https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/3-30-newman-amps-268-increase-to-2-0-now-86-6-5.265256/ @Suzanne & Darcy, @FrostD Starting new thread. AMPS 366 Will feed to determine if he will have tummy problems this morn. If all is good, do I stay with the increased dose of 2.0U ?
I would, but it is dependent upon his eating! And he really needs snacks/grazing during the first part of the cycle apparently.
Boo for that high preshot :-( Hopefully he will come down into blue today. Did you hear that Newman, BLUE.
I know, and there is no way I can predict or be assured that he will graze throughout the morning. Some days he does and some days he goes back to bed until noon! Of course, I am much more comfortable with the previous dose of 1.75U and I never expected such a dramatic response to the 0.25 increase! In so much as it is a holiday weekend and a noisy one at that, I believe I will go back to 1.75U. Right or wrong, that is what my gut is telling me. At least we got some blues, so he wasn't so, so high.
I guess, given the limitations of being able to reach and test and feed/give snacks to Newman that he's just going to have to be in higher numbers. His numbers of yesterday were not near to a hypo at all. But I understand the fear of him dropping and you perhaps not being able to intervene. I'm not sure there's any solution to that. I'm wondering if he ate some kind of dry food, like Dr. Elsey's clean protein, which is low carb .... if it would last longer to keep his BG up. Usually dry food lasts a lot longer in their system. But dry food could complicate things in other ways ... maybe at preshot time.
Had the drop not been so sudden, those green numbers would not have scared me so much, although I assumed we would be looking at blues. I have Dr. Elsey's clean protein and use it for bait and reward. He would love it if he could have some in a bowl. Maybe that could be what he grazes on, in a measured amount. I'll stand-by on that possibility. Oh, and he had the zoomies this morning after eating, before his shot. I think he is messing with me! LOL
My thoughts are 2U but on the days he doesn't graze much/you see an eating problem coming, I would give MC the whole day (maybe something like 12%?). It's a trial and error thing, and you do run the risk of him "holding out" for MC on other days. You know him best! Certainly no problem to keep the 1.75U for the weekend. Like Suzanne said you can try a "fat" 1.75U but that gets difficult to measure. I haven't opened spreadsheet, but if you haven't already can you note his eating issues yesterday in the Remarks column? It helps when we look back to interpret data.
It's always good to hear about zoomies. It probably was a slow drop yesterday, but it was a shock because he'd been away from you and then all of a sudden! I would have probably freaked out as well! Hugs to you, Linda!
@Teetee (UK) has this way of measuring the fine doses without even using calipers. He showed it to me. Tee, you should show those photos and explanation here. I'm not sure if anyone other than yourself can do it, but it really is interesting. This is how he gets these tiny, incremental changes to Duke's dose. Duke's spreadsheet is a thing of beauty (well, when he's not having a panc flare, but most of the time.)
Here we go, well you did ask. Grab a No i don't use calipers, i did try but i could never get used to it even though i used them daily when i was a CNC machinist. I use a x4 magnifying glass and plus 3 reading glasses to see the markings, i couldn't do it otherwise without them. What i do is i use different parts of the plunger to get the dose i need. If you look at the image below, number 1 is the top of the plunger, 2 is the bottom part of the top, then there is a gap in the plunger to number 3 then number 4 is the bottom part of number 3, so in affect 3 and 4 are the same as 1 and 2. Are you following this lol. What i do then to get an accurate dose is say i want 1.125u i will draw about 2 units out (knock any bubbles up) and use position number 2 on the syringe and take that to 1.5u line and that takes the top (number 1) to the 1.125u position. If i need 1.25u i will use number 3 and take that to the 2u line and that takes the top (number 1) to the 1.25 position. I works well for me with accurate dosing but sometimes it can be very very slightly out as in i might think it's slightly too much or too little so what i do then is use the thickness of the line/marking to make an even finer adjustment, either top, bottom or middle of the line/marking. When i have finished giving Duke his dose i always put the syringe back to how it was before i gave him his injection then i can use that as a marker for his next dose. It does sounds complicated but it's very easy to do once you get into it, but you do need a good magnifying glass. This method will not work on u100 as i have tried it, they are completely different. Also make sure the plunger lines up on the zero line before starting as some Prozinc syringes can be out by upto 1/4 of a unit, i now use sol-vet u40 syringes and they seem a lot better for lining up. This is 1.125u with position number 2 lined up on top of the 1.5u line This is 1.25u with position number 3 lined up with the 2u line. The photo below is set to a 1.75u skinny, as you can see the plunger position number 3 (see diagram above) lines up on top of the 2.5u line. The photo below is set to a 1.75u fat, as you can see the plunger position number 3 (see diagram above) lines up on the bottom of the 2.5u line.
