What now?

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Jennifer & Splunk

Jennifer & Splunk

Member Since 2017
Hi everyone,

I'm looking for some advice about what to do next. If you look at Splunk's spreadsheet, you'll see he's been averaging about 8 (145ish) without insulin for the last couple of days. I've tried very small doses of insulin to bring him down a tiny bit, and he's just so sensitive to it that his BGL gets too low (you can look at what happened on the 7th as an example of that).

Soooo... I'm not completely happy with an average BGL of 8, especially as it's sometimes a bit more than that. He hasn't had insulin for 2.5 days now, but I feel like we're not quite done here. Any suggestions as to what I should do?

Many thanks from me and Splunk! :)
 
I'm still on the U-40s. I guess I could switch. But it's hard to believe I could get any less insulin with the U-100s... there was just so little in the syringe. I guess I could try.

I know the 5.2 was safe, but it was at +3, so I thought that was pretty bad... four more hours of dropping.

Splunk says hi to Maury! :)
 
Yeah I understand getting safe number earlier than preferred :woot:. The other members say it's easier to do smaller doses on U-100s. I still use the U-40s too ;)

Maury would invite Splunk over to watch TV with him! On my thread :cat:
 
I would suggest trying to get a mid cycle test and see if he goes anywhere in the middle. I've been looking at spreadsheets of OTJ kitties, and for cats who only had a short time on insulin (less than 2 months), it seems like many of them have done what you're doing - stop giving a dose because of lower PS's, and after a few days to a week, the numbers just got lower and lower until they had green pre-shots. But the cats who followed that pattern also had some lower mid-cycle numbers that seemed to hint at what was coming.

Other cats went off insulin in the mid-100's, would climb a little at mid-cycle and then go down again toward the end of the cycle. Those cats had pre-shots that slowly started climbing again and had to resume dosing for awhile. So even though you aren't giving any insulin, a couple of mid-cycles might give you a hint. Disclaimer: Those patterns weren't always true -- there were definitely exceptions -- but they were true often enough that I would consider it a starting place to try to decide if you want to maybe shoot a drop, or go ahead with your <.25 and keep steering as needed, or keep giving NS's and monitoring.
 
This is fantastically helpful -- thank you so much!! I'll get some mid-cycle numbers on the weekend and take it from there.

Splunk says hi to Sam!
 
Myrtle's numbers are quite similar and I was going to ask the same as you. Yesterday my vet said to give a dose of only 0.25 if her numbers were under 180 (different insulin to you though) this morning she was only 149 so I gave her a smidge of a dose - I don't know if she got any insulin at all it was so small and her number tonight was only 142. So I called the vet again who advised me not to shoot if she had stayed on that BG without or with just negligible insulin as we don't want her to drop too low. So I'm just playing it by ear - if her numbers rise I'll give her .25-.5 but hopefully they will continue to drop/stabilize. I hope Splunk stays in the low numbers too!
 
Djamila said:
I should add that I've only been looking at cats on prozinc. I have no idea if any other insulin shows the same tendencies.
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That's ok -- Splunk is on ProZinc! Thank you so much for sharing all this... it's great. I'm going to try to get a number around midnight tonight, so we'll see what the verdict is. PMPS today was 6.6 (119), so I'm pretty happy with that.
 
Myrtlesmum said:
Myrtle's numbers are quite similar and I was going to ask the same as you. Yesterday my vet said to give a dose of only 0.25 if her numbers were under 180 (different insulin to you though) this morning she was only 149 so I gave her a smidge of a dose - I don't know if she got any insulin at all it was so small and her number tonight was only 142. So I called the vet again who advised me not to shoot if she had stayed on that BG without or with just negligible insulin as we don't want her to drop too low. So I'm just playing it by ear - if her numbers rise I'll give her .25-.5 but hopefully they will continue to drop/stabilize. I hope Splunk stays in the low numbers too!
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Yay for Myrtle! How is she doing? I was reading a thread I think you started about BFF being recalled in Australia... is she ok?? Even though we're in Canada, I took back all my BFF after reading your post, just to be on the safe side.

I know what you mean about not knowing whether the insulin is even going in... most of the time I couldn't even feel the plunger move. But then his sugar would drop, and I'd know it went in. It's astounding to me that they can have such a strong reaction to such a minuscule dose of insulin. Sounds like your vet gave you some good advice, and know that I'm with you in the on-the-fence club! :)

We hope Myrtle's numbers stay low! Oh, and we love her name! :)
 
The rule around here is 14 days with no insulin, and then you get to have an OTJ party (off the juice). So fingers crossed he keeps doing what he's doing!
 
Jennifer & Splunk said:
Yay for Myrtle! How is she doing? I was reading a thread I think you started about BFF being recalled in Australia... is she ok?? Even though we're in Canada, I took back all my BFF after reading your post, just to be on the safe side.

I know what you mean about not knowing whether the insulin is even going in... most of the time I couldn't even feel the plunger move. But then his sugar would drop, and I'd know it went in. It's astounding to me that they can have such a strong reaction to such a minuscule dose of insulin. Sounds like your vet gave you some good advice, and know that I'm with you in the on-the-fence club! :)

We hope Myrtle's numbers stay low! Oh, and we love her name! :)
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Thanks and Yay! For Splunk too! Thanks for asking, so far Myrtle seems unaffected by the BFF problem. We got an update from the manufacturer today and they claim they have tested 50 batches for heavy metal (like mercury or arsenic) with everything looking ok and now they are testing for thiamine deficiencies. It seems the main symptoms in cats have been neurological - poor kitties :(. Myrtle's numbers were a wee bit up this morning and I gave her just 0.25 and she didn't need anything tonight so hopefully still trending downwards. The nicest thing is that in the last couple of days she seems to be playing and purring more - it brings joy to my heart to see her happier:). All the best for Splunk - tell him he needs to keep his numbers low so you don't have to worry so much!
 
Myrtlesmum said:
Thanks and Yay! For Splunk too! Thanks for asking, so far Myrtle seems unaffected by the BFF problem. We got an update from the manufacturer today and they claim they have tested 50 batches for heavy metal (like mercury or arsenic) with everything looking ok and now they are testing for thiamine deficiencies. It seems the main symptoms in cats have been neurological - poor kitties :(. Myrtle's numbers were a wee bit up this morning and I gave her just 0.25 and she didn't need anything tonight so hopefully still trending downwards. The nicest thing is that in the last couple of days she seems to be playing and purring more - it brings joy to my heart to see her happier:). All the best for Splunk - tell him he needs to keep his numbers low so you don't have to worry so much!
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I'm so glad Myrtle is ok! It breaks my heart to think of kitties getting sick from their food. :(

Hooray for Myrtle not needing anything tonight. Her spreadsheet is a thing of beauty -- so much blue and dark green! :)

Splunk says thank you so much for wishing him well! He was 6.2 tonight, so I'm happy about that. The vet called tonight to check on him this evening, and she said I should stop testing for a week and see how things are after that. As much as I'd love to give him a break from the testing, I'll definitely still be checking every 12 hours for the next little while.

It's great to hear that Myrtle is feeling better -- Splunk is so much happier these days too. He's much more like his old self (confident, adventurous, snuggly), and seems to have fewer weird symptoms. It's fantastic to see -- like you say, it brings joy to my heart. I hope both Myrtle and Splunk can keep it up! :)
 
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