform an 18 hour curve (i.e., testing every 3 hours). Note: Random spot checks are essential in order to "fill in the blanks" on your kitty's spreadsheet. The goal is to learn how low the current dose is dropping kitty prior to making dose adjustments.

The general guidelines for making dose changes are:
  • If nadirs are more than 150 mg/dl (8.3 mmol/L), increase the dose by 0.25 unit
  • If nadirs are between 90 (5 mmol/L) and 149 mg/dl (8.2 mmol/L), maintain the same dose
  • If nadirs are below 90 mg/dl (5mmol/L), decrease the dose by 0.25 unit
 
Thank you for your response... I was going to do a curve tomorrow but now I have to run 2 baby racoons (one is injured, got attacked by a groundhog) an hour and a half away tomorrow morning to meet with a wild life rescue person. I'll try to figure it out... Maybe I can just test her when we get back and then try to get back on track. I was considering raising her dose by .25 depending on her nadir.
 
Phoenix R. said:
Thank you for your response... I was going to do a curve tomorrow but now I have to run 2 baby racoons (one is injured, got attacked by a groundhog) an hour and a half away tomorrow morning to meet with a wild life rescue person. I'll try to figure it out... Maybe I can just test her when we get back and then try to get back on track. I was considering raising her dose by .25 depending on her nadir.
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Poor baby raccoon :( I hope they will both be ok. You can always do the curve this weekend, by the way Mouse is adorable :cat:
 
I hope the baby racoons will be ok too.
Mouse's AMPS BG is at 356, I won't be able to test her BG +2 and will have to wait til +3 or +4 to test her after her shot. Should I still give her insulin or would it be better to skip the shot this morning?
 
Phoenix R. said:
I hope the baby racoons will be ok too.
Mouse's AMPS BG is at 356, I won't be able to test her BG +2 and will have to wait til +3 or +4 to test her after her shot. Should I still give her insulin or would it be better to skip the shot this morning?
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Hi Phoenix I don't see any reason to skip the shot this morning, just leave some food out for Mouse
 
It "looks" like you have room for the increase. I would feel more comfortable with either a curve or if you could get (tomorrow?) maybe even a +4, +6, +8. There haven't been (in the last few days) tests during that middle of the cycle time period (after Mouse was in yellow numbers and then ended up back in red at PMPS.) We just want to make absolutely sure that we know what's going on in that mid portion of the cycle. Okay? Good job helping the baby raccoons. Do I think the increase by .25 units is necessary? Most likely, yes. Just want to see what nadirs are more currently than 4 days ago.
 
Diane Tyler's Mom said:
Hi Phoenix I don't see any reason to skip the shot this morning, just leave some food out for Mouse
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I ended up giving her .75 unit this morning. We had to leave by 10 am to meet the rescue lady for the baby racoons and that was an hour and a half there and an hour and a half back so I wasn't confident in giving the whole 1 unit and then leaving right away.
Suzanne and Darcy... I will put it on my list to do curve tomorrow otherwise I did do a +4 (BG 324) and can run in and do a +6 and a +8 today yet if you think that will give enough of an idea for a curve unless you think today wouldn't be able to work for curve because I didn't give her the full 1 unit.
 
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Suzanne & Darcy said:
I’m happy to do it. I’m very impressed with the great job that you’ve been doing of testing.
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Thank you... I'm still not sure what I'm doing half the time but I think I'm getting it.
She didn't even get down to 200 today... I think I did the curve testing correctly, her nadir would be 238 correct? I'm guessing that means I need to raise her dose +.25 tomorrow morning.
 
And that is too big of a drop from AMPS to the +1 number. That sets her up for another bounce later on. It looks like she needs a snack at +1. Some cats do - to help smooth the drop. A snack can be 1-2 tsp. of low carb food— unless after trying this we find she needs more.
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
And that is too big of a drop from AMPS to the +1 number. That sets her up for another bounce later on. It looks like she needs a snack at +1. Some cats do - to help smooth the drop. A snack can be 1-2 tsp. of low carb food— unless after trying this we find she needs more.
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I didn't do a +1... I thought I was suppose to do a +2, +4, +6 and +8. I usually give her a snack right after her shot and several times throughout the day... At night after I do her +2 I put out a bowl with 3 chunks of frozen pate that add up to about ¾ of a can of ff classic and a tbs of unfrozen pate for her to snack on through the night. I'm still working on getting an automatic feeder.
 
I keep a separate log book of the exact times and it looks like I was off on my +2 time, it was actually about 12:30 that I did what would be her plus 2... I'm still working on keeping better track of the time my ADHD gets the better of me a lot of times.
I also wanted to note that her am and pm pre-shot BG's are done around 9am and 9pm because she's currently on vetsulin so what I do is 9:00 pre-shot and give her a whole can of ff then she has til 9:30 to eat that then we wait a half hour til her shot at 10:00.
 
