6/14 Elly Update

Hello Everyone.. Sorry I haven't been around. But I had a family emergency up North. I left Elly with my mom and explained to her what to do etc... Well things didnt go so well. Anyway she called the vet to find out the dosage and well she brought Ellies dosage back to 2.5.. She went real low one day all the way down to 34.. Good thing she was spot checking and gave her a little honey.. She is doing ok now I am back home watching her. My mom did notice when Ellie ate Friskies Special Diet her BG Levels would spike. Now that she is back on Wellness Core she is doing fairly ok...
Thanks for Listening !!

 

Glad you're back home and have the situation under control

I keep a template with instructions on my computer. When I travel, all I need to do is change the dose information. It might be helpful if you had a similar set just in case you need petsitting help. The good news is you have your mom as back up and she caught the low numbers and intervened appropriately.

Do you have HC food at home? Honey isn't the optimal choice although it can clearly help in a pinch.

 

What is HC Food?

 

Low carb (LC) are foods that are below 10% carb. High carb (HC) is generally above 16% carb. If you're not already familiar with it, Janet & Binky's list contains the carb counts for most of the available canned (and dry) cat foods.

Honey, Karo, or other syrups will quickly raise blood glucose but those levels will drop quickly since all you're giving is sugar. The gravy flavors of Fancy Feast (e.g., grilled and marinated varieties) have a "gravy" component that contains most of the high carb. The solids are protein (or you can spoon some of the gravy on LC food) and the combination of a HC (or syrup/honey) and protein will get numbers up quickly and keep numbers up longer than just syrup alone. Most of us use Fancy Feast gravy varieties as a very effective way to steer numbers.

 

Hi Ellymae, It's good that you're back home and are able to start again with the protocol. Most of us have a few cans of MC (medium carbs) and HC (high carbs) food in our "Emergency Kit". We label each can with the percentage of carbs using a magic marker or Sharpie. That way we don't have to try to remember what food has what percentage if we are confronted with an emergency. Take a look at the "Important Documents" at the end of the "New To the Group" sticky (above). These are instructions for emergencies and you ought to print them out and keep them in the Emergency Kit, along with the foods. If you have a pet sitter (or a mom!), you can just tell her where the emergency box is and that there are instructions there. Sienne's advice to keep a template on your computer that you can update when necessary is excellent (I'm going to make one tonight!)
I'm sure Ellie is glad you're home, too.

Ella & Stu