My 14-year-old Zoey is pretty much on the 10:30 AM to 10:30 PM cycle. She’s been on two units of ProZinc for about a month now twice a day. I’m getting worried because mid day she drops pretty low. I’m using a human meter so I was told not to go below 50. I do give her a snack at three or 3:30 PM of usually rotisserie chicken. The vet said not to snack during the day but I read on here that even on the 12 hr insulin it’s ok to snack. I’m curious if me giving a snack is what’s making her levels drop solo. Is this something I should worry about? I’m not sure if this happens during the other 12 hour period because I’m sleeping and I usually only check her till about 2 AM
Your spreadsheet says you are using an Alpha Trak meter but you said you were using a human meter - which meter are you using. It’s important to know.
Giving Zoey some snacks throughout the cycle is a good idea. Rotisserie chicken should not make her blood glucose drop. In fact, it should have the opposite effect of stabilizing her blood sugar. I would be careful about feeding rotisserie chicken- unless you cook it yourself. I only say this because a lot of rotisserie chicken bought from grocery stores contain: salt, sodium phosphates, hydrolyzed casein, modified corn starch, sugar, dextrose, chicken broth, isolated soy protein lecithin, and mono-and-diglycerides. This is a list from a Costco chicken. Many also contain garlic, which is harmful to cats because it damages their red blood cells. They are loaded with sodium. There are a few out there that are better than others, but I am just cautioning you. A lot of people use boiled or roasted chicken that they make home. Can you please tell is at what hour you usually feed the chicken. So, as I said, snacks can be good and help keep the cat from dropping too low during the cycle. We recommend not feeding after the cat’s typical nadir when the influence of the insulin is waning.
I feel so stupid right now. I have been giving her rotisserie from the grocery store but I will definitely stop. THANK YOU . I’ll try boiling some but I’m a horrible cook so I hope she’ll eat it Her schedule is usually eat breakfast at 10:30 and then get her 2 units (I usually check her blood glucose before I feed her). Snack (the chicken) around 3:30 or 4 and I’ve been noticing her levels are low right before snack. Wondering if I’m causing this by giving a snack —like her body is expecting a snack so she drops low♀️ Then dinner at 10:30pm and try to do a blood check every hour before I go to bed (1am). She gets a can of fancy feast classic pate for both breakfast and dinner.
Nadir is the lowest point in the cycle. So example yesterday maybe the 57 although it could have gone lower at some point. I don’t think you are causing the numbers to go lower by giving the snack. I’m not sure if you said somewhere else but what else are you feeding? Only wet food or wet and dry? And are you following SLGS or TR?
Nadir is the lowest point in the cycle -- the lowest number that you get recorded (or that we can infer from looking at the data) during a cycle (every 12 hours.)
So it sounds like you are giving a snack at around +5 during the cycle. Snacks are good. We frequently use food to help "steer" their numbers. If the numbers are dropping lower than we like in a certain part of the cycle, we use higher carb food, but often a low carb snack actually helps keep them "surfing" and keeps them pretty flat in their numbers.
Go to the top of this page and find your name and click on it. A menu will drop down and underneath Personal Details it will say Signature, click that and you can make any changes to your signature (in this case the meter)
Could you update your spreadsheet, please. Have you read the different dosing methods? TR (Tight Regulation) and Start Low Go Slow (SLGS). You should choose one to follow for now (you can change) depending on how much you will be testing.
What part of the spreadsheet needs updating? Just dosing methods? I read some real quick but I don’t know all the in’s and out’s. I’m just doing what my vet said…giving 2 units every 12 hours. I was told that that’s how ProZinc works
Yes. Insulin is given every 12 hours. I just didn’t see any entries for August 10 (today) or yesterday evening August 9. I am just trying to study the spreadsheet ad spot trends, nadir, etc.
Well I’ve been working so I haven’t entered them yet. I don’t really see how one evening and one morning would change things but I’ll enter them shortly. Thanks