? PM dosing help for Marley?

MarleyB

MarleyB

Member
Hi,

Marley has been what I consider pretty consistent but he's dropped down a bit below 200 and I just tested him and fed. I'm not 100% on what to do now, I'm going to test again in a bit but I'm not sure if I should still shoot if he's back up over 200 or not. Problem is that I leave for work in exactly 12 hours now.

Thank you!
 
I'd be inclined to skip the shot tonight.You've never had a pre-shot that low before and we don't know what Marley has up his sleeve. Better to be safe than sorry.
You seem to have been dosing at least part of the time based on pre-shot numbers. You need to know how low Marley is going on a particular dose to really find his ideal dose. I think I'd reduce to 0.75u and hold that for 3 days barring any more pre-shots too low to shoot and then re-evaluate.
 
Thank you for the quick response. I saw it come in by email and followed it. His +2 last night was 269 with no shot, but he was 690 this AMPS. Shot with 0.75u and planned to hold for a few while we try to curve him more tomorrow.
 
That high BG this AM could be at least in part a bounce from those lovely blues last night. Bounces can last up to 6 cycles so be patient. BG will start to come down soon.
 
It looks like he might be starting to come down some but we have some general concerns with his health, eating, skin condition etc that we'll put back in the main health forum since his dosing looks to be okay.

General health forum link.
 
Could you please check our Marley’s chart? He was below 200 the last two mornings (I just did a AMPS and not sure what to do next) but over 500 yesterday PMPS.

I’m just not sure what’s going on and unfortunately we’ve not been available in between doses this weekend.

Thank you!
 
Looks to me like Marley may be bouncing from lower BG numbers he is now unaccustomed to but without mid cycle tests that is just a guess. He's not that much below 200 and you do have data but we don't know how low the 0.75u dose has been taking his BG. I don't recommend skipping but unless you can get some mid cycle tests today, I don't know if it's safe to give the full dose. If you can't monitor today, perhaps a reduced dose of 0.5u would be enough to keep numbers from going off the charts.
 
Part of that is probably a food bump but it looks like Marley may be bouncing yet again. I'm wondering how low he going overnight. Early night tests help but they don't necessarily tell the whole story. Might be worth setting an alarm for overnight and grabbing a test around +6 or +7 to see what is happening. Do you leave food out for Marley overnight?
 
I can set an alarm for the night but we’re going to test every 2h today as well.

We normally pick food up around midnight but left it out last night just in case he went low. It was empty this morning but in the past when we leave it out, it’s normally gone by about 4am.
 
Also, our schedules are not supporting multiple meals unfortunately. At least nothing that we could be consistent about and we’re trying to be as consistent as possible in all things.

I’d be interested in auto feeder recommendations for canned food but not sure how well he’d take to it because he never eats much at a time.
 
The Petsafe feeder seems to be popular around here and there is one you can put a little ice pack under the dishes to keep the food fresh if needed. The other thing you can do is freeze some cat food in ice cube trays and when leaving for an extended time, leave out a cube or more (depends on size of cubes/time away) so Marley can eat as the food thaws.

I'd give Marley a snack of LC food now to slow down his drop a bit. That drop of 70+ points in an hour is pretty swift.
 
I gave him quite a few regular dry treats now because it’s now at 95 and confirmed at 110.
 
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Ok but for future reference, just give him some LC wet food when he gets that low. Unless he drops to 70 or lower, it really isn't necessary to pull out the high carb treats/food. Yes he's dropping a lot today and yes you needed to slow him down but a lot of that I think is likely the bounce clearing. The idea is to keep him surfing in the safe green range not to push his BG up higher. The longer he can surf along in healing green numbers the more his pancreas has a chance to heal.:)
 
His bowl is still half-full from breakfast. Some days there’s even a bite left when we clean them for dinner. Both of our cats eat just little amounts throughout the day. It’s literally impossible to entice him to eat more of the LC can stuff unless he wakes up from a nap and feels like a snack on his own. Is this normal or are our cats broken? Any recommendations other than dry treats? He likes freeze dried chicken and also used some leftover Hills Metabolic treats which are probably HC.

Also, we’re not sure how to proceed tonight or tomorrow with dosing at this rate. We can’t be available tomorrow to test but can pull some late tests tonight.
 
Looks like he's on his way up or surfing on carbs but it's too early to say what to do about tonight's dose or tomorrow's. What time do you shoot and what time zone are you in?

I don't think your cats are "broken". They all have their own little idiosyncrasies. Some are more food driven/aggressive than others. If BG is going low, chances are good Marley will want to eat. As BG gets better regulated, appetite usually diminishes back to a more normal state. Just try giving Marley a tsp or so of low carb when numbers are lower and see if he will eat. Some will, some won't. If he gets to 95 and won't eat it's not a big deal. If he gets down to 70 and won't eat it, then just give him a bit of what he will eat or the treats.

I had one flavour/texture of LC food my cat would eat so if she went low, I used sugar donuts which were about the only thing I was guaranteed she'd eat if numbers dropped very low that had higher carbs. Opposite of your issue but just an example of having to determine what works for your own cat.:D
 
Normally shoot around 6:30 or as late as 7:30 on weekends. Normally 11.5-12.5 hours between dosing also. We’re in EST time here.

His appetite has actually been really close to normal ever since we went to dosing twice daily. He used to act like he was starving and really thirsty prior to insulin and for the first few weeks. Now he seems normal and doesn’t drink more than pre-pancreatitis and diabetes.
 
Sorry got waylaid.

Marley actually had a very nice cycle today and for now I'd hold the dose. Check BG tonight at +2 or +3 post shot to see if BG is same, lower or higher than BG at PMPS. If Marley is the same or lower at the +2/3 test time, then I'd feed him a snack and retest again in a couple of hours. You don't want BG dropping too low and right now I'd make around 90 your goal for lowest BG. So if BG drops below 90, giving Marley a snack of LC food or whatever he will eat (but don't overdo the HC treats ;)) will help get him surfing in those healing numbers.
 
It's okay, totally understand.

We've been doing a lot of testing when we can support it. We're also trying to make sure that we don't poke him every time that we see him too.

If you take a look at the chart, we tried to hold at .75u but it got down to 79 at +4 last night that it scared us too much to leave the dose that high during the day while we would be away. We went with a .5u dose this morning, was this the right call or should we hold at .75u?
 
@MrWorfMen's Mom

Would you mind looking over Marley's sheet? He's been lower than we have been comfortable shooting a few times in a row. Hoping this is a really good sign... I just ordered a bunch of supplies too.
 
Marley is doing absolutely MARVELLOUS! :D Like to see a little bit more high green in those numbers but overall he is definitely improving. When you get a lower pre-shot such as yesterday or today, you could try giving a 0.10u dose as long as you can monitor and see how he does. He might be Ok with the 0.25u dose but I'd try the lesser dose first to see how he does. We call drawing insulin up to the very first line on the syringe barrel the 0.10u dose.
 
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