Vicky need your help with changing shot schedule for Autumn

Well I knew I was going to have to roll Autumn back in order to go to my DH's performance on Saturday, but didn't think I was going to have to start the new job until after this coming weekend. But surprise I start on wednesday of this week, so no time to do this slowly.

Autumn's normal shot times have been 7a/7p but I need to change that to work with the new work schedule plus Saturday's trip out of town. Autumn is on 1u right now.

But here is what I'm looking at:

Wed, Thurs & Fri of this week I'm going to be working 4pm to 10pm and on Saturday I have to be out the door at 3pm and won't be back in the door again until right around 3am on Sunday. Then back to work on that Sunday from 4pm to 11:15pm which looks to be my new standard schedule....So how do I accomplish this shot schedule change with the least disruption to her insulin? HELP! I can't count on DH's job to have him home now that it is summer in time to do her evening shots so I've got to figure out how I can do both shots.

The work week I think I have a fairly good option which is skip her morning shot on Weds morning and just give it at 11:30pm (work is close so very little travel time) and then give her pm dose at 11:30pm when I get home. But not sure what to do about Saturday's ..would split dosing work? As in give half at 11:30 am and then give the other half at 3pm?

Mel, Maxwell, Autumn & The Fur Gang

 

Re: Vicky need your help with changing shot schedule for Aut

Hi Mel,

Would it be easier to do the PM shot even later? If you could do 1AM and 1PM each day that would help better with Saturday. More than 3 hours with split dosing to extend duration doesn't work that great. It sounds like you're going to have a late work schedule anyway. I know it's very difficult for me to go to bed anytime before midnight when I work late. So if you can swing this, then for Saturday you would give half her dose at 1PM and the other half at 3PM, which would extend her duration enough to carry her over to 3AM. You could roll her shot back to 2PM Sunday and 1AM Monday morning, just be mindful and lower the dose a smidge on those couple earlier shots.

To get her to 1AM/1PM you can do split doses as well. If her current shots are at 11AM now, then give half at 11AM and the other half at 1PM.

I just want to wrap my arms around you and give you a big hug, but if this helps you, it will have to be enough. ((((((Mel))))))

 

Re: Vicky need your help with changing shot schedule for Aut

Mel -

I wouldn't even consider trying to suggest dosing for Lev after all of 4.5 days on it. But it looks like a 3:00 shot time might work as well. Not sure if a reduced dose works with Lev (?) or if you could just delay one shot to get to 3:00 (or 1:00 as already suggested). On ProZinc, we might have reduced the shot and cut the cycle length - instead of 12/12, maybe 10.5 hours each for several cycles until we get close to the time we want, (provided he nadirs around +5 or +6... but there's no shed, so it could've been done.

Regardless of how you get there, it looks like it might be a tough schedule to keep. Good luck!

Just for the sake of me learning more about Lev, wouuld one of the suggestions be viable? and safe? I'm sure I'll have to adjust my shooting schedule again as work necessitates, so hearing what would/could really work would be very helpful.

Lu-Ann

 

Re: Vicky need your help with changing shot schedule for Aut

Problem with 1a/1p for shot times is that Jon and I have to roll out of bed in the mornings at 5:30 am to get him to work on time in the mornings by 6:45am..Which I have no option but to do since we only have 1 vehicle, luckily his job and mine are literally across the parking lot from each other so when I go in I park in the back parking lot of my job, he walks across the street when he gets off and grabs the truck to go home, then comes back for me at 11:15 pm.

My other option except for this saturday would be to go 9a/pm with Jon giving Autumn her evening shot and me giving her the morning one. This Saturday is going to be the only day that really doesn't fit anything remotely normal. This is the farest that he will ever have to travel for a gig and it is a pretty big deal as it for a national charity and a big biker poker run, the band will be playing to close to 2,000 people...so I really want to make it to the show.

So far I'm holding up pretty well, I think it helps to have Musette's regualr vet tell me that it wasn't related to her diabetes that took her from me, because I was seriously beating myself up over wondering what I missed with her, and that the problem could have been dormant in her long before I ever adopted her...so that helps, but tomorrow I have to go pick up her ashes, that is going to be hard. I still need to find her an urn that I like for her as a final resting place, so far I haven't seen anything that really fits her. I did find one where the artist will take a picture and paint it to look like them but I don't like the basic shape...so I'm thinking about trying to just find her a pretty sky-blue jar to match her eyes.

It also helps to have so many other kitties here that all need mom to keep it together and of course Autumn so I'm not really missing the routine of testing etc.

Mel, Maxwell, Autumn & The Fur Gang

 

Re: Vicky need your help with changing shot schedule for Aut

I'm just wondering if with all the changes you would need to make to her schedule anyway, maybe skipping one dose (Sat night) wouldn't be that bad?

It sounds like you would like her new regular schedule to be either 9/9, if Jon can shoot in the evening, or 11:30/11:30, right? But you have to move as late as you can for Sat.

See if this is possible:
Tuesday - split dose 7a and 9a. Shoot full dose at 9pm
Weds - split dose 9a and 11a. Shoot full dose at 11p (you will be home earlier that one night, right?
Then you stay there Thurs, Fri, and Sat morning and skip the Sat night shot.
Resume with split dosing Sunday morning at 9a and 11a then full dose at 11:30p

If you try to work up to 1p/1a with splits one more time on Friday and then again on Sat afternoon at 1p and 3p, so you can shoot at 3a when you get home, than you have to start reducing doses to get back to 11:30a/11:30p (or 9a/9p). All of that will really mess with her numbers anyway. I'm just wondering if skipping that one shot and shooting the next one at +22 wouldn't be less stressful on her than all the changes forward and then back. You could also probably shoot .25u when you get home at 3a Sunday to tide her over until 11am. You're still looking at messed up numbers for a while, but all of that should be safe.

