Willow dosing

Kate & Willow

Kate & Willow

Member
hello!

willow is dropping low very quicky this morning, before nadir. i'm worried of a hypo incident. she will probably be fine but we are not used to a drop this steep, this quickly.
it's +3 and she's at 74 already. i just fed her a small amount of her old dry food, 22% carb. a tablespoon in hopes she does not drop too much more of a percentage. And a few licks of FF gravy liquid.
any insight welcome!! can steep drops just happen periodically out of nowhere?
at the very least, a dose reduction moving forward?
 
Last edited:
i know i probably shouldn't have given any HC food until she was *actually* hypo, but that steep drop really freaked me out.
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
Did she eat a snack at +2?
Click to expand...
She did. She ate really well this morning. She grazes on her allotted Young Again kibble, which she had almost finished by then. I also leave out her wet Applaws (whatever she doesn't finish from AMPS) and she'll graze on that the first couple hours.
The drop was seemingly out of nowhere because she ate really well. With this food combination, though, she's only receiving whatever small amount of carbs are in the YA dry. The applaws is just meat and broth, no carbs.
I can certainly add in the remarks now about what I gave her!
 
Kate & Willow said:
i know i probably shouldn't have given any HC food until she was *actually* hypo, but that steep drop really freaked me out.
Click to expand...
This is true. You don’t want to hijack a good cycle. 74 on your ReliOn meter is a perfectly safe number. It’s important to give a low carb mini meal at +2 to help prevent steep drops. So we try to manage lower numbers with LC (all the way up to ten percent carbs but no higher.). Unless a cat is being seriously overdosed, a little LC to steer the numbers is all that is needed in most situations. You are in control when you are testing and feeding. When you are worried, give some LC and retest in 20-30 minutes to make sure she’s stable or rising. Anything above 50 should be first managed with LC.
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
This is true. You don’t want to hijack a good cycle. 74 on your ReliOn meter is a perfectly safe number. It’s important to give a low carb mini meal at +2 to help prevent steep drops. So we try to manage lower numbers with LC (all the way up to ten percent carbs but no higher.). Unless a cat is being seriously overdosed, a little LC to steer the numbers is all that is needed in most situations. You are in control when you are testing and feeding. When you are worried, give some LC and retest in 20-30 minutes to make sure she’s stable or rising. Anything above 50 should be first managed with LC.
Click to expand...
Thank you for the reassurance... I panicked because I was worried her drop would continue quickly at that rate since she wasn't at nadir. We just aren't used to drops that quickly in her cycle. Right after I gave her a little of the HC I was like "what would Suzanne do" and realize I didn't need to give that to her at that number.
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
I wonder what her BG is now? I hope it won’t skyrocket. The dry will take longer to raise her BG.
Click to expand...
I'm really hoping it hasn't skyrocketed because I'll feel really bad about hijacking a good cycle... fingers crossed it maintains where it is now. In the past her nadir was usually at +4 but lately with better numbers it seems to be more often +6.
 
I understand that you are not used to seeing those low numbers in Willow. I remember when Darcy had his first 68. I had been told (false information) that my ReliOn Premier meter was like a pet meter and that my “take action” number was 68. I freaked out and gave him an entire can of Fancy Feast Gravy Lovers food, which he gobbled up happily. I did not know at the time that 68 was a great number and also that even if he was below 50 (my real take action number) I was supposed to use small amounts of food to steer his numbers and to keep him a little hungry in case I needed him to eat more for a few hours. So I totally understand!
 
Kate & Willow said:
Thank you for the reassurance... I panicked because I was worried her drop would continue quickly at that rate since she wasn't at nadir. We just aren't used to drops that quickly in her cycle. Right after I gave her a little of the HC I was like "what would Suzanne do" and realize I didn't need to give that to her at that number.
Click to expand...
It’s all good! It was a little early in the cycle for her to be at 74. Make sure she doesn’t actually surprise us and drop back down later. It happens. It happened to someone I was working with last week and the cat dropped really low again when the HC wore off. That kitty was at way too high of a dose.
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
I understand that you are not used to seeing those low numbers in Willow. I remember when Darcy had his first 68. I had been told (false information) that my ReliOn Premier meter was like a pet meter and that my “take action” number was 68. I freaked out and gave him an entire can of Fancy Feast Gravy Lovers food, which he gobbled up happily. I did not know at the time that 68 was a great number and also that even if he was below 50 (my real take action number) I was supposed to use small amounts of food to steer his numbers and to keep him a little hungry in case I needed him to eat more for a few hours. So I totally understand!
Click to expand...
Right?! That panic feeling when you aren't used to a lower number yet!
I think in my panicked brain I was thinking more of percentages and was looking thru her SS to try to see how much she had dropped in the past after +3 and got very scared that she was going to go under 50. I should have just waited until we actually had a low BG number. Still learning I guess. And learning how to ride the wave of the unknowns.
 
