Ashfur 3/9 AMPS 147 - new diet new dose really need help

Hello,

I'm just going to keep trying....maybe Ill figure this out one day.

Ashfur had a dose increase last week on friday 3/5 from 2.0 to 2.5 (LANTUS)
I feel terrible because I took away his dry food on 3/7 which I know is crazy now because of the dose increase.

I am seeing numbers now that are much lower. Actually the problem I am having is, his numbers are still pretty low when its time for day time dose again. As if the shot isn't wearing off soon enough. So I suppose that suggests the dose is too high?

Today its about time for his daily shot and his BG is 197 which is pretty low for him. This same thing happened yesterday. I suppose if I were to decide myself I would just take the dry food away completely and lower his dose and go from there.

Sorry I am posting daily questions. It doesn't hurt to try and get an answer... Thanks to anyone who decides to weigh in.

Previous Questions:

https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/posts/2756762/
https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/posts/2752504/
https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/posts/2749209/
https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/posts/2748584/

 

hi,

I cannot give dosing advice, but I copy and paste the reccomendation for SLGS:
After 1 week at a given dose perform a 12 hour curve, testing every 2 hours OR perform an 18 hour curve, testing every 3 hours. Note: Random spot checks are often helpful to "fill in the blanks" on kitty's spreadsheet. The goal is to learn how low the current dose is dropping kitty prior to making dose adjustments.

• If nadirs are more than 150 mg/dl (8.3 mmol/L), increase the dose by 0.25 unit
• If nadirs are between 90 (5 mmol/L) and 149 mg/dl (8.2 mmol/L), maintain the same dose
• If nadirs are below 90 mg/dl (5mmol/L), decrease the dose by 0.25 unit

You haven't completed a week in this dose yet, so you need to wait two more days. But given these numbers, you would stay in the same dose as the lowest nadir you saw is 132, and the numbers are coming dow with the change in food. I don't think you should reduce the dose unless you see something below 90.

The change in food can make a big difference for some cats, so be extra careful as you switch food.


I'll tag @tiffmaxee who more experience and can give you dosing advice

 

Thank you for taking the time to respond.
My vet answered me today and same advice was given. She said same dose and leave dry food out while I am at work and take it away when I get home (for now).

I was going to ask you if 200 is too low of a dose to shoot but I had a look at your kitties spreadsheet. I mean that gave me a lot of info just looking it over

I think Im just a little overly nervous. This dose is working and Im going to just keep with it.

Thanks again.

 

Oh! Don't follow me! I am a bit too brave sometimes
But with time you will get more confortable with lower numbers. I remember just a few months back panicking with my first blue number... Have you read all the info about how to deal with low numbers? The key is to be prepared and to get lots of data from your kitty, because every kitty is different! Hercules tend to respond quickly to ffod, and he very rarely refuses to eat. So that gives me the confidence, that we can handle low numbers. But you need to know how your cat will respond....

 

LOL I promise I wont base any decisions off your chart. BUT I've only been able to see a couple of them and it helps me in a sense know that low numbers can happen and you give great detail on how you fixed the problem etc.

I've been looking for a higher carb wet food to put in my cubby (just in case). I have honey & maple syrup. Do you know of any wet foods that are good high carb content by chance. Totally ok if not....Everytime I look at labels it seems like most are pretty low in carbs. Or maybe I just haven't looked at the right ones.

 

What country are you in?

There is a list of foods for USa and UK in this site. Ot you can use this calculator to calculate carb% of any food. Look at the last field - "Dry Matter Carbohydrates".
http://scheyderweb.com/cats/catfood.html

 

I am in the US - thank you I have not seen that site and Ive searched for apps and sites with no success. So that's great.

I would be looking for a can with more than 10% carbs to be high carb for hypo event right?

 

Hi! I'm still relatively new to this but have a couple of weeks head start on you...it feels like I've been doing this so much longer than a month!!

