Shadow has been adjusting well to his prozinc. He's not in starvation mode, and always thirsty. he had gained weight and his coat is so much better. What i struggle with is his dose, if we give him 0.75 he hardly goes down, and if we give him 1 unit he drops drastically. I haven't been able to do a proper curve, because my husband is almost obsessive over Shadow's numbers. i find it hard to calm him and deal with shadow. So I have recommended to my husband that we go down to 0.75 and after 7 days we do a curve. he worries about Shadow being high, and he worries about him getting too low. My husband panics when Shadow is in the 4's before or arounf the +6 mark and sometimes feeds him gravy food instead of testing. And he fails to tell me all the times so i can add it. I don't think its often, as I try to ease him from thinking that Shadow is hypoglycemic, that we have to be patient, and see if it gets lower. We haven't ever really done one since we started home checking, as we had the sensor before. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1HkPKVOTCpdg1QmYN9wwiVwFj0dAhmo_6ZLLo8Y_iqqY/edit?usp=sharing
Sounds like you need to keep that gravy locked away from your husband! It maybe be helpful to tell him that the gravy shouldn't be given until Shadow drops below 50 (2.8). Would it be helpful for you both to have a "cheat sheet" when handling lower numbers? This is kinda a basic guide I wrote for myself a while back, if it will help ease your husband's fears. Of course you want to divide the numbers by 18 to match your meter conversion. If you are using the Modified Prozinc Method dosing protocol (reductions below 50) then I think he's doing well on 1 unit. The only time he dropped lower was that 2.5 on the 16th and you appropriately dropped the dose. Other than that he hasn't dropped dangerously low at all. May I ask what the reason was for dropping the dose by half on the evening of the 2nd? @Deb & Wink thoughts? (I always like to ask Deb to double-check for dosing advice)
Yeah I have tried to get him to actually think before he wanted to give gravy. But with an adult with anxiety, having to worry about his cat is not easy. He's constantly worries about Shadow's numbers, and trying to analyze them. and i have to be the moderator... anyway the reason why Shadow was given a lower dose on the 2nd was when husband went to check his PMPS Shadow was 8.2. So we fed him 1/2 his evening meal, and waited an hour to see if he would go up. He did and my husband being the worry wart he is felt it was safe to give .5 since we would be in bed and his worst fear is Shadow going into hyperglycemia or worse. hope that makes sense
Oh yes, it's easy to become a worry wart with a diabetic kitty. Can't tell you how paranoid I was with mine! You'll have to remind him that that gravy can also hinder Shadow from getting better if overused. Healing doesn't start until they're under 5.5 and then we want them to surf as long as possible. Okay, gotcha. Next time he gets a lower than normal preshot you want to stall feeding and retest, not feed and retest. That second shot was elevated by food and not a "true" number to shoot by. You're still new so it takes time to be comfortable shooting that number but I think you have enough data shooting full would have been fine if you were monitoring, which you were. Eventually you'll be shooting low to stay low. Another thing you can do is get a +1 or +2 every cycle. You don't have any readings on that so I'm not sure when Shadow's onset is. Onset usually tells you what the cycle is going to be like so you can prepare. If there's a noticeable drop, you'll know to be on alert to intervene before something happens. I like what one of the members here told me once when I was freaking out about shooting a lower number: as long as you have high carb food, testing strips, and syrup, you can handle any number. (with guidance of course!) You guys are doing great!
So when he is low at a pre-shot time don't feed, and wait? that' hard, since we have 3 other cats (they have't been happy with the wet food only changes) but they are all on the same schedule as Shadow 4 meals a day. that is what works. And what is considered a no-shot? I've heard anything below 10. Still learning, still trying to get all the facts and make the best choices for our Shadow. thanks again there are days i just want to rip out my hair.....
Yes, what you do is you stall about 20 minutes, then retest. If the number is rising, it's usually safe to shoot. If it hasn't changed, you could give a token dose (10-25%, so if normal dose is 1u you could just give .25u), or you could skip. And if it's falling, you might prefer to just skip. You can stall another 20 minutes and re-test indefinitely but obviously there comes a point where it's easier to skip so not to go off-schedule. Do what you're comfortable with of course! For new diabetics the no-shoot number is 200 (so about 10 mmol/L) but you'll gradually lower that no-shoot number down to 150 (8.3 mmol/L), then even lower. It depends on how much data you've collected and whether you'll be available to monitor shooting a lower pre-shot. You've collected a good bit of data so far to start shaving that no-shoot number down a bit but again, do only what you're comfortable with. You can start with stalling the feeding to get the number up above the no-shoot zone. I would feed the other cats separately if you had to stall, I always fed my girl separately to begin with but that's just what worked for us. Not sure which dosing method you're using (SLGS has you evaluating dose after 7 days and reductions are given below 5 mmol/L, MPM has you evaluating dose after 3 days and reductions are given below 2.8) so here's instructions on handling low pre-shots for both: SLGS MPM It can be a lot, baby steps! And don't forget to ask time-sensitive questions about dosing on the Main Health forum to get more help with those pre-shots!
And I'll add, while I think shooting that 8.2 may have been fine - looking back at your spreadsheet, I see you actually don't have any history of shooting lower than 11, so it's good that you were cautious at a lower number such as that. So you could start by shooting full dose at 10 or 9.5 to see how he does, then work your way down as you learn how he reacts. One other thing - are all the +11 tests actually PMPS numbers that you fed and retested in an hour like on the 2nd? That would mean his pre-shots are a lot lower than they appear at first glance on your SS. If so you'll want to edit your SS a bit so people realize that you're stalling. For example, you could write in the PMPS cell something like this: 9.5 (+12) 10 (+12.20) - which would indicate that you tested twice before feeding and how long the wait time was. You'll have to color in the cell manually when you do it but it will be more helpful for those reading your SS.
