What dose for what #'s?

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That is hysterical. I agree with Yong. No hairballs for awhile.

Many moons ago, we invited all my husband's work colleagues to a BBQ at our house. We set up a buffet of sorts on the dining room table. My now geriatric 19 yr. old, then much younger , decided the chicken breasts looked appetizing and got up to pilfer from the platter when the dining room was temporarily vacated. Luckily he got caught by friends who were kitty lovers! We discarded the nibbled breast Myster had pulled onto the table edge for munching and left the rest there as if nothing had happened with no one other than the 4 of us any the wiser! Needless to say we didn't leave the food unattended again that night! :woot:
 
Lol. Before all this we didn't have to worry so much on kitties nibbling on food unattended, but now we have too! Zeke just loves trying to pilfer anything he can get his claws into, so we make sure to put on lids, stick in oven etc lol. Does the job but hubby was thinking dirty pan, sit by the sink! Lol. He learned on that one.

Wasn't even thinking on that @Yong lol.

We started the 1.25u dose this morning. Will check him at +3 and see how he is doing. He is starting to do a lot better with testing. My daughter no longer has to hold him. I can hold him a little bit and do it myself. My daughter was thrilled on that because she loves going and spending a week with her grandmother.
 
MrWorfMen's Mom said:
That is hysterical. I agree with Yong. No hairballs for awhile.

Many moons ago, we invited all my husband's work colleagues to a BBQ at our house. We set up a buffet of sorts on the dining room table. My now geriatric 19 yr. old, then much younger , decided the chicken breasts looked appetizing and got up to pilfer from the platter when the dining room was temporarily vacated. Luckily he got caught by friends who were kitty lovers! We discarded the nibbled breast Myster had pulled onto the table edge for munching and left the rest there as if nothing had happened with no one other than the 4 of us any the wiser! Needless to say we didn't leave the food unattended again that night! :woot:
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Menace's SS is looking great, Linda! :smuggrin:
 
@Kris & Teasel It's not bad but I keep thinking maybe I need to reduce rather than increase her dose because I was getting better numbers at 2u than I am with 2.5u. Her change to wet food although a most welcome event, has made me feel like a beginner again with her but considering where we were a year ago, I'm a happy camper. I think Menace has some mild seasonal allergies and they seem to be flared a bit right now and may be causing that slight rise in numbers. Like Teasel, she keeps me scratching my head and with her IAA, I hesitate to go too low for fear of re-awakening that monster. You are still on a roller coaster ride with your fellow but looks to me like you have made some substantial headway and he's been having some pretty good days more often. All we can do is keep trying. I'm not looking for super low numbers, but I'd really like to get Menace to go a tiny bit further into the lagoon and stay there a little longer and more frequently as I'm sure you would with Teasel. :D
 
MrWorfMen's Mom said:
@Kris & Teasel It's not bad but I keep thinking maybe I need to reduce rather than increase her dose because I was getting better numbers at 2u than I am with 2.5u. Her change to wet food although a most welcome event, has made me feel like a beginner again with her but considering where we were a year ago, I'm a happy camper. I think Menace has some mild seasonal allergies and they seem to be flared a bit right now and may be causing that slight rise in numbers. Like Teasel, she keeps me scratching my head and with her IAA, I hesitate to go too low for fear of re-awakening that monster. You are still on a roller coaster ride with your fellow but looks to me like you have made some substantial headway and he's been having some pretty good days more often. All we can do is keep trying. I'm not looking for super low numbers, but I'd really like to get Menace to go a tiny bit further into the lagoon and stay there a little longer and more frequently as I'm sure you would with Teasel. :D
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How are you liking the Freestyle Lite meter? I had a large stockpile of AT strips to use but am now thinking of a switch to the FS meter that's sitting in a box in my supply bag. If you want to reply, let's move to my last ProZinc thread instead of hogging Meredith's space. Sorry Meredith! :);)
 
He went a little higher today then he has been, so figured that means he is bouncing a little with the new dosing? Or is that just normal for a new dose?
 
Since he is accepting testing better, will probably monitor him a little closer tomorrow too since we increased his dose today.