The ranges I was advised are LC <10%, MC 10-15%, HC >15%.

I got my info from this post - https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/dr-pierson-new-food-chart.174147/ which is associated with this site https://catinfo.org/. There is an online and pdf version and an excel version of the chart. I've used that list as my reference and from there, the foods I've been able to get most easily (Target, Walmart) have been

• HC: FF Gravy Lovers Beef
  
• MC: FF Gravy Lovers Chicken&Beef, Gravy Lovers Turkey, FF Sliced Beef in Gravy

I never bought her FF before, it makes me go cross-eyed looking at them all on the shelves! The Purina DM Selects (not pate) which I used to give Minnie regularly is just over 10% so now I'm keeping the rest of the case as a stash of (low) MC.

Good luck and happy shopping!

 

Since you are following SLGS, you'll know the dose is too high if you see a number under 90. You test enough to know you aren't missing that.

When people following SLGS are new, they don't shoot below 200. But as you gather data and experience, that number you shoot at can go down to 90.

Your subject line says March 9th, and the spreadsheet last entry says 3/9, but my calendar says today is 3/10 in North America. I also don't see that 197 you are referring too. Please make sure the spreadsheet is up to date when asking for dosing help. Opening the spreadsheet is the first thing I do.

 

I was away from home overnight last night to deal with a family emergency so My husband did Ashfur's shot. He has never actually done the whole process before but I have made him watch me many times just in case. We had a miscommunication and he gave him a reduced dose unintentionally. I am embarrassed that this huge communication failure even happened. When I got home today I had him show me how much he gave him and in the syringe it was about 1.75. SO now I don't know where to go from here. Can I just go back to the dose I was giving before the past 2 reduced doses? He seemed to do amazing on the 2.25 Or did we just mess everything up? Do I need to now start all over and wait a week and go up in dose slowly??
He is officially off of dry food and has been on a low carb wet food diet for the past 2 days and I plan to continue to have zero dry food avail.

 

Don't be embarrassed! Everyone makes mistakes. And at least it was an under-dose, not an over-dose.

Someone more experienced than me will be able to advise you on the dosing but a couple of tips - you can edit the title and select "?" as a prefix, which will get more attention to the post. Also (I haven't checked yet if you already did this) you probably want to start a new thread with today's date. People generally focus on the posts with the current date.

 

Ok Im going to post a new thread because I really have no idea what to do. His numbers were obviously high last night and today are also. Jeez my poor kitty. I wanted to just burst into tears so many times today.

 

I've been there. It does get easier, I promise. Minnie's numbers were in the pink/red/black range for MONTHS and only just started improving the last couple of weeks.

For your next post, you'll put as the title "? - 3/12 Ashfur AMPS 394, +2 328 - DOSING QUESTION, Under-dosed last night" (something like that! There's a little dropdown to select the ?)
Then as the first line of the message, paste the link to your previous (this) thread https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/thr...ew-dose-really-need-help.244458/#post-2758986
Then write your question.

Last night's higher numbers could be a bounce from the nice stretch of blues yesterday afternoon, not the result of the lower-dose last night. I'm still new to interpreting these numbers, so wait for a more expert response. Don't panic, you are in good hands here!

 

You are so kind to go as far to help me word the title. Thank you! From the bottom of my heart. I started to tear up. LOL I appreciate the support. Someone already responded it was ok to go back to the 2.25 tonight. Phew. I suppose I need to take a bit of a chill pill and not fret as much as I do about every little thing. I mean I WORRY ALL DAY!

 

I know exactly what you mean about the worrying. Is she hungry, is she peeing, is it time to check BG, is it time to check ketones, why isn't she drinking water, did I give her enough water, did I give her enough food, too much food, do her ears hurt, does the ointment help...etc. And I half think I'm going to give myself diabetes with all my own poor food choices though I spent hours reviewing carb/protein/fat %ages to pick the right food for her! You're not the only one, I promise.

Glad you got your question answered.