9/11 Zener PMPS 161;+2 223;+3 212 New dose A Trak

Zener's Condo 9/10/11

Happy Sunday in LL,
We think we may have turned a corner with Zener eating wet food! Yesterday he ate some lower carb food (5% Fancy Feast Chunky Chicken Feast) for the first time, mixed in with his 11% carbs and even a small amount without mixing! We have paws crossed that we can start gradually mixing lower carbs with the medium and reduce his carbs overall slowly.

Yesterday's summary
9/10/11 Zener Alpha Trak
AMPS 355, 5th cycle @ sk 1.25, 1.3oz 11%
+1 0.5oz 11%
+2 269, 0.3oz 11%
+3 299, not hungry
+6 246, 0.7oz 11%
+9 1oz 11%
+10 437, FDCK
PMPS 389, 6th cycle @ sk 1.25, 0.7oz 11%
+2 385, 1oz 11%
+3 316, 1oz 11% + 1t. 5%
+7 433, 1.3oz 5%

Today
9/11/11 Zener Alpha Trak
AMPS 342, 0.5oz 11% + 0.2oz 5%
+2 1oz 11%
+3 316, 0.5oz 11%

Zener is more interested in playing his favorite game "stick and string" with Liz right now than having his +3 breffis. It's so nice to see him wanting to play!

This looks like the 6th cycle of a bounce, and we also started a skinny dose when he was in blues before this bounce began. We are having trouble telling when it is a failed dose and when it is a bounce, but that's nothing new. Would love opinions and advice from more experienced eyes whether to stay the course with the skinny 1.25, depending on if the numbers remain high after this cycle, or move back up to his last good dose, the 1.25u?
(When I have written with this question before, it stimulates his numbers to drop, so paws crossed!)

Re: 9/11 Zener AMPS 342;+3 316;+6 198 Dose ? A Trak

Oops, guess I shouldn't have jinxed the low carb food eating by putting it in Zener's condo, he reads it from time to time. ;-)
We played the game of "how many cans of food can we have open before we find one Zener will eat", which we haven't played in a few weeks. Oh well, this time it was medium carbs darn it. Thought he needed to eat something since we had quite a drop at +6, and back into blue! :smile:

Today
9/11/11 Zener Alpha Trak
AMPS 342, 0.5oz 11% + 0.2oz 5%
+2 1oz 11%
+3 316, 0.5oz 11%
+6 198, 0.7 13%

We will see what happens later this cycle and keep paws crossed at 6 cycles, this may be the bounce breaking one! :roll:

Re: 9/11 Zener AMPS 342;+3 316;+6 198 Dose ? A Trak

Zener...u wants me to sends ma petsitter ur way??
he feeds any ol thing we beg fur!!

Binks :lol:

and a bump for experienced eyes...

celi

Re: 9/11 Zener AMPS 342;+3 316;+6 198 Dose ? A Trak

Anne and Liz

I looked at his SS and back through his condos and I'm not really sure why you reduced him to sk1.25u on 9/8. Yes, he was at 86 (56 on human meter) on PM 9/6 cycle.....but that is not a number to reduce at and just because you skipped the shot, you don't get a reduction. Esp because then he bounced for two cycles and you took him down. IMHO, if he doesn't come down today and stay down (clear the bounce), I'd take him back up to 1.25u tonight.

Good luck!!

Re: 9/11 Zener AMPS 342;+3 316;+6 198 Dose ? A Trak

come on down, Zener!

See where he is at PMPS. Unless he is low blue, I would increase. Zener has a late nadir, so you're going to need to train yourselves that it's ok to see his lowest numbers at shot time (and that means you'll need to learn to shoot lower numbers than some people do). See on the 6th, when you skipped the shot, how he already had doubled his reading two hours later? Most of the time, unless he is clearing a bounce, his +2 is way higher than his preshot. Occasionally he drops, but his usual pattern is to rise fast, so on those occasions when he does decide to drop you can always feed to control those.

Re: 9/11 Zener AMPS 342;+3 316;+6 198 Dose ? A Trak

Thanks Celi for the bump and Binks for the offer of sharing your petsitter! Zener can be very finicky and we try to be grateful he is eating wet food at all!

Re: 9/11 Zener AMPS 342;+3 316;+6 198 A Trak

scrambled eggs are the best!!!
binks

don't listen to him Zener...his appetite may be why we're back! :lol: :lol:

celi

Re: 9/11 Zener AMPS 342;+3 316;+6 198 Dose ? A Trak

Marjorie and Gracie said:

I looked at his SS and back through his condos and I'm not really sure why you reduced him to sk1.25u on 9/8. Yes, he was at 86 (56 on human meter) on PM 9/6 cycle.....but that is not a number to reduce at and just because you skipped the shot, you don't get a reduction. Esp because then he bounced for two cycles and you took him down. IMHO, if he doesn't come down today and stay down (clear the bounce), I'd take him back up to 1.25u tonight.

