New to home testing...freaking out.

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frizzball55

frizzball55

Member Since 2010
Hi Guys,
This is my first post. Thank you for all of your help over the years. Your experience has been invaluable. My cat, Piper, has ben diabetic for 6 1/2 years. Shamefully, I have never home tested. She has been on 2u of Prozinc twice a day, with 1 can of FF Beef at each feeding, and has flourished for the last 6 years. She threw up three times last week (with a new bottle of insulin), so I finally worked up the nerve to test her last night for the first time. Through many many tears and shaking like a leaf, I managed to get my first reading. She was @190 30 min prior to her shot. I gave her two units as usual and went to sleep. I worked up the nerve to do it again today, and now I am freaking out. Am I doing it right? Could the glucometer be messed up? She's acting normal, but these numbers are really freaking me out. Can they end up needing less insulin 6 years after diagnosis? Have I been keeping her blood sugar too low all these years? I found a giant hairball this morning without any food in it though. I know I should have tested this morning before her shot, but I didn't have the nerve. I do now though! Any advice you could give would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much for looking!!

Sept. 8 PMPS 190 gave 2u of prozinc at 9:45pm after one can FF beef
Sept. 9 Gave 2u at 9:30am after one can of FF beef
Tested at +2.15 was at 70, gave 1/4 can of FF Beef
Tested again at +3 was at 36, gave another 1/4 can of FF Beed
Just tested at +5 she is at 63

I don't normally feed her through out the day. I just did because of these numbers. She is sleeping peacefully and acting totally normal. Also, she survived hepatic lipidosis in February. I will work on getting a spreadsheet going, I just wanted to see what y'all thought in the meantime. Thank you again for reading through all of this!!
Braden
 
I know nothing of Prozinc. Someone more knowledgeable will come along.
And great that you have started testing. The more numbers you have, the better to figure out what is happening. Testing does get easier.
I can tell you however that yes, it is possible. My cat was regulated for 4 years on a consistent dose then bam. It was only by chance that I caught it. That's when I joined the forum.
 
Thank you so much for replying! It is getting easier each time I do it. That's amazing about your kitty! I will be floored if she does... or even just needs less.
 
Without more data on BG, especially ones taken on the same day with both a preshot and then several reading after that at 2 hour or so intervals it is really impossible to tell what is going one.
Your spreadsheet link returns:
This site can’t be reached
%3Dhttps’s server DNS address could not be found.
 
Thank you Larry and Kitties! I will keep testing every hour, and see what happens. I will try and fix the spreadsheet too.
 
Hi Sharon! Me too!! I was always worrying about her. Now I can know. It's a human meter from Walmart. Relion.
 
We use Prozinc, and you should be careful with how much your giving, when BG is under 200.....he's getting too much, and dropping too low.....did the vet put you on 2 units twice a day.....I looked at your chart, and you shouldn't be giving more than .5 units with those #'s......2 units is way too much.....Our vet told us to give 3 units twice a day, and not to test.....we could have killed him :( I'm learning not to trust the vet.....
 
Thank you Erica and Carter! I am new to posting on the forum. Should I just create a new thread like this one?

Sharon, Yes! The 36 about gave me a heart attack!! I am going to test her again in 15 min, and make sure she is on the rise.

Thank you so much for responding Becky! Do you think I should reduce her dose to 1.5,maybe tonight?
 
frizzball55 said:
Thank you Erica and Carter! I am new to posting on the forum. Should I just create a new thread like this one?

Sharon, Yes! The 36 about gave me a heart attack!! I am going to test her again in 15 min, and make sure she is on the rise.

Thank you so much for responding Becky! Do you think I should reduce her dose to 1.5,maybe tonight?
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Yes I do.....and then probably lower it even more......by .5 unit doses.......I'm by no means an expert...still learning myself, but we've learned a lot in the last 2 weeks, by posting in this forum.....and just when we think we're goina use the same dose, Ruckus shows us that he's still in charge......I'd feed some high carb food at this point, and keep checking :)
 
We are also new to the spreadsheet, but we're learning a lot of information just from looking at the #'s and asking questions.....so keep up the good work with your spreadsheet.....blue #'s are good :)
 
Thank you so much Becky! What food should I give her? I have been feeding her FF Beef only for over 6 years. I don't want to mess up her tummy.
 
FF Beef is fine for your regular, low carb meals. For your hypo kit,which we hope you never need, FF Gravy Lovers is a popular choice, also have some honey or syrup. For now, let's see what number you get with the next test.
 
frizzball55 said:
The 36 about gave me a heart attack!!
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Hiya,
That 36 was way too low; in hypo range.... (Are you using human meter or Alphatrak? If the Alphatrak then that number is extremely low...)
It's good that the numbers are coming up now. But do continue to test for a while yet...

A dose reduction is clearly indicated. But do also be aware that cats can be extremely sensitive to insulin after hypo numbers (even if they've not shown any symptoms of hypo...). So it's especially important to be cautious with the dose at this point....

Eliz
 
Hi Elizabeth and Bertie! I am using a human meter from walmart. It is the Relion brand. Maybe she went up so much higher because of the extra half a can of food I used. I am definitely going to lower her dose.
 
Congratulations are learning to home test and now you know first hand how important it is. When ever you get a really low number like that or a really high number, it's a good idea to grab another test because sometimes it could be a bad strip.