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Phoenix R. said:
I didn't do a +1... I thought I was suppose to do a +2, +4, +6 and +8. I usually give her a snack right after her shot and several times throughout the day... At night after I do her +2 I put out a bowl with 3 chunks of frozen pate that add up to about ¾ of a can of ff classic and a tbs of unfrozen pate for her to snack on through the night. I'm still working on getting an automatic feeder.
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You are doing simply fantastic! I’m just trying to slow her down a little bit in the very beginning. If you are already giving her a snack in that +1 time period (you said after her shot) then that’s probably fine. If you find she continues to go too fast in the downhill direction then you should consider bumping up the carbs of the snack just for the early snack — you could still keep it low carb (10 percent carb or below). But I don’t know what carbs you are already feeding. Keep up the good work!!
 
You can do the 2,4,6 8 of course! Nothing wrong with that at all. Some people’s cats drop a lot between shot time and +1 so they find that they want to test at +1 to check. You may not need to do this if you’re already giving snacks at that time or if you bump the carb percentage up a smidge (as I was saying above.). You could probably stick with starting at +2. You are so dedicated, I am very impressed! I don’t want to add to your workload.
 
Phoenix R. said:
I keep a separate log book of the exact times and it looks like I was off on my +2 time, it was actually about 12:30 that I did what would be her plus 2... I'm still working on keeping better track of the time my ADHD gets the better of me a lot of times.
I also wanted to note that her am and pm pre-shot BG's are done around 9am and 9pm because she's currently on vetsulin so what I do is 9:00 pre-shot and give her a whole can of ff then she has til 9:30 to eat that then we wait a half hour til her shot at 10:00.
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I think this is perfect for Vetsulin.
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
You are doing simply fantastic! I’m just trying to slow her down a little bit in the very beginning. If you are already giving her a snack in that +1 time period (you said after her shot) then that’s probably fine. If you find she continues to go too fast in the downhill direction then you should consider bumping up the carbs of the snack just for the early snack — you could still keep it low carb (10 percent carb or below). But I don’t know what carbs you are already feeding. Keep up the good work!!
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Thank you... I'm doing my best :). I didn't realize that was too fast of a drop, I'm still trying to get the hang of this. I guess I didn't think about how the different flavors of Fancy Feast might have different carb %. So if her numbers drop slower will they stay lower longer? How do you know that your cat isn't eating in that 2 hours prior to the am shot? Sorry still so many questions.
 
Phoenix R. said:
Thank you... I'm doing my best :). I didn't realize that was too fast of a drop, I'm still trying to get the hang of this. I guess I didn't think about how the different flavors of Fancy Feast might have different carb %. So if her numbers drop slower will they stay lower longer? How do you know that your cat isn't eating in that 2 hours prior to the am shot? Sorry still so many questions.
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Well I don’t like to see a drop of 100 (or more) in an hour. The reason is that one thing that can trigger a bounce is too steep/fast of a drop. The other is just that their BG drops lower than what their bodies are accustomed to. The only way to know of kitty isn’t eating for two hours prior to the AMPS and PMPS tests is to pick up all food.
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
Well I don’t like to see a drop of 100 (or more) in an hour. The reason is that one thing that can trigger a bounce is too steep/fast of a drop. The other is just that their BG drops lower than what their bodies are accustomed to. The only way to know of kitty isn’t eating for two hours prior to the AMPS and PMPS tests is to pick up all food.
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I'll have to remember tomorrow to do a +1 test so I can see what her drop rate is in that first hour. I fed her a couple of snacks within the hour after her shot and she still dropped over 100 by +2 BG check, today she went from 411 at her AMPS to 286 by +2 even with extra snacks in the first hour. I've been removing all food 2 hours before her PMPS test but I can't get up 2 hours before her AMPS to make sure there's no food left from her overnight snacks or I wouldn't get enough sleep to function, i stay up 2 hours after her PM shot to be able to do a + 2. I don't know how people do it, I'm dedicated to my animals but I can't stretch myself that thin, I'm beginning to think I'm not built for this. I guess I'm not understanding what you mean when you talk about her BG dropping 100(+) in an hour after her shot when I haven't tested at +1, only +2.
I'm getting really frustrated with myself cause I thought I was getting it and any confidence in myself doing this right is dwindling.
 
I just wish someone could walk me through this over the phone because I'm not sure I'm getting anything right. It doesn't seem to matter how much stuff I read because I can't retain all the info and then I get what I do remember all messed up. Not sure how else to explain it but between my mental health issues and my chronic pain and fatigue I don't know if I can do this. I love Mouse, sometimes I wonder if she would be better off with somebody who can take better care of her and understand what they need to do.
It has also been a hard hit financially so that just adds to it all.
 
