8/21 Clare AMPS 346;+6-169;+10-357;PMPS-345;+2-396;+4-299

Yesterday"s condo:

Today's numbers:

AMPS: 346
+2: 219
+4: 147
+6: 169
+10: 357

PMPS: 345
+2: 396
+4: 299

Sending healing wishes out to our neighbors in Lantus Land who need special care, and lots of celebration for the newly OTJ kitties and beans this morning. You all work so hard for each other and give the rest of us such encouragement!

Bouncing and clearing seems to be our dance these days. I think I went to bed too early last night; it looks like Clare might've gone into the greens. So today we'll learn some more about how to control these confused_cat , hopefully.

Have a great day!

Re: 8/21 Clare AMPS 346;+2-219;+4-147;+6-169

There was a large decrease again between AMPS and +4, so I guess we'll have another bounce. At least she's clearing them pretty quickly now.

I'm reducing the amount of HC that she gets at +2 and +4, and giving her an equal amount of LC at the same time, each time. I'm hoping that will begin to even out the bounces. Thanks to Wendy and everyone else for your advice about how to get her on a more even keel.

I hope you're all having a great day!

Re: 8/21 Clare AMPS 346;+2-219;+4-147;+6-169;+10-357

Clare's bounces seem to be getting more exaggerated and not more calm. This AM cycle we gave her just a little HC (1/2 tsp) early on in +2 and +4, then only LC to the end of the cycle. We give very small snacks, maybe about 2 Tsp, each time we test, except that at breakfast we give her about 1/2-2/3 of a small can of LC and at +4 and +9 we give her about 1/4 of a small can of LC.

Should we try starting the 'only LC" at +4? Are we just feeding her too much, too often? Or too little, too seldom? What to try next? Thanks for any ideas you have as to how to stop or lessen the bounces.

Re: 8/21 Clare AMPS 346;+6-169;+10-357;PMPS-345;+2-396;+4-29

Someone had mentioned in a post that it seemed like when their kitty has a hairball they're working on, his BG goes up. So maybe that contributed to Clare's bounce today. She coughed up a really big one at AMPS +11. She seems to be sliding down again now (PMPS +4). We've only fed her LC so far this evening.

Wishing everyone a peaceful night.

Re: 8/21 Clare AMPS 346;+6-169;+10-357;PMPS-345;+2-396;+4-29

Did Clare get a shot this morning? Nothing showing on her spreadsheet.

I'm wondering if that amount of food late in the cycle is enough to drive up her preshots. We suggest ppl give a tsp of low carb food at +9 when their cat is nearing OTJ. You can tell if it is working when the preshot is then lower than without the bite. I'm not seeing that on Clare's ss. You might try reducing that +10 snack to 1 tsp or eliminating it. See if it lowers the following preshot numbers.

Just a thought to add to your bag of tricks.

I would consider going back to 0.25u also. It looks like she hasn't continued the green numbers once she cleared the bounce from the 40's. The guidelines suggest returning to the last good dose if you reduce and the green numbers don't hold.

Re: 8/21 Clare AMPS 346;+6-169;+10-357;PMPS-345;+2-396;+4-29

Hi Julie,

thanks for your thoughts about reducing or eliminating her +10 snack. I'll try that tonight and tomorrow. I also added the 0.1 dose to the AM slot in today's spreadsheet entry, since I forgot to put it in.

I'm not sure I'm ready to go back to the 0.25 dose and the "low greens." Since those last greens, Clare's been doing a lot of bouncing and I've been experimenting with the timing and amounts for giving her HC food earlier in her cycles to keep her from going too low. I'm sure that's been one of the factors giving her the higher numbers over the last couple of days, since I started out with 2 tsp of HC in +2 and +4, and that seemed to be too much, then lowered to 1 tsp in +2 and +4 this morning, and that also seemed to bring her too high. So I realize now that she's quite carb-sensitive.

The 40s a few days ago just scared me and I've been trying to figure out how to keep a floor under Clare so she doesn't go that low. But maybe it's inevitable? I'm new to this territory so I'm not really sure how it's supposed to go; and I'm afraid that I'll do something that's dangerous to Clare.

How do most people handle feeding when they've gotten to this lower-number neighborhood? I've been trying to read through others' notes and spreadsheets but I haven't yet gotten a general sense of the amount and timing of food, HC or MC or LC, that should be given during the cycles. I get a strong sense that ECID and that we'll need to find out for ourselves what works with Clare. I must say that it's a bit daunting.

Is there a place to start with a food regimen for Clare, now that she's hopefully near OTJ, that would be safe and good, and that we could use as a starting point, like we do with the insulin? Clare's getting to be a pretty good weight now (she was way underweight before) so I think we could establish a food routine and stick with it, rather than basically free-feeding with snacks and meals, like we've been doing. Night-time's still a bit of an issue, though. We have a timed feeder but Clare hasn't gotten used to using it during the night. She just goes to sleep and doesn't often wake up for mid-night meals unless I wake up and show her the bowl with the food in it.

I know these are a lot of questions and I apologize. I just feel like I'm in a new territory with these low numbers. When she's sliding and hits about 70, I start to panic a bit.

Thanks so much for your advice!

Re: 8/21 Clare AMPS 346;+6-169;+10-357;PMPS-345;+2-396;+4-29

You've got a lot of good questions.

My first thought is that Clare has gone so quickly in this that you may not have had enough time to develop confidence that you can steer her blood sugar with the use of carbs when she is in lower numbers. Non-diabetic cats often run in the 40's. We pull cats up from the 40's because we want that margin of safety when a cat is getting insulin. It is ideal to have a cat surfing for long stretches in green numbers. 70's are very safe. The goal is to keep cats between 50-120 as much as possible.

As far as your question about feeding schedule, I've been on vacation and want to look more at what you are doing now. I'll look and get back to you tomorrow about it.

Re: 8/21 Clare AMPS 346;+6-169;+10-357;PMPS-345;+2-396;+4-29

Yikes Clare - time to settle down a little!

Food experiments can take time. One or two cycles may not be enough time to see a difference. Also, cats differ on how carb sensitive they are, and some react different to some foods than another. For example, I just recently changed Neko from a high carb of Fancy Feast Gravy Lovers to Cowboy Cookout. Both are 18% carbs, but I need less of the Cowboy Cookout than I do of the Gravy Lovers to get the same effect.

Generally, when a kitty goes into green for the first time during a cycle, it's good to feed a tsp or two of LC food. That can help get them up on their surfboard. When kitties go low (below 50), there are different strategies, depending both on when in the cycle the low occurs, and the cat. Some cats only ever need a higher low carb food (8-9%), others need true high carb to get them up, some medium carb. Usually the later in the cycle, the effect of the insulin is waning, so you can move to slightly lower carb food. So where you might need HC in the first part of the cycle, MC might work in the mid to later part of the cycle, or maybe even just LC - depending on the cat. I usually recommend that people start with high carb for low numbers, and then once you've figured out how carb sensitive Clare is and you get experience in handling low numbers, you might be able to back off to medium or low carb food.

As for dose, since you did skip the shot 3 nights ago, you depleted the depot. You could wait a couple more cycles to fill the depot and see what .1U dose does, but if you don't see green by tomorrow night, I'd increase.