Testing glucose for the first time

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Jenn ~ J.J's mom

Jenn ~ J.J's mom

Member Since 2016
I have a Accu-chek monitor and am using it for the fist time. As scared as I was I did and it read 16.6mmol/L what does this mean, should I be giving her the prescribed 1 unit of Caninsulin?
 
Good job. Glad you made it to the health forum! That is a shootable number. Will you be able to get a few more tests in tonight? I've never used Canninsulin, but I understand it can have an early drop, so if you can, get another few tests in after the shot. The vet prescribed 1 unit twice a day? @Sue and Oliver (GA) do you know caninsulin?
 
Yes I can a few more tests in tonight if that is what I should be doing, I will do it. Yes the vet prescribed 1 unit twice a day but had said for the first day we may want to give her half that amount to see how she handles it.
 
Not sure what happened to my post, I must have hit delete by mistake!
I'll try again
I think 1/2 unit would be good to start since she's so tiny. How much does she weigh again? And how much should she weigh?
 
Just remembering you said you were using a pen with the pen needles, not a syringe is that right? Can you give 1/2unit with the pen?
 
The pen is poking tool for the glucose monitor, our vet gave us a ( 29 gauge ) needle syringe for the insulin injection.
 
If she only weighs 2.5lbs, I wouldn't give more than .5 unit to start with.....But I don't use Caninsulin either

Do you know that since you live in Canada you can get much better insulin than Caninsulin over the counter? Canisulin is much more useful in dogs (thus the "canin" in it's name)

Cats have a faster metabolism and do better with longer acting insulins, like Lantus or Levemir (both human insulin available at a human pharmacy) or ProZinc (only available at vet or vet supply)
 
Oh ok, I misunderstood:confused: I'm sorry I'm not more knowledgable in your insulin, and I'm trying to find someone who is, but it's quiet around here due to the holiday weekend. If you choose to shoot, I will stay up and wait for your test, or, Since it's so late, maybe consider waiting until AM maybe we can find someone more experienced with your insulin. The choice is yours, I'm here either way and will be in the AM too.
 
Thank you that is very good to know, I imagine that I will have to talk my vet into a prescription for that but I will definitely give it a go. I was hoping he was going to give her Lantus.
 
Jenn, if you have given the insulin at this point in time, I think it would be a good idea to get a test 2 hours after the shot and again at 3 hours post shot. The two hour test will tell you how fast she is dropping from her pre-shot number and the 3 hour test should be approaching the lowest reading. Lowest point with Caninsulin could be a little later but those earlier times will tell you how fast her BG is going down. Caninsulin does drop the BG faster than some other insulins so don't be surprised if there is a decent difference in the number at 2 hours post shot.

If J.J is dehydrated, did the vet give her any fluids at the office? If you haven't given the insulin yet, I'd be inclined to reduce the dose to 0.25u given her small size and it being her first shot. If she is dehydrated though, withholding insulin completely is not the best idea. You might want to try adding a little water to J.J's food to up her fluid intake.

Please let us know if you have given the shot and if so how much and then post the reading at 2 hours post shot. I'll check later to see how J.J is doing. :)
 
I can wait until the morning. Please know how much I truly appreciate your help. Maybe by morning it won't seem quite as scary & don't want to keep you up but again thank you for the offer. You have been so kind. Happy holidays to you!
 
My husband wants me to go ahead and do the shot tonight. So apparently I will be staying up for a couple more hours and will do the glucose testing as Mr. Worf men's suggested.
 
Jenn, we are quite use to PJ parties around here. We like to ensure all our kitties are safe! I will be up waiting to test my sugar anyway so I'll check in too. Given J.J's size, I'd still be inclined to start with a dose of 0.25u. It's much easier to increase the dose if need be than it is to deal with a cat whose BG is heading too low.

Happy Canada Day to you too!
 
