At what point do I start shooting under 200

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52weeks

52weeks

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At what point do I start giving BC a shot when he's under 200? He was 193 the other morning so I gave him .5 and he was still under 200 at dinner time. I almost gave him .25 then but he eats less at night since he loves to cuddle in the bed.

So if my goal is every twelve hours, there has got to be a point where I start adjusting without begging for help, and there has to be a point where I give him a shot under 200. Is it just when I'm comfortable with it? Or what?
 
From everything I've seen it depends on a few things. First and foremost what are you comfortable with as a limit. You have to look at the previous doses and determine how low a certain amount of insulin is likely to take BC, and if he will stay in safe numbers. Also very important is can you monitor the cycle. you can be more daring with your limit and dose if you will be able to make sure BC will stay in good numbers and intervene if he starts dropping to low. Hope one of the more experienced folks will chime in, this is just my input from what I've seen
 
Well, we really don't have any mid-cycle data at all for the last 4 cycles, so this makes it very hard for us to "read" how Baby Cat is processing the insulin through her cycles.

I'm assuming you're working during the week (?), so can't get those mid-cycle #s in the daytime, but I think you may just have to "bite the bullet" and set some alarms at night so that you can check at least some of the mid-cycle BG#s; otherwise, we just don't have enough to go by to help figure out what you should be doing as relates to the doses.

And then on the weekends (if that's the only time you can be around to monitor both AM & PM cycles), do your best to get more BG testing in, as this will really help in determining what's going on with BC and how/when you should adjust doses. Until we have a lot more data, I'm not inclined to tell you it's ok to shoot your kitty at a pre-shot# of than 200. (I tend to be conservative about that sort of thing until I have enough data to support doing that.)

One suggestion I have (if you're working Mon-Fri, for example): If it's manageable for you, you might want to scroll his AM/PM shot times backward in time some, so that you have enough "wiggle room" in your morning routine to stall without feeding when you see a pre-shot # that's not quite made it up 200; usually that BG# number will rise naturally within the next 20-30 minutes while your kitty gets "excited" in anticipation of the coming meal. So you wait without feeding, then retest the pre-shot #, THEN when it has risen to 200 (198 would probably be close enough), you can then feed and shoot the insulin safely.
 
Robin&BB said:
One suggestion I have (if you're working Mon-Fri, for example): If it's manageable for you, you might want to scroll his AM/PM shot times backward in time some, so that you have enough "wiggle room" in your morning routine to stall without feeding when you see a pre-shot # that's not quite made it up 200; usually that BG# number will rise naturally within the next 20-30 minutes while your kitty gets "excited" in anticipation of the coming meal. So you wait without feeding, then retest the pre-shot #, THEN when it has risen to 200 (198 would probably be close enough), you can then feed and shoot the insulin safely.
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What Robin's telling you is what I did with Baco. test, stall routine, that worked for Baco a lot!
But again, when you get more and more data on you kitty (and you can monitor) it will be easier for you to decide what kind of dose you would give.
Sometimes people on FDMB aren't around and you need to make your own decision, and I've noticed when you get enough data and you can scroll through it you will find the perfect dose for a specific #.
 
Also, if you can grab even a +2 or 3 at night before bed, that would help. Any data that you can grab during the week would be great...then those mid cycle numbers. As Robin said, you don't want to start shooting lower numbers until you have data to support it. I can't really give specifics, but we like to see how low a dose takes them. So if we see that 1 unit on a yellow preshot tends to drop them to blues at nadir, we know roughly what will happen if you shoot at 180 instead of 200. Even then, when doing that, I always suggest being home to monitor at first. You don't want to try lower preshot numbers without being there to make sure all works well. Make sense?
 
I was thinking one day that I could bump his time for his shot so that they may not be 12/12 hours apart.
He tends to stay pretty steady all day then start to nadir very late. Plus, his appetite is just not what it used to be, even with the food left out all day. And he really wants kibble. Of course he does. He came to us at five weeks and has never had anything else till now.
 
And honestly, I'm home most days, I just really hate sticking his cute little ears. I guess I'm struggling to understand the need for all those numbers in between, but I have a better understanding now.
 
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