I think we have finally managed to start to get the hang of home testing. Spike's hydration level is getting better. We are now able to get the reading with one test strip. I was wondering for people that adjust the insulin dose without discussing it with the vet how long do you wait before self adjusting? Do you increase based on high or low readings and if so how quickly or slowly do you adjust. Since we are also in the process of changing him to a homemade diet I worry I might give him to much insulin if I increase any at this time.
Sounds like you're making good progress with the testing. It definitely gets easier with practice, and also in a short while more capillaries will form at the test sites making successful tests much more frequent.
I had to dose Saoirse blind for the first few weeks because I got not support for my wish to home test at the vet practice where she was diagnosed. We moved to a vet practice nearer to us shortly after and thankfully they are advocates of home testing. When I was going through the food transition I was in regular dialogue with my vet about dosing (she flew down the dosing scale after stopping the uber-high-carb w/d dry). Sometimes our vets' dosing recommendations were a bit more aggressive than I was comfortable with because her numbers were getting lower by the cycle. (See the early part of her spreadsheet to get an idea of how things went. Our changeover was very abrupt because Saoirse got queasy after a parasite treatment and she refused the dry food; not the way to do it in an ideal world but the circumstances made it necessary.)
I wasn't working to a protocol as such, just working with Saoirse's numbers and consulting very frequently with our vets about dose. I looked at both the preshot test AND the nadir values to see what the maximum drop was each cycle. With each injection, I would subtract the maximum drop from the last few cycles from the current PS BG result. If the result was too low, I'd get on the phone to the vets to discuss what to do. Her numbers got very good very quickly. If I lost my nerve I skipped the dose. (NB: Saoirse had no history of ketones and had no issues with infection at the time.) Also, even though Vetsulin is an in-out insulin, Saoirse's data showed that it seemed to have a little bit of carryover into the next cycle from the previous dose (i.e. there was some residual BG-lowering effect beyond the 12 hours the dose was intended to cover.)
The above is not a recommendation for treatment. I'm not a medical professional. I just wanted to give you a real world example of working with one's vet AND one's cat's numbers to safely negotiate the food transition phase when using Vetsulin. I hope you find it helpful.
Thank you for sharing. I am going to have to check Saorise's sheet now.
My name is Tammy. I have read the Vetsulin/Caninsulin link and unless I missing something I have not found what I am looking for yet.
I tested Spike yesterday for keytones and he was negative. He was not quite happy with me as I hurried into the bathroom and stuck a strip under his bottom as he was going. I wish I had a video as his reaction was comical. It was almost as he was saying woman is there nothing you will test on me.
I tested Spike yesterday for keytones and he was negative. He was not quite happy with me as I hurried into the bathroom and stuck a strip under his bottom as he was going. I wish I had a video as his reaction was comical. It was almost as he was saying woman is there nothing you will test on me.
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