We had a comedy break while getting dinner ready for them tonight too lol. Zeke was sitting in front on the sink where we still had some dish water ran and he just sat there with about 5 inches of his tail in the water lol. When he finally realized where his tail was, he decided he was gonna take off and started just slinging water everywhere! Having cats makes like so much more enjoyable! :)
 
Meridith and Zeke said:
Having cats makes like so much more enjoyable! :)
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It sure does! Sounds like Zeke is quite the character. :cat:

Sometimes when the dose is increased, they get wonky numbers for a day or so and as Yong says, we don't know how low he might have gone on the 4th. Give it a couple more days and then re-evaluate. Technically he stayed pretty flat yesterday. Hopefully, he'll start to show some positive changes today.
 
Yes, hopefully.

Zeke is a character lol, and so is my demon child Grayson. :) The fat boy used to do what we called booty attacks before he got overweight. He only did it to my daughter and I, and we had to watch everytime we went through a doorway because he would always hide on the other side to get us lol. He would jump up and slap each side of our booties just to hear us shriek!
 
HEE! HEE! Love the bootie attacks! In my house, Menace likes to have races with me going down the stairs. She waits at the top until I am down about half way and then she barrels down and across my path. Needless to say I have to be very careful not to let her trip me. And her brother, my middle furkid, has a habit of sticking his paw out to try and grab my leg when I walk past him. Sometimes, I fear my two "young uns" are trying to kill me! :nailbiting::eek:
 
Kind of a flat day for Zeke too :p. Just a heads up, a flat cycle can still be considered a "bounce" cycle. Hopefully Zeke will get off the trampoline soon to see how this new dose is doing :)
 
Yeah, I was wondering. With the way yesterday was, then today hardly any change all day, figured it could take a bit. Saturday is when I will be gone all day, so just playing it by ear on how we will do that day. Gonna teach hubby how to test since it is only taking 1 person now to test him since he is more used to it. That way I can just do early that day (for 3 hours early, how much of a dose would I give? or better to skip morning?) and let hubby do normal time that evening.
 
Personally, I hate to suggest it but 3 hours early is a bit much so I would skip morning. The Novolin does seem to last Zeke the 12 hours or at least like 11. Then let DH resume schedule in the evening :). I'll tag @MrWorfMen's Mom to see if she can give her thought too. I'm still trying to learn about these insulins to try and help out where I can :bookworm::)
 
I agree with Yong that shooting 3 hours early would be pushing it too much. You could back up his shots by 1/2 to one hour per day between now and Saturday but that is no doubt going to skew your schedule for several days both before and after Saturday. The other option depending on your hubby's availability to shoot would be to do a couple of longer cycles to keep you on a schedule of sorts without messing with partial doses, skipping a full cycle or shifting shot times for days. If memory serves you usually shoot around 8:30 your time and if I am understanding correctly, hubby will not be available at that time Saturday morning. What time would hubby be available to shoot on Saturday?

I'm going to be out most of the day so will check back this evening and see what we can come up with.
 
Hubby can do the evening test and shoot, gonna have I'm testing on his own by Friday evening. So he will definitely be able to do his evening test and shoot with their meal being normal time. I think I would feel more comfortable skipping the morning and then letting hubby do evening.

With new dose right now, could that cause a bounce skipping a dose when he probably needs it? Want to make sure it isn't going to cause any issues doing this way.
 
For Zeke it may just cause him to run a little higher for Saturday evening, stick with the 1.25U though. Since this shouldn't be a regular circumstance, treating it like a Fur Shot might help you understand a little better?:) Kind of same effects of skipping this one shot :)
 
Ok, that makes sense.

I think I am going to look at making our cat food. I am about to run to the store for more cat food and we are having to buy 42 cans just for 1 week! That is a lot of can's. We have already started saving the cans for recycling since we are going through so many. But homemade food would be even better for Zeke, and maybe we could finally get the fat boy to start losing some weight.
 
Well, he managed to pilfer again tonight. I had just left the kitchen and sat down to the table for dinner when hubby walked in the kitchen and caught him! Zeke is fast!
 

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I agree skipping a shot is probably the best idea. Better to have Zeke running a little high for a day than going too low with an early shot.

I have a pilfering problem in my house too although it just tends to be the other furkid's food. I feel like a school lunchroom monitor every time I feed my crew. If it's not Menace pushing her youngest brother out of his bowl, it's him checking out everybody else's dish to see if there is a better offering available. Either way it makes keeping Menace getting her allotted portions can be a headache!
 
