7/8 China AMPS 242,+2 289,+5 239,+9 230,PMPS 397,+2 423

Yesterday's condo

Good morning LL! Hope everyone had a nice weekend!

China's still not eating as much as I'd like her to, but I'm out of ideas on what to do about it. She did eat a little better yesterday when I gave her lots of little meals instead of 2 big meals, so we're going to try that instead

Got some calipers from my son last night so I'm going to be using them to make sure I don't have a repeat of yesterday! Now I just need to learn how to use them!

AMPS 242

 

Re: 7/8 China AMPS 242,+2 289,+5 239,+9 230

Is she losing weight?

Wendy

 

Re: 7/8 China AMPS 242,+2 289,+5 239,+9 230

C'mon lil China - eat your fuds! Sending good appy vines your way and good luck with the calipers. I have some and I love them (even though I'm using them incorrectly :lol: ) See if you can find Marje's write up on how to calculate mm to units and you'll be just fine. Seems China is feeling sunny today, maybe she will take a dip in the lagoon later? Take care guys!

 

Wendy, she's not losing, but she's also not gaining. She was so skinny when we first got the FD diagnosis and I was hoping once we got into treatment some, she'd start to gain a little back. At her prime, she weighed about 10.5-11lbs...at Dx, she was only 8.5lbs

One of the big reasons I took her in was because of the weight loss...you could feel her hip and backbones way too easily...I was thinking thyroid more than diabetes though. I've had several older cats in my life that have had thyroid issues, so it was the first thing I thought of.

I'm MUCH happier using the calipers, but her numbers today make me think she might have been getting a drop or two more when I was "eyeballing" it. She hasn't had a big drop, so I'm not at all sure when these highs are coming from

I guess since I was trying to give her a "Heavy" .75, I could recalibrate the calipers to .80 or.85 and see where she goes tomorrow

What do you think?


AMPS 242
+2 289
+5 239
+9 230

PMPS 397
+2 423

 

You aren't dialing in .75 mm on the calipers and thinking its .75u are you? Because it probably isn't.

The way to figure the dosing with the calipers is to find a perfect syringe where the zero line is exactly where it should be and then measure the distance in mm from the needle side of the one unit line to the needle side of the zero line. Typically members get 10 drops to the unit but some dose a little differently.

Lets say you get 10 drops to the unit and the distance you measure as described above is 1.5mm. That would mean every dose change is .15mm. In this example, .8u would be 1.2mm and .7u would be 1.05mm. And your .75u dose would be in between....approximately 1.12 mm.

Make sense?

 

I let my son do it because they're his calipers and he said that 1 unit was right at 100/1000th, so .75 would be 75/1000....but I'll definitely look at the numbers you provided and spend some more time with the syringes. I had to go over to his house to get the calipers and grabbed a syringe to take with me (it was close to midnight) He's always had a real fear of needles, so even with what we all know is a really tiny one, he wouldn't let me take the cap off to get a good look at the lines/plunger, but he did say that between 5u and 6u was 100/1000...but I didn't see it. He set it, locked it and I had to get back home.

I'd remembered something about seeing the number 15 when discussing figuring dosage with calipers, but didn't have the site available at the time

How do I measure drops per unit?

Did you mean this, or is it the needle side of the zero and end of the plunger line? (I know that didn't make sense, but from looking at the close ups of the pictures, there's the "hub" (or rings) of the needle side, and then at the 1u line, it looks like the "top" of the plunger

Oh, and they're B/D syringes

 

I'm using calipers with B/D syringes. I found 1 unit is about 1.6mm, I heard someone else uses 1.5mm. That would make .75U about 1.2mm or 1.125mm, depending on what you use for 1 unit. The exact number you use is not as important as being consistent. I like the 1.6 mm per one unit, because the .25U deductions are then .4mm and I can find a fat dose in between at .2mm difference. My current box of syringes is pretty good and the lines aren't far off from what I think I'm measuring using calipers. I had a previous box where some syringes were out by .5U. :shock:

To measure drops per unit, fill a used syringe with some colored water, or juice, tea, etc. to one unit. Then twist the plunger to form a drop at the end. Remove and twist again. Count how many drops you get in the one unit. It does depend on the drop size, so try to get it consistent. Depending on the quality of the box of B/D syringes, I sometimes find it hard to be consistent as some syringes were harder to twist than others, so that's another reason I went to the calipers.

 

Looks like I'm going to be spending some time counting drops tomorrow to see how many drops I'm getting. I have to think (due to her numbers today) that she really didn't get .75, especially when you say that .75 would be more in the 1.2mm range instead of .75.....and I think her numbers prove she wasn't getting enough, Now the hard part is figuring out if We want her to continue on the .75...and again, can't really answer that without knowing 100% sure where .75 IS on the calipers

It's been too long ago since I did any higher mathmatics , but I feel much better about dosing her with the calipers so she's getting the exact same amount at each shot instead of my best guess

 

Chris

To calculate the distance in mm in 1u with the calipers, you don't even need the plunger. Wendy is pretty cautious with her dosing and so you might want o use her numbers as a starting point. Grab a syringe, draw in the colored water and then measure to 1.2 mm as Wendy said her .75u in the BDs is and see if that's about what you've been dosing as .75u. If it is, then you can also count drops so you have a backup system.

Be sure the calipers are set to millimeters and not inches. That could make a huge difference. Once you figure out what mm amount is your dose, just leave the calipers set at that.

And as Wendy said...most important is consistency. I made up a chart that has each dose from 2u to zero and what the caliper reading is for each; each of my .1u dose changes is always .15mm on the calipers so my dose changes are consistent. I use Terumo syringes, though, so you are better off to go with Wendy's measurements as a starting point.