4/3/ Checkers amps/158.....pmps/180

+Yesterday: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=10888

Gulp! Here we go again. Gave .75 (I think). Now we're back to sudden drops. Looks like I won't be going anywhere for a few hours.
This is what happened last week, when he was on .75; but f.5 seemed not enough. Could have been I wasn't paying good enough attention to air in syringe, in my haste, in morning.
Took my time today, using huge lighted magnifying glass. We'll see how this goes.

Hope everyone enjoys this gorgeous Caterday. Well, it is, here in West. NY.

Gonna be testing every 15 minutes now. *sigh*. At least I don't freak so much anymore.
Checkers is eating LC snack at the moment.

158/ps
157/+1
50/+2
42/+3
64 after 15 min, and LC snack

 

Re: 4/3/ Checkers amps/158 +1/157 +2/50 +3/42

bumping in case I need advice fast.

 

Re: 4/3/ Checkers amps/158 +1/157 +2/50 +3/42 +3.25/64

Ack! Those big drops stink! latte has had them almost daily since starting insulin. Of course, causing a bounce in the pm, plus she has a steroid in the pm which elevates bg's on top of it. Frustrating to say the least.

I may be way off base here, so hopefully Jill or Libby...or someone else could comment on in regarding the food. with Latte, lately I have been adding karo into her a.m. food. She cant have mc or hc because of GI distress from most of them, so I do the karo instead. Most of the time that slows her drops (not this a.m. tho! :? ). So what Im wondering, is if you were to feed a combo of mc/lc between +1 and +2 with the 2nd part of the meal, retest @ +3 and go from there?

I know ecid, and Latte has very different goals than most. But I see similar types of drops from Checkers, causing basically the same problem with the bouncing...which just perpetuates the issue I assume. When the karo (or mc/lc, in your case) works I dont think it keeps her from going as low as she plans. It just takes her longer to get there. a smoother ride.

Hope things are going okay after the +3.

 

Re: 4/3/ Checkers amps/158 +1/157 +2/50 +3/42 +3.25/64

I suspect you didn't have a fur shot last night. Numbers were starting to trend down by the time you were going to bed. If you had been able a test past +3, I think you would have seen the numbers going down further. In addition, you had a blue AMPS. Numbers would have been sky high if you gave a fur shot the previous cycle.

So given the lack of fur shot, I'm curious why you increased Checkers' dose. My guess is you didn't think through where the AMPS should be if you'd given a fur shot. So, it's not a surprise that numbers have dropped since you had a full shed and you gave a dose increase.

Carolyn does raise a good point. Do you feed snacks? If you want to slow a fast drop, a few bites of LC may help to slow things down a bit.

 

Re: 4/3/ Checkers amps/158 +1/157 +2/50 +3/42 +3.25/64

Sienne, I thought I got a fur shot yesterday AM because it felt wet; and his numbers were high all day.
I'm not even sure that my .5 and .75 were really different.
Today, I used a different brand syringe. One that I experimented with yesterday.
I drew up 1u, and very carefully pushed out one drop, giving me .75. I think (hope) that is more reliable for me than eyeballing it.
He sleeps all morning, so it's hard to get a snack in him.
I will, however try. I'm sure if I stick tuna under his nose, he'll happily wake up and eat it.
Thank you Carolyn and Sienne. :smile:

 

Re: 4/3/ Checkers amps/158 +1/157 +2/50 +3/42 +3.25/64

Checkers...Checkers....whatcha doing here? Hmmmm...hope you guys have a surfing nice day!

 

Re: 4/3/ Checkers amps/158 +1/157 +2/50 +3/42 +3.25/64

There was discussion in here the last few days about giving snacks to slow the drop. I was thinking only use a mix of mc/lc *if* hourly testing was still showing big drops just with the lc. If Checkers is not eating a lot in the a.m. anyway, that may be more reason. Latte takes at least 2hrs to finish approx 3/4 3oz can. She is often dropping before she has a few tsp of food. This way, whatever she IS getting , even if its very little, has more of an impact of slowing the drop than 1 full can of lc.

Am I making sense?

This would take some monitoring and adjusting depending on the numbers. Not a set in stone type plan, but an option.

 

Re: 4/3/ Checkers amps/158 +1/157 +2/50 +3/42 +3.25/64

Our morning routine is:
Test, then feed. Checkers never eats much at one time. If he eats a rounded teaspoon of breffis, that is normal.
He then jumps back up on testing/sleeping table, and gets his shot, in his bed.
Then he sleeps all morning. I don't always test again at 1 & 2, unless he is low at AMPS. Or if I change dose as today.
Am I always to wake him to get him to snack? He won't!