Lol. We have to monitor also at feeding time. The hotdog gets fed first so we can get her outside. Fatboy likes to finish his bowl then go after the other bowls so we gotta stop him so he doesn't over eat. Gremlin and Zeke are both grazers so we make sure they eat at least a good portion of theirs then put a bowl on the cabinet where fatboy usually won't get to so they can eat the rest when they want. We have started monitoring Zeke's weight and he gained .2 pounds in a week. Hopefully he will start gaining a little faster once I get him on the homemade food.
 
Meridith, I'm looking at Zeke's numbers the last few days and he's been higher and flatter than he was on 1u and any bouncing or new dose wonkiness should be past now which is making me think that 1.25u may be a bit too much insulin. Sometimes it's hard to tell if the numbers are resulting from too much or too little insulin and they can look very much the same on the spreadsheet. I know he's pilfered in the last few days but the numbers have been consistently up rather than spiking just after the pilfering. He's been on the 1.25u for 4 days now and the numbers are not coming down so my suggestion would be to drop him back to 1u again to see if that brings the numbers back down to where they were. Sometimes it's a bit of a guessing game until you get more data because too much insulin can look like too little. If the numbers come back down to where he was then, it may be necessary to back him up a bit more.
 
I had been wondering on the dosing. Backed him up to 1u again. Not sure how tomorrow is going to be, hubby wasn't able to test last night (not sure if he just wasn't doing the lancet deep enough or what), so after 5 failed attempts and Zeke getting more and more upset about it, passed on the testing. Thankfully it wasn't a preshot or I would have had to do it anyways. Have learned that the tiny lancet not the best for us though. Only been using a few days and I know I have went though his ear several times and it is a fight to get enough blood even with as little as we already need! Going to buy larger gauged lancets today.
 
They are 33g. I am going to give them to someone around here that might need them. We went smaller because it seemed that he was bleeding too well, so figured a smaller lancet would help him bleed a little less. Unfortunately he hardly bleeds at all, even when it goes through his ear. :(
 
@Yong glad to have another set of eyes on Zeke and to know you were wondering about his numbers too. I looked last night and scratched my head and decided to sleep on it. That 69 on the 25th on a dose of 2.5u was a bit puzzling but the day before looks like he got 1.2u during the day & 2.5u the night before so that higher dose might have just shoved him far enough fast enough that his defences couldn't keep the numbers up higher. It looks like it was double the dose he'd been on. There was bouncing on the higher doses and when you look at his numbers since then, it's obvious his pre-shot numbers were better on 1u. This is the problem when doses are taken up by a full unit, or a sliding scale is used with a recently diagnosed unregulated cat especially without home monitoring. The upsweep of Zeke's numbers with the tiny increase of 0.25u suggests to me that Zeke may need less than 1u and dose changes of even a 0.25u are making substantial differences for him. Sometimes this sugar dance is like the two step....two steps forward and one step back.

One thing that would help give a clearer picture would be some more evening cycle tests. I would suggest getting a test every night before bed and if per chance you notice Zeke has dropped substantially (100 points or more) at +2 or +3, then setting an alarm to check again would be helpful. Not meaning to disturb anyone's beauty sleep but we really don't know what Zeke's doing on the night cycle right now and a lot of kitties go lower at night than they do in the day.
 
Meridith, are you putting a very light skim of Vaseline on Zeke's ear where you plan to poke? If not, try it ....helps get the blood to bead up rather than spreading into the fur and with a grey kitty if the edge of the ear is dark, it can be hard to see those tiny drops of blood. Your meter takes the smallest drop possible, about the size of a straight pin head so I wonder if you are being successful but can't see the drop for fur or it's spreading out into the fur. I poke and test on the inside of the pinnae. If you are testing from the back, that can be harder to see too.
 
Thanks for all yalls help ladies! I really do appreciate it.

I had wondered about doing some tests through the night like that. Can definitely do the bedtime ones. We actually go to bed right about his +2, so can do that right before we lay down. That was what we were doing last night, but hubby couldn't get any blood and didn't want to stress Zeke too much. Hopefully hubby will be able to get it tonight since it is tomorrow night that he will need to do it. I am going to try to leave a little earlier then I wanted so maybe we can get back here and only be about 30 minutes off from his normal time.
 
