BG Level 198 at +2

@Kris & Teasel @JanetNJ @Chris & China Not sure if you guys will see this any time soon but figured I'd go ahead and tag you, but would also appreciate responses from anyone else. Victor's BG level at +2 hours is 198 and I was just wondering if we should give him some food to slow the drop or not? Please respond quickly if possible.

 

Oooh that's great! I love that 121 also. If you want to give him a small snack of his regular food you can... But this is exactly what we want to see! Maybe he will even dip into those healing dark greens! Looks like you found your breakthrough dose!

 

Don't be surprised if his number is a little higher for the next preshot. It's just because he isn't used to these nice low numbers and may bounce.

 

We did give him a little bit of his regular food just to be on the safe side, since I didn't know how much lower his numbers might have gone by nadir. But you think he still would have been okay without the food?

 

No idea... You've never had numbers in this range before. If it wasn't the middle of the night for you is day let's just see how it plays out, ya know? If I were to guess I think he would have been perfectly safe.

 

You don't want to over compansate. I'm so happy for this great cycle.

 

This is very exciting! Janet is right - we can't predict his response at nadir without the snack because it's new territory for you. The best time to do an experiment like that is daytime.

My gut says he would likely have been safe ...

 

@Kris & Teasel @JanetNJ It is exciting to see his numbers finally coming down but also very nerve-wracking, as I'm sure you guys can understand. So we should stick with the 3.75 units this morning?

 

Yes, stick with 3.75 u. Get a +2 for sure and then one other test at least in the +4 to +7 range. If you're motivated you could try a full curve - BG every 2 hours between shots. Don't worry about altering his feeding schedule. You want to see his responses under normal conditions.

 

I wouldn't mind trying to do a full curve, I just don't know how well Victor would take that as I've noticed the more times we test in a day, the more annoyed/uncooperative he gets with it.

And you're saying we should keep his feeding schedule the same as we've been doing so far?

 

@Kris & Teasel @JanetNJ Hey, I just wanted to know for future reference at what number does the glucose level need to drop to before we should be worried/take action against hypo?

And also, my dad came through for us and sent some extra money so that we can get a scale and canned food for Victor, so we should be able to start the switch from dry food soon I'll post for more advice on this after we get everything.

 

The "take action" BG number on a human meter is 50. That doesn't mean a hypo is occurring. It means that BG is getting lower than is safe and you need to prop it up with higher carbs. This is a different scenario than finding out that BG has dropped a lot by +2 and in order to avoid it going too low at nadir you give a snack of regular food to slow the drop. That's called "steering" the BG.

I'm glad you'll be able to get a scale and some canned food soon. Yes, post for help when you start the transition to wet food because the BG levels can drop because of the food change and your dosing will have to follow that. We can guide you.

 

The "take action" point is below 50 on a human meter

It's great that dad's able to help! Getting off the high carb food should make a big difference!!

 

So if that were to ever happen we should feed him a food that is higher in carbs, correct? We were able to get a couple of cans of Fancy Feast Gravy Lovers to have on hand.

 

Yes. Actually it’s the gravy itself that has a lot of carbs.

 

So it would be better to give just the gravy? How would you go about that?

 

You pop the top and put it back down and then "squeeze" the gravy into another bowl

It's messy, but it works....and you can actually get quite a lot of gravy out of one can!!

If you need to use it, you start by giving just a couple teaspoons of just the gravy...you don't want to fill them up in case you need them to continue eating later in the cycle

 

Give 3.75 u AM and PM today. If you don't see very low blues or a dark green increase tomorrow AM to 4 u. Once you start low carb wet food we can change the plan.

 

@Kris & Teasel @JanetNJ I'm assuming we should go ahead and increase to 4 units today even though we did get some blue numbers with the 3.75 units? Every increase just makes me so nervous. We should be able to get him started on wet food this week.

Also, how important is it for the scale to be accurate in reading his weight? These are the two I've been considering:

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Health-O-Meter-Baby-Toddler-Scale-HDC100KD-01/2676641

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Smart-We...-Scale-Infants-Toddlers-LCD-Display/179475617

They're both also available on Amazon and both have some reviews that say they're not entirely accurate, so I was just wondering if you would suggest one over the other.

 

Both scales look good. Go for the lower priced one. I have one that is exactly like the top one although it has a different brand name on it. A baby scale, even if not perfect, will weigh better at the low range of kitty weight that a human scale will.

I understand your nervousness. You're home to watch him though and have gravy style food if needed. Yes, try 4 u this AM. You can see that he has a pattern of throwing you a blue or two right after the dose increase and then he settles into yellows as his lows. Once you make the food switch extra care will be needed. We can help you with that.

 

I would get the Health-O-Meter. It looks identical to the Salter and the Salter is recommended by many caretakers.
Like for BG meters, one ealy does not need accuracy that much but need consistency, that is they can be off a certain % but as long as the % is the same across the range

 

@Kris & Teasel @JanetNJ So I gave Victor 4 units this morning and tested at +2, +4 and +6 and his number at +4 was higher than at +2, and by +6 he's back up into the higher reds Any idea why this could be?

 

Don't let one weird day get to you. Chalk it up to new dose wonkiness.

 

Hang in there! Keep on with what you're doing. This "new dose wonkiness" is a really common problem. We even have an acronym for it - NDW.

 

@Kris & Teasel @JanetNJ Tested twice for Victor's PMPS just to be sure his numbers were somewhat consistent. First test result was 322, second result was 354. I assume we should go ahead with the 4 units tonight as well?

 

Yes

 

Continue with 4 u today. Don't worry about those differences in BG number with repeat tests. Meters are allowed to have a variance of up to 20% per reading. I generally repeat tests only when I see a number that seems really out of the ordinary. The ReliOn Confirm works with just a tiny blood drop so it shouldn't be a problem getting a valid test unless the blood drop is extremely tiny.

 

@Kris & Teasel @JanetNJ Victor's BG is 269 this morning, so should we still give him 4 units? Respond soon if you can.

 

I was out when you posted. It's that darn time difference! I see you reduced the dose. Good call. He might have been safe with 3.75 u but that's an experiment for another time. It would be helpful to get another test in around +6 or so to see how he's doing.

 

I plan on doing that

 

Lovely blues today. I think 3.75 u would have been fine. You could try it tonight or tomorrow.

 

I suggest an eyeballed 3.75 u today. If a PS is a bit lower than you like try reducing by only 0.25 u instead of 0.5 u. You're able to monitor enough to see what that does. The closer you get to the good dose range the braver you have to be.

Let us know when you're ready to start wet food.

 

So how much would that be when reduced from 3.75 units? I haven't really caught on to reducing/increasing by those smaller units.

 

All you need to do is subtract 0.25 u from whatever dose you're at: eg. 3.75 u - 0.25 u = 3.50 u. If you're increasing add 0.25 u to whatever dose you're at.

 

Ah, okay, thanks