? start OTJ? 12/23 Solo AMPS 142 +6 117 PMPS 139 AlphaTrak2

[Ran & Solo]

Hi everyone! First time posting here and thank you in advance for all your help & advices!

Solo had a severe bout of acute pancreatitis on 11/24 and became diabetic. Before the pancreatitis, his BG had always been in the 100-125 range from his routine bloodwork (with the stress of being at vet and having blood drawn). BG raised to >400 with the pancreatitis and lasted about a week.

Solo started on Lantus on 11/30 of 1U BID, and showed significant improvement within the first 10 days. I reduced his dose to 0.5U BID on 12/10, and have seen most of his numbers around 140, with occasional highs around 160 and lows around 120. His complete history can be seen here (hometested using AlphaTrak 2).

Doctor suggested I should start OTJ, cause his diabetes is likely temporary due to pancreatitis, which seemed fully recovered now (fingers crossed!!) and his BG is within the normal range. However, I saw on FDMB here people are talking about much lower numbers. And using the spreadsheet template, I have yet to seen a number in the green zone.

(I am also a very slow learner when it comes to hometesting & insulin injections... even after 3 weeks of doing this, I still rarely have super smooth BG tests.. Most of the time, it takes me 2-3 pokes to get a nice drop of blood and I worry some of the fluctuations might have been due to stress that I caused )

I wonder if I should follow the doctor's advice and start the OTJ trial? Or should I continue with Lantus until his numbers are in the green zone? I feel I might even need to increase the dose to achieve that cause his BG had been quite stable in the past two weeks on 0.5U BID (which is a very small dose for his weight, he's a slightly bigger cat at 8.5kg/19lbs). Also, should I be target for the same range (60 - 99 green zone) which is based on the human meter, while using AlphaTrak 2? (I read from other posts that human meter readings are 20-30% lower than pet meter).

Thank you so much for your responses!

 

[tiffmaxee]

In a word, no! Your cat is looking good but not ready to go otj. He has yet to earn a reduction with his bg falling under 90 if following our SLGS method or under 68 if following TR. When that happens you reduce to .25 followed by .10.

 

[Ran & Solo]

In a word, no! Your cat is looking good but not ready to go otj. He has yet to earn a reduction with his bg falling under 90 if following our SLGS method or under 68 if following TR. When that happens you reduce to .25 followed by .10.

Thank you! That's what I read / understood as well. Are those numbers human meter or pet meter? Should I be targeting higher numbers using pet meter? Also, should I try to increase the dose if I don't see further reduction with the current dose?

 

[tiffmaxee]

You only have half of the picture though. You need tests at night to see how low .50 is taking him. Many cats have lower bg at night. Start with a before bed test and if green set an alarm at +5-7 and test again.

 

[Ran & Solo]

You only have half of the picture though. You need tests at night to see how low .50 is taking him. Many cats have lower bg at night. Start with a before bed test and if green set an alarm at +5-7 and test again.

If he's on twice shots per day, would AMPS +6 be the same as PMPS +6, generally speaking? He also has small portions of meal throughout the day, every 3 - 4 hours.

(sorry for the many questions and thank you so much for your reply!)

 

[Wendy&Neko]

Hello and welcome from BC.

You don't have to test at +6 at night, but if you are up until +3 or +4, it would be useful to get that before bed test to see if he's going lower at night. And PM +6 may or may not be anything like AM +6. They weren't in my cat. Cat's don't like being predictable.

The numbers given you were for the AT. So depending on which dosing method you want to follow, you'd lower the dose if he went either below 90 or below 68.

3 weeks is still very early at this. Many cat this new don't have anywhere near the nice numbers you are seeing so far with Solo. Ideally you'd be seeing some green numbers, though not necessarily all greens (under 100).