Kate & Willow said:
I think in my panicked brain I was thinking more of percentages and was looking thru her SS to try to see how much she had dropped in the past after +3 and got very scared that

Right?! That panic feeling when you aren't used to a lower number yet!
I think in my panicked brain I was thinking more of percentages and was looking thru her SS to try to see how much she had dropped in the past after +3 and got very scared that she was going to go under 50. I should have just waited until we actually had a low BG number. Still learning I guess. And learning how to ride the wave of the unknowns.
Click to expand...
She’s lucky to have such a dedicated cat mom.
 
If no HC had been given, but only LC, it’s likely she would have been able to have a nice surf in green today, which is what we like. But she hasn’t zoomed up too high so I am happy with that.
 
Also- funny story time. On Saturday evening Willow swallowed the plastic top of her lancet. My partner was here doing her test and said the little plastic top of the lancet rolled toward Willow and she picked it right up like it was a treat and swallowed it whole. She's never even been INTERESTED in the lancet. We were both so worried about it creating an obstruction or something. She acted normal the rest of the night- eating, drinking, using the restroom, playing. The next morning we searched her poop- didn't find it. Then I check her poop yesterday and there it was- completely whole in one piece and bright teal. This funny girl is keeping us on our toes constantly!!
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
If no HC had been given, but only LC, it’s likely she would have been able to have a nice surf in green today, which is what we like. But she hasn’t zoomed up too high so I am happy with that.
Click to expand...
I'm glad she's not too high and I do wish I had given her the chance to surf more greens today. Do you think a dose reduction is necessary or we should wait and see? I'm open.
 
Kate & Willow said:
Also- funny story time. On Saturday evening Willow swallowed the plastic top of her lancet. My partner was here doing her test and said the little plastic top of the lancet rolled toward Willow and she picked it right up like it was a treat and swallowed it whole. She's never even been INTERESTED in the lancet. We were both so worried about it creating an obstruction or something. She acted normal the rest of the night- eating, drinking, using the restroom, playing. The next morning we searched her poop- didn't find it. Then I check her poop yesterday and there it was- completely whole in one piece and bright teal. This funny girl is keeping us on our toes constantly!!
Click to expand...
I’m totally laughing about this! Of course, I can laugh now since I know it passed through her. Whew!
 
Kate & Willow said:
I'm glad she's not too high and I do wish I had given her the chance to surf more greens today. Do you think a dose reduction is necessary or we should wait and see? I'm open.
Click to expand...
Oh, right. I almost forgot that you are SLGS and not MPM. At this point, since she eats the YA dry food, she should get the reduction in dose.
 
Awesome cycle. I wish she wasn’t eating dry food since we could then not reduce her dose and keep her in the “healing greens” longer. But let’s just be happy for now and go ahead with a second reduction and see how it goes. She may have more surprises in store for us! We will see. Kiss that adorable girl for me!
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
Awesome cycle. I wish she wasn’t eating dry food since we could then not reduce her dose and keep her in the “healing greens” longer. But let’s just be happy for now and go ahead with a second reduction and see how it goes. She may have more surprises in store for us! We will see. Kiss that adorable girl for me!
Click to expand...
She said thank you for the kiss, Suzanne!
At +7 she is back up to 250. It's like she's metabolizing the insulin faster than usual or something???
Right now she's only having carbs in the Young Again dry, which is around 1% if I remember correctly? The wet Applaws she gets is 0% carb.
 
Keep making sure she eats at +2. Perhaps a little larger snack than she’s currently getting. I guess if you are not home you can’t do anything about it, but if you are home, it would be great to make sure she eats well at +2 (even if she eats a little less at AMPS.)
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
Keep making sure she eats at +2. Perhaps a little larger snack than she’s currently getting. I guess if you are not home you can’t do anything about it, but if you are home, it would be great to make sure she eats well at +2 (even if she eats a little less at AMPS.)
Click to expand...
That's sort of how she's naturally been eating! I feed her the wet before her shot. We shoot, and then I put the dry in her bowl. She typically sleeps for a bit and will get up right around +1.5 or +2 and eats about half of her dry.
I also leave her uneaten wet out for her throughout the day and she'll revisit it periodically. Would still love to get her switched over completely.
 
Kate & Willow said:
That's sort of how she's naturally been eating! I feed her the wet before her shot. We shoot, and then I put the dry in her bowl. She typically sleeps for a bit and will get up right around +1.5 or +2 and eats about half of her dry.
I also leave her uneaten wet out for her throughout the day and she'll revisit it periodically. Would still love to get her switched over completely.
Click to expand...
She’s such a good girl! I hope she’s made a New Year’s Resolution to not eat any more lancet caps, though. LoL.
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
She’s such a good girl! I hope she’s made a New Year’s Resolution to not eat any more lancet caps, though. LoL.
Click to expand...
LOL please Willow!!! Lay off the lancet caps in 2025 :smuggrin:
She really is the best girl. I can see about introducing a higher carb wet food for that +2 snack. She likes some of the Tiki Cat varieties. I ended up landing on the Applaws because it's the wet she'd eat the MOST of, but maybe we can see if something with carbs helps her cycles.
Also- she majorly bounced and PMPS was 438. Ugh.
 
