http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/new-member-a-little-lost.229491 Good morning. I posted yesterday about Cairo, as it was my first day of testing. This morning her AMPS is 111. Should I give her a shot this morning?
Hi Sam-- Hold off on shooting for now. Has she had breakfast yet? If not, don't feed her just yet, and test again in 20-30mins. Quite a night last night! We usually try to post the link to the previous conversation so folks can get the history: New Member - A little lost
I think from what we saw yesterday, Cairo needs less than 1.0U going forward, the question is how much less. I'm kind of inclined to go all the way down to 0.5U-- although we'll see whether you'll be shooting this morning at all! Cairo is looking really great. So glad you started monitoring when you did!
Sam when you on the lantus board go back to your original post from last and go all the way to the top and copy where it behind with www.feline diabetes the URL and then paste it before you start the your conversation Then where you put today's date Cairo AMPS- 111 put you next reading in Go to where it says thread tools it to the right hand side hut that and it will say edit Something like this Cairo AMPS 111/ then the next BG and then hit save You can take a look at mine for today, you will see I pasted the day before there, you can tap on it and see what was up with Tyler the day before
Good morning Sam and Cairo! My goodness, you had a busy night! I'm so glad others were able to keep eyes on you last night! I'm useless once I take my nighttime meds. Huge hugs for @Nan & Amber (GA) and @Diane Tyler's Mom and @Bron and Sheba (GA) I don't ever give dosing advice, but my personal thoughts this morning were tending towards .5u when I saw the AMPS of 111 -- if Cairo's going up, and not still down. A concern I have is that -- to me -- it appears that Cairo's pancreas wants to get in on the action. That makes dosing a little bit trickier. Usually, a person can "steer" their cat away from low numbers with a little low carb food. However, if the pancreas truly is coming out to play, feeding low carb might have the opposite effect; instead of gently raising blood sugar, the pancreas might go, "Yahoo, food! Lets dump some insulin!" and lower blood sugar further. I don't know if this is very common; my Sammi cat does this. In fact, I depend on it to keep his numbers in range The only other thing I'd like to comment on is the mammary tumor. I would think it best to get that taken care of as soon as possible, regardless of your vet's opinion. Getting a cat's diabetes regulated can take years, or weeks, or not happen at all. But that tumor could go bad terribly fast It's been around 3 months since you took Cairo in to the vet after you noticed it? I would think that's more than long enough to wait I can't offer a vet suggestion since I'm in north LA county, but I think that if you e-mailed a questionnaire to some of your local vets, you could find one you could work with. --The doctors that take the time to respond get an automatic +3 points lol!
Okay, sorry for the delay. When I tested Cairo this morning, I bribed her with a churu. I waited an hour and tested her again before giving .5u. On the spreadsheet I bumped my first reading to +11, and replaced with my new preshot reading of 118.
And yes, I really want the tumor off of her. COVID-19 has made things very difficult withy current vet.
Hmmm, that wasn't much of a bump from the churu. I'd monitor closely today. If you are able to monitor closely, hold off on more carb-y treats unless she goes very low (under 50), but go ahead and give low-carb snacks. We want to keep her safe, but if the 0.5U dose is capable of bringing her too low, we want to know about it so we know to reduce the dose further. If you can't monitor closely, though, and she starts showing numbers that worry you, go ahead and carb her up like you did last night. We have two dosing methods that we use on this forum, Dosing Methods: Start Low, Go Slow (SLGS) & Tight Regulation (TR). Cairo is kind of setting the pace here, but go ahead and look through that sticky to see which method would suit you going forward.
Oh, that's great! Really curious to see just what she's getting up to during a cycle. She's looking great!
Here is a more recent photo of Cairo. The bald spot is my attempt at buzzing her when her fur was matted from her lack of grooming.
I love the utterly dignified look-- "What bald spot? You must be mistaken. I do not have a bald spot, what a ridiculous thing to say!"
She looks like she's utilizing that sunbeam to its fullest Covid 19 is making it a lot harder to deal with veterinary practices, but it shouldn't be preventing them from seeing urgent cases. If you still want to try working with your current vet, you could try calling the office and letting them know you want to schedule surgery now. If they refuse, or try giving you the run-around, find someone new Just make sure you get copies of all of Cairo's records, labs, and medical notes if you can. You have a right to copies of them all -- but I know some office managers can be near impossible to work with, without the threat of getting lawyers involved I've dealt with one of "those" before. To find cat friendly practices near you: https://catfriendly.com/find-a-veterinarian/ You can check out potential vets websites, profiles, reviews... It comes in handy. Then you could e-mail, explaining you're looking for a new practice that is willing to accept the way you're handling Cairo's diabetes, and that she has a mammary tumor that you feel takes precedence over her diabetes. Would the vet feel comfortable having Cairo as a patient and you as a client knowing this -- and does the vet agree that the tumor should be a priority? Unfortunately, switching vets would involve another exam fee -- and possibly redoing blood work. I know my vet accepts labs taken up to six weeks before surgery, but any later than that, and they have to be redone. But on the plus side, if you're e-mailing potential doctors beforehand, you can always get a rough estimate of their fees. That's always better than getting blind-sided during emergency situations. Wishing you both all the best!
Does it matter that my testing is not exactly 1hr apart? There's a 10-15 minute variance, as I have to locate kitty, put dogs away, and give her love before I prick.
It's fine. Also, you don't always have to test on the hour when monitoring, even when monitoring closely often you can do every two (though I might still do the +4 here since she's dropping slowly and consistently this morning and the Lantus should be coming into peak action soon).
Question though: what do the ranges mean? Like what is the ideal range? Then what are the other ranges? When should I be worried?
Normal (human meter): 50-120 Too low (give carbs and monitor!): below 50 Everything else is just relative-- which way is she moving and how fast.
Whew! This day was rough. Cairo is not loving testing. Unlike the first time where she was generous with her blood, it's been very difficult. I did my PMPS before the shot. Am I done? Can I go to just testing before each shot now?
