5/7 Dimitri OTJ Trial Question

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ChEMom

ChEMom

Member Since 2014
Yesterday's condo

It's going to be another hot day down here in the Sunshine State so I'm heading out to do some yard work early. Dimitri woke me up 3 minutes
before my alarm because he was starving. Hope everyone else has a wonderful day!

Once again, Dimitri knows best. He bugged me to test him 10 minutes before the +2 mark, and he was already in the 50's, so I told him to go eat
"2nd Breffis" and he agreed. I'll retest at +3.
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UPDATE: at +3 he was waiting for me to test him, and he was 44, so he's eating some HC for "3rd Breffis."

QUESTION: At what point do I say it's time to try going "OTJ?" I think this "44" is real, not leftover depot.

Thank you.
 
Re: 5/7 Dimitri AMPS 88 + 54

Good morning, Janet! ~O)

I see Dimitri is being a little pickle again this morning - I saw a 44 on the ss.....And so begins the "feed high-carb and re-test" routine!

It's possible the .25 depot is still at work, but it may be the Dimitri is just done with the juice, too. I know it's been 3 cycles on .10 unit. Once again, I would certainly ask for advice before shooting tonight. The dose advisors may tell you it's time to try an OTJ trial.

Shelly
 
Re: 5/7 Dimitri AMPS 88 +3 44

Sorry - we cross-posted. You might want to change your subject line to include something like "Time for OTJ Trial?" That will bring your post to the dose advisors' attention more quickly.
 
Re: 5/7 Dimitri AMPS 88 +3 44

I guess Dimitri told you that he was done with insulin! It is indeed time for a trial. I'm at work and don't have access to the instructions but I'll see if I can get to them later today. Otherwise, someone else may beat me to it.

Congrats!!
 
Re: 5/7 Dimitri AMPS 88 +3 44

Yay for an OTJ trial! Here are the instructions Sienne gave me for our OTJ trial:

Test at your normal AMPS and PMPS times. Feed multiple small meals throughout the day as much as possible (small meals are less likely to overwhelm a newly functioning pancreas).

If your cat is green at your normal test times, no need to test further until the next "PS" time, just feed small meals and go about your day. If he is blue, feed a small meal and test again after about 3 hours. If his number is lower 3-4 hours after a meal, then his pancreas is working!

After 2 weeks, if everything is looking good, we have a party!

Sometimes the trial doesn't work the first time and we have to give a little more support in the form of resuming insulin. It's not the end of the world if that happens, we just give him the support he needs. Our goal is a strong remission and it's better to take our time to get that than to rush into remission just to have it fail later on.
Click to expand...
 
Thank you Sienne and Shelly for the instructions.

One more question: I thought the low end of "blue" was still considered o.k. (up to 120?) or am I mistaken?

We will skip his evening dose and start our trial! flip_cat
 
You're absolutely right, Janet. The "normal" range for a cat is about 40 to 120. Some kitties (like Dwight's Boots) seem to run a bit higher. During Boots' OTJ trial, he ran in the low 100s most of the time. Other cats tend to run a bit lower. Jersey often gave me 40s during her trial. Shawna's Davidson ran in between - usually averaging in the 80s during the trial.
 
Thank you Shelly.

And another thought/question: given that every time I lowered his dose, the depot took a cycle to decrease, should I do some extra testing tonight, just in case he drops too low?
 
That's a good question - I'll have to leave that one to the experts since I don't want to steer you wrong.

Just my experience - Jersey gave me a 38 on the morning we went OTJ. Even though I didn't give her insulin that morning, I tested several times before I went to work. That evening, I just tested once at her normal PMPS time. It was so hard not to test. In fact, DH and I fought over who got to test her during our trial. We were both going through withdrawals and felt like we needed to do something!
 
I'm afraid Dimitri will go into "test withdrawal" (well, more like treat withdrawal.) :lol:

So when Jersey got that 38, did you do anything special, or just feed her her regular food?
 
If Dimitri hands you low numbers, you can give a bit of LC food. It may help to remember, though, that food stimulates the pancreas to produce insulin. That's why we suggest if you get a higher than expected number, to give some food and see if the numbers come down several hours later. Frankly, if I saw a number in the 30s, I'd feed some LC. Low numbers = food is a hard habit to break!
 
Thanks Sienne. It's hard to break that habit of worrying over low numbers, but hopefully we won't have that problem. He just "asked" me
test him at +11, which I hardly ever do, and he's at 86. So he's looking good for this evening.
 
:mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

Mr. Greenie is VERY happy with Dimitri! :lol:

and so the trial begins. I think checking tonight before his PMBG (pm blood glucose - no shot) and again 3 hrs later isn't a bad idea. As long as he doesn't go low by then, you're probably set for the trial.

Except for very unusual circumstances in a cat with medical issues, a cat can't become hypoglycemic without an insulin injection. So once you're enough hours past this morning's shot, if you see 40's don't worry. I've tested non-diabetic cats in the 40's - we only worry if we've injected insulin prior to those kinds of low numbers.

congratulations!
 
Whew! O.K. Thanks Julie, I did NOT realize that cats off insulin couldn't become hypoglycemic. That was my big worry for tonight and tomorrow.

I updated his SS with his PMBG. So here we go.
 
i want to qualify that - he will still have some depot action for another short while the depot drains. so it's a smart idea to monitor for another cycle or two, but after that, no, he can't go hypoglycemic.
 
So when Jersey got that 38, did you do anything special, or just feed her her regular food?
Click to expand...

I just fed Jersey her regular food at the time. I figured it had been 12 hours since her last shot so I could steer her numbers with the low-carb stuff (which she responded to really well) rather than break out high-carb goodies. We also saw a 31 on Day 8 of the trial. That freaked me out! :shock: It had been drilled into my head for so long that you feed anything below 50 with Karo. Luckily, I had taken all of the high-carb food outside to the storage room. Otherwise, I may have been cracking open a can! :lol:

Congrats on Day 1 of your OTJ trial, Janet!
Shelly

(To any lurkers - keep in mind that we're talking about cats not on insulin here. If your cat is on insulin, you would handle such instances quite differently - i.e., you would feed high-carb food for any number under 50.)
 
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