Hi Joe and Suloni.
Thank you for the link to your other thread.
Food will only go some way to raising blood glucose, and realistically there is a limit to how much a living being can eat at any one time. In a non-diabetic the pancreas can respond dynamically to the needs of the body and it stops producing insulin when it's not needed. Injected insulin doesn't come with an 'off switch'. Therefore you need to make sure you don't give too much injected insulin at any one time. It's a balancing act, and home testing will help you find the balance.
Feeding before giving insulin ensures that there are carbs available for the insulin to work on.
Unfortunately there is no hard and fast rule about where a cat's blood glucose level will be specifically at any given time. As you start tracking Twyla's numbers you might find that she's in a particular range at preshot time for several days, and that it's OK to give a particular insulin dose. However, there might be a day when she may have been exercising more vigorously or maybe her pancreas might start sputtering out some extra insulin of its own and her preshot will be lower than was typical for her over the previous number of days. Testing before giving insulin will tell you if Twyla's blood glucose is sufficiently high to give insulin safely in the first instance; and testing between injections will allow you to monitor how low a dose takes Twyla (the nadir), plus how long the dose is effective in her system (the duration). Most importantly of all it will help you to spot whether Twyla's blood glucose level is getting too low, in which case you will be able to intervene to provide additional carbohydrates to steer her blood glucose level back into safe numbers. I don't know how much information your vet gave you about what to do in the event that Twyla might show signs of hypoglycaemia, but I certainly wasn't told much; just give her honey or glucose and if necessary bring her in. Managing a potential - or actual - hypo isn't quite as black-and-white as that. The briefing I got of 'hit 'n' hope with the glucose' wasn't nearly enough information. Some cats don't show hypo symptoms, so monitoring clinical signs isn't sufficient to protect a cat. Damage to the cat's body may occur during a hypo regardless of whether or not it is showing symptoms.
Also, a cat's insulin needs are not static. For example, infections can result in higher BG levels and therefore a dose increase may be needed. Conversely once an infection is treated it may result in less need for insulin and therefore a dose decrease would be required. Home testing can help you catch and manage such anomalies and make the necessary adjustments to Twyla's insulin dose.
Home testing and recording the data in a
spreadsheet will help you to track Twyla's response to her insulin, learn her BG patterns, and enable you to make good dosing decisions to keep her safe while she's on insulin.
Mogs
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