4/17 Toeby AMPS 295, +4 75, +5 113, PMPS 342, +3 330

I am quite sure he received a good shot this evening (i.e. no fur shot), 0.25 unit, but his BG's did not really drop as of 3 hours after his supper.
He did eat well today, and had a snack immediately before the check at +3 this evening.

I am going to do a +1 or +2 test tomorrow to see if he is dropping fast in the mornings.

Previous thread:
https://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB...4-3-293-dose-reduced-today.246238/#navigation

 

Hi Laura,
Toeby is bouncing this evening from the green 4.2 this morning.
This is a normal thing for newly diagnosed diabetic kitties to do so don’t be concerned.
It looks like 0.25U is a good dose at the moment.

I think a test at +1 and +2 in the am cycle is a good idea to see if he is dropping fast.
I would offer a small snack when you do those tests to try and slow any drop.

 

Thanks for this... I kind of intuitively felt high numbers in the back half of the day might be because of the low numbers in the morning, but most of the time I seem to be wrong so.... lol.
Nice to hear you say things are okay.
I am wondering if his BG's don't plummet in the morning because they have seem quite low at hour 3, and then seem to go up quite quickly after that.
That's why I think I should try and see what he is doing in hour 1 and 2.
But no rush, I will keep plugging along.
He felt good this morning for those first few hours, full of P and V, which we love to see.

Bron, he has always had food available most of the day because he and his brother like to graze...
I did stop leaving Dr. Elsey's out for them to pick at since I started posting here the other day.
The manufacturer is undergoing a shortage in supply right now - I wonder if they are changing their formulation to include something easier to procure that is higher in carbs.
If, in fact, it is low carb, it is a good thing for the cats to pick at, but I'm having doubts.

We do pick food up 2 hours before his supper time shot at 8 pm.
We're not always up at 6 am to pick up the bowls - however, usually he and his brother have cleaned up any leftovers by 6 am, or it is so dried out they won't eat what's left, regardless.
We keep the food moist when we're up and about to keep it palatable.
So, when you say "offer a snack", I think as long as he has food in his dish, he's okay?
(I would only offer him higher carb treats if his BG was low.)
Laura

 

The Dr Elseys is supposed to be low carb. I don’t know if they are changing the formula. You would have to ask them.
But dry food generally is not good for cats, even if it is low carb because it has low moisture.
If you were only feeding a small amount it would probably be Ok as long as it was low carb. But wet food is best.
But if you are not there and you need to leave food out for them to be safe, I can understand why you leave out the dry.
Have you thought of freezing some canned food, leaving it out and the cats eating it as it unfreezes?
Have you looked at the freeze dried foods. They are low carb and freeze dried.

Letting them graze is fine as long as you pick up 2 hours before.
I mention snacks at those times as food then could slow down any fast drop and potentially stop a bounce. But bouncing is common and some cats can bounce all the way to remission. My Sheba was a huge bouncer. And a diver.
Knowing he has eaten at +1 and +2 is the thing if you are going to work out a strategy to slow the drops.

 

He and his brother currently eat Stella & Chewy freeze dried turkey and chicken (reconstituted) and whatever low carb pates they'll eat, and I used to leave out that Dr. Elseys.
I am aware that dry kibble is not great for cats, especially older cats who can be prone to kidney issues.
My two have preferred "kitty crack" since the day they came home from the SPCA, which has made feeding wet/canned/pouch food problematic.
They just will not sit down and inhale their meals of wet food all at once - they pick, go away, come back, repeat.

I have tried the Ziwi Peak dried as opposed to kibble and they do not like it...
I have not bought that Young Again stuff, which one company in Canada (in another province) imports from the USA because I read some cats had digestion problems with it.
The Dr. Elseys is talked about a LOT on the Facebook page as being a low carb dry option, and available to us here in Nova Scotia and it may be.
I just thought I would remove it from the equation because I have suspicions about it.
And yes, I have tried the freezing trick when we have gone away, but now that am in the house most of the day thanks to Covid, we just add water as necessary, except when we are sleeping.

If Toeby starts showing that he is dropping low while we are sleeping, I will have to leave out the Dr. Elseys or start freezing cubes of wet, but for now, he can deal with what is wet in his bowl when we hit the hay.
Have a good evening.