can someone look at my 1st 12hr curve

so this is my first time home testing and doing a curve myself etc...I did a 12 hr curve yesterday morning... It was my first time poking the little guy. I feel like I did ok, though it is tough to hit the capillaries and not the vein with the lancing device.
Anyhow, so I inserted his results in my spreadsheet but feel like they are wrong; shouldn't the numbers go lower in the middle somewhere instead of the end like his seemed to go???

thanks for any opinions/advice

Annie

 

How long has he been on the 2 unit dose?
How do you feed? Do you free feed or give small meals throughout the day? I see in your signature that he gets dry food- what kind, how much, and when?

Usually "high and flat" means they can benefit from a dose increase but the other questions I asked will help to determine that. I don't use the AlphaTrak so I'm not sure if it has the 20% variance in readings that the human meters have. But if it does those numbers can be considered the same reading because they're all in the 20% variance.

Normally you might see a slight increase after a meal then around +2 or +3 the numbers start to drop and hit their lowest or Nadir at or around +6. I don't see that at all on your curve. But if he's free feeding on dry food that is high in carbs this can influence the numbers a lot so as long as he eats high carb dry food he might need an increased dose.

The "Pros" are usually not very active during the nighttime hours so they will probably give their opinion in the morning.

Congrats on your first home curve!

 

He was on ProZinc last year for some time. Then I stopped. Therefore, yesterday morning 1/29 @08:00 am was the first time again that he got 2 units (that is what the vet told me to give him since at the vet's office he was at 511).
I fed him a fancy feast can at 0800 am yesterday and approx 12 hrs later another fancy feast can... He does have dry food out throughout the day (see picture below). He is always very hungry and used to having dry food available to him therefore he munches throughout the day. I can see that that could have something to do with it, but I do not think taking away his dry food all of the sudden is the best choice either,I don't know.

 

Yes that dry food is high carb. Really the only two I've seen that are low carb/zero carb dry food is the Evo cat & kitten (purple bag) and Young Again Zero. www.youngagainpetfood.com It costs just as much as any other food per month if they eat the amount they are suppose to. My piggy ate 3 days worth in one sitting then got an upset belly. He's always "starving" even though he gets 4.5oz of food twice a day and 2 more ounces in snacks.
Since he just started insulin again I can't suggest increasing the dose yet- it's usually best to keep on the same dose for a few cycles at least. The pros might be able to give better advice on how long to stick on that dose.
Taking away the dry food suddenly isn't the best choice- you are correct. Slow decreases is best and best to do when you can monitor. Cutting out all dry food can drop their numbers by a lot. I believe you should slowly switch to a low carb/zero carb dry too if you decide to get one of those brands.
Do you measure out the dry food that he has available to see how much he's actually eating during the cycles? That might be a helpful thing to see how much dry he's eating and that can give you an idea of how much his numbers are being effected by it.

 

Thanks for your advice. I currently do not measure the dry food but that's a good idea that I should. He goes in spurts of eating but usually has a few nibbles throughout the day. And I will most likely switch from that dry food brand to one of the healthier ones you mentioned above.
What is considered a "cycle"?

 

The cycle is the 12 hour period between shots. AMPS is AM pre-shot. the +1 +2 +3 and so on are the hours since the injection. Then PMPS is PM pre-shot.
You can email the Young Again company and request a sample to see if he will eat it. I got a sample before buying a bag. They also send you loads of info by email and are very helpful and responsive to questions.

 

awesome, that is great information thank you

 

First, great job with the curve!!! Yep, he stayed high and flat. I don't know for sure about the 20% variance, but I do think it exists in all meters, even pet meters. So I think you can call that cycle pretty much the exact same number. I think getting rid of the higher carb dry will help...definitely do it slowly. The tummy upset can happen if it's too sudden.

One question, do you take up food 2 hours before the shot? You want a number that isn't food influenced.

We generally stick with a dose for at least 3 cycles...usually more like 6. It is possible that he needs some time to "settle in" to the insulin. It's impossible to say how he will react to doses and whatnot without more data, which helps us see patterns. As time goes on and you get more data, we'll be able to recognize patterns hopefully to get a better sense of what's going on.

