MIMI bouncing because she is not eating?

[Miimi and Velvet Mirth]

We have had to go back to work this week and Mimi stopped eating again. Her numbers are bouncing and I wanted to ask if there is a correlation between not eating and bouncing? She seems to go low at night and high during the day as well. Her AMPS are always so much better.
Her PMPS yesterday was 675! Is that even possible? Within 6 hours she dropped to 72
Today I am seeing a similar pattern.
We are trying to entice to eat with some dry kibble which she will eat and then still ignore the wet food. I am no longer able to test her. She will only let one of us to do it now and she is starting to hide so I wonder if she associates wet food with testing and insulin shot.. She is very smart :}

Any thoughts appreciated.

 

[Sybil and Zoe]

Oh my that is quite a nose dive. But I will say from my experience with the AT2 that it runs much higher than the human meters that are suggested here on the lantus board. My Zoe was 485 on my AT2 this eveing at PMPS and 391 on the ReliOn Prime that I use mostly now (and the readings on her spread sheet) I was doing dual testing and I found the AT2 120-150 pts higher than the human meter. It does vary though. I am out of the AT2 strips now so I will not be comparing unless I use the remainder of my Freestyle Insulinux strips with it. Most have told me to put the AT2 aside and just go with the hman meter numbers.

I wish I could offer you advice but I have yet to make any headway with the Lantus and Zoe's numbers so I have no experience with the swings like that. I know it is terribly unnerving, and I hope one of the experienced members give you some good advice! Good luck!

 

[Christie & Maverick]

I'm hoping you can get some input, I looked at your SS to see if I could offer some suggestions, but you are in a tough situation with such small dosing. The tricky part is you are getting great numbers, but the bounces are crazy!, so it may be you need to try to adjust more than your fat/ skinny dosing. I don't think the testing is related to lack of eating, I wonder if something else is going on? is she licking her lips? Might be a sign of nausea if she is. Your situation is a bit more complicated than I am comfortable with, but I'll try tagging @Marje and Gracie and @Sienne and Gabby (GA) if they might be around to have a look. Have you checked in with your vet about the recent lack of appy? The dry food can kick up the numbers so while I understand that you are trying to find something she wants to eat, I'd go for something less carb if you can.

Here is your last post for continuity. http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/5-19-mimi-amps-66-16-466-2-394.214656/#post-2377529

ETA: Here are some tips on getting your kitty to eat http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/suggestions-on-how-to-stimulate-kittys-appetite.130770/

 

[Marje and Gracie]

Because she’s eating dry food, you should be using Start Low Go Slow. As Gill explained on 5/19, the dose should have been dropped to 0.1u because her BG went to 66; the reduction point for SLGS is 90. She dropped below 90 again on 5/22.

It’s really important for you to drop her dose to 0.1u especially because you are having testing and eating issues but you absolutely must stay on top of ketone testing every day.

To me, your focus should be on

• Reducing the dose and monitoring for ketones
• Figure out why she’s not eating; as Christie suggested, is she nauseous? There are medications such as Ondansetron that your vet can prescribe to help with that.
• Try to get as many calories in her as you can

The quandary with her BG is that she is in a horrific dive/bounce cycle because the insulin isn’t being managed with food and that’s occurring because she won’t eat. For cats who are eating, we would suggest a higher low carb food fed in mini meals at PS, +1,+2,+3 to work with the insulin and even out the highs and lows. For really bad dive/bouncers like Mimi, testing frequently and feeding even potentially MC food to slow the drop and bring up the nadir helps.

Yes, without food, they can drop as you’ve seen her do but her dose is also too high right now. When they drop that much, it triggers a hard bounce.

The goal is to be able to feed the curve to flatten it a bit more but between your work schedules and her not eating, I understand that is a challenge. Do you have a pet sitter or someone who can come in and syringe feed her when you are at work?

So...the correlation is not really between the not eating and bouncing. It’s more a cause/effect. She doesn’t eat, the numbers dive, the dive causes the bounce.

 

[Marje and Gracie]

I want to add to the post above. Sorry...just got back from traveling for the weeks and I was tired last night but I thought of two other things this morning. Please forgive me if any is repetitious. I’m catching up with a lot of stuff and don’t have as much time as I’d like to go back and eat all your info.

To slowly wean her off dry food, you can pulverize it and put it on top of the canned food. Once she starts eating it that way, slowly decrease the dry.

Here’s a great video done by another member whose cat, Junior, was very fractious and wouldn’t let her test him. She burritoed him and over time, he allowed testing without the burrito.