1/7 Webster AMPS=223 +3=259 +6=192 Your thoughts?

No condo yesterday but here's one from 1/5

In previous days Webster was crashing hard on 1.0 u and we were having a difficult time keeping him from dropping below 50 without feeding him HC food every night. After hitting 47 on 1/4, a reduction finally arrived.

Lately I have been waiting patiently, holding Webster's dose at 0.75 units despite the pink and red numbers that have been showing up.

I've been giving him 0.75U and told myself that I will give him several days at this dose to settle down and hold him there for at least a week or more if I was able to get him down into the low to mid 200's and stay there.

Well, that time finally came last night and he's been idling in the 200's for almost 2 full cycles now. As much as I would like see him remain in the 200's, I can only guess whats coming next - a crash and then a huge bounce followed by yet another clearing.

Speaking of clearing bounces, am I looking at this correctly? Webster obviously crashed and bounced high the night of 1/4. I originally thought that he cleared that bounce within 24 hours but now that I'm looking back at his numbers, it seems as if that bounce didn't clear until perhaps this morning (1/8)?

Sorry, I'm still trying to understand how to read these bounces.

 

Hi there
Bounces can run 72 hours/6 cycles for many kitties. ECID
It is also something that changes over time - usually each you think you can predict their severity and length

 

Webster is hard to read. I can see that today's blue is clearly a between-bounce number. I think at least. I think I'd call it a failed reduction and go back to 1.0u. The idea with a successful reduction is that the cat continues in green numbers after you reduce the dose. Here's a bit and here's more on failed reductions.

It might be that Webster needs more time at a larger dose to help bring down the higher blood sugar numbers around his green nadirs. What I mean is that even though he goes below 50 and earns a dose reduction, sometimes it helps to hold the dose a little longer anyway. I like the way it's spelled out in the Tilly's Diabetes Page version of our protocol:

Phase 3: Holding the dose
Try to keep the cat at a dose where the BGs are in the 50 to 200 mg/dl range for as much of the day as possible. The majority of cats are actually able to achieve consistent BGs in the 50 to <100 mg/dl range with consistent dosing. A well regulated cat looks like this.

Don't let the cat go below 50 mg/dl (N.B. there are some cats that do well with BGs >=40 mg/dl and are difficult to regulate unless the dose is held at BGs in this range, but a cautious approach should be used until you are sure your cat reacts this way). 200 to 220 mg/dl is approximately the renal threshold for glucose and important for renal health and general recovery. This phase may last a long time (many months). Periodic slight adjustments are necessary in many cases.

If your cat remains in this range, testing for ketones is no longer necessary. But if your cat should, for example, develop an infection and suddenly have higher BGs as a result, start testing for ketones immediately and adjust the dose appropriately.
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Kristin Roomp (owner of Tilly, co-author of the Rand/Roomp Protocol) suggests holding the dose a little longer until most of the blood sugar is better controlled before beginning to take dose reductions.

Anyway, something to consider.

Some of the more challenging kitties also seem to really improve when the people start using calipers. It may be that Webster is sensitive to slight changes in the dosing. There is a post and video on using calipers that might be helpful in the Where Can I Find? post, lower section under "dosing with calipers".

 

Thanks Sandy.

 

Thank you Julie.

I'm also thinking that it's time to raise his dose. I would really like to try in between .75u and 1.0u (.875U) What do you think?

Thanks for the caliper suggestion. I've actually been dosing using a caliper for several weeks now and am very precise with my dosing.

 

Hi, Mike. Do you think we can get a group rate on the lobotomies these boys are pushing us towards????

 

LOL. A lobotomy sounds like a reasonable solution at this point. It looks like Mikey has been misbehaving as usual.