Thos 1/19 - Where do we go from here? Would love some dosing advice.

Previous 12/23

Thos has now been magenta free since the beginning of December. (Yes, I know you all say "pink".) And the handful of yellows since then mostly had some clear cause. In the course of just a month, we decreased his dose seven times, even with holding past the SLGS reduction point.

I am amazed, delighted and thankful. We could not have gotten here without much help and encouragement from people on the board. With special thanks to Wendy who sat up late to guide us as we shot below 120 for the first time, and to Chris and Bron for taking us through the night of a first green shoot. And I find there is a whole lot to learn from reading the daily threads. Though the stories of struggle and loss are so sad.

Anyhow... Where do we go from here? For the past two weeks, we've been cruising at ~0.1u. Seeing mostly comfortable but far from normalized numbers.

Should I be waiting for the other shoe to drop?

What happens if I just stay at ~0.1u? Can I expect anything to change? It feels like we're stalled, if not losing ground.

Could I go back up to 0.25u and take a different approach (TR)? I feel inspired now to try for numbers in the normal range, perhaps even remission. I read somewhere, probably here on the board, that it should actually be easier for a cat to stay at natural glucose levels rather than some arbitrary higher range of numbers.

Any insights or suggestions would be hugely appreciated.

 

If you can continue testing like you have been, I think you'd be totally good to go back up to .25 if you're willing to try TR

I think you're seeing the best you're going to see out of SLGS and it's not where you want to be.

His numbers look good, but they could look better and if you're hoping for remission, you need to get more aggressive with the dosing and get the number range down some more

 

Like Chris noted, you certainly test enough to follow TR. To my eyes, I think Theo needs more insulin. When you're seeing numbers, while good, but aren't in normal range, I generally encourage members to increase the dose if your goal is remission.

So here's my big "however" -- from your signature, it looks like you are using some dry food as treats. You may want to eliminate the dry before adjusting the dose. There is always a possibility that the higher numbers are due to high carb treats. TR really isn't an option is there's any dry food/treats in the picture.

 

Thank you both for the kind replies.

Thos currently eats around 1/8 cup per day of low-carb Dr Elsey's kibble -- sometimes a bit more, sometimes none. Offered just in very small quantities as a treat, or a bribe. I can probably cut this off. Especially since he has become quite passionate about Orijin dry treats.

I know I'll stress all the time over whether I'm doing things right, whether I'm missing something important. But for my guy's sake, I'll give TR a try.

 

FWIW, you're in good company. Most of us, especially when we're new (newish?) at managing our kitty's FD are a nervous wreck. There are so many questions! As soon as you think you've got the hang of it, your kitty changes everything up because that's just what they do! It truly does get easier and there is generally someone here whose cat has had a similar experience. Hang in there.

 

Good luck with getting rid of the dry food. I hope it does the trick in helping you improve Thomas’s numbers that last little bit.

 

Sorry for the ignorant question, but what does TR stand for? There are so many acronyms on this site that as a relative newbie (which I'm certain I'm giving away by my lack of use of these acronyms!), sometimes it's hard to follow a thread!
Also, since my Rufus has been testing @100 or less for the past 36 hours, I've been scouting around trying to figure out what to do next in terms of dosing. So I'm also wondering: how on EARTH does one give, or measure, .1u???

 

@injuredrabbit If you have questions, it's best to start your own post. But I will answer your couple of questions. We have a slang/acronym dictionary here (referenced in the New to the Group Sticky Note). TR is the Tight Regulation Protocol - it's one of our two dosing methods and is described in a Sticky Note. Go ahead and read the Sticky Notes on the top of the forum. Both our dosing methods are described there and there is a Sticky Note showing how to do some of the fine doses. Then feel free to start your own post by clicking the Post New Thread button to the right, to get your dosing questions answered.