? 29/12 Checkers DOSE ADVICE?AMPS 148, +1 103, +2 45, +2.5 40, +3.1 63, +5 52, +6 56, +8 74, +11.6 104

Checkers is alittle higher the normal this morning but nothing major. I screwed up this mornings shot of 0.1. apprently the needle i used last night worked fairly different then this mornings. I set this mornings needle to where i thought it should be and shot it only to find the plunger didnt move even the tiniest bit, i pulled it out and it was still where i had set it. Apparently something with that needle is preventing the plunger to work the same as last nights so i ran a quick test to see how much max he could have got and it was half a drop so i decided to give him another shot which went much better.
I'll record it as 0.15U just incase. Its the day time so i can keep a decent eye on him so not a big deal. I'm sure it's going to take me awhile to get used to this dose, its just too small. perhaps calipers would help but with the weird syringe this morning i dont think even calipers would have helped.

I'll do a test again before i leave this morning and then after a few hours i should be back to continue recording.

yesterday

 

well i guess i screwed up this mornings dose. there are several ways i could have screwed it up but either way hes way to low for so early into the cycle. he came up to see me and i could tell something was wrong and sure enough he is at 45 at +2. just poured fancy feast ontop of his regular food, hopefully that will perk him up. i do need to run out for 45 mins or so soon but I will make sure hes on his way up first. will test again in 20-30 mins.

Did i mention i hate the 0.1 dose? I jut can't find a way to reliably do it. seems like syringes are just so different from one to another that there is no real reliable way to do it. i can look into calipers but with the problem i ran into this morning with a larger then normal gap between the rubber stopper and the end of the tank i don't think calipers would have helped much.

 

Syringes can be off by .25. In the US you can get digital calipers for about $15. If you have that problem it's best not to shoot a second time. That's what we do if a fir **** is suspected as well. As long as the ff brings him up and he eats again before you leave, 45 minutes would be the maximum time I'd leave given that 45.

 

I knew better then to give him that second shot, i was just too busy being annoyed at the inconsistency of the syringes to think straight. hopefully he will be ok and surf like normal. it's the day time so i will make sure he is taken care of. other then a 45 min trip i have to do i can spend the day with him and make sure hes ok.

 

I can imagine the .1 is super hard but we never shoot twice

 

he hit 40 for the first time ever, he's got high carb food onboard that should start kicking in anyminute but i just gave him 20 units of syrup also to give him a quick boost. would 20 units be good or not enough?

 

What do you mean by 20 units of syrup?

 

yes i'm an idiot. with such a small dose i figured in that case with a higher then normal AMBG it would be ok but yup deffinetly not ok. I'll stay here with him aslong as it takes so i think we'll be ok. he seems to be drinking a fair bit of water which i assume is good as it will help digest the high carb stuff i've given.

 

i cut the end off a syringe and filled it up with some maplesyrup and gave it to him orally 20 units.

 

I didn't mean to make you feel bad or anything, just glad you are home with him!

 

Well, that is about .2ml and a tsp is 5ml, so you gave about 1/25 of a tsp. There is no need to measure that accurately. I would say give more syrup if you want to give any syrup because that is a very small amount. Maybe try for a few drops? Not sure myself since I have never had to use it but 1/25 of a tsp is really small. Let me go try to look.

Please see quoted sticky below.

@Marje and Gracie, @Chris & China, @Sienne and Gabby (GA), @julie & punkin (ga)

 

From the stickies:
If your cat is testing in low numbers and you are not getting a quick response to your post, there are several things you need to do. (Low numbers are under 50mg/dL or 2.8 mmol/L.)

• Depending on how carbohydrate sensitive your cat is, feed approximately a teaspoon or less of gravy from high carb food or high carb food only.
  (If you have a cat with GI issues, using a couple of drops of syrup plus low carb food is an alternative.)
• Test again in 15 – 20 min. Depending on the numbers, give more HC food.
• Repeat the above steps every 15 – 20 min. until your cat tests in the 50 mg/dL (2.8 mmol/L) or above range for 2 consecutive tests. Continue to feed in small amounts to keep numbers in a safe range.
• Test in 30 - 40 min. and repeat the test and feed process until there are 2 consecutive tests where numbers are stable or rising.
• Test in an hour and follow the same steps.

 

Bump

 

just tested again and no increase but no decrease either. Gave him another tablespoon or so of gravy. He's deffinetly not happy and refusing to leave the heaters but he is with it just seems a tad groggy.

 

OK. Sorry no one with broader experience is around.

Did you look at the sticky material I quoted above? And remember, it does take the food some time to get into the blood stream, and I am pretty sure you want to keep the feedings small so you can space the food out over the length of time you need it. The sticky talks in terms of "a teaspoon or less" of gravy. You will also want him to have a tiny bit of food so there is some protein and fat in there to kick in a little later.