I will be thinking about you tomorrow when you are picking up Musette's ashes. (((hugs))) Wish I could be there to drive you. Just be extra nice to yourself and drive carefully.

 

Re: Vicky need your help with changing shot schedule for Aut

Lu-ann, generally, it is safer to move the shot later and using split dosing - half the dose at +12 and the other half at +14 - works well. Then the next shot is 12 hours after that +14 one. If you move earlier you have to reduce the dose for the shot before the move as well as the early one. I can't remember what percentage the reduction needs to be - something like 15%, I think.

It gets harder when there is more time needed to be "jumped" in a short number of cycles as Mel is facing.

These kinds of schedule changes always mess up the numbers, too. Sometimes just skipping a shot and shooting the next one earlier is safer and messes with the numbers about the same amount especially if the change in time is a bigger one.

 

Re: Vicky need your help with changing shot schedule for Aut

Yeah, sometimes just skipping a shot to prevent so many changes is what has to happen. I think it's more important to have as much regularity as possible rather than changing 6 shot times just in order to "fix" one extremely late shot. That's part of the reason I have a problem with the bi-annual time changes and the board's general recommendation to move shots by 15 minutes over like 3 days or something. Just either use a split dose or reduce it slightly one time. Easy-peasy. It's 1 hour. I changed for 2 hours twice every week.

 

Re: Vicky need your help with changing shot schedule for Aut

Kind of what I was thinking too...Life Happens, it was nice to have the luxery of being home with Musette to keep her shot times on schedule and to test whenever I wanted, and really with her it was important because she would bounce and dive so badly. Autumn, however, is a completely different cat, after going 10+ months without anything as far as treatment and still not havng an major health problems...A skipped or late or early shot isn't going to kill her, she doesn't plunge like Musette did, and she doesn't spike as high either and above all if I leave food down for her, in her dish she isn't about to be bullied by anyone into letting them take it from her...lol.

If anything she would more likely bully someone else off their food if she thought she was going too low....she is all TORTIE and then some, especially when hungry.

Mel, Maxwell, Autumn & The Fur Gang

 

Re: Vicky need your help with changing shot schedule for Aut

I know I'm going to be asking the same question when the fall term comes back up.

I currently shoot at 5:30 AM and won't get home for 2 nights/week until 9PM. I don't really want to switch to a 7/7 schedule again because it is easier to get a fasting number in the earlier hours rather than have her wait the hour I'm up and getting ready for work to get fed. She is NOT a patient cat in that regards :lol: . Really, I've got claw marks :shock: !

But is it better to wait 2 hours or 4 hours? That will be my question.

But missing a shot for Autumn- it would be like a fur shot. I haven't been around long enough to give dosing advice but fur shots I've had plenty.

 

Re: Vicky need your help with changing shot schedule for Aut

I don't bother with fasting numbers. If that were my upcoming schedule, I would move to 7/7 and for the late nights just shoot late and reduce the dose in the morning. Now, I would do some tests beforehand to see what the food spike is if I feed an hour before the test/shot and I would test out that "late evening shot/reduced morning shot" to see that the dose was safe in the morning as it might need adjusting up or down to get the best response. I free feed my cats, so who knows if he just ate right before I got up?

As for fur shots = skipped shots, I don't think I would say that. We use "fur shot" as a blanket explanation for higher than usual numbers when, in fact, they could be caused by other things. And a true fur shot may have delivered some insulin.

The reason I say skipping might be better is because it is probably safer. Changing shot times always messes up numbers, as does skipping a shot. *IF* you could find the combination of doses to give for the late shot you moved everything to accommodate AND the following early shot to get things back on schedule - and test this out with lots of BG tests following the moves - then go for it. I'm sure it can be done, but in a time crunch where there is no time to do a "dry run" and test a lot, then skipping is safer because you aren't setting up an overlap situation that might lead to very low numbers (followed by bouncing and extended "wonky" numbers).

There is no way to avoid several "off" cycles and wonky numbers, but you CAN avoid driving the BG down to the 30s by skipping a late shot that will make the next cycle a lot less than 12 hours.

 

Re: Vicky need your help with changing shot schedule for Aut

Okay - just so I'm clear... because of the later nadir (?) it's safe to give a partial (say, half) shot, then two hours later give the other half? Interesting! Normally, Grayson would just be coming off his food spike by +2. Would you feed them with both shots (if you weren't free-feeding, that is)?

I can relate, as Grayson is ready to eat as soon as my feet hit the floor!

 

Re: Vicky need your help with changing shot schedule for Aut

That is going to depend on the cat. If the cat doesn't food spike, it would probably be fine to feed at +2 as well. Some cats spike badly after eating, even if it's low carb food.

You will hopefully know or already know which kind Grayson is by the time you need to do those split doses. And I developed their use in this manner for exactly the same reason. I work retail and at least 2 nights a week I work late and don't come home till 10PM. The idea is that it extends duration just enough without causing major problems with the cycle as a whole (ie, causing lows). It is helpful to have the cat somewhat regulated though, because the dose needs to be right in order for the technique to work well.

 

Re: Vicky need your help with changing shot schedule for Aut

i'm with you.

Please clarify... when you say "a cat is well regulated" what do their numbers look like? 300 -150? 250-125? 400-200?

 

Re: Vicky need your help with changing shot schedule for Aut

see here for definition of regulation: http://binkyspage.tripod.com/faq.html#regulation

 

Re: Vicky need your help with changing shot schedule for Aut

I should probably clarify when I said well-regulated I meant that the cat is receiving a dose which works well for it. Doing split doses and time changes when someone has no idea what a good dose is for the cat is just asking for trouble.