The poking will get easier. The ears "learn to bleed" as they grow more capillaries, which will make it easier to hit over time.

What other questions do you have for us?

 

Thank you for the input
Well I feel like I hit more the vein than capillaries due to misjudging of the lancet device. so i'm afraid i'm like leaving marks of some sort... i don't know

so pretty much how often should I do a curve or
test randomly in between the 12 hrs to get better/more data??

yes I think the dry food is definitely impacting his numbers but that's is going to be rough on him as he always thinks he's starving - I'm probably better of trying to replace it with a better/healthier option...
I mean is 1 fancy feast can in the morning and 1 can in the evening enough for 13Ibs kitty ?

The other thing is I work nights so for me to remove all food 2 hours before I test him the first time is difficult unless I have off maybe...

 

Congratulations on getting the first curve done! Don't worry about hitting the little vein. It bleeds a lot more but there's no harm done. What makes aiming so much easier is to just free hand the lancet poke. It's harder to aim when you're using the trigger device. You'll soon learn to hold a lancet with the flat bevel up at about a 45 degree angle and lightly pierce his ear. The ear has to be held taut by your other hand and it's wise to have a layer of tissue or cosmetic round pad behind.

It's better to collect a lot of random tests over many days that capture BG at different points in the cycle -earlier, middle, later. A curve is useful when you think you're at a good dose and you want to see its action over 12 hours.

You've been given good info about food. You have to phase out dry food slowly. If you want him to be able to eat through the day and overnight you might want to invest in a timed pet feeder. This would be particularly useful while you're at work overnight. You could set its timer to give his last meal two hours before his AM test time.

 

That food is like 36% carb. It's no wonder the numbers didn't dip. If you prefer to leave out dry rather than wet the definitely get young again zero carb food or evo cat and kitten in the purple bag. They are the lowest dry out there.

It's hard to be accurate with a device, just freehand poke. It's OK if you go through.

 

I would suggest making a switch slowly from dry to wet. Maybe 75/25 dry to wet at first and then slowly change the percentages. Eliminating dry food can mean a big dip downward in blood glucose levels; you want to be around to monitor and be confident about testing. Our Oliver dropped 100 points from one preshot to the next when we made the switch. If we had just given the regular dose, he would have hypoed. Switching sometimes causes stomach upsets also. Try to start with one food he will eat and stay with it to minimize tummy troubles (unless it causes an issue). Slowly add more varieties as you want, giving each variety time to "settle"

You can leave out wet food during the day for him to snack. A timed feeder is great for this; we love our PetSafe 5 which can be programmed to open when you'd like him to have a snack and then close 2 hours before your preshot tests. Lower carb dry is certainly an option if he refuses to eat wet, but it can cause other urinary tract issues as cats usually do not hydrate themselves well. See this website by a vet to see the particulars: www.catinfo.org

 

First of all, is 13 pounds a healthy weight for your kitty? If you are unsure, ask your vet.

Dry food is typically higher in calories than canned food. Calorie content can often be found right on the bag or can or sometimes on the web site of the food manufacturer. Generally speaking, a cat requires about 25-35 calories per pound of weight daily. There are several factors though that can influence this number. Age, activity level, whether the cat is spayed or neutered, and pregnancy are a few.

You can find some more detailed information about calculating caloric needs here.
http://vet.osu.edu/vmc/companion/our-services/nutrition-support-service/basic-calorie-calculator

 

Ok so I am wondering I should give him some prozinc or not. It says that the no shoot number should be approx 250 with a pet meter. He's at 272 right now.
Looking at some other people's spreadsheet I see that they still shoot insulin even if the PS said something in the 100s I thought that should be a no-no.
Thanks for any advice

 

Yes, some people shoot at lower numbers, BUT they have lots of data and can predict, at least, a little, what their cat might do. And they usually plan to monitor carefully.

The 272 is a lovely preshot. I would lower the dose to one unit, maybe 1.25 if you can monitor. My thinking is that 2 units lowered the number 50% after twelve hours, so the nadir could have been quite a bit lower than that. If you give the same dose on a number almost half the previous preshot, you run the risk of him dropping low.

Especially going into overnight, I would reduce the dose and monitor.

 

Ok thank you that makes sense
I'll test before I go to bed and monitor throughout