After over a month of being comfortably in the blues and greens, Simon has been creeping up and tonight's preshot was 516! I took it twice, just to be sure. First of all, I know I should be checking him more often but for reasons I haven't been able to with my work hours. He has so much going on - heart troubles, stage 3 CKD and recurring bloody sneezes (vet suspects allergies) that I am afraid he may be at the point where his organs are all shutting down or something. His appetite isn't good - I leave food out for him all the time as he is a grazer and only eats tiny amounts at a time. He's a sweet old guy and doesn't act like he wants to give up and neither do I. Should I be increasing him a little more right now? Thank you in advance for any advice.
Not if you can't test any more than you have been. Not sure I would have increased to 1.0 units - we don't know how low 0.75 units was taking him lately. If you can't do AM tests, you can to PM or vice versa, and weekend testing. Has he started any meds, or changed doses lately? If so, could you put that in the Remarks section of the spreadsheet. Are you checking his resting respiration rate regularly? Always a good thing with heart issues, and I found any increase from normal gave me a heads up something needed checking by a vet.
Thanks Wendy. I do check his respiration rate often. He has not had any changes in his medication/supplement regime, except for a nightly dose of d-mannose which shouldn't affect his BG. A couple of weeks ago he had a recurrance of a nasty UTI so I am hoping that will ward it off. The only thing different in his diet is that I am giving him part of a tube of Churu liquid treats (to hide medication) but I believe those are low carb. I will admit that I probably panicked a little when we were getting into yellow and pink territory, which is why I bumped him up a quarter unit. Believe me, I am going to try for a during-the-night test tonight. Thank you for your input - I am feeling a little overwhelmed.
An unexpected number should get a retest, to see if that was the problem first. If not, I wonder where he got to that caused the higher numbers. I would expect a combination of New Dose Wonkiness and bounce.