I just took a close look at J.J's picture. She is a beautiful little girl with stunning markings but oh so tiny! What a love! :D

I think it was a good decision to start the insulin tonight. Withholding insulin for any reason other than a low pre-shot number when kitty has an infection is not the best idea and J.J is already dehydrated so hopefully a little insulin will lower her BG and slow the urine production down a bit too. Is J.J a good water drinker usually? If not have you tried putting out a couple of water dishes in alternate places around the house. Some cats don't like their water near their food and they don't have a big thirst drive so putting water readily accessible often prompts them to drink a bit more.
 
Thank you for the holiday wishes but I am so stressed I'm in tears. I found J.J laying in the corner of my daughter's bedroom she seems really out of it, if that makes sense to you. When I picked her up and put her on my daughter's bed she would only stand with her front legs and kept her back legs down she will not eat her food and we were told not to give her insulin on an empty stomach we are also supposed to give her a pill for the blood they found in her urine. I put the pill in a Greenies pill pocket and she will not take that either I am at a loss for what to do.
 
It is so sad to see her wasting away to nothing. Her losing the weight and flooding the litter box with so much pee to the point that it was not being absorbed and becoming like a pan filled with water made me take a stand with my husband that she is not "getting over it" & that something is seriously wrong! I would have thought that not getting her supper yet she would be more than willing to eat ( it's 11:05 pm here) but that's not the case. I'm very worried. I will do as you say and place some dishes of water around upstairs ( she only stays upstairs as we have 2 Shih tzu's downstairs that she wants no part of ). I have not seen her drink from her water bowl for days & can only hope she is when I'm not there.
 
Was J.J eating earlier today? Will she take some water? I don't want to alarm you but did the vet check her urine for ketones? Even if they were negative at the vet the other day, she could have them now. If she has ketones that can quickly advance to ketoacidosis which is serious and can be life threatening. If she won't take something to eat or drink, I would strongly recommend you take her to an Emergency vet clinic tonight. If this is ketoacidosis, quick treatment is key. Unfortunately, an infection, dehydration and lack of insulin are all an indication that ketones could be a problem.
 
She just ate about 1 tbs of tuna and before now her last feeding was around lunch at that time she had 3 the of Wellness turkey. The vet checked for ketones this morning from a urine sample that we took on Thursday night, they were closed yesterday because it was a holiday but we kept in the fridge and were told that it would be okay. When he tested this morning he had said that was okay but found bacteria from the blood in her urine. Hoping that the bit of tuna makes it okay to give her the insulin.
 
No I don't think it is ok to give her the insulin unless you can get her to take a bit more food. She really needs to have a full meal on board otherwise there won't be enough food in her system to work with the insulin and that could cause her to drop too low. If she does start dropping fast, you also want to know she will eat something to slow the drop down. Right now that seems a bit iffy at best. Do you have any plain meat baby food around the house per chance or any other kind of food including the kibble she was eating before? If so try those to see if she will eat a bit more.
 
She is hiding under the bed now but I put down a handful of the new treats I bought today & she is eating them up, I also put bowl with tuna under my bed too & I have left her in peace so perhaps she will eat some more with out me watching her.
 
Does J.J usually go under the bed or is this something new for her? Often when they are not feeling well they will seek out a hiding spot away from the hussle going on around the house. She might just be feeling poorly because of the high BG and bladder infection but I'd recommend you get some ketone sticks tomorrow to test her urine yourself. The problem with ketones is that they take a couple of days to show up in the urine even though they are already present in the blood so it's a good idea to home test for them when there is an infection or any behaviour indicating kitty is not feeling well.

What did the vet tell you to do feeding wise? Two meals a day or several small meals? Did he tell you to feed J.J and wait 20 minutes to give the insulin? I'm not sure I'd risk the insulin tonight but if you decide she's eaten enough and do give it, I'd definitely wait the 20 minutes between eating and insulin to make sure she doesn't vomit or regurgitate the food back up.
 
