Good morning! I hope everyone and their sugar babies are doing well with the COVID-19 situation going on. I have been working on Chia's dosing following the updated Prozinc Guidelines on here. He has been consistently in the reds and pinks it seems since I got him an automatic feeder (on 02/21/20) and I feel like I am chasing the dose. The last dose increase I made was to 2.75 units. He seemed fine for a few cycles until yesterday where he was really high in the A.M. cycle and then dropped low during last night's P.M. cycle. His AMPS this morning was 118 and after a 20 minute stall it was at 135. Unfortunately I am running low on his BG test strips. They should be arriving by Saturday, but I am limited with how many tests I can do now. I have about 22 left. This influenced my decision to skip his shot this morning but now his +3 BG taken right before his 2nd mini meal is 506. The other thing to note in his spreadsheet is that I changed his feeding times. Before his feeding schedule was 8 small meals given at AMPS, +3, +6, +9, PMPS, +3, +6, +9. Yesterday I changed it because I thought it might be better to give him more of his feed when his insulin was more active and to make sure that his preshot numbers weren't also influenced by a food spike. I gave him his minimeals at AMPS, +3, +5, +7, PMPS, +3, +5, +7.5. I am sure this affected his BG but I am wondering if he was bouncing already to begin with. His numbers were high and flat and I was feeling that with each dose increase I was just chasing the dose. My plan will be to decrease his dose to 2.5 units for a few cycles with the new feeding feeding schedule and ride out this bounce. Any recommendations of anything I should do different? Insight on the feeding schedule would be helpful, too. Another important thing to note is that I took him to the vet for his dental on 03/17/20 and made notes about the dose changes made during that time.
Black = bouncing. But, that happened at +3, because you skipped the dose this morning. Due to not enough test strips. Understood the why. Not much you could do about it. You might want to consider getting a human meter and matching test strips, as a backup when you don't have enough strips for the Alphatrak. If you had run out of test strips, when you got that low of 66 at +5 last night 3/25/20 PM cycle, what would you have done? Better to have a spare meter on hand so you don't have to make an emergency visit to the 24 hour vet clinic, if Chia dives too low. Automatic dose reduction of 0.25U was due when you got that 66 BG reading. Next time, if you have enough test strips, instead of completely skipping the dose, you may want to consider giving Chia a reduced dose. Less than 1/2 of the current dose would be one possibility if that low number happened again at pre-shot testing time. A partial dose could have kept him from going so high at +3. Was that 506 or 596? SS says one thing, your post says something else. p.s. covid 19 has been horrible for so many people. Not just those that have gotten sick, but all those people out of work. Plus the amount of misinformation coming from the federal government is astounding.
My bad. I double checked the meter and it is 506. I updated the SS. I will get a human meter as a backup. That is a good point. Yeah, I was regretting not giving him a reduced dose when I saw the +3 reading. He does tend to spike up quickly! I doubted myself. I will know better next time. Thank you for looking at this @Deb & Wink . It's so scary sometimes. Yes, a lot of people out of work, me included. There is definitely a lot of misinformation coming from the government.
Alma, I'm sorry to hear you are one of the folks out of work because of this darn virus. If you have a Walmart near you, you may want to consider the Relion line of meters. Ok for accuracy and repeatability. Cheap test strips, especially for the Relion Prime if you can find it. 17 cents a piece vs $1 each for the Alphatrak test strips. Relion Premier line is another option. Depends on what you can find in stock, especially on the test strips. That is going to be your most restrictive and hardest to find item at this point, the matching test strips. We know that vets prefer their clients to use the pet specific meters, but they simply have to understand that many people can not afford that, especially right now, and need to save money wherever they can. I like the Alphatrak, understand the numbers, but understand the human meter number ranges also. Most people understand the human meter numbers better. No sweat if you change more permanently to using a human meter to test Chia. Double checking with someone here is always something we will try to help people with. That reduced dose, you had not know about that possibility before. Next time, remember that for next time. This is still a learning experience for you Alma. Scary can be an understatement. Please, if you don't get a response here, yell for help in the Feline Health forum and make it apparent in your thread title that help is needed urgently. The word HELP and BIG CAPITAL letters help it to stand out. p.s. One thing I suggest that people do, is click on the word "Like" at the bottom of a reply. That way, we at least know you have read our replies, even if you do not have a response back. I try to click "Like" when I have read someone else's post. p.p.s. I'm a very detailed oriented person. Discrepancies catch my eye, so it's why I mentioned the difference. I may forget to tell someone that they are doing a good job, because I go to answer the questions and issues first. By the way, you are doing a good job with Chia! A very good job.
I appreciate your help @Deb & Wink . There is a WalMart near me. I will be getting a human meter soon. The AlphTrak strips are very expensive and I do go through a lot of them. I will be testing Chia's PMPS soon and him the reduced dose of 2.5 units.
