Another BG Curve for Ricky, reads 84 at +5 hours ?

[PamJV]

Today I am attempting another glucose curve for Ricky. The vet told me to take his insulin down from 6 units to 5 units after the weird result of last week. After switching to 5 units I got some PS readings around 350 so I thought that sounded normal.

However this morning his PS reading was 222, then +3 was 240, now +5 is 84 ! That is starting to scare me again. When I test the next time if his BG starts to curve up I will be relieved. But I am really afraid he's going to just keep going down like last week. I have plenty of test strips now at least.

Pam

 

[PamJV]

Update by +9 hours Ricky's BG is up to 124, so that's a relief that he's not crashing. The vet said I should try bumping insulin down to 4 units.

 

[Chris & Lucy]

Looks like Ricky surfed through that curve pretty well after giving you a scare. A couple of low numbers in there but not far away from ideal. A reduction of a whole unit is quite a bit.

A couple of issues to consider when deciding on his dose: Lantus usually takes several cycles to adjust the depot action. A 1 unit reduction is 20%. And the issue I wrestle with all the time, is it better to lower a dose too much and work your way back up? Or decrease very slowly and try to hit that perfect dose slowly? A lot of this depends on how much I will be able to test over the next couple cycles. Keeping kitty safe is always my number one priority and I'd rather miss the correct dose and have to circle back around and take more time to find it than risk a hypo incident.

I can't give any dosing advice but you might consider and weigh the benefits of a 1/2u reduction vs the 1u reduction the vet recommends. Or keeping the current dose and holding it for 6 cycles, as long as his numbers don't go too low, to see if a depot adjustment pulls his numbers up just a tad.

 

[PamJV]

Looks like Ricky surfed through that curve pretty well after giving you a scare. A couple of low numbers in there but not far away from ideal. A reduction of a whole unit is quite a bit.

A couple of issues to consider when deciding on his dose: Lantus usually takes several cycles to adjust the depot action. A 1 unit reduction is 20%. And the issue I wrestle with all the time, is it better to lower a dose too much and work your way back up? Or decrease very slowly and try to hit that perfect dose slowly? A lot of this depends on how much I will be able to test over the next couple cycles. Keeping kitty safe is always my number one priority and I'd rather miss the correct dose and have to circle back around and take more time to find it than risk a hypo incident.

I can't give any dosing advice but you might consider and weigh the benefits of a 1/2u reduction vs the 1u reduction the vet recommends. Or keeping the current dose and holding it for 6 cycles, as long as his numbers don't go too low, to see if a depot adjustment pulls his numbers up just a tad.

Tonight his PS reading was 210. That is quite a bit lower than what I was used to getting for PS before. What scares me is to give him a hefty dose of 5 units when he's starting at 210. So I feel OK about going down to 4 units. Then again it is more tricky because I'm free feeding Ricky, and lately I don't see him digging into his food that much. In the future if he were eating more his need could go back up again. Ricky was a long time fan of EVO dry food but now that's not available. Now he's eating RC Glycobalance and his BG is getting lower, but whether that is due to the make up of the food, or that he might eat less, I'm not sure. What is meant by "cycles" again?

 

[Chris & Lucy]

What is meant by "cycles" again?

A cycle is one shot, 12 hours. Everyone says to hold for 6 cycles when seeing what a change of dose will do.

Changing food is always tricky. It can definitely affect bg levels. And it's definitely something to take into account when figuring out a good dosage.