Hi I'm back. J.J ended up eating the treats under the bed and some more of the tuna. We waited 20 -25 min and then gave her 0.25 u maybe a tad more but under 0.5 since she is so small and it's her first time. We will test her glucose levels in 2 hours to see where she is at. She does like hiding under the bed at the best of times but I do think she is spending more time hiding of late than what she would before she started being so sickly. I will have to read up on doing ketone testing and will buy the sticks tomorrow for sure. I have been giving her 4 small meals a day since switching to the wet food on Thursday night so that she will keep it in & hopefully be more hydrated but I'm still worried about not seeing her drinking water or going in the litter box, when prior to Wednesday when she first went the vet she was flooding the litter box. Really hoping that in the next few days that between the medication, wet food & insulin things will start to turn for the better.
 
Measuring out 0.25u can be a bit difficult so don't worry about that. There is a solution to make it easier to give small doses but for now a good guess will do. The important thing is that she's getting insulin but at a reasonable starting dose for such a small cat. If she doesn't produce any or less than normal urine(amounts she'd pee before diabetes) by tomorrow morning, I'd get a baby syringe and get some water into her. Once she is well hydrated, the wet food will give her most of the fluid she needs but I doubt it's going to replenish a loss if she is dehydrated. I'd also add a bit of water to her food if she will eat it that way to supplement her fluid intake. I'm still up and will likely be awake so please post the reading you get in two hours. If you have any questions in the meantime, you can always add a "?" mark to the title of this post to get attention. To do this, go up to the upper right hand side of the screen where it says Thread tools. Click on that and you will get an option to edit title. Once at the box with the title in it, you can select the "?" from the Prefix options.
 
I have now ( 3:00 am ) tested her glucose and got a reading of 14.4 down from 16.6 at 9 pm, I also gave her 1/4 cup of Wellness mix with warm water to make a slurry & fed it to her by a syringe. I plan on giving her more water this way tomorrow/ today ( since it's after midnight ) and I'm wondering if it would be good to use some Pedialyte with the water as I was reading about giving that to dehydrated cats.
 
Sorry I timed it to be about 3:30 for the next reading.

Ok she's not dropping exceptionally fast so that's good and of course the dose was lowered too. The pedialyte would be a good idea to make sure her electrolytes stay balanced. If you are still up, you could take another reading at 4am just to see how much further she has gone down. Then perhaps you could leave her a bit of food for the rest of the night in case she feels the need. If you do get a 4 am reading, please post it here. Otherwise, please keep us posted as to how J.J is doing and I suggest you post in the morning with your pre-shot reading if you are unsure of what to do.
 
Thank you for all the help and advice. I left food out for her, put some treats under my two daughter's beds now that J.J has gone into hiding. I also placed a couple bowls of water out in different places in the hope that she will start drinking ( I measured a cup into each bowl so I can pour it back into a my measuring cup to see if she has actually drank some ). I will post her pre-shot reading in the morning. Hope you are able to get some sleep. Thx again it really helped knowing I was not alone. :)
 
No problem. We all remember what our first days were like. Are you going to take another reading now? It would give you a good idea of how much she'll drop on the 0.25u dose.
 
Has J.J shown any signs of weakness in her back legs before tonight? There is an associated condition called diabetic neuropathy which can cause weakness and sometimes it causes diabetic cats to actually walk on their hocks instead of on their toes. The good news is that it gets better as kitty gets more regulated. Just wondering because of your comment earlier about J.J not getting up on her back legs.
 
Hi Jenn, how's JJ this AM? As Linda said, the pedialyte is fine just be sure it's the unflavored kind.
 
Good morning all. J.J definitely seems a bit more perky this morning. I made kissy sounds and she has come out of hiding to get her breakfast, I watched how she is walking and she seems a lot more steady on her feet. She actually started meowing while I got her food ready & started eating the moment I set it down ( yay! ) I'm now waiting 20 min & then will test her glucose levels. Can not wait to get into a better routine.
 
Wonderful to hear J.J has perked up and is steadier on her feet this morning.

Jenn, please test her the minute she is finished eating if she has started already. You want a reading that is not food influenced. Normal routine would be test, feed, wait 20 minutes and then shoot.
 
