Wake up to feed?

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Jessica A

Jessica A

Member Since 2021
Hi,

Callie's numbers have started to come down again today (yay!) AMPS =301, +1 269, +2 203, +3 130. Note: all BGs listed are from Freestyle Libre 2.

We haven't spent much time in the blues (just one afternoon a couple of days ago and one other single reading since we started monitoring) and since we aren't fully sure what cumulative effect her current 1.75 U (Lantus) dose will have, we are of course concerned about her dropping too low...

Callie ate very well this am immediately pre and post-shot and then had another snack around an hour ago. She's a grazer and we have switched her to mostly a low carb diet (still finalizing switch - giving a few of her old treats.) Callie also tends to nap pretty steadily from now to mid-afternoon so she doesn't usually eat during that time, though she has wet food available.

My question is: at what number, if any, should we make sure she eats something even if it means waking her up? I think I read that if a reading is 40-60 and the cat is not symptomatic, feed food/ treats and retest but is that what makes sense in our case or do we want to try to avoid those numbers entirely if possible? We are able to easily keep very close tabs on her BG via the Freestyle Libre right now so we are checking every 30-60 mins.

Thanks!
 
Keep in mind the Libre is measuring interstitial fluid, not blood. As a result it can be 5-10minutes "behind" a blood glucose reading from what I read yesterday (I should've saved that source but didn't). My gal is also on the Libre currently but because of that delay I am scanning her frequently if she goes below 100 to see how fast she is dropping as even with the Libre I am nervous about a hypo. Just my two cents from a very new person here.
 
Thanks again, I'll take a look. I've been trying to read everything I can get my hands on ... but it seems like there's still so much I don't know!!
 
Jessica A said:
My question is: at what number, if any, should we make sure she eats something even if it means waking her up? I think I read that if a reading is 40-60 and the cat is not symptomatic, feed food/ treats and retest but is that what makes sense in our case or do we want to try to avoid those numbers entirely if possible? We are able to easily keep very close tabs on her BG via the Freestyle Libre right now so we are checking every 30-60 mins.
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Are you feeding before every shot and offering a couple of snacks during the first half of all cycles?
If you are doing that, there is usually no need to give any more food unless the numbers drop low.
I see you have in the SS you are following dosing advice from the vet. Has he given you a BG number that where you are going to reduce the dose?

Here, depending if you are following tight regulation or Start Low Go Slow you would reduce the dose at 50 (TR) and 90 (SLGS)
So depending on what method you were following, you would feed a higher carb food if you dropped under 50 (TR) or feed a higher carb food if you dropped under 90 (SLGS).
If you found Callie was dropping fast early in the cycle, you could feed a low carb snack to try and slow down the drop. That is called feeding the curve.
Also if you found she was dropping into low numbers early in the cycle you could give a teaspoon of higher carb food to bring her up a bit for when the onset of insulin starts. If you found yourself in these situations, I would suggest posting and asking for assistance the first few times until you understand it all a bit more.

If she gets a BG under 50, even if she is not symptomatic, you must feed her some higher carb food to bring her up over 50 and test again in 20 minutes to see the BG is rising. Never be complacent about low numbers.
Now that she has started to see some green BGs in the cycle, we would recommend you hold that dose for at least 10 cycles before increasing.
I hope this has helped.
 
That is really helpful, thanks. We are feeding before every shot with snacks during the cycles. Callie has always been a grazer so this works well for us.

The vet told us to reduce the dose at 80 ... so we'll double-check with her that that means also to feed higher carb food if we get a reading of 80 or lower during the cycle. It does make a lot of sense about feeding the curve (and I saw that there was more info on the boards about this. I will read it over and definitely continue to post when I get stuck, until it has all clicked in my very overwhelmed brain...)

I understand re: an under 50 reading. Hypo is the thing we are most nervous about so I think if anything we'll err on the side of being too cautious with low numbers rather than not cautious enough...

Thanks again!
 
Jessica A said:
The vet told us to reduce the dose at 80 ... so we'll double-check with her that that means also to feed higher carb food if we get a reading of 80 or lower during the cycle
Click to expand...
If you get under 80 towards the end of the cycle, you will most likely just need ordinary low carb food to bring it up as the insulin is wearing off.
And if it is earlier in the cycle you might just need some medium carb to bring it up over 80. If it doesn’t, give the higher carb food. Either way, always test again after 20 minutes to see the BG is on the rise.
 
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