Last night Max dropped pretty quickly into the yellows for a little while. On the Libre it showed glucose rapidly falling so I stayed up to watch it for a while. I woke up to both the Libre and ReliOn reading HI. AlphaTrak was 638. Yesterday’s link https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/11-01-max-amps-437-2-421-4-427-6-420.254947/#post-2872093
I am assuming that this is a big bounce, or is it because I gave him medium carb before I went to bed late last night? I was so glad to see the yellows but the Libre said he was dropping fast on the indicator and it was so late last night so I gave him medium carb food. I still don’t know when his nadir is approximately going to be so I debated about giving him the medium carb. He had already eaten all of his food for dinner and a small snack 2 hrs after that. He’ was acting like he was starving and I was so tired I gave the MC. Maybe that was a very bad decision. How could I have prevented this from happening? Any advice is welcomed! I’m trying so hard, but I swear I think this cat is killing me!
It's probably a bounce from dropping so fast. What + times do you normally feed him? Maybe he needs something a little more than just a small snack at +2 or +2.5 to slow down the drops. Perhaps split his food into two meals more evenly sized.
@Wendy&Neko he is a big cat. He weighs 17 pounds, lost a pound in 3 weeks at last visit. I do split his food because if I don’t he will eat it too fast and vomit if it’s a whole can. So what I do is at shot time I give him 1/2 can FF, +2 another 1/4-1/2 can, +3 another 1/4 to 1/2 can. I add water because he won’t drink any water. Sometimes I give him another tsp with water at +4. I try to test 2 hrs from eating. It is all low carb except what I gave him last night. What do you suggest? It ends up being up to 4 cans FF per day.
Sorry, I never fed Fancy Feast so not sure how many calories that works out to. If he's losing weight, feed him some more calories. Maybe a little bit less food at shot time, so 1/4 can? and then 1/2 can at +2 then +3 as you are currently feeding. That's just a small tweak and it can take some time to see if a food change makes a difference. I fed Neko almost every hour for the first 3 hours too, plus she got a small meal just around nadir time (+9), though she wasn't consistent about the timing of her nadirs.
Okay I will try that. I basically do that except it’s every two hours instead of every hour. This is the way I fed him when he was on Lantus and I knew when his nadir would possibly be, but we don’t know yet on the Levemir. And it could be that his nadir is not consistent either. I guess it will take me some time to figure it out. Thanks for your suggestions. I will try it. I hope it comes down soon.
The onset tends to be later on Levemir than Lantus. The idea is to find at what point in the cycle he starts to drop/onset, and feed 1/2 hour or so before than so he has fresh carbs on board when the insulin starts working. It takes a while to figure out what's new on Levemir. I felt like a newbie all over again the first few weeks after the switch.
I can imagine you did. This whole thing with Max has me baffled all of the time. It feels like all trial and error. At least it’s easier to give him his shot now because it doesn’t sting him. Thanks for your help.
Feeding small amounts to try to offset dropping too fast and causing another bounce. It’s looking like he may do the same thing he did last night….maybe.
Hang in there, Lori! Those high numbers are awful to see. So sorry!! That steep drop! Now you know how to slow it down. I hope this bounce is short-lived. Hugs.