I know this has been an ongoing conversation lately, but I just don't know how I can make a cat eat, if he is asleep and doesn't care about eating anyway. It's so frustrating.

 

Re: 4/3/ Checkers amps/158 +1/157 +2/50 +3/42 +3.25/64

i feel your frustration. i've been so spoiled. alex has always eaten whenever i've put food in front of her face... up until she got sick a couple of weeks ago. i never knew how hard it was to get a cat to eat. i had to resort to bribery... and it worked (not quite as well as i would like, but it worked to a certain extent). what motivates checkers? is there anything he's especially fond of? anything which might entice hime to eat more in those first few hours of the cycle?

 

Re: 4/3/ Checkers amps/158 +1/157 +2/50 +3/42 +3.25/64

Jill, the only thing Checkers really loves is tuna.
I often put Forti Flora on his food, and he loves that....sometimes.
He happily jumps up on testing table for tests, and then races in kitchen for tuna reward; and stares at me until he gets it. :lol:
That's fine for treats, but there is no canned food that he loves.
I get envious when I read other beans' cats, eat eagerly.

 

Re: 4/3/ Checkers amps/158 +1/157 +2/50 +3/42 +3.25/64

What about the water from canned tuna? If you're using tuna as a treat, that might be a possibility as a topper for or mixed into his food. FF also makes an "appetizer" that isn't appropriate nutritionally as a meal but is fine as a treat or something you could mix into Checker's food to get him to eat a snack or meal.

Barb - I didn't read carefully enough to see that it was the AM shot you thought was a fur shot. You also left the dose out of the PMPS column so I assumed it was the PM shot.

 

Re: 4/3/ Checkers amps/158 +1/157 +2/50 +3/42 +3.25/64 DOSE HELP

Time for shot now. What should I do? He ate one level Tablespoon FF turkey for dinner, just now.

am 158
50
42
64
75
93 +10
211 +11
180 ps

 

Re: 4/3/ Checkers amps/158 +1/157 +2/50 +3/42 +3.25/64 DOSE HELP

Barb -

What exactly is the question?

I think you should still be shooting the fat 0.5.

 

Re: 4/3/ Checkers amps/158 +1/157 +2/50 +3/42 +3.25/64 DOSE HELP

Do you have any foods that are a little higher carb than what you usually use? Some cats do well on something that's 2-4%, but some do fine on something that is 5-6% carb. Just a thought. Ronnie/Luna switched to a slightly higher carb food to help combat Luna's big drops, and that worked nicely for them.

 

Re: 4/3/ Checkers amps/158 +1/157 +2/50 +3/42 +3.25/64 DOSE HELP

Sorry. I was asking about dose. I think people can read my mind. :smile:

Should I keep at .75 or decrease a bit? He was down to 42 and 50 , this afternoon.

 

Re: 4/3/ Checkers amps/158 +1/157 +2/50 +3/42 +3.25/64 DOSE HELP

Thanks Sienne.....we were posting at the same time....Im off to shoot.........thanks

 

Re: 4/3/ Checkers amps/158 +1/157 +2/50 +3/42 +3.25/64 DOSE HELP

the dip at the end of the cycle is one of the quirks of lantus. we see it often. personally, i wouldn't worry about it.
you could try drawing up the 0.75u dose and then turning the plunger until the syringe release a small drop... if you're worried about shooting 0.75 unit. i think the 0.75u dose will be fine if you're able to feed the mini-meals as previously discussed or even a slightly higher carb food as mentioned. if you don't think it'll work with checkers, then shoot a bit less than 0.75 unit.
just my thoughts. you need to feel comfortable with whtever you shoot...

 

Re: 4/3/ Checkers amps/158 +1/157 +2/50 +3/42 +3.25/64 DOSE HELP

I didn't think Checkers needed to have the dose raised in the first place so I'd go back to the fat 0.5u.

 

Re: 4/3/ Checkers amps/158 +1/157 +2/50 +3/42 +3.25/64 DOSE HELP

"if" food manipulation (as was previously discussed) is successful... checkers will not be experiencing that fast early drop. the down side is this method will take a little steam out of the action of the insulin. in other words, duration will be shortened. to counteract act that loss, you'd give more insulin. if everything goes according to plan, this would help produce a long, rather flat curve. make sense?

 

Since there is not much room to play between the .5 and 1u lines, there isn't much difference between f.5 and .75.
I can only do my best.

 

how true! i get cross-eyed trying to measure those inbetween doses!

 

Exciting day for Checkers, I hope things have calmed down for you now.

Tess said that she thinks Checkers is cute too. She wants to know if he's going to the easter egg hunt?