4/13 Pig amps 172; +2 200; +4 176; +5 156; +6 172; +8 151; +10 132

Yesterday's

Well, I had to get in the big girl litter box today. His pmps was @ 112, but I decided it was time to buck up and shoot the full dose. I will be home all night and am off tomorrow, so no time like the present to see what he will do. I was looking at the numbers and I believe @Wendy&Neko to be correct, as usual. He will likely come up a several points before the next Lev cycle so I imagine he will see some good numbers tonight.

I got his Prazosin in and will head to the pharmacy tomorrow to pick up his Bethanochol if the have finally gotten it in stock!

 

This part scares me. I have never really had him dip overly low. I am worried about him going to low. But, I also know that this is the best choice in his care. It is beyond time to get him in for SRT therapy.

 

It was over 18 months ago for Leo's SRT. After the SRT, his insulin demand went down slowly. It is not an immediate process. Since you are doing regular BG tests, you will be able to monitor his progress and drop the insulin dose over time. This really is the best part of the whole process, and it is expected.

 

Okay. I mean, I knew that the results would not be immediate, but I also have no idea really what to expect. I did not know if one day they just suddenly dropped or if it was gradual over the entire expected year.. Did Leo's lethargy improve quickly or was that something that was correlated to the decreased insulin need?

 

Leo will be 12 years old in June 2018.
Here is a summary. I had to look it up in this spreadsheet tabs
"Leo 2016" and "Leo 2017"

9/23/2016 SRT - 18.0 units/dose right before then
+ 1 months - 10.0 to 14.0 units/dose
+ 2 months - 11.0 to 16.0 units a dose, with lots of bouncing around
This was a very challenging time because of the variation.

+ 3 months - 9.0 - 12.0 units, more stability
+ 4 months (week 16) - 6.0 to 10.0 units
+ 5 months (week 20) - 7.5 units and very stable
then a gradual reduction to current levels
by week 24, almost 1/2 year, down to 4.0 to 5.0 units

Now = 17.5 months after SRT
He does get less at night now, usually 2.5 units.

He was never very lethargic. But he was always drawn to food. During the peak (pre-SRT thru SRT plus 6 months), he pretty much lived in the kitchen and always wanted more food.

And he has a noticeable bad gait with all 4 limbs. He does not walk smoothly, but somewhat ambles. It is distinctively obvious that he is not walking normally. And this has progressed over the past several years. I attribute it to the Acro, although it could be early arthritis. He has been through so much, and he is our sweet boy.

 

ECID. It's supposed to take at least 2 weeks to start working, but I had to give Neko a reduction on the trip home to keep her safe. Some cats have to go up in dose for a while after SRT. SRT neuters the tumour cells. It depends where they are in their life span as to when you start seeing things. I started reducing the dose if Neko went below 70. You do a great job monitoring, you will catch when it happens.

Also, there is no one size fits all in how quickly they drop down dose. In the most intense part of Neko's drops, she would earn about 2 reductions a week. I didn't have to make any major reductions, but followed the protocol for size of reduction. Sometimes I took back to back reductions (which a couple days of each other). At one point we went three months between reductions before they started again.

Neko's lethargy improved fairly quickly but her dose started down quickly too. The intense hunger took a little longer to improve.

 

Yes, I was thinking much the same. That even as I can get some basics and a few "this might happen", at the end of the day it really is going to be an individual experience for both Pig and I. This is okay as long as I have the ability to keep him safe throughout it. Thank god for the board and the years of knowledge here!

Now, I have been brushing up on reductions. I like the idea of reducing if he goes below the 70-80 mark. Now, a 1u reduction will do nothing in his case, so at what percentage of dose do we calculate reductions? Do we use the same percentages as raises, only backwards? And these are held for 14 consecutive cycles, assuming another is not earned within that time frame? Correct?

 

Not seeing a today's post so I'll reply here.

I would go down by the amounts you have been going up, 10-15% of the total dose. There are no guidelines for how long you hold a dose after the reduction, unless it looks like the reduction isn't holding in which case you might have to go back up, perhaps by a smaller amount. If it looks like the reduction is holding, you keep holding it until the next reduction is earned, however long that is.

Definitely make sure R is part of the regular routine to lesson the headache of the larger depot. Another trick for the big gulpers is that the cycle after a reduction is earned, do a 1/2 or 2/3 size dose to help speed the draining the depot. Since Neko was a major bouncer the first time, I didn't have to do. this much.

Above all, take the conservative option at first, until you learn it didn't work.

 

I am sorry! I started this thread last night after midnight (technically 4/13) so I just decided to run with it for today's as well. My schedule makes it hard for me to post before I go to work sometimes, so I have been trying to set the threads up the night before. I did not mean to cause any confusion. But, this is today's (4/13) thread.

 

No worries. Time zone difference shows it as yesterday thread so I got confused.