4/6 Checkers amps/209 PMPS/192

+Good Morning LL'ers :smile:
Ronnie (&Luna), I don't see a condo for Luna, but it's nice to see your name on here again.
Gloomy rainy day here. Got a couple new books from the library, maybe I'll spend the day reading , if I ever get off here.

 

Re: 4/6 Checkers amps/209 +2/162 +3/83

Great green at +3 for Checkers.
Ronnie and Luna... Luna is OTJ so he doesn't need a condo, but we love to see Ronnie in every condo visiting and helping.

 

Re: 4/6 Checkers amps/209 +2/162 +3/83

Thanks CD, I need filling in, now and then. :smile:

 

Re: 4/6 Checkers amps/209 +2/162 +3/83

:mrgreen: GREEN! Yeah!! Tess says "No more yellow, bouncing is for balls, not kitties!"

 

Re: 4/6 Checkers amps/209 +2/162 +3/83

yay Checkers you hit green today Awesome!!!! I love rainy days reading a book and curling up with the kitties!!!!

 

Re: 4/6 Checkers amps/209 +2/162 +3/83

Barb's feeling kinda dumb for forgetting that Luna's OTJ, since I had a PM conversation about it with Ronnie, only 2 months ago. Tough getting old. :lol:
I think I messed Checkers up yesterday, giving him a few kibbles. He smelled the new bag that I brought home for the civvie that refuses wet food.
That new bag must have smelled like a loaf of bread fresh out of the oven, smells like, to me. He was so crazy to get at it, that I broke down and gave him about a teaspoon of pieces. I didn't think he could possible react to that much.
Now I don't know if I made the numbers go up later in the day, to 254..272..279.....bad mommy!

Stop yelling at me.. :roll:

 

Re: 4/6 Checkers amps/209 +2/162 +3/83

It's an experiment, you needed to know exactly how even that tiny bit of kibble would effect him right? Now, you will know how he responds to it so if he goes hypo you can decide to give him two or three pieces or even one piece or none. I think we should all have some idea of how our babies would react to being given kibble after not having it for a while. I've been tempted to give Tug a tiny bit if he drops early in his PM cycle... just to be able to get some sleep in those early days when he was keeping me up every night. I was afraid it'd mess up his canned food progress though and make him start refusing the canned in hopes of getting more kibble, so I managed to resist the urges. Seeing how Checkers bounced has shown me that I was probably right to resist. So not only did you learn something, but so did I =) So thanks! I feel smarter :lol:

 

Re: 4/6 Checkers amps/209 +2/162 +3/83

Yeah, that's it; it was a test. :lol: No guilt, I needed to know, right? Thanks Marvie.

 

Re: 4/6 Checkers amps/209 +2/162 +3/83

You're so welcome :mrgreen: Like I've said before, they aren't mistakes, they are learning experiences :mrgreen:

 

Re: 4/6 Checkers amps/209 +2/162 +3/83 +10/219

We seem stuck in a daily routine/rut. Yellow at +10, on. Is that because my AM f.5 is inconsistent? It's a hard dose to get precise.

209 amps
162 +2
83+3
146+6
219+ 10
213+11

 

Re: 4/6 Checkers amps/209 +2/162 +3/83 +10/219

what's happening is what i mentioned the other day. by feeding small portions through onset we're blunting that fast early drop, but the downside is some duration is lost... which is why i suggested keeping the 0.75u dose with the mini-meal plan. i would take the dose up to 0.75 unit whenever you're ready. that added little bit of insulin will hopefully bring the whole range down by extending duration. however, if you choose to do this... continue with those mini-meals the first part of each cycle or checkers will go right back to dropping fast and early.

 

Re: 4/6 Checkers amps/209 Pmps./192

Thank you Jill. That leaves me in a quandry, because I can't make him eat He's either sleeping, or he turns his nose up and runs off.
As much as I'd like to nudge up the dose and bring the whole thing down, he has come down too low, on several occasions, and what happens if I'm not here.
This is gonna take some pondering.

 

Maybe he will be hungry if he has just had a smaller portion before...KWIM? They eat the little bit and then are ready for the next snack....hope you can figure something out for Checkers....

 

Hi Barb! I wanted to get back and check in with your food experiment yesterday, but got a little tied up. Ive been thinking about it since Sunday, so Im glad I have a moment.

