What are we doing wrong?

EttaD

EttaD

Member Since 2025
Buddy’s numbers are just so confusing.

When he is on 1.5, he was getting terrible numbers. At 1.75, still terrible numbers and then he drops like a stone.

He was 3.9 (67) this morning, so we went with no shot. I know his number will be terrible tonight.

Should I go to 1.5 now? Am I doing something wrong?
 
No. I’m away and my husband is home alone and told me after he had fed him right away after the testing. Buddy was likely frantic for food.
 
You don’t get any tests on many nights. So we can’t het a clue what he is doing at night.

When is he eating during the cycle and what is he eating?

67 is a perfectly safe number, but at AMPS, I would have stalled a while
 
EttaD said:
No. I’m away and my husband is home alone and told me after he had fed him right away after the testing. Buddy was likely frantic for food.
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Okay. That is difficult if you’re not there. I understand. You’re right. His numbers are going to go way up today. I’m sorry. I think we could manage him better.
 
So just tell me about his feeding schedule. Sorry to always ask this, but it’s key to the cycle. But if we are going to learn his patterns, we need to hopefully get more tests.
 
How far past shot time are you?

Dry food can really make the numbers unpredictable in a lot of cats. That’s why members who feed dry are supposed to follow SLGS and not MPM. I don’t know if he is still eating the dry, but it’s in your signature so that’s why I am mentioning it.
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
Okay. That is difficult if you’re not there. I understand. You’re right. His numbers are going to go way up today. I’m sorry. I think we could manage him better.
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His snacks are timed during the day and at night to +2, +4 and +8. He doesn’t often eat his night time snacks.

During the day, his snacks are either fancy feast wet or boiled chicken or a sardine. He gets very little of the low carb dry - maybe a tablespoon. He might get a churu after his +6 test. At night, he gets a fancy feast snack at +2 and there is dry in his automatic feeder over night. The feeder closes at 4:45 am so that dry is no longer available.

During to day, I can get a test at +6 or 7. At night, I try to get a test at bedtime.

How long should we stall for? What are we watching for?
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
How far past shot time are you?

Dry food can really make the numbers unpredictable in a lot of cats. That’s why members who feed dry are supposed to follow SLGS and not MPM. I don’t know if he is still eating the dry, but it’s in your signature so that’s why I am mentioning it.
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This would be shot time now.

I would love to cut out dry, but there are days when he would not be getting enough calories from wet because of his pickiness.

We did recently switch him to friskies pate from fancy feast because he stopped eating fancy feast. He is a difficult eater.

This week, I won’t be home most days because I have to be at the office. Should I drop him to 1.5?
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
And what is the feeding schedule? At what times during the cycle is he given food to eat?
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Sorry, I answered above. His snacks are timed during the day and at night to +2, +4 and +8. He doesn’t often eat his night time snacks.

During the day, his snacks are either fancy feast wet or boiled chicken or a sardine. He gets very little of the low carb dry - maybe a tablespoon. He might get a churu after his +6 test. At night, he gets a fancy feast snack at +2 and there is dry in his automatic feeder over night. The feeder closes at 4:45 am so that dry is no longer available.

During to day, I can get a test at +6 or 7. At night, I try to get a test at bedtime.

How long should we stall for? What are we watching for?

My husband just retested him after eating and he is 4.9
 
EttaD said:
I would love to cut out dry, but there are days when he would not be getting enough calories from wet because of his pickiness.
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Oh boy do I understand this. I hope he’s doing better than my IBD cat. I just finished syringe feeding him because he isn’t eating enough. So picky. One day a food is great and the next it’s disgusting to him and he won’t touch it. Sigh.
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
Oh boy do I understand this. I hope he’s doing better than my IBD cat. I just finished syringe feeding him because he isn’t eating enough. So picky. One day a food is great and the next it’s disgusting to him and he won’t touch it. Sigh.
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I’ve been able to identify that his pickiness ramps up when he has a hairball. I’ve started to give him a hairball paste to try to shorten those cycles because they make me crazy.
 
EttaD said:
He doesn’t often eat his night time snacks.
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Can you feed a little less at dinner time so that he will be hungrier during the night? It’s just an idea and may not work.

You should hopefully be able to at least make sure that he eats at +2 before bed, right?
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
Can you feed a little less at dinner time so that he will be hungrier during the night? It’s just an idea and may not work.

You should hopefully be able to at least make sure that he eats at +2 before bed, right?
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He sometimes turns his nose up at the +2 night snack if it is fancy feast but will eat a sardine. Is that enough? How much is enough food?

I think we may have to cut out his +8 snack. I may also get murdered by a cat…
 
EttaD said:
During the day, his snacks are either fancy feast wet or boiled chicken or a sardine. He gets very little of the low carb dry - maybe a tablespoon. He might get a churu after his +6 test.
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The FF wet is probably the best for a snack at +2 and +4 — a tablespoon. I would save the boiled chicken for a testing treat. There’s not enough carbs to support BG. After nadir is when you want to keep things smaller and as low carb as you can. Not sure about the carbs in a Churu?
 
EttaD said:
He sometimes turns his nose up at the +2 night snack if it is fancy feast but will eat a sardine. Is that enough? How much is enough food?

I think we may have to cut out his +8 snack. I may also get murdered by a cat…
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I understand you are dealing with a super picky cat and doing your best! :bighug:
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
I understand you are dealing with a super picky cat and doing your best! :bighug:
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This week. I will do some experimenting. Maybe go down to 1.5? Cut carbs after nadir. His nadir have been high. He’s so confusing. My sister, who was a nurse, described him as a brittle diabetic.
 
EttaD said:
Sorry, I answered above. His snacks are timed during the day and at night to +2, +4 and +8. He doesn’t often eat his night time snacks.

During the day, his snacks are either fancy feast wet or boiled chicken or a sardine. He gets very little of the low carb dry - maybe a tablespoon. He might get a churu after his +6 test. At night, he gets a fancy feast snack at +2 and there is dry in his automatic feeder over night. The feeder closes at 4:45 am so that dry is no longer available.

During to day, I can get a test at +6 or 7. At night, I try to get a test at bedtime.

How long should we stall for? What are we watching for?

My husband just retested him after eating and he is 4.9
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4.9 x 18 = 88.2. So he had a little bump from his food. If your husband can test him today you could just try a half dose to try and keep him from climbing too high.
 
EttaD said:
He won’t be home for most of the day. So we will leave it.

When we need to delay and retest, how long do we need to delay?
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I agree since he will be alone.

There’s no prescribed amount of time to stall. First thing is to stall for 30 minutes and retest. If BG is stable or rising then go ahead and give insulin and feed if the BG is high enough to shoot. You can keep stalling for another 30 minutes or more, but that will of course get you further off schedule.
 
And your husband just gave us some valuable information this morning. Buddy gets about a 20 point bump from his LC breakfast food. Now we can take that into account when making decisions. For example, if Buddy is absolutely starving and it’s morning and you want to stall for a while, you can go ahead and give a little LC wet and take that into account for the next test when you’re deciding if he’s high enough to shoot.
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
And your husband just gave us some valuable information this morning. Buddy gets about a 20 point bump from his LC breakfast food. Now we can take that into account when making decisions. For example, if Buddy is absolutely starving and it’s morning and you want to stall for a while, you can go ahead and give a little LC wet and take that into account for the next test when you’re deciding if he’s high enough to shoot.
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I appreciate learning with each experience. I’m more relaxed about it all. He is showing very good clinical signs and he’s like his old self, which makes it easier not to freak out about numbers.
 
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