In regard to not having food 2hrs prior to AMPS- a lot of people use a timed feeder. You can put your meals and/or snacks in it and then set it to turn to an empty slot when you need it to so that your cat doesn’t have anything out to eat. Some people only use them when they are not home. I use mine for all feedings. I use the petsafe 5 and I wouldn’t make it without that feeder!
 
ittybitty said:
In regard to not having food 2hrs prior to AMPS- a lot of people use a timed feeder. You can put your meals and/or snacks in it and then set it to turn to an empty slot when you need it to so that your cat doesn’t have anything out to eat. Some people only use them when they are not home. I use mine for all feedings. I use the petsafe 5 and I wouldn’t make it without that feeder!
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Thank you for your reply :)... I'm working on getting one... Just need to get a break financially. Between vet bills, extra cost of food, our piece of junk truck and now our failing septic system Im going to have to do some scrimping and saving to get one.
Sorry for my mini rant I'm just beyond frustrated.
 
Phoenix R. said:
I just wish someone could walk me through this over the phone because I'm not sure I'm getting anything right. It doesn't seem to matter how much stuff I read because I can't retain all the info and then I get what I do remember all messed up. Not sure how else to explain it but between my mental health issues and my chronic pain and fatigue I don't know if I can do this. I love Mouse, sometimes I wonder if she would be better off with somebody who can take better care of her and understand what they need to do.
It has also been a hard hit financially so that just adds to it all.
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Don’t think like that. Nobody is going to take better care of Mouse than you are because nobody loves her as much as you do. Stop beating yourself up! You are making progress and doing so many things right. There’s a steep learning curve. But once you get it down, you’ll feel much more confident. We will be here to help no matter how long it takes. Just let is know what is going on with you (and you are.) Everyone has stuff going on in their life and sometimes adjustments have to be made. Hang in there!
 
Phoenix R. said:
I'll have to remember tomorrow to do a +1 test so I can see what her drop rate is in that first hour. I fed her a couple of snacks within the hour after her shot and she still dropped over 100 by +2 BG check, today she went from 411 at her AMPS to 286 by +2 even with extra snacks in the first hour. I've been removing all food 2 hours before her PMPS test but I can't get up 2 hours before her AMPS to make sure there's no food left from her overnight snacks or I wouldn't get enough sleep to function, i stay up 2 hours after her PM shot to be able to do a + 2. I don't know how people do it, I'm dedicated to my animals but I can't stretch myself that thin, I'm beginning to think I'm not built for this. I guess I'm not understanding what you mean when you talk about her BG dropping 100(+) in an hour after her shot when I haven't tested at +1, only +2.
I'm getting really frustrated with myself cause I thought I was getting it and any confidence in myself doing this right is dwindling.
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I think the drop was better today. Well done. It was a 125 drop but that took two hours so do not stress about it! Please! You are doing so well. Just do the same thing tomorrow that you did today, can you do that? I think you are tired and I think the financial strain and worry is getting to you. Believe me, I understand that. I get really frazzled when that kind of stuff is happening.
 
I don’t know if this is doable for you or not, but I just sorta trained myself to wake up to go to the bathroom at around +6 and then I’d feed Minnie and Bobo at that time. I would remove whatever food they didn’t eat so I knew when I woke up no one had eaten within 2 hours of the preshot test. With Bobo and his many sharp drops overnight, I got worried and I actually set my cell alarm so I’d wake up feed him and go to the bathroom then. Don’t know if this is something you could do and manage to go back to sleep. I leave the food ready to go and covered on the kitchen counter so all I have to do is uncover, feed, put it back in the kitchen and go back to sleep. I do all of this in the dark btw and lol but it’s the only way I found to not wake up completely and then be unable to fall back asleep.
 
Ale & Bobo & Minnie (GA) said:
I don’t know if this is doable for you or not, but I just sorta trained myself to wake up to go to the bathroom at around +6 and then I’d feed Minnie and Bobo at that time. I would remove whatever food they didn’t eat so I knew when I woke up no one had eaten within 2 hours of the preshot test. With Bobo and his many sharp drops overnight, I got worried and I actually set my cell alarm so I’d wake up feed him and go to the bathroom then. Don’t know if this is something you could do and manage to go back to sleep. I leave the food ready to go and covered on the kitchen counter so all I have to do is uncover, feed, put it back in the kitchen and go back to sleep. I do all of this in the dark btw and lol but it’s the only way I found to not wake up completely and then be unable to fall back asleep.
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I wish I could but I've had nights where I woke up in the middle of the night and layed there for hours in tears because my brain wouldn't just shut up and let me go back to sleep.
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
I think the drop was better today. Well done. It was a 125 drop but that took two hours so do not stress about it! Please! You are doing so well. Just do the same thing tomorrow that you did today, can you do that? I think you are tired and I think the financial strain and worry is getting to you. Believe me, I understand that. I get really frazzled when that kind of stuff is happening.
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Do you think It'll be ok to give her 1.25 tonight if I can only do a +2?
 
Yes. If you leave food out for her. I think it will be okay. However, if the +2 is a lot lower than the PMPS then you may still have to stay up or set an alarm (sorry). @tiffmaxee what do you think?
 
I agree with Suzanne. I did not use Vetsulin. Also, I could not read through this condo because it’s so long. Would you mind starting a new one ? You could link this and maybe begin with a brief summary. Thanks.
 
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