Good morning all. @Suzanne & Darcy, @FrostD AMPS 341 shot 1.75 I assume the consensus of opinion will be that the dose should increase to 2.0U. The current vial of insulin is at the 60 day mark although there is about 1/8 of vial remaining. Can I use that or is it best practice to discard it? Is there a best procedure to follow to transition or do I simply start anew?
After 28 or 29 cycles on 1.75, Newman has only had blue numbers during 5 cycles. That’s my count. There are a lot of negative health effects from high blood glucose levels- not even just the kidneys. I hope he will soon be able to get a little more insulin.
If the insulin has been properly stored and is not expired, it should be fine. Do you already have a new vial that’s available. If you want to start it, that’s fine.
Yes I would go back up to 2U. And if he starts being funky about eating or vomiting, I would try little bits of MC mixed in with hai regular LC
Hi Suzanne. Today was a day spent getting back on schedule after the holiday. I hope that you had a good holiday with your family and that you continue to feel well.
Good morning, Linda. I am hoping Newman is eating well for you this morning and will keep everything down. How many minutes do you like to wait to make sure he doesn’t vomit? I just wonder if there’s a typical amount of time that he usually does this after eating.
Typically he vomits immediately after eating, sometimes back into his food bowl. After he eats, I scoop the litter box and then prepare the syringe at my desk. On our best days, he joins me at his spot on the desk, I offer one or two treat bites while I shoot him and a couple more after the shot. The time may vary but I would say about 15-20 minutes between feed and shoot. If he does vomit, he is ready to eat again immediately, but I delay feeding him for the time it takes for me to do litter box maintenance, to let his stomach settle. He seldom vomits that second bowl of food. Hoping not to jinx it, so far so good today.
Newman was 222 @ 6:50, but he waited so long to get on to our routine, I retested at 7:15 and got 266. I fed him and again he was slow to get back on track, so I ended up not shooting until 8:00. I'm hoping for a good day!
Uh oh, I jumped the gun this evening and shot about 1/2 hour too early. I forgot that I didn't shoot until 8:00 this morning until I went to update the spreadsheet. Well, I can't take it back. Fingers crossed that it will be okay.
It’s okay. Maybe this will get Newman back on track with his shot time…. as long as he doesn’t dawdle too much over his breakfast!
Darn. It looks like this new dose is going stale on Newman. I do hope that Is not the case, but we will see. I hope you and Newman and Ozzie are having a good day. By the way, my daughter wants to know how Newman got his name. She really wants to know if he was named after Paul Newman (she likes Paul Newman.)
I like that. We just wish we could see Newman’s pretty blue eyes. We have two Siamese blue-eyed foster kittens here with blue eyes. We were toying with the idea of naming one of them after Jack Benny, who also had blue eyes. We like listening to the old Jack Benny radio shows from the 40s and 50a. Of course I guess we could name the boy after “old blue eyes” Frank Sinatra, too. We’ve had these kittens a month and they don’t really have names - just baby. We’ve been toying with calling them Jinx and Minx. Then we’ve been calling him Duke and her either Duchess or sometimes Scarlet. That’s from the PBS show Miss Scarlet and the Duke. That Duke’s name is William Wellington so he has the nickname Duke.
I am terrible at choosing names for my pets and then I usually end up using a nickname. I often call Newman, "Newmie" and sometimes I call Ozzie, Oswald. He is crazy. Ozzie literally leaps up from a sitting position and takes off running after pushes off the wall. He is big and it makes quite a thumping sound. When I adopted him from the vet office, they had been calling him Java because he was so juiced up and crazy. So I hope to see a few more blue numbers for Newman. Maybe it will just take a few more days. He was getting blues on the 1.75U, so one would think that the increased dose would bump those occurrences up! I can report that he seems to be feeling better. He is laying on the bed, instead of under it and he is back to using the cat trees and spending more time on the windowsills watching the wildlife Most of what I watch on TV is on PBS. I watched Miss Scarlet and the Duke and look forward to another season.
This is really good to hear! Slow and steady we go with Newman. We definitely want to give him time to settle in. We do too -- watch a lot of PBS stuff. We are looking forward to Season 2 of Miss Scarlet and the Duke as well. I read they were filming them.
He is 12 years old. You see, Elsa was an only cat so after a while when Newman showed up at the vet office, I decided to get him as a playmate for Elsa. She was not impressed. She didn't hate him, but she preferred to ignore him. Then Ozzie came into the picture and he seemed like he would keep Newman company and they would leave Elsa alone, which is what happened. Those two still wrestle but it usually goes too far and the fur flies. I keep a spray bottle with water to distract them. I always felt a little guilty because Elsa definitely should have been an only cat. Of course, she had a good life in spite of it all.
It sounds like she really did have a good life with you, Linda. From what you have told me before. She was very special!
Starting a new thread 7/10 Newman https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/7-10-newman-amps-247.265620/
