YES!!! - finally got a reading other than HI from Rosa :D

She's still all the way up there at 515, but it's nice to actually see a number. She's had no higher carb food today, has eaten really well compared to recently and has been much more sociable. I'm so happy to see her actually drop even such a small amount and even though it's still in the 'bad' range. The only other reading I managed to get that had a number was 566 on Sunday...progress, no matter how little.

 

You take what you can get.

 

Oh, I'll take it trust me. I was fully expecting another HI. I'm so pleased with her for giving me a real number. She's eating her dinner complete with extra cuddles before and after now.

 

Great news, next stop red, then pink then...

 

I hope so though even at this level I wouldn't be surprised to see a little bounce given how high she was on diagnosis - from the 680 the vet had her at it's still a drop of well over 100. But the only way is forward - and down with the numbers to the next level. It's going to be a good evening in our house.

 

YEAH Rosa!!

Don't get discouraged if you happen to get that very "welcoming" meter again though....We all hate having meters say "Hi", but it's great to see her get something else for a change!

This disease is one of small victories sometimes....and we'll take them!!

 

I'm so, so ridiculously pleased with her for finally showing some measurable response to the treatment. I'll do my best to stay a bit more relaxed if I get greeted by the meter again later. It's progress and I'll take it for sure - it proves she's on the right road no matter how long it might take to get her where she needs to be.

 

Congratulations and best wishes for continued success to Rosa and you too.

 

Thank you. The next step is to get her giving me a number more often than not instead of the other way around - then I can start make her daily numbers posts.

 

And a 591 this morning. Though she might have got food inside of the 2 hour window. No higher Rosa, please - down from here would be nice!

 

April --
Given that you are seeing high, flat numbers, I would suggest increasing Rosa's dose tonight. From the Tight Regulation Protocol sticky:

I put in italics the section that I think pertains to Rosa.

 

April, I'm glad you got a lower number, don't despair about the higher one, I'm sure things will improve xx

 

Thank you both. So, if she's consistently over 300 today, I'd take her to 1.5 units as of tonight? Just double checking as this is the first dose increase I've done of course and I want to be 100% sure I didn't misread anything - up since 545 this morning and trying not to fade until she's at least +7 so I can get another mid-cycle reading. Then I can take a nap if I need to before her dose this evening.

 

Yes I think I'd increase to 1.5, although once she starts to make some moves down, we'd only want to increase in .25 unit increments

Remember, it's the nadir that counts (the lowest point in the cycle) not the pre-shot numbers, but she's still nadir'ing high

Come on now Rosa! Work that juice!!

 

Thanks for confirming - my head's all messed up today and I'd have hated to increase by 0.5 when it should have been 0.25! I'll take her up from 1 to 1.5 from tonight and we'll see where we get with that over the next few days.

As long as I'm seeing progress, however small, I'm happy with her. I'm being optimistic but just one or two red numbers over the next couple of days would feel like a major victory...black gets so boring after a while!! But her appetite's definitely back today, even better than last night and she seems very alert and cheerful...I think she's doing better than me with this at the moment.

 

Yes April, do try & have a rest & a snooze, you don't want to wear yourself out, you're doing really well xx

 

I will do. We'd just been awake late last night getting everything ready for the trip we should both have been going on - hubby's gone by himself. And then I had to wake up really early to take him to the airport this morning. As soon as I get her +7 reading, I should be able to get a couple of hours then. Plus his plane will have landed and he'll be driving at that point so it won't matter much if I'm not available for an hour or two.

 

And she's back up to "Hi" at +7. But then I only just noticed that our housemate has left yet another full bowl of Temptations out where they can all get at it. She's taken some, I know she has - she can't help herself with those around and there's no point me being mad at her because pretty much all cats find them addictive. I'm annoyed now - I KNOW I only had that conversation with him 2 days ago. They've been taken away anyway.

 

It'a probably not good for any of your kitties to be munching on treats all the time. Who wants to eat dinner if you can have treats instead?

 

I'm not sure what to suggest about the roommate's kitty food & treats, but i don't think you'll be able to make much headway with the BGs while she's having access to high carb food.

congrats on the number, though! I understand how exciting it is to see progress!

and i agree about increasing her dose to 1.5u. However, if the dry food all goes away, you may see a definite decrease in her BGs. So it's a good thing you're testing as often as you are.

 

I know - he says his cats aren't addicted because they don't eat them all immediately. That's because that's ALL they eat most days - they're most likely full long before the treats are gone. It's the same as if we were feeding hubby's diabetic kid nothing but Cheetos and chocolate bars. I get that he wants to make the cats happy, but there are better ways. I've been carefully feeding her mini-meals of low-carb wet food every 2 hours today because she's hungry but it's not going to work if she gets sabotaged with treats she can't resist.

I'm going to talk with him again tonight and re-explain that Lantus doesn't work like other insulins and I can't just adjust a dose depending on what I think she might have eaten over the previous few hours. I'll keep testing though - she had nothing but low-carb yesterday and it did make a small difference so I know what I'm trying to do with her will work if I can just get the chance to make it work. Either that or I'm going to have to start doing a full house-scan every morning before I let her out of the bedroom to see what's been left out that shouldn't have been.

 

I don't think I've ever stopped by and introduced myself. If I haven't, hi!