Click to expand...

Thanks Marje, we were thinking along the sames lines and just needed confirmation we were making the best choice. We've used skinny doses a couple of times when we was close to a reduction and we were having to feed quite a bit of high carbs. Perhaps at these lower doses now, that's not the best choice and we need to hang on for earned reductions. We sure don't like red and pink numbers and are getting a little more courage! We'll see what his numbers tonight are. We have a yoga class tonight when we would normally get his +10, so are planning on a +9 and see what's happening then. Thanks for your help!
:YMHUG:

Re: 9/11 Zener AMPS 342;+3 316;+6 198 A Trak

mybuddybinks said:

scrambled eggs are the best!!!
binks

don't listen to him Zener...his appetite may be why we're back! :lol: :lol:

celi

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:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
We needed that laugh, thanks!

Re: 9/11 Zener AMPS 342;+3 316;+6 198 Dose ? A Trak

Libby and Lucy said:

come on down, Zener!

Click to expand...

He must be reading his condo again and is following your direction!

Libby and Lucy said:

See where he is at PMPS. Unless he is low blue, I would increase. Zener has a late nadir, so you're going to need to train yourselves that it's ok to see his lowest numbers at shot time (and that means you'll need to learn to shoot lower numbers than some people do). See on the 6th, when you skipped the shot, how he already had doubled his reading two hours later? Most of the time, unless he is clearing a bounce, his +2 is way higher than his preshot. Occasionally he drops, but his usual pattern is to rise fast, so on those occasions when he does decide to drop you can always feed to control those.

Click to expand...

Thanks Libby!
We've decided in addition to a pair of patience pants, we need some courage britches! ;-) We are still so anxious that on our difficult work days of Mon and Wed, he'll be on the express train and we will not be able to get home to check. nailbite_smile

It does help to have more data now to see if there are patterns, but you are much better at seeing them than we are. More practice needed by us! We'll get another check in this cycle before we get his PMPS and see what the numbers show. Zener loves to give us surprises! cat_pet_icon

Re: 9/11 Zener PMPS 161 New dose A Trak

Well, after much support from Marje and Libby, we pulled on our courage pants and shot the new 1.25 dose with Zener in a blue surf. nailbite_smile

Today
9/11/11 Zener Alpha Trak
AMPS 342, 0.5oz 11% + 0.2oz 5%
+2 1oz 11%
+3 316, 0.5oz 11%
+6 198, 0.7 13%
+9 172 FDCK treat @ poke
PMPS 161, 1st cycle @ 1.25u, 1oz 11%

Liz and I 'cussed and discussed what we wanted to do when we saw his 161 PMPS, blues since +6 today, so we think the bounce has broken. We were a little nervous about shooting the 1.25 tonight because tomorrow is a busy day for us and it will be difficult to monitor him during mid-cycle. Tuesday will be better for us and we almost talked ourselves into waiting another 24 hours. I was about to measure up the sk1.25, when Zener ran across the living room and outside into his back yard, across the yard to the far corner and proceeded to "do his business". He ran back in and plopped down on his catnip sock. That burst of feeling good energy was enough motivation for us to pull on our courage pants and shoot the full 1.25. I'm prepared to be up tonight if necessary and one of us will be here in the early and late parts of his cycle tomorrow. Keep your paws crossed for us!
cat_pet_icon

Re: 9/11 Zener PMPS 161 New dose A Trak

Anne, I hear you about being freaked out with shooting at "low" numbers. I had to pull out the big girl pants the first time Smokey and I got there. It still makes me nervous, especially when I've got to be at work during nadir. My biggest fear is that I'm going to come home to an unresponsive Smokers and am always tempted to reduce when I prob shouldn't. Good luck!

Come on Zener- be nice for your bean!

Re: 9/11 Zener PMPS 161 New dose A Trak

Thanks for the words of encouragement! When we waiver, we think of his high numbers and then our courage goes up. Zener is such a sweetheart, lets us poke his ears, gives him shots, makes him eat that nasty wet food and hardly complains a bit. Ok, he does hate the zobaline pill but still takes it without too much whining. We also have a lot of faith in our advisors here in LL. We couldn't do it without you!
Liz

Re: 9/11 Zener PMPS 161 New dose A Trak

Good luck with the new dose Anne. So nice to hear Zener is feeling good, too. I think that burst of energy was Zener saying it's ok Mom and let's go! Have a good night.