Glad that she is coming up for you. The food you gave her after the +3 no doubt helped or the +3 reading was a bad strip. Did she have any symptoms of hypo? I will link here about hypo symptoms and it would be a good idea for you to print it out and have it inside a cabinet door or somewhere you can find it and refer to it when needed. Also, like Sharon said, get some Fancy Feast Gravy Lovers to have on hand in case you need to steer with low numbers. But, keep it in a separate place in the kitchen of mark in HC so you don't mix it up with LC. Below is the hypo link.

http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/hypo-links-be-prepared-just-in-case.48385/
 
Thanks for tagging me @Erica & Carter !
Welcome Braden and Piper :)
Congrats on your first couple of tests, it will get easier in no time!
About the numbers, I find them a little bit to low too my taste. If Piper had a hypo (what I think we may conclude after these kind of numbers) the advise would be to lower the dose.
In this case if Piper were mine I would reduce to 1U instead of 2U and go from there.

frizzball55 said:
Can they end up needing less insulin 6 years after diagnosis?
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Yes! That why testing your little furry friend is a must so you can decide on the numbers what kind of dose you're going to give. ;)
Hope this helps, please ask if you need more advise!
 
Hi Bobbie and Bubba! Thank you so much and yes I do! I will definitely do two strips next time if I see that. She didn't have any symptoms of hypo at all. She is acting totally normal today. Annoyed that I keep waking her up, but totally normal. I will for sure get some Gravy Lovers at the store tonight. Thank you for the link!!
 
Her next shot is in 5 hours.

Thank you Ruby and Baco! Today is definitely a crash course! They seem low to me too. I'll give her 1u tonight and see how that goes. Do you think I should skip her shot tonight, and then just start tomorrow on the 1u?
 
frizzball55 said:
She didn't have any symptoms of hypo at all. She is acting totally normal today.
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This doesn't always show Braden, some cats are really good at hiding those symptoms so if they don't show it it doesn't automatically mean that they didn't have one.

I don't think it would be necessary to skip the next dose (if of course it's a shootable number) because Piper will indeed be more sensitive to insulin now but if you skip it those numbers will probably go up again and then it takes a little bit longer to get Piper in those nice numbers again.
If it's a shootable numbers then I would just go for the 1U!

:bighug:
 
Sounds like a good plan Ruby&Baco! Is anything below 200 too low to shoot? Thank you so much! I do think she is pretty cute, but I'm not biased. ;)
 
Well the 'rule' is not the shoot below 200 for newbies, but as you are not really a newbie considering that Piper is already been diabetic for 6 years I would lower that number to 180.
And if you get more of those numbers in the future you can go even lower but only when you are able to monitor her, that's really important when you shoot at lower numbers.
Does this makes sense?
 
We feed Fancy Feast Classic....it's got chicken pate, turkey pate, and beef....we try to alter the flavor each time....there is also a chicken & liver that they love, but it's a little harder to find......please be careful before you give 2 units again :) I would hate to see your fur baby go to low......Glad to see the #'s are rising though :)
 
Btw, as you are asking for dosing advise, please come over to the prozinc part if you are going to make a new thread (maybe this week)
 
frizzball55 said:
Okay! Good plan! How often should I test her with the new dosage amount? Thank you again for taking the time to help me out.
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Are you working during the day?
The best numbers are always of course the AMPS and PMPS, and if you can grab some midcycles. So +2 +4 +6 are really helpfull to paint the picture.
 
I feed the same Classic, but just the beef. She loves it and gobbles it down every time. I will definitely never do that again! I am so thankful she is rising too! Definitely an education. I feel bad for the last 6 years. I hope she hasn't been going that low every single day. Poor kitty.
 
Becky Smith said:
I feel like I'm not qualified enough to advise you, but if the #'s are in blue, I wouldn't give insulin.....
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Yes and no, yes no shots under 200 (blue) if you're new to any insulin and you don't know how your kitty is going to react to it.
No, if you collect more and more data and see how your kitty is reacting to the insulin dose on particular numbers you can lower the no shot number and carefully dose, but always monitor! I would never give insulin on a number what I can't 'predict' and be gone all day.
 
I work from home. The only day of the week that I can't be home is Saturday. Which is tomorrow. So annoying. I will start a new thread when I can test all day.
 
It is definitely a roller coaster ride......we've been struggling with getting our sugar baby regulated, and we've learned more from the experts here, than any vet that we've been to...they just don't have enough exposure to it. Good luck to you!!
 
frizzball55 said:
I work from home. The only day of the week that I can't be home is Saturday. Which is tomorrow. So annoying. I will start a new thread when I can test all day.
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Oh that's great news Braden! So you can be with her all day (except on Saturday well that's alright)
So if you grab some data tonight that would be helpfull! And then tomorrow just leave it and grab those numbers as soon as you get home... And after that you can just go with what's good for you, you know!
Remember, the more data the more info on Piper! :)
I'm going to sleep, it's almost 11:47PM in the netherlands so i'm out for now!
:bighug:
 
frizzball55 said:
Will do! Thank you for your help today! I really appreciate it. Sorry for keeping you up so late!
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You're more than welcome, we are all here to help eachother! If you need help/advise don't hesitate to tag me or send me a private message so I will come online when I can!
You are not keeping me up haha, I just couldn't sleep yet because it's pretty hot out here! :(
 
Thank you Jayla-n-Drevon. I just hope I haven't been taking her this low every day for the last 6 years. :nailbiting:
 
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