I dont know much history about Checkers - age, how much he usually eats, other health issues, weight, etc? But it sounds like he is not a big eater and/or not an 'on demand' type eater. I have one of those!! So, I wanted to share a few things I have tried. The specific ideas may not work. It's more the general idea of really figuring out what makes your cat tick and working with THAT.

Latte is more apt to eat late night, over night, and early a.m. She is also a grazer. It takes her a few hrs to not even finish a 3oz can of food. And that is with me nudging her, shaking bags of treats, etc every 15 min to remind her to eat. It can take me all night to get 1/2 jar babyfood in her. She also eats kibble. Ive made that decision after syringe feeding her for 9 months. She can eat whatever she wants to eat...as long as she eats.

One of the frustrating times were the evening shot times. She just will NOT eat a bite. I would beg, plead, cry, stomp my feed :lol: . It was a great source of stress of me, and seemed to become one for her as well. Fortunately, the steroid she gets at night so it makes her higher no matter how little she eats. So, I realized I could relax there. But just in case, she really should have some food on board. She usually accepts baby food off a spoon. So her pm shot meal is now baby food. She likes it, she eats it and Im not stressed. Later, when she is not sleepy and actually hungry she will try to eat something else.

In the a.m. because she takes so long to eat, I add Karo to her food. You would just make yours mc or a mix of mc/lc to start. Today I tried something new by testing her @ +11.5, feeding, testing again @ +12 and shooting. This way she had a tiny bit of food on board AND was getting a head start into her grazing.

You know what makes Checkers tick. I dont think there is anything wrong with waking him up for a snack. But it needs to be something he is motivated by. Trust me,I know how hard it can be to find that. You mention tuna. Maybe its tuna juice over a tbsp of lc/mc mix? Or a treats sprinkled on top of a few tbsp? Maybe its a drop or two of gravy drizzled on a tbsp of lc. Maybe all you need to do is get a string and motivate him to play a little. This could trigger the desire to eat. Latte wont get up to eat. I have to shake her treat bag and let her sniff it....THEN she will get up and walk over to the bowl. Maybe Im wrong about any of the above. The important part is experimenting.

You can do it! You can find something that Checkers will like and you wont feel like you are 'bothering' him. Quite frankly, I would think its more a bother to drop and bounce, or get poked a zillion extra times because of dropping so far and quick than being nudged to eat a few extra times. Just a thought.

Anyway, sorry so long. Thanks for stopping by yesterday in the midst of our wierdness. I really appreciate the support.

 

If I'm understanding this correctly, if

I give slightly higher dose, of .75, then I risk his going too low, and dropping too fast, so I must be home to get him to eat snacks.
If I stick with the .5, he will be safer when I'm not home, but his bg will be higher in general?

Did I get that right?

 

Or, if you can get Checkers to use a timed feeder with some tuna, like Carolyn suggested, as a bribe, you're not chained to the house the early part of the cycle.

 

Ya know, I guess I could do that. Tuna is the only thing I could be sure he'd eat.
Too much fish is not good, but small amounts on the days I can't be here, isn't going to hurt him.
I would have to put his piggy little brother in the utility room while I'm gone, to be sure Checkers gets it.

 

Barb-
I think Jill might be best to clarify your question.

One thing I see, which is familiar to me because Latte does this, is a fast drop leading to a bounce at the end of cycle into the pm cycle. The bounce clears just as soon as the a.m. insulin starts working (sometimes before), causing another fast drop and round/round we go. Right?

So you slow the drop in the a.m. with food. Maybe today instead of dropping to 83 @ +3, Checkers would have dropped to 140. Then +4, maybe 125...and drop slower like that until nadir. That nadir may or may not be 83 like you saw today. I think Jill is expecting the nadir would be higher, unless you increase the dose. Food manipulation would be key to this, however.

Do you work during the week? Maybe pick a few days coming up soon, with a couple plans for the food and give them a try with extra testing to see how they work.

You'll get it figured out. I hear your brain churning all the way over here! ;-)

You asked about the pred and reducing appetite for Latte. Pred should be increasing it. That has waned off over the last few months. She has many health issues that could be contributing to her decline in appetite. However she is gaining/maintaining weight as of right now. Its just a matter of managing what she eats around the insulin so she does not go too high or too low (which affects how she will eat as well). Thanks for asking!