? What are we trying to achieve?

[Debbie Do]

For a few days, Bubba's spreadsheet has had a lot of blue yellow, with a couple of dips into green. I've lowered his dose for a couple of days, and so far he's holding (I probably just jinxed it).

Being time for fresh Prozinc, I sent the spreadsheet link to the vet to review, which kept me from having to take Bubba in. She commented that anything in the 150 to 300 range was ok. I thought we needed to strive for lower - under 250 for kidney health, but not too much below 100.

Which is right? What should be my goals for Bubba?

Also, with Bubba's lower preshots, is there a rule-of-thumb for adjusting doses? Is it just best guess? He was hovering in the low 100's one morning with no rise after 20 minutes, so I skipped his shot. He zoomed up to 300 mid-cycle.

I've seen the post about newbies don't shoot under 200, but we're 6 months into this and I'd like to learn more about this so I can better manage Bubs - or at least try. Are there other links that I haven't come across? There's soooo much here!

Thanks so much for helping!

 

[Sue and Oliver (GA)]

Vets sometimes have higher ranges; their primary focus is to avoid a hypo. Since you are testing and can see a low number before it gets to dangerous levels, and know how to steer it back up with food, you can go with a lower range. Yes, we think somewhere around and under 250 is the range where the body can heal. And then, to get to remission ranges, after you have lots of data, you can try for lower numbers. You can understand why a vet probably wouldn't encourage that for a regular - particularly non home testing patient. Hopefully as he sees the numbers improve, with no issues, he will be on board.

The cycle on 7/12 earned him a reduction - anything under 68 on an AT meter does. So I'd suggest a little less than 2 - maybe a skinny 2 or 2 minus a couple drops.

To deal with a low preshot, stall. Wait 20 minutes without feeding and retest. If the number is rising and nearer your no shoot number, you can give insulin - maybe a smidge less than the cycle before. If the preshot is low 100s, it is a signal to lower the dose from the cycle before.

 

[Debbie Do]

Thanks, Sue. That makes more sense.

I'm dealing with carb overload today. Yesterday a.m., my daughter and I got to playing with Bubba's sister during breakfast time and lost track of Bubba. He got into the kibble (he hadn't even tried for over a week!) and must have really chowed down before we realized where he was. His sugar is through the roof right now. We were really busy today and I couldn't test him during the day. His PMPS this evening was a crazy 500. He's only getting zero carb canned until it comes back down. Dumb cat. Dumb cat mom.

 

[Sue and Oliver (GA)]

Darn. You'll get him back, but yes, find a way to keep that carb food away from him, always.

 

[Rachel]

Aw man. Don't beat yourself up about it...we've ALL been there.

 

[Bobbie And Bubba]

Hey there to one momma of a Bubba to another one. When my Bubba was DX FD, I got him off the high carb dry. We have one other cat , civvie, Forrest in the house so to make things easier for me, I give Forrest the same diet as Bubba which means no high carb dry.I could not chance that Bubba would get into the dry food and guess what? It's not good for the civvie cat either. Who needs another diabetic cat? They do get Young Again Dry which is under 4%. You can order it online. It is a bit pricey but it is very protein dense and an average cat only needs 1/3 c day so it goes a long way. Here is the link for it.

https://www.youngagainpetfood.com/ I give mine the formula for mature cats. I also get their zero carb treats for dogs, cat, and ferrets and they all love it!