Newbie.... BG = 69....help! [latest = +8/108]

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Cheri V

Cheri V

Member Since 2016
Gracie's BG at 1:00 PM today when her insulin was due was 218 so I gave the insulin (Lantus, 1/2 unit). At 3:15 BG was 79. Called the CSU urgent care vet, they said give 1 ml Karo so I did. BG at 4:15 was 69. My vet is out of town, nearest open emergency vet is 2 hours away. I reached another local vet who was reluctant to do anything.... she said make sure Gracie eats so I have been feeding her Royal Canin Recovery but she's a picky eater so she's only eaten maybe a tablespoon.

Now what? I have: Royal Canin green pea and duck, Friskies pate, kitten food, kitten milk replacer, Catsure (she likes all of those sometimes.) I'm about to go test again. I of course have Karo and can give more.
 
Okay then. Gracie is not in danger. Feed a little low carb food, maybe a teaspoon or two and test in a half hour. Normal is from 50/120 on a human meter. We add some high carbs if she goes down under 50. She is safe.
 
Okay. 69 on a human meter is not as much cause for concern as it is on a pet meter, so that's good. Still, since it's fairly early in the cycle, you want to monitor it and make sure it doesn't start to drop a whole lot further. Anything below 50 is considered hypo territory, on a human meter. When was the last time you checked her BG, and what was it?
 
I don't know what time zone you are in so I don't know how long ago 4:10 was for you, sorry. That would be about three hours from shot time, correct? So far Gracie is doing fine. I would check her again in about 20 minutes, as tiffmaxee suggests, and post her numbers then.
 
Thank you, thank you! That's reassuring. I've been reading my cat food cans to find a high carb one. I have one "gastrointestinal high energy" where the fourth ingredient is corn flour. I also have plain pumpkin. Will try some of those.
 
Plain pumpkin is great for diarrhea/constipation issues, but I'm not sure it will help much with low BG; the one with corn flour probably will. I wouldn't give anything yet, until you see what her next test says.
 
So the Karo brought her up. It can wear off quickly. Please test again in 30 minutes, okay? Please put your results in the subject box. Do you know how?
 
She's doing great, then! :) No need to give any med or hi carb foods, just check her again in about 20-30 minutes, just to make sure she is still rising.

SLGS is Start Low, Go Slow. It is one of the protocols for Lantus users:

http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/lantus-levemir-start-low-go-slow-method-slgs.129446/

If you haven't been there yet, it would probably be a really good idea for you to check out the stickies in the Lantus/Levemir forum:

http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/forums/lantus-glargine-levemir-detemir.9/
 
Should have said -- 107 at 5:32 mountain time, roughly 412-/ hours since her last insulin. And I'm not giving her any more insulin until my vet redoes her bloodwork and UA. I'm beginning to think her high blood glucose was a transitory problem, which has been fixed by lowering her pred and changing her diet. The insulin is causing more problems than it's solving.
 
Damn, going down again. 76, 5 hours and 5 minutes after insulin shot (sorry, not good at testing yet..... I usually get an error message from the meter 2 or 3 times before I get a good result, so I'm slow.)
 
Okay. She's still in safe numbers but since her BG is still dropping I would go ahead and feed her a little bit of whatever med- or hi-carb food you have.
 
She's doing fine and in safe numbers. She should pass her nadir in another hour or two. These are good healing numbers for her pancreas.
 
Normally she gets FF classics. This time I offered Royal Canin Recovery and Gastrointestinal High Energy. She ate a little of both.
 
I would keep checking her every 20-30 minutes now, until you have at least two concurrent tests that show rising numbers. I think Gracie will be fine, her numbers are actually quite good! :)
 
"Surf" means riding a wave of good numbers. Ideally, you want your kitty to surf as long as possible each cycle.
 
Squalliesmom said:
I think Gracie will be fine, her numbers are actually quite good! :)
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Thank you, thank you! The vet said if I got 60, it's an emergency requiring immediate vet care (that was right before they closed up shop for the weekend and left with no one on call). She knew I was using a human meter, we had just gotten through checking my meter. I asked her for some guidance on what to do with the numbers I might get over the weekend and she gave me a sticky note that says "below 90, don't give insulin.... below 60, supplement with Karo and get to vet." But maybe she was talking about pet meter numbers? In any case that wasn't a whole lot of guidance. And I paid $150 for two "diabetes consults"!
 
I would not feed and test in an hour.

Max has been in the 40's and not ever been hypo, anti-jinx. Now if they drop that low and you can't bring them up with high carbs and Karo that is an emergency.
 
I don't know where she came up with 60 as an emergency number. We go by 50 on a human meter or 68 on a pet meter.
 
Also, our usual advice to those who are new to feline diabetes is to not shoot if below 200. I'm surprised she told you 90.
 
She's still at 108, 8 hours after shooting, and I didn't feed her anything since before the last test. I need to feed her now though, she's very unhappy with me for starving her. I got an email from her vet at CSU saying change her dose to 1/2 unit, once per day. So no more insulin tonight, which I think is a fine idea. She also asked why did I test 3 hours after her dose? (Which I did just to check how she was doing.) She said don't poke Gracie so much.
 
Squalliesmom said:
I don't know where she came up with 60 as an emergency number. We go by 50 on a human meter or 68 on a pet meter.
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Under 50 means to give hc or Karo and test every 20 minutes until coming up. And staying up at least in the high 50's -60's. I wouldn't call it an emergency number. I don't think that's what you meant. You wouldn't rush to the ER if your cat drooped under 50, unless there were signs of distress or you couldn't bring her up with food or Karo, right?
 
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