? 10/30 Phoebe PMPS 486

Maggie&Phoebe

Member Since 2020
I know it's quite late (5:21PM my time), but after work and everything else I just successfully stuck Phoebe (the FIRST TIME!!!) and got a BG result of 486. I'm using the ReliOn Prime meter.

She has recovered a lot of her mobility - no more serious balance issues and she's been a little more herself than she has been for a couple of days.

She ate 1/3 a can of FF with some kibble as seasoning at 9:00AMish and 1/6 of a can of FF around 1:40PM.

She has not had a shot since 8:40AM yesterday (10/29). Reminder - vet said 1 unit Lantus x2.

Advice on what I should do at this point? I will be setting up the spreadsheet but wanted to pop on as soon as I could.

Thank you to everyone that's been following our little journey thus far. I've honestly been a hot mess today, so I'm glad to have the meter and KNOW what her BG is doing.
 
Hi Maggie, it's great that you could start home testing Phoebe! If you have any difficulty setting up the spreadsheet, let me know and I can help you with it. :-)
 
Congrats on getting a test! When do you want to be her shot time? Keep in mind daylight savings time and the resetting if the clocks. I would be inclined to get some more tests tonight and restart tomorrow morning because you will need to test more often the first few shots. If she had an active hypo she may be more sensitive to insulin. You could feed her the lc food and test 2-3 hours after she eats to see what that does. You can add the dry to entice heras you did. I’d almost consider that for a few days. An alternative would be to start with .50 in the morning. What do you feel about that?
 
well, my initial thought was to have her shot time be 8:30, but if we should pick their food up 2 hours before possibly shooting, I'm thinking we should kick it later - but I'm going to discuss that with the man friend. And think you are probably right just monitoring her tonight and starting fresh in the morning, and also considering a smaller dose to see how that effects her to start.

Does anyone have any advice on free feeding wet food (and how to stop my greedy gus boys from eating all of her food if we do that?)
 
Free feeding wet food is fine. Just pick up the food as you know two hours before you test for her insulin so it’s not a food influenced bg. I used to feed several small meals in each cycle but free feeding is fine. Now with two there you might need to isolate her or get an auto feeder that only she can open and set it every hour.
 
well, my initial thought was to have her shot time be 8:30, but if we should pick their food up 2 hours before possibly shooting, I'm thinking we should kick it later - but I'm going to discuss that with the man friend. And think you are probably right just monitoring her tonight and starting fresh in the morning, and also considering a smaller dose to see how that effects her to start.

Does anyone have any advice on free feeding wet food (and how to stop my greedy gus boys from eating all of her food if we do that?)

If your shot time is 8:30 and she has an active cycle are you okay with setting an alarm to wake up and check her 4 or 6 hours laterite needed? It would not be every night.
 
If we leave it at 8:30, yes, because I'm typically up until between 12:00 and 1AM anyway. And my boyfriend is almost completely nocturnal, so provided he can get used to sticking, it shouldn't be a problem to get at +4 or +5 from me, or longer out from him.

Do you think we can take the food up at 1:00AM, provided we test before morning shot? I don't want to stress her system, but I won't be able to cope with late nights and early mornings (waking up to remove their food at 6:30AM).
 
Another option for late night feeding is an autofeeder, but it might only work if the other kitties play fair, or have their own feeders with the same food at the same time.

With a newly diagnosed cat on dry food, that means starting SLGS. Even if you don't have blood sugar numbers for the spreadsheet, could you put the units of insulin she has received so far on those days? If it's one unit, just put 1.0 in the Units cell for that day, AM or PM depending when you gave it. The history of when she's received shots help us figure out what the depot is doing. If you didn't give a shot, either put NS (for no shot) or Skip for skipping the shot.
 
If we leave it at 8:30, yes, because I'm typically up until between 12:00 and 1AM anyway. And my boyfriend is almost completely nocturnal, so provided he can get used to sticking, it shouldn't be a problem to get at +4 or +5 from me, or longer out from him.

Do you think we can take the food up at 1:00AM, provided we test before morning shot? I don't want to stress her system, but I won't be able to cope with late nights and early mornings (waking up to remove their food at 6:30AM).

That’s good then. You will be able to pick up the food at 1:00 a.m. as long as she’s not too low. They make auto feeders with a chip in them and the cat wears a collar so only that cat can open it. I know Susanne has to lock Jax in a different room with his feeder so the other cats don’t eat it. Hers doesn’t have a chip.
 
Welcome to the vampire club - well done you are scaling the steep learning curve admirably :)

can you also add that she’s had ketones to your signature please. That’s another factor that can affect the advice offered.
 
Ketones make a difference. I think you need to shoot in the morning for sure knowing this.

that is my plan...just trying to decide about .5 or 1 units - but I'm assuming that will be decided by her AMPS number.

She's also really hating my guts with the pokes...(i had to stick her twice to get that second test). :arghh:
 
The trick is to give a treat after you poke. I used freeze dried chicken or Turkey. Any flavor is fine as long as 100% protein.

Lantus is dosed based upon how low it takes your cat and not the pretest. You test first to see if the bg is high enough to shoot. You then feed to make sure they will eat. It’s not necessary to eat a lot because Lantus likely won’t onset for two hours so you have time. You just want them to be willing to eat a little. Then you shoot. Because we don’t know if her symptoms were due to going low is the reason I was thinking .50 instead of 1.0. But with another skipped shot tonight, if you will be home and can test every few hours until she stops dropping and if you are going to feed mostly low carb I would suggest .75. Post in the morning with her AMPS bg and then we can decide.
 
She's also really hating my guts with the pokes...(i had to stick her twice to get that second test). :arghh:

Make sure the ear is really warm first. When you think it's warm enough, keep going for another 15 seconds. A sock with some rice or oatmeal makes a good, reusable way to warm the ear or you can use a small pill bottle filled with warm water or a washrag rinsed in warm water and put into a baggie. Always test against your wrist like a baby bottle to make sure it's not too hot.

With the ketones in the picture and the neurological symptoms from yesterday, I'd try .75 tomorrow as long as you're going to be home and able to test.
 
trying to decide if I should test her or feed her more and then test her in 1.5 hours (before I go to bed)....Mike didn't feed her when I asked him too, so her last food at this point was about 1 tsp of FF at 8:15 (right after her last test) or so (it's now 12:30).
 
You’ll need to learn a new language for time. Everyone is in different time zones so we refer to everything as + however much time has elapsed since the last shot so we can all understand.

Let her eat if she wants to. Doesn’t look like she’s going to do much tonight but a before bed test is always a good thing, you never know when they’re going to throw you a surprise.
 
It’s nice to see you back posting and learning!!! :bighug:

Glad to hear that you have begun testing and that kitty is feeling better today!!
 
532 at +7 from first test...she hasn't eaten in 5 hours. we are going to give her some LC food and possibly test again before really going to bed. She has decided now is a great time to play with a catnip toy though...
 
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