Re: 9/11 Zener PMPS 161 New dose A Trak

Thanks, Ann! It sure is nice to see him feeling better and doing the things he likes to do, like prowling around his yard. When his appetite falters, I tell him that eating is how he gets energy to protect his yard and then he eats a little more. I know he understands what I'm telling him!
Liz

Re: 9/11 Zener PMPS 161 New dose A Trak

I feel you on those courage pants!!! Hopefully Zener lets you sleep tonight, but if not Jetta and will likely be up with you.

Re: 9/11 Zener PMPS 161;+2 223 New dose A Trak

Looks like his nadir today was at PMPS and now going up. We were nervous Zener would take the express elevator right off the bat, just because. :lol:
At +1, he came over to his special footstool (where we test and feed) and hopped up to tell us he was ready for his +1 snack and to let us test so we could chill out a little. We don't often get a +1, usually +2 and/or +3. Zener is such a trooper!
dancing_cat

Today
9/11/11 Zener Alpha Trak
AMPS 342, 0.5oz 11% + 0.2oz 5%
+2 1oz 11%
+3 316, 0.5oz 11%
+6 198, 0.7 13%
+9 172 FDCK treat @ poke
PMPS 161, 1st cycle @ 1.25u, 1oz 11%
+1 223, 0.3oz 11%

Thanks to all for your support and encouragement, we are so grateful to everyone here in LL.

Re: 9/11 Zener PMPS 161;+2 223 New dose A Trak

You're definitely not the only one, Ann! I too was soooo nervous when Willie started throwing low numbers because I work full-time half an hour from home 4 days a week. Ultimately, I had to have faith that he would be okay, and he was. I've learned to adjust our schedule so I can get an indication of where his numbers are headed while I'm gone. I shoot at 6:30, and work most days 9:30 to 6:00, which means I can get a +2.5 out the door. If he's zooming, then I can use food to put the brakes on and can leave out some HC if needed.

The other advantage to being aggressive is that you can hopefully get your dose down lower... it is very unlikely that a cat will hypo on microdoses, so it helps the nerves when you have to be gone.

Just keep at it... you're doing great!

Re: 9/11 Zener PMPS 161;+2 223 New dose A Trak

Christie & Willie said:

You're definitely not the only one, Ann! I too was soooo nervous when Willie started throwing low numbers because I work full-time half an hour from home 4 days a week. Ultimately, I had to have faith that he would be okay, and he was. I've learned to adjust our schedule so I can get an indication of where his numbers are headed while I'm gone. I shoot at 6:30, and work most days 9:30 to 6:00, which means I can get a +2.5 out the door. If he's zooming, then I can use food to put the brakes on and can leave out some HC if needed.

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Thanks for the support Christie! We need to work on the having faith part too! Liz and I have our schedules worked out on most days so that one of us can get morning tests up to +3, a mid-cycle test and be home in time to get a late cycle test before PMPS. We feel really lucky to have that flexibility. And we shifted our schedules to early in the AM so that it would work out like you did. The hard part for us is that Zener rarely will self-feed because of his poor appetite. So we often have to follow him around and give it 2 or 3 goes with the bowl before he will eat enough.

Christie & Willie said:

The other advantage to being aggressive is that you can hopefully get your dose down lower... it is very unlikely that a cat will hypo on microdoses, so it helps the nerves when you have to be gone.

Just keep at it... you're doing great!

Click to expand...

Yes, we will keep repeating the shoot low to go low mantra. We are encouraged by knowing that as we get his dose lower, going hypo is less likely! Thanks for all the encouragement!

Wow, this is almost like a "regular" cycle with a slight increase @+1 and starting to go down at +3!

Today
9/11/11 Zener Alpha Trak
AMPS 342, 0.5oz 11% + 0.2oz 5%
+2 1oz 11%
+3 316, 0.5oz 11%
+6 198, 0.7 13%
+9 172 FDCK treat @ poke
PMPS 161, 1st cycle @ 1.25u, 1oz 11%
+1 223, 0.3oz 11%
+2 0.9oz 11%
+3 212, 0.5oz 13%

We've had a little trouble with him eating tonight, being picky. Zener is feeling very good tonight, playing with toys and hiding under Liz's knees with a blanket over her legs, a game we call "tent". Had a thunderstorm earlier but kitties still went out to check the backyard, after all the action. Will be using the water alarm tonight to get a mid-cycle check at the new dose. ;-) Hope everyone has a quiet and peaceful Sunday evening and is well rested for the new week.

i'm gonna trust that you'll appreciate the humor in this little video - your talk of courage pants made me think of it. one of my high school friends sent it to me today. and i used to be a youth minister, so all the christian joking is just in good fun. hope it doesn't offend you.

http://videos2view.net/thongs.htm

Very funny! I've seen a fecal nightmare or two in my lifetime. What a crack-up!