I apologize that I haven't had a chance to go back and view all of your old posts yet, so forgive me if this has already been discussed. Would your roommate would be willing to buy low-carb treats instead of Temptations? That way, he could still feel like he's making the cats happy, and it would be much better for Rosa if she got into them.

I'm so happy you were finally able to get an actual number on the meter. Small victories like that can never be underestimated!
Shelly

 

That is a good idea, Shelly. Freeze-dried chicken has been called "kitty crack" and it's 0 carbs. It's not complete nutrition for a cat though so you wouldn't want to feed too much.
Liz

 

Hi Shelly and thank you. I did ask him, and offered to share Rosa's treats with the others. I think they'd prefer them once they lose the addiction to high-carb treats since cats don't actually need much in the way of carbs anyway. He says they're happy with what they have but I'm going to have to ask him again. It's so difficult to get this all to work as it is without someone else, however inadvertently, working against me. And yes, only a tiny victory on the meter but it made me smile so much.

Liz, I've always called Temptations "kitty crack" because they all seem to get addicted to that high carb junk so easily...like all of us I guess. I can see how freeze-dried chicken could be classed the same way though - Rosa's loving her food and treats now I've found some flavors of food she likes though treats are for test-time only. Once or twice, she hasn't even wanted the test-time treat, just a little more of her wet food instead which of course I'm letting her have - whatever keeps her happy while I jab her with a needle! I just know the old high-carb addiction won't go away for her that easily if they're on offer where she can see and smell them.

 

I understand what you mean completely about others working against you. (In my case, it was my vet and I who couldn't reach a consensus.) Maybe you can convince him that cats like variety in their treats, just like people do?

Hang in there. You'll get it all figured out!

 

If I can't, I'll just have to replace their regular treats with some of Rosa's every time I see them - once he sees they're eating them, that might convince him. I'll keep trying - I'm not having any progress she is making ruined by this.

 

so difficult.... sounds like you need a new roommate.

I really feel like those OTC ( over the counter) treats are why my Shadow became diabetic. After she had fangs removed, and had difficulties with picking up her food to eat, I was giving
temptations, friskies, all those grocery store type treats which turns out....
although we don't have an exact number for them..... they are probably at least in the 30% carb values.

See if that doesn't convince your roommate to get some jerky treats or freeze dried .... instead.

He/she won't like it if he is suddenly has a diabetic cat too.

seriously, they are higher than the bad foods.....
so they really are kitty crack.

 

Thing is, he's hubby's best friend. He moved in on a temporary basis about 3 years ago (before I had my visa to move here) after he and his now ex-wife separated. So the whole thing was done as a favor. It's a tough one - he means well, he really does. And he'll hate it that he's upset me. But he just doesn't think sometimes. :/

I'm trying not to think that about the treats as I always limited them to 2 each and only once every few weeks and about half the time gave them freeze-dried tuna (their favorite thing ever) instead and of course here there's that whole stupid bowl of them out all the time. If I start thinking like that - I can't start blaming someone else for this or it really will drive me insane. I looked them up when I found the first bowl left out - the ingredients list really is shocking and the carb level is disgraceful. His older cat is out quite a lot so she probably doesn't get so many of them...and she does hunt and eats what she catches which is probably helping her, but the younger one is only 2 and overweight already - I do worry about what will happen to him in a few years if he keeps only eating treats. I get that that isn't really my problem, but if I can save any cat from going through what Rosa is now, I will do!

 

hard not to become an evangelist for low-carb canned cat food after you've had a diabetic cat. i tell everyone, but several of my friends still feed dry food. what can you do?

I wonder if he could be convinced to give plain chicken breast to the kitties. maybe i already told you, i can't find it, but i simmered chicken breasts on the stove for about 10 minutes, then diced them small (1/2" cubes) for punkin. Put most of it in the freezer and kept out a couple of tablespoons in the fridge. Those were his pokey treats for about 2-3 days. then i'd bring out more from the freezer. Cooking once lasted a couple of weeks. Giving your cat pure meat isn't a complete meal, but as a treat along with canned food it's fine for them, and i'd have to think it's better than any other option. cats are meant to eat real meat. Anything else is just less. do youknow the youtube Sad Cat Diaries? We could add this to the litany of woeful cat complaints!! hahahaha

 

There really isn't all that much I can do except convince him to keep it away from Rosa - I can't force him to change what he's feeding his cats much as I might want to. I talked to him again - he apologized for leaving the treats out...apparently his cats were fighting so got into trouble, then he felt bad for yelling at them so gave them extra treats. He's still convinced they like the bad treats best - I think I'm going to just start handing out some little pieces of either fresh cooked or freeze dried chicken to all the cats to prove that they like those just as much. If I can get his 2 to come running for those like my 2 do then he'll have to agree that they do appreciate being given something a little better for them.

I have seen the Sad Cat Diaries - I think we could definitely add to the list of complaints there probably with both food and treats!

 

Good idea to hand out the fresh or frozen treats to all the cats Manxcat , even though it will be more expensive !It'll be worth it if you can persuade him not to give them the high carb treats.

 

I don't mind buying a few extra healthy treats at all - and cooking chicken at home really isn't going to cost much more than the cheap treats he has anyway. If it helps to save his cats having the same trouble as Rosa later, I'll be happy with that as an outcome.

 

I quite agree with you !