cross-posted: Soccer ?'s

cross-posted at the main forum:

Hi everyone,

Soccer's BG values are dropping enough that some days he doesn't get insulin. This AMPS was 122 so I punted. I was planning on spot checking him once today (he ears are sore and he is losing patience) at +6 (*if* he got insulin... near his NADIR) but since he didn't get ProZinc this am... maybe +6 isn't the best use of my 1 test? When would you test? I just fed him... he'll eat again at +5. I guess since he didn't get insulin, I'll want to spot when I think his BG would be HIGHEST not lowest... Help?!

Also, I haven't been shooting at 150 and giving between 0.2 and 0.6 units depending on the BG. Should I reduce my "no-shoot" to 130 or so? I can dose at 0.2 increments. Is is OK for him to be consistently above 100... hovering around 130-150 without insulin? Help?!

Thanks!
Michele

 

Are you applying pressure for 30 seconds after each test? This can help reduce the sore factor and bruising. You really havn't been testing that much, but I'm not Soccer so I can't say if his ears are really sore or not. And you said you were poking a lot just to get one drop do the testing I guess is not a good guide.

Can you make 0.1u increments [or even "0.05" u]?

The minor problem here that I'm seeing is the lack of nadirs [data] captured [+6 maybe??]. So it's hard to know at 150 how far he will drop on 0.2. If you looked at it from a percentage delta - he went from 190 to 122 on day on 0.4u so that's a 35% delta. EDIT BUT this was right after receiving no insulin so this is a bad example. This is a less precise way to approach dosing rather than having the data. Anyway you need to set a target NADIR you are uncomfortable with.

You may want to try lowering the dose to .1u if under 150 and above X. Or even just try giving .1u doses. But clearly you need to get more nadirs.

If it were *ME*, with the current data, I might try 0.1u doses down to a PS of perhaps 100 and 0.2U above a certain number of your determination. Others may disagree with this approach and I don't want to mess up to good stuff you have happening.

Hopefully others will be along here with better guidance about seeing if you can't get Soccer prepared for OTJ.

EDIT: Also it's nice when one cross posts to put the link to the other topic in your cross post. This is one of the few boards that things cross posting is fine and perhaps encouraged!

 

Hi Michele, have you ever done a food test with Soccer, to see if his pancreas is working? If not, I would consider trying one (note it's not necessary by any means, just something to give you a better picture what is going on with him).

at a point when you haven't given a shot recently (so for instance if you get a lower PS, maybe try this instead of shooting, or if you haven't shot today, anytime today would be ideal):

- test before feeding
- have him eat some
- test somewhere around 30 min - 1hr after eating to see if he has a food spike
- test somewhere around 2 hours after eating to see if he has brought the #s down on his own, demonstrating pancreas action

You asked about shooting at lower PSs. If I am correct in understanding that Soccer is very recently diagnosed, I would stay with the 150 no-shoot for now. Those of us considering lower PSs that you may have seen posting recently are all in the boat of cats who have been diabetic for quite some time, so a pretty good chance that their pancreases are not fully healed, and may never be. With Soccer in a different camp (I think?), a newly diagnosed kitty with a great chance of remission, I would be inclined to follow the rules more (150 no-shoot) and only change that if you turn into more of a long-termer.

As a strategy for you, I would try shooting at 150 with a dose that you anticipate would give him a nice DD nadir (60 - 80 or so). As Gator said, you may need to do some experimenting & more nadir tests to find the dose. With Bix, I got more continued improvement when I could get good nadirs like that, vs. nadirs only in the low 100s. If you can achieve that, you may find you only need to shoot once a day (or even less). When skipping a shot, I wouldn't bother with mid-cycle tests - I'd just test the next PS. If those are running high, like over 200, then I'd maybe test the next one a few hours sooner than waiting the full 12 hours, so you can still shoot once he hits 150.

 

I did that the other day... tested at +1... he was lower than the PS test. I really think his that his pancreas is working some now. He's just too fat (insulin resistant) for it to keep his BG out of the "pre-diabetic" range.

I tested him a few times today and he was ~120 every time. During the work-week, I'm not going to shoot below 150. However, next Saturday, I will give a micro-dose if he is ~120-130 an see what it does. I'd really like to see some green...

 

That all makes sense. It's nice that he hasn't gone any higher though today. Perhaps he will bring the #s down some more on his own. Some people have reported that their cats stayed higher for a few days like that, but then came down into DDs on their own. Bix seems to be the opposite (unless I just haven't been patient enough to see it) - stays lower for a few days after a shot, but then starts drifting up.

Well, hopefully it will become clearer for you during the week - either he'll start rising back up and you can shoot without worrying about it, or he'll get into better #s on his own. Either way, things look really good for him!

 

Things do look good. I feel sooooo lucky that things are going well. It breaks my hear to see so many here struggling for YEARS to even get blue.