Kate & Willow said:
LOL please Willow!!! Lay off the lancet caps in 2025 :smuggrin:
She really is the best girl. I can see about introducing a higher carb wet food for that +2 snack. She likes some of the Tiki Cat varieties. I ended up landing on the Applaws because it's the wet she'd eat the MOST of, but maybe we can see if something with carbs helps her cycles.
Also- she majorly bounced and PMPS was 438. Ugh.
Click to expand...
I was expecting that when I saw the yellow. Wow! I bet she won’t stay up for long. Paws crossed.
 
Hi @Suzanne & Darcy :) How long do I need to hold the reduced dose? The full week? I don't like seeing her back into these high pre-shot numbers. Hoping when we go back up to 2u that her pre-shots start coming back down.
 
I had my doubts about the back to back reductions. That’s the problem with SLGS (but it has those safeguards in place for a reason.) If Willow were my cat, I would go ahead and take her back up to 2 units as long as I could monitor her BG as usual. We have a lot of data on Willow at this point and you are very proficient at monitoring her cycles. So this advice is specific to Willow only, and I would not necessarily recommend this for a different cat.
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
I had my doubts about the back to back reductions. That’s the problem with SLGS (but it has those safeguards in place for a reason.) If Willow were my cat, I would go ahead and take her back up to 2 units as long as I could monitor her BG as usual. We have a lot of data on Willow at this point and you are very proficient at monitoring her cycles. So this advice is specific to Willow only, and I would not necessarily recommend this for a different cat.
Click to expand...
Thank you, Suzanne! I'm on board. We went ahead and did the increase tonight as I saw your message before PMPS. We'll see how it goes!
 
She says hi :)
20250115_095459.jpg
Snapchat-215257589.jpg
 

Attachments

  • 20250115_095459.jpg
    20250115_095459.jpg
    45.9 KB · Views: 96
  • Snapchat-215257589.jpg
    Snapchat-215257589.jpg
    50.7 KB · Views: 99
Kate & Willow said:
Willow has had a couple of great cycles in a row- I was worried she was not going to break through on this dose but last night as well as today she went under 90. Should I decrease back to 1.8u starting tonight? I hope you're doing well, @Suzanne & Darcy :bighug:
Click to expand...
Well, this is a tough one because of the dry food and the need to follow SLGS, it’s problematic. However, after you are no longer new to feline diabetes, are experienced, have a lot of data on your cat, and know how she responds to food /carbs, you can customize things to suit the best interest of your cat. Based on our knowledge and the SS data you have amassed, I think you should modify your reduction point. Instead of 90, you could customize it to something like 70 or 80. You just need to add Custom Reduction point to your spreadsheet. Put custom reduction point: 80 or whatever you decide. I would not recommend going as low as we would go if you were following MPM (which would be a reduction point of 50) because of the unpredictability of BG with dry food (less so with the LC dry food, but it still influences BG for longer period of time than wet food.)
 
I’ve been thinking about this for a while now. We’ve had to reduce her dose due to dropping below 90 and then her numbers go back up again. She’s done a lot better overall on the 2 and 2.2 unit doses and I wasn’t happy about doing the reductions, but we needed to follow the protocol and see how things went for a while. Now, I feel confident that we can reduce her reduction point based on data.
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
I’ve been thinking about this for a while now. We’ve had to reduce her dose due to dropping below 90 and then her numbers go back up again. She’s done a lot better overall on the 2 and 2.2 unit doses and I wasn’t happy about doing the reductions, but we needed to follow the protocol and see how things went for a while. Now, I feel confident that we can reduce her reduction point based on data.
Click to expand...
Thank you so much for your expertise. I agree and feel comfortable reducing her reduction point to 80. I had already dosed her last night before your response at 1.8u but went back up to 2u this morning. She definitely does better on the 2 and 2.2 doses.
Also, thank you for explaining more of the SLGS - I always wondered why the reduction point had to be higher with dry food, even with the LC dry, but it makes sense to me now since you explained that it influences BG for a longer period of time than LC wet.
 
Willow's been jumping around everywhere! AMPS have been really high :/ she'll hit a great nadir and then there will be a cycle that is high and flat. I want to experiment with introducing some different wet foods that are LC and see if she does better (meaning pre-shot numbers come down) with some more carbs than the 1% she gets from the Young Again, but I'm so nervous to mess with her cycle right now because we had gotten so regulated with the food and her pre-shot numbers were starting to come down before she went to the urgent care at the end of 2024 and I feel like it's been hard to get back to where we were. Even though she definitely hits more greens now. It's such a rollercoaster!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top