? +12 51.. another new low in green.. taking deep breathe!

LB has another new low.. 51.. giving him some wellness chicken and will check in 30 min?
Wonder if should give some high carb yet.... he should be at the end of the insulin cycle...
Looks like another reduction in play.

 

You don't want to give high carbs at the end of the cycle. Are you planning on skipping? That is low for an AT. I would be inclined to skip tonight. See what others say.

 

Woohoo, way to work those numbers!!
You must be so proud!! Yay! ( If it were Gus I would mix a touch of HC gravy into the wellness to keep him surfing.) not an expert opinion, just a newbies!
Go LB!! working the juice!

 

Glad Elise posted. Learning!

 

It's just that he should start to come back up since its the end of the cycle with his regular food.

 

planning on skipping.. he ate 1/2 can of wellness...if number drops will give a touch of HC? I am hoping as its end of cycle... Oh decisions!!!

 

Thanks thats what I was thinking just scary to see such a low number!!!! will test again soon!

 

Yes test in 20-30 after he ate. I know the depot us in play but I would be inclined to take another reduction. I'm going to tag a few others to see what they think.

@Wendy&Neko @Chris & China @julie & punkin (ga)

 

Could a wonky test strip be possible?

 

Good question. When I get a lower number than I suspect, I retest with my backup meter. Are you going to test now? I even did that tonight because I was expecting a higher PMPS.

 

I was wondering about test strip as well.. but he can go lower right towards end of his cycle and had eaten very low carb today.. ziwi peak and tiki cat...so 30 min later and wellness and he is at 107... will skip shot tonight...I have noticed that he spikes higher with wellness in past.. Ziwi peak seems to influence the low numbers if thats possible....

 

Which Wellness did you feed? It might be higher carb than ZP. I would test in an hour but since you are skipping I doubt he will go under 68.

 

welnes chicken.. grain free.. think its 4% versus 2% Ziwi.. he is eating some fancy feast now..

 

Would he be one of those doing the spooky to the Bean but known to happen Lantus double dip?Gus threw me a couple of those. Totally freaked me out till the pros here said yep we know what that is.

 

Good that he's lc eating.

 

Thanks so much for your help!!! I actually think the number may have been fairly accurate... he lapped up the wellness... and usually he just eats a few bites... not his favorite... tomorrow I am not around as much so want to err on side of caution.. he has been a little unpredictable!!! On the bright side.. sleep!!

 

He might double dip at the end of the cycle or else he has a very late nadir. Get some sleep while you can and since you won't be able to monitor I'd personally decrease by another .25. Others may disagree but you can take him back up at any time should it be too little.

 

Yes!! I am actually thinking if his number towards 5 am or 6am is low shooting a 1 for safety... will see how tonight goes as well I guess with no shot...

 

I didn't see a condo started and nothing on the ss. Just checking in to see how it went this morning.

 

Hello. Thanks so much for checking in! So at 6:30 am he was at 300 but had eaten an hour before.. so I waited till 7:30..and he is at 405.. I wanted to reset shot time to be around for his late nadir and hoping to get more sleep in evenings if I start pushing back shot time :0) as his nadir is so late!! Also these bright greens throwing me so wanted to be sure he was going up! Gave him 1.5.. will see how he does with that. Like you said can always increase. After today I am around more for next 4 days. Thanks so much for your support!!!

 

You know you can move the time 30 minutes every 24 hours or 15 minutes every cycle. With the skip last night you could have shot any time you wanted this morning. Have a good day. I think he will be fine.

 

Thanks! Yes it was a good time to move it by an hour. I have bene shooting around 5 or 6 but in evening that puts his nadir around 3am...this time move should put it closer to 5:30 am :0)

 

That will work until he decides to change his nadir, lol. Anti-jinx.

 

Sorry I wasn't around yesterday - we're still having a lot of work done at home and things are still a bit crazy here.

Since you've gone to 1.5u, I'd try to hold that dose constant regardless of the preshot numbers, unless he dips below 90 on your AT and earns a reduction. Looking at the spreadsheet, I'm guessing that you are changing the dose based upon the preshot numbers. With depot insulins like Lantus and Levemir, your dosing decisions are made by answering the question "how low does this dose make my cat's blood sugar go?" It's really hard to suggest what to do with the dose because nearly every shot has a different dose. Try just holding this and see if you don't have more stable numbers.

The depot is important to understand - I wrote this below for another new member. See if it helps you understand a little more about it.

With a depot insulin, when you shoot, some of that insulin goes to work right away and some of it builds up in the body. Then what's in the body releases over time. Sort of like a timed release medicine. The depot size is in relation to the size of the dose. So a 3.0u dose has a bigger depot than a 2.0u dose. There's a great description of how Lantus works in the link above, specifically the one called "Lantus and Lev: what's the difference?"

Increasing the dose means that the depot must "grow" to fit the size of the new larger dose. that's one of the reasons that when you increase a dose, you also hold the dose for at least a few cycles, usually 6 or more. You want to see what the dose can do when the depot is at its new, larger size and is giving out at that rate.

Decreasing the dose means that the depot has to "shrink" to fit the size of the new smaller dose. If you had low numbers this cycle and reduced the dose of the next shot, then had low numbers again in the morning, we'd probably "blame" the low numbers on the depot action from the previously larger dose. The depot can take as many as 6 cycles to decrease to get into equilibrium again with the new smaller dose. If the low numbers occur after 5 cycles, then we might think you should take the dose reduction again. If it's in the first couple of cycles after a dose reduction, that's more likely to be from the previous depot.

With a newly diagnosed cat sometimes they can come down the dosing scale really fast, so sometimes a cat does need to take the reduction, even if it's soon after the last reduction. Everything depends on the context.

Another way we sometimes describe it is that with a depot insulin, you are steering a barge. Once it gets going, it will continue on its path. In order to change the path, you've gotta do something drastic! The older insulins were more like steering a speed boat - you look at the preshot number, decide on the dose based upon a sliding scale, shoot in and in 8-10 hours the insulin is out of the cat's system. So you're basically starting from scratch with each shot.
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Hope some of that helps.

By the way, go ahead and start a new thread for today. You can answer people on your new thread by either quoting them from this thread, or by tagging them in the new thread. It's a housekeeping thing we do to keep this group manageable.

 

Hi Julie, the dosing has not been based on preshots. This cat has late nadirs. Yesterday 51 at shot time. He had earned a previous reduction so the depot was in play and wanted it reduced. It's been more about the lows and not always able to monitor.

 

Thanks for clarifying, Elise.

 

This is an amazing and incredibly helpful description!