The way the dose of insulin has been up and down makes it a little hard to know what to expect, at least for me.

 

You might want to consider the 911 icon in your subject line and add "extra dose?" or something like that to attract more attention.

 

I wasn't trying to be accurate i was just trying to quickly get some in him so i just grabbed a syringe and cut the tip off and filled it half way and gave him some. he wasnt very fond of it and faught me so i gave him 2 10U squirts and then hoped that would be enough to just keep him going until the gravy kicks in. the only reason i used a syringe was because i knew i could get it in his mouth easily so it just happened that i knew exactly how much i gave him at the end, it wasnt really planned, i would have gave him the full 50 units if he hadnt tried so hard to stop me.

 

How are you doing? You will need some chocolate after this! For YOU, that is.

 

i only just opened the bottle of syrup so i wasnt actually sure how thick it would be so i wasnt 100% it would even go in the syringe, luckily it wasnt as thick as i feared so it went quick. I was worried the syringe opening wouldnt be wide enough to get it in and out so it was abit of an experiment since i've never had to go into hypo mode before.

 

Yeah. That's one of the tough parts of using syrups in recipes. You get about half of it left in your measuring device! How does Checkers seem? Is he wondering why you keep bothering him?

 

yes he just wants to be left alone by the heater. his paw felt alittle cool so i think he's cold. It is snowing out pretty bad so the house is probably alittle colder then normal, its extremely normal for him to hang out by the heater all day, it doesnt matter what his BG is he likes his heaters, he also loves cardboard so i keep a piece down infront of the heater for him, it also helps him not get cold from laying on the bare floor.

 

The thing is, he is not at nadir time yet (probably) and you are working to keep him above 40. I'm sure he'll be fine but I would LOVE it if you could get the attention of one of the folks with deep experience. Would you consider putting that 911 icon in your subject line? It really does catch the eye.

 

you got it.

 

just got a 63 reading so looking like everything is finally kicking in

 

i do have to leave soon for the 45 mins or so i mentioned earlier. i will take another reading in 15 or so and if still good i'll put down some more high carb and race off to do my thing. he's already looking better although i know its temporary.

 

Yes! I like that. I imagine you do as well.

But, he does have a big whack of carbs going so he could start working on going down again. I don't know if this is right, but what I would do is to feed him a small amount of LC or MC food and test again in 20 to see what he does with it. ETA: If you have to leave, maybe stick with the higher carb. I did not realize that.

 

Whew!! That's better!!

I can't stay too long, but you're doing the right things....Now that he's above 60, go ahead and give him a teaspoon of low carb food and retest in 30 minutes....if he's still coming up, you could probably run your errand if you're sure you're not going to be gone longer than 45 minutes

 

he free feeds so there is always low carb wet food down incase he gets hungry. he walked over to a saucer i have put some gravy on so he is clearly up for more gravy but i dont know if i should give it to him at this point. I could try to encourage him to eat some regular food but i'd be worried he fills up and then won't eat high carb if i need him to. i'll go hang out at the food bowl and call him over and see what he does.

 

Usually, once we get them back to about 60, we stop feeding and then test again in 30, 30 and 60 minutes to make sure they stay up without any more food but since you need to leave, let's go ahead and get a little more food into him for now and then test in 30 minutes....if he's still rising then, you can leave a little food down and go run your errand

 

You are right about worrying about him filling up. My personal inclination is to feed the lowest carb I can and keep in safe numbers BUT since you have to go out, that changes things. You want him to be safe while you are out.

 

I am going to have to run myself. Rosie needs a test and then I have to go. Keep up the good work. And eat chocolate!

 

Hi Luke, great he has come up a bit, you can breath now.

It's not over yet, as others are saying. Tricky as you have to leave on errand. If it was george i would test again before you go and give some HC gravy so as not to fill him up in case you need to feed more later, just to keep him safe while you are out.

Ideally you would want to not feed HC if he is above 50, but that only makes sense if you can monitor, its still early in the cycle and we may not have seen the peak insulin yet, so he could drop once his food wears off.

It's a difficult call.

 

i just did another reading its 56, i have to go out now, i can't wait anylonger i've been putting it off for hours. I will put down more gravy and be as fast as i can. cross your paws for me

 

Paws and fingers crossed, get back soon, I'll be around when you get back later, drive safely (if u are driving)

 

Ok Checkers get out your master surfing skills! I'd take down the 911 for now at least until you return.

 

Just saw this, Luke, and I hope you get back quickly since Checkers hasn't likely hit nadir yet.

I think what we would normally do is not what we would do when a cat gets two shots and we aren't sure how much insulin. Especially when it's still early in the cycle.

