1/12 Sami AMPS 209 - PMPS 264

Yesterday's Condo

Sami is looking good so far. I will continue on the one unit dose for a few more shots then reevaluate to determine if I want to try increasing the dose slightly. I think I might try an increase of .25 starting the in the morning of the 14th. But that is only if she stays in the yellow. Now that I I have finally gotten my point across to my Husband about the dry food I think we should be certain she won't get any. Plus, I hid all the contraband food so my husband would actually have to go looking for it in order to break the rules.

I have noticed this morning that the other cats seem to be missing the dry food. I am not sure what I am going to do about that but I will have to figure something out.

 

Re: 1/12 Sami AMPS 209

Hi Tina

glad to hear u hid the dry food, this should help the numbers and see where Sami will will go with this.

As for the other cats on dry food, check out Dr Lisa's website for more tips, you prob already did for Sami, might help to get a refresher.

One thing I am very glad I did when we got the diagnosis is we switched our non-diabetic to wet food too, pretty much - it is easier to feed both cats the same food instead of keeping guard, plus the most important reasons - do I really want to risk having another diabetic cat? And also the healthy benefits to wet food (smoother coat, and real food instead of grains and fillers) and ever since switching the civie, she doesn't woof food down so much and doesn't throw up as much as she use to.

I'm glad to hear Sami is doing well, I think you are doing a good job too - something to be proud of!
Have a great day

 

Re: 1/12 Sami AMPS 209

Hi Ronnie,

I have pretty much switched the other cats over to wet food too. However, after testing one of my non-diabetic cats this morning and getting a reading of 56 shortly after she ate I started to get concerned that her and her brother might be slightly hypoglycemic. Cody has been kind of sluggish the last day or so and I don't know why. I pulled the two of them into the bathroom with me while I took a shower and gave them some dry food. Hopefully I will see some improvement with Cody this afternoon. I might even attempt to check his BG just to be sure, but he is a big baby and doesn't even let me cut his nails without major distractions.

I am also hoping to see Sami in the 100's tonight at her PMPS. Without the dry food it is entirely possible. She was at 185 at +2 this morning.

 

Re: 1/12 Sami AMPS 209

Nothing to worry about, a cat who is not recieving insulin cannot be hypoglycemic. I have to laugh when people say of I think my BG is to low, cause I haven't eaten. It is nearly impossable to be "hypo" without injecting insulin. BG is tightly regulated by numerous hormones in the body. Mammals have a mean BG of about 90 mg/dl ( as measured on an appropriate maschine) in a non-diabetic who is not on any medications that can affect BG (cortisone, insulin..) the BG rarely ever goes over 100 mg/dl (prehaps breifly after a high carb meal) and almost never goes goes below 60 mg/dl. The "feeling" of being hypo that some people experience when they have been fasting is caused by the release of catacholamines and other neurtransmitters in response to hunger. Actually the opposite is true that when we measure the BG of these people they tend to be higher than normal, because the "hunger hormones" stimulate the liver to release stored glucose (glucagon) to keep energy levels up. These are the same hormones that get released when our diabetic cats experience rebound.

My sugar kitty who has been OTJ for 5 months regularly has BG below 50 mg/dl and his civie 1/2 brother (who is a piggy) has measured in the 50's and 60's. These are prefectly normal non-diabetic numbers, they appear low (since "normal" BG is 60-110) but typically our human meters measure slightly lower when used on a cat.

Just a side note. There are a few conditions which can cause hypoglycemia in the absence of exogenous insulin adminstration. Most are very rare disorders, such as an insulinoma, which is an insulin producing tumor of the pancreas, or hypocortisolism (the failure of the body to produce cortison which raises BG) extreme starvation can lead to hypoglycemia but generally causes Ketoacidosis first as the body begins burning it's own muscle as a source of energy.

The civies are likely lower if they haven't had dry food, which isn't good for them anyway.

 

Re: 1/12 Sami AMPS 209

Hi Monique,

That is good information to know. Thanks for sharing it.

 

Re: 1/12 Sami AMPS 209

Hi Tina
I know how hard it is to get all the cats to eat one kind of food. Max has 2 civvi sisters, one only weighs 7 pounds.
I am too afraid to have any dry food in the house.
I bought Origins which is supposed to be only meat and very good for Diabetes
in case the others need to crunch and Max got into it.
It has been a month now that I have had to use it.
The sisters now come for the wet food. It is just a matter of finding
the flavours they like.
NIce numbers for Sami though.

 

I am 99% sure there was no dry food eaten today, but her pre-shot number is slightly higher than yesterday's pre-shot and this morning’s pre-shot. The only thing I am not sure of is how long ago she ate. I try to leave food out during the day just in case the cats get hungry, but I don't have any idea when they eat it.

I am so tempted to increase her dose by .25 tomorrow morning. I know I really should go one more day at 1 unit, but I would really like to see her in the blue. I know everyone is going to say wait another day, and I know I probably should and I can't see her getting way out of control in just one day, but is there anyone who would support my thought about increasing tomorrow morning?

 

Tina
I know a lot of people on the board use the Petsafe 5 meal feeder. I almost
bought one on the weekend but I do have someone home all day feeding Max on schedule.
I was thinking more about getting one for night time and weekends.
You might want to consider getting one (or several for multi cats?) so that
Sami eats on a regular basis during the day if you are not home.
This is good for maintaining even BG's.

 

I have thought about getting a pet feeder, but with 5 cats I would never know who ate what. Although I don't really know that now. Also, do the cats learn when the food is going to become available or do they just keep checking back. Can you the time to keep the food available for a specifc amount of time?

By the way, I talked to the Vet, and she recommends that we stick with the 1 unit for another week. She said that they consider a cat regulated went they are in the range Sami is now. I would really like to see Sami in the 80-under 200 range all the time so I will continue to talk to the vet about increasing the dose if that is what it takes. For now we will keep it at 1 unit, and see what happens.

 

As I said yesterday, the guidelines most of us follow here have us hold the dose for 10 cycles if the dose brings blue, to be sure we have allowed enough time to see if that will be a breakthrough dose. That would mean waiting two more cycles. Sami is getting quite a bit of blue on this dose, and also if dry food is usually in the picture but has been removed today, that could affect the numbers tomorrow too. However, Sami is your cat so ultimately you can decide what you're comfortable doing!

 

Thanks for your input. I actually talked to the vet today and she also recommended keeping the dose where it is, but she wants to hold it here for another week. Which I probably will do since we got a 169 at +3 after the PM dose. I will try to check her BG one more time during the night and see where she is in the morning, but things are looking good so far.

Her curve seems to have changed a bit too. Before when she was on the dry food she was dropping all the way up to her next shot, but now it seems like she is falling more in line with her lowest point being between + 3 and +6. I will continue to monitor to see how things change over the next few days and then maybe do a more detailed curve on Saturday or Sunday.

Thanks for all the help and advice.

 

You might want to review the Tilly Protocol. It would not make sense to not change a dose if a decrease is earned any more than not increasing if a dose isn't holding. Unless your vet has access to your SS on a daily basis, it sounds like the amount of time to spend on the dose is arbitrary.

 

I emailed my spreadsheet to the doctor today so she will have the information for the future. I agree if a decrease is warranted then I will definitely make the change, but for now it looks like the numbers are doing good. You can seem my additional comments on Sami's condo for 1/13.