? 9/28 Missy AMPS 171, +5 61, PMPS 322, +4 112

Good afternoon!
Last night and today my partner and I have had to give Missy some treats and gravy around +4 to make sure it doesn’t go under 50 around nadir.

I’m wondering if that means she needs a reduction or not? It’s likely she would have went under today without the intervention. I’m not home during the day so I worry about her going low when I’m at work.

0.5 didn’t keep her low enough and 0.75 may be too much. Should I try something in between or wait a few more cycles?

 

What was the +4 number? Just looking at the SS her numbers look good and may not warrant a reduction. Are you able to monitor tonight and tomorrow to see if she does earn reduction?

 

Couldn’t grab a +4 today but the +5 was 61. Last night’s +4 was 68.

But just now the PMPS was 322. I think she definitely bounced from a low number from earlier today. I can monitor tonight and have someone come over tomorrow to check the +4 or +5 during the day while I’m at work.

So when I see a number between 60 and 80 I shouldn’t step in and give her gravy or treats to increase it? My thinking was I should stop the number from dropping too much if it’s already low by +4. I assume we don’t want our cats hanging out under 50. Maybe tonight I should just let it drop and see where it ends up? It’s possible it doesn’t go lower than 50.

 

@Chris & China (GA)

 

@Sue and Luci @Wendy&Neko

Tagging to see if anyone can help answer my question in the last comment I made

 

We don’t want cats on insulin staying below 50, as that leaves no margin for safety. Cats not on insulin can test in the 40’s.

When cats first hit green, we give them a couple tsps of low carb food to see if we can get them to surf, or hang out around the same numbers. We typically save high carb food for under 50, unless we are not able to monitor.

Could you put the dosing method you are using in your signature. If you are using TR, and did not see a number under 50, a reduction was not earned. A good chance one will be earned soon enough though. Ideally, if she is at a dose where she is spending lots of time in healing green numbers, you want to keep her there if it’s safe to do so.

 

Unfortunately Missy has a poor appetite so giving her low carb food won’t work. She’s a grazer and it takes her all day and night to finish her two meals and even then she doesn’t eat it all (even with anti nausea meds and an appetite stimulant). She really goes for the gravy though, but I’ll try not to do that til I see lower numbers. I don’t want to mess with those nice greens if I don’t need to.

So far I haven’t seen a number under 50. The lowest has been 61.

 

Sorry I wasn't around last night - I'm an early riser and go to bed early - so never available late

 

Hey there, sorry I wasn't online last night then; I am a go to bed early gal cause I get up at the butt crack of dawn.

To answer your question, you want to get them be in safe greens as long as possible so usually LC food will help them surf. However, if you see a huge drop early on in the cycle, you might want to bring out the big guns ( HC) to slow them down. I always try to consider where in the cycle the low 60 number or high 50 number is and feed a carb % appropriate for where they are. Another words, if he is at the nadir, try just LC to keep her surfing without sending her to the moon.

Some experimentation on your part and keeping good notes as to what % carb did what and when helps you to understand her steering needs. I always put the %carb food and how much in the cell with the test number when I was steering Bubba. It helped me to know the next time.

 

Gotcha, thank you. What are examples of MC food? I have LC and HC in my kitchen already

 

Here is the breakdown between LC, MC, and HC foods.


HC - High carb canned food (usually 16 - 24% carbs, depending on the cat)
MC – Medium carb food (usually 11 - 15% carbs, depending on the carb sensitivity of the cat)
LC - low carb aka reg canned food (usually 10% carbs or less, depending on the carb sensitivity of the cat)

The medium carbs in the FF line were the "Roasted" ones or at least they used to be a few years ago when I was feeding commercial cat food.