Since you won't be reading this until you get back, I'll just watch the thread and please post his number. I'm very concerned about you leaving under this circumstances, early in the cycle, and HC on board which can wear off.

 

In the case of a potential double shot, I would lean toward getting Checkers above 60 if you need to go out of the house. The sticky that was quoted above re. handling low numbers underscores to not become complacent. Numbers may wobble around. You will need to be vigilant. Checkers has gotten a dose reduction so it doesn't matter how much carb you give him at the moment. You can abort the cycle with HC if you need to leave.

I would also encourage the use of calipers. When you're using digital calipers you're measuring from the top of the syringe line to the bottom of the caliper and that's where you set the plunger. It also helps to move the plunger up and down the syringe a few times before you load the syringe.

 

Yes, abort the cycle if you have to leave.
Reduction has been earned. There's nothing left to prove.
Best bet is to get his numbers up and keep them up so he'll be safe while you're gone.

 

just got back looks ok, testing now

 

Yes please do. Gracie always looked ok in the 20s.

 

he's at 52. i left some gravy when i left, looks like one of the cats got to it but not sure which. Either way i'm home now so i will be doing regular testing. sorry to scare you guys, its the one day of the week i have to be somewhere by 2pm and i waited until 1:15pm with a snow storm outside lol

 

Glad he's OK and you're home again, Luke!!

If there's ever a "next time" and you HAVE to leave, might want to put Checkers in a room by himself so that the "other cats" can't get to the food if he needs it....won't help him if somebody else gets to it first...and we all know how our cats love that gravy!!

 

there was lots of food down but i had put a saucer with some gravy next to him as i left and normally he rushes for it but this time he didnt so i just wasnt prepared for that. i had mentioned earlier worrying he was going to get full and stop eating when i need him to which may have happened or he may have just been slow on the draw and gobbled down the gravy as i left. it was about 6 inches from his face so good chance it was him that ate it but can't be sure, certainly hindsight i should have locked him up but even with no gravy he still had access to wetfood with FF mixed in so there was no chance of him not being able to find food.

 

thanks for everyones help. Just the perfect storm today I think. we had a higher then normal AMBG, me trying to give a dose i am not used to and find hard to measure, bad snow storm outside, a once a week appointment i can't postpone amd i even woke up late this morning so wasnt fully with it when dealing with his AMPS. just the perfect storm but i think we are good to go now. i have everything i need to keep him up and the time and we should be very close to nadir if not there already. all in all I think crisis averted, now we just run out the clock with lots of tests and apply gravy as needed. I swear checkers is figuring out ways to lower his BG to get gravy. The last 2 nights he didnt eat when i put food down but an hour later when i added a thin layer of FF on top then he went to town lol.

Does anyone have any experience with Whiskas brand wetfood? The pate is a different consistancy then the friskies i use and instead of any juices it has gelatin type stuff in it exactly like a can of spam with the meat pate surrounded in a layer of gelatin, i wonder if that is better or worse then the stuff i give him now which is pate style but kinda of juicy.

does anyone have any secrets for altering the pate consistancy? i wish i could add something with some crunch to it occasionally. having different stuff i can mix in would be great.

 

Glad to see things are normalizing a bit. But you are not at nadir yet, right! So try to feed him but not make him over full in case he needs something later. Have a good day!

 

typically when is Nadir? I'm looking at my SS and AM +6 looks right but pretty much all days that had enough testing to compare it to were days he went low and i did something to bring him up so they are not the best examples i admit.

I would say looking at SS its somewhere between +6 and +9 but i could be wrong. my SS is just not big enough yet.

 

It does vary but I think around +6 is typical. It takes a lot of data to tell about an individual since it seems especially at the beginning that some cats are a little unpredictable early on.

 

sounds good, i'm about 10 mins off from +6 so hopefully just the next hour or two are the ones to really watch. thanks.

 

just tested checkers, he was acting a little low so i was surprised to have 79 come up, so surprised infact i retested and it then came up as 56 which sounds more in line with how he looks. he's hanging by the heater a lot which i think could probably cause his blood to thin abit, would that effect the test? normally the meter is accurate at lower levels but those 2 readings are too far apart to be within the margin of error i think

 

I know others have not had the issue but when I did two tests immediately back to back with the same meter, the second test was always lower than meter variance. I think it probably goes back to type of meter and accuracy on repeated tests but again, this was just what I observed with my meters. For that reason (and the fact that I also microwaved my primary meter by mistake one day before I had a backup meter), I had a backup of the same type and if I needed to retest again, I used the backup just to keep the error down to a minimum.

Hanging out by the heater wouldn’t affect the BG.

 

Just did his BG about 20 mins before PMBG, its 104. alittle high, i would kind of like to give him the night off, what do you guys think? i wish it was alittle lower but it wasnt the funnest day on record.