You gave the shot at 1am last night and shots should normally be 12 hours apart. With Caninsulin, you can shoot earlier (provided you have a shootable reading) and I am sure you want to get onto a reasonable schedule. I'm figuring you probably don't want to be shooting at 1am again! LOL! Let us know what you get for a reading.
 
Okay so the minute she walked away from her food ( almost ate a full tin of Friskies, thinking she may not be a big fan of the Wellness ) I tested her glucose it read 17.9 at 10:21. Thinking to give her .5 of her Caninsulin and not the full 1 unit prescribed yet since it will just be her second one.
 
My bad, I got confused and thought I was supposed to test after eating not before. Thank you for clarifying that, will let my husband know as well so we can help each other get through this learning curve.
 
Glad you got the shot in and she's eating! Yes check in a couple hours and post the numbers. Do you think you can get the spreadsheet set up? If you need help ask and someone will help.
 
Is there a spot on here or a certain format for using? As you can probably tell I'm not computer savvy ( so I have kept track of everything in a note pad ) my husband is excellent with computers so he can do this I'm sure.
 
Good call on the 0.5u this morning.

On the spreadsheet we don't go by actual times but rather keep track by date and how many hours after the shots in each cycle the readings are taken. We do this because we live all over the planet and this method makes it much easier for everyone to understand what is going on should you need any assistance or have questions. Just holler if you need any assistance with the spreadsheet.

Once you get that set up, you can set up a signature (the small grey text at the bottom on our messages. It can include whatever you want to share but most importantly, the type of insulin, the dose of insulin, the type of meter you are using, the diet kitty is on and any other health concerns that might need to be taken into consideration as well as the link to J.J's spreadsheet. It's also helpful if you indicate you are Canadian so folks recommend food etc accordingly.
To set up a signature, go up to your screen name at the upper right corner of the screen and click on Signature. This opens a text box in which you can enter the information. It will only allow you to hit the enter key 3 times so you can separate different bits of info by using a "|" or "\" to fit everything in if it gets too long.
 
So I am writing out important info I learned from here yesterday and had a question. If no insulin should be given under 11.1 is the actually a ideal number range that we are hoping to see? And if the number goes to 2.8 or lower is that what's called hypoglycemia?
 
2.8 would be a warning number of the possibility of hypoglycemia and the point where you take action to make sure she doesn't go hypo. You give some food to bring the numbers back up and monitor for a bit to make sure they are staying up if you get a reading of 2.8 or less. If kitty is displaying symptoms, like head wagging or stumbling or just odd behaviour of any sort, it may mean kitty is actually hypo and at that point, you would intervene with some corn syrup or honey either added to her food or rubbed on her gums if she won't eat it directly. There is a sticky for hypos is HERE and it would be a good idea to put a hypo kit together as soon as you can catch your breathe and include a copy of the instructions for handling hypos in the kit. We all understand how overwhelming this is but believe me it gets easier in short order. The fact that you are able to test J.J so quickly and well means you have already managed to master the first and usually hardest hurdle! Congrats!

You ideally want J.J to have numbers ranging from 2.8 to 6.7 for as many hours per day as possible but you need to strive for that slowly and methodically. This is not a sprint...it's a marathon. Some cats get regulated quickly and some take a bit more time so patience is key.
 
With Caninsulin you get a U shaped curve so the pre-meal tests tend to be the highest sugars with the lowest around 5-6 hours after giving the shot - some cats get a big drop to the low point others don't so it's better to be quite cautious at first with dosing until you have enough readings to work out how your cat reacts. Sometimes the 2 hour test is a little higher than the pre-shot - that's the food. My kitty can easily drop over 10 mmol in a single cycle, so until you get familiar with how this insulin works it's best to take things slow and steady and ask for help if you are not sure. With such a small cat the vet advised quite a large starting dose so I think you were right to drop it and the fact she is better with a small dose suggests to me she may have been a little bit too low and feeling unwell with it.
 
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