MrWorfMen's Mom said:
Meridith, are you putting a very light skim of Vaseline on Zeke's ear where you plan to poke? If not, try it ....helps get the blood to bead up rather than spreading into the fur and with a grey kitty if the edge of the ear is dark, it can be hard to see those tiny drops of blood. Your meter takes the smallest drop possible, about the size of a straight pin head so I wonder if you are being successful but can't see the drop for fur or it's spreading out into the fur. I poke and test on the inside of the pinnae. If you are testing from the back, that can be harder to see too.
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His fur is just light enough on the ears that it darkens where the blood is and our testing location has plenty of light to help. We are also putting neosporin on his ears which helps with the beading.
 
Hubby was able to successfully test tonight with the larger lancets. So that means he will be able to test then do his shot after he eats, as long as numbers call for it of course. :)

Read on a different post about kitty stew, so figured out that was basically watered down pate, and Zeke loves it! This cat wouldn't normally touch pate, but he pigged tonight lol. This is good news since we weren't able to feed him the lower carb choices. We got almost a week left of cans if the non pate so going to go Monday and get some pate and start switching them all over by starting out with it watered down. The gremlin will be the stubborn one I think, because he took a couple good sniffs and turned his nose up at it then tried to cover it lol.
 
Yes it is! Kitties have the worst sad eyes! I'm so glad that Zeke is eating the pate so well, means we will be able to get more down him and he should finally start gaining some weight! His pspm was really good tonight, the lower carb'd pate probably helped with that. What he had been eating was 13% and was still a bit of a fight getting enough down him. Probably start back with a mid-day meal again since he is eating his full can at the meal now instead of grazing.
 
Good for Zeke but I am curious as to why he went up all day rather than dipping mid cycle and yet he's down a bit at the end of the cycle. Can you get a +2 tonight to see where he is heading? If he's dropping give him a little snack to slow him down and obviously if he's dropped a lot, you'll want to monitor him and post for some help in the Health forum. At night it's better to post there for more eyes as the board is quieter. I'm not sure but I have a feeling we may be looking at another dose decrease for your little guy. This might just be him coming out of a bounce. Fingers crossed. If I am still up, I'll check back later but I am not sure if I am going to last that long.:D
 
I will be doing a +2 in about 10 minutes. I think the numbers are that way because he does graze on wet food through the day. If there is any left by the time +9 comes around, we pick it up.

Would be nice if there is another decrease. :)
 
I don't think grazing would necessarily lead to an upside down cycle but it would explain the dip at the PMPS when you've withdrawn food at +9. I could see a flat cycle but he dropped slightly by +2 which is early and then went up all day till +10. Definitely a bit of a head scratcher. I'd hold the dose for the time being barring any surprises and see where he goes tomorrow.
 
Meridith, how long till you hit the sack? He's dropped 50 points already and it would be nice to know where he goes by +3 just to be safe given he was down at PMPS. Does he graze all night as well as during the day?
 
JanetNJ said:
I think I'd try 1.25 -1.5 to try to push him down into the blues.
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Janet, that was my initial impression except that he dropped initially and then started heading up yesterday and then back down so I took that to look more like a bounce that was breaking. That missed shot with the lower PMPS on the 10th kind of threw a bit of a monkey wrench into things and makes me wonder if he might be heading for a reduction which is why I suggested holding for another day before adjusting.
Just goes to show you this is anything but straight forward. :rolleyes: :)
 
Yep I was already in bed when u did your message last night Linda.

He does graze during the night also. Last night he didn't eat as well initially (didn't like that flavor of the pate lol), so would that had an affect on his +2 number? His AMPS was definitely up from how his numbers were yesterday.
 
What was his AMPS? It's possible he went lower last night and is bouncing again this morning. I know how hard it is to get night tests (I've been up half the night with my girl who has been dropping steadily since yesterday morning:arghh:) but if you get up to use the ladies in the middle of the night, periodically snagging a test then will fill in some of those missing pieces of the puzzle, be very telling and help get him sorted out.

Yes the lack of eating as much could have effected that +2 but it's all just a guess yet.
 
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