Thoughts on dosage?

We did most of a curve today because Keaton's numbers have been high lately. We've been increasing him slightly (partially because the needles I have are hard to do .5 on) and something's not right.

I missed a couple weeks of testing while caring for my mom post surgery, so please look past some of my blank cells. We're getting back on track now that I'm home again.

We broke through back in May with a dose around 3, and then he had some good days in the 2s, and now no more blues.

I'm tempted to bring him back down to 2 or 2.5 and see what happens for a few days. For what it's worth, he seems fine, good in fact. He has a lot of energy for playtime and is wrestling with his brother. Holy moly he hates his ears poked still, we haven't made any progress there :-(

 

I wouldn't recommend lowering the dose based on those numbers today. However, it's possible that he's high and flat from a bounce, so I would recommend keeping the current dose, and now that life has settled down a little, get some numbers for the PM cycle (before bed, if you wake up during the night, or when you wake up -- whatever will give the best numbers), and another day or two and then post again.

Can you get new syringes that have half-unit marks? That might make it easier to make dose adjustments for you. If not, another trick is to draw one syringe to what looks like the next dose increase. Then use that one as a ruler, sort of. So when you draw the real dose, you compare it to the sample syringe and make sure they are the same. That way you can keep it consistent.

 

Thanks. The syringes have hash marks on them, so it's easy to recreate a dose, just hard to get exactly .5. They go from 2 to 4 with lines in between. I won't be buying these again.

My husband is convinced Keaton's #s are high because we're giving them a little Dr. Elseys chicken dry food in the middle of the night. By little I mean literally 1/4 c that both cats share. I disagree but for the sake of my kitty am willing to admit to being wrong. The timing isn't right, but could that be it?

 

I don't know the carb content of that food, but any dry food can raise the BG. So it's possible that the dry food is causing some issues (even just a few pieces can cause this!). You could try removing it and see if that helps...if it doesn't, at least you tried and then you can prove to your husband one way or another!

As for the syringes, you could try taking one and filling it with some colored water at your dose and then compare when you give an actual dose. It doesn't have to be exactly 0.5...just as long as you're doing the best you can and you're giving roughly the same amount each time, that's what matters.

 

I agree with Rachel - for some cats even a little kibble can increase BG, even if it's low carb. For other cats, they can eat it just fine. It would be worth experimenting to see if it matters for Keaton. Take it away for a couple of weeks, see how he does, and then reintroduce it and note if it makes any difference.

If nothing else it restores harmony for you and DH

If you want to leave out a treat for them, you can try sprinkling some fortiflora or nutritional yeast on their regular food (if they like either of those). Sam goes crazy for both and is just as happy as when I give him actual treats.

 

Thanks @Djamila and @Rachel . No dry food last night = big puddle of barf today.

I'll post again in a couple days with some updated numbers for advice. Starting today with 319.

 

Can you leave out wet food?

 

Yes, we do. They graze on wet all day and night. My husband gave them an extra can of FF before he came to bed last night, so maybe it was just a barf meant to be I think my boys are really hungry hippos in disguise.