Help! Should Iskip insulin until I call Vet tomorrow?

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Stewie's Mom ID

Stewie's Mom ID

Member Since 2019
I just tested my cat's bg for the first time and he is on Prozinc 2x daily, 4 units each time. I give it at 9:30 am and PM. I took him off all dry food since his last curve at the vets which was on 2/4/19. His numbers were in the mid to high 300s each time at the vets so she put Stewie up to that many units. I was still giving him a 1/4 of a cup of dry food up until that day. He has been on only wet food since. I checked him at 3 pm today with my ReliOn meter and his numbers were 34 and 41 as I did it twice. I don't know what that means. I fed him after his bg test. I have been feeding him 6x a day since he is always hungry. I give him a quarter to a third can at a time. He's not acting any differently than normal and eating and drinking water ok. He is on Friskees pate and FF Pate. Should I be worried. I checked my husbands glucose to make sure the meter worked and his seemed to be right. I will call vet office tomorrow am.
 
34 and 41 are way too low!!! Have you tested since you fed? How long ago was that?

Do NOT give any more insulin until we can get more information
 
Thanks for the reply. No.I haven't tested again. I am so new to testing his bg. Today was the first time I did a BG test. I fed him some friskees pate which he ate at 3. I gave him a temptations treat an hour ago? I was gonna feed him some more at 6 and test before I give him any insulin. I'm scared and so new to this. He's been sleepy but acting fine when offered food and eating when food is offered. I will call vet right away when they open. Should I give friskees shreds since I have one can for emergency? Should I test before or after feeding him at 6 which is soon. Thank you!
 
I just gave him a combo of friskees beef and liver pate, friskees Turkey and cheese shreds and some temptations treats (4). When should I test him again? Thank you
 
I am not going to give insulin and will call first thing. Thank you for help. I will feed him again at 9:15 PM as usual and no insulin tonight. I am having a hard time getting blood but finally success. No insulin until I talk to vet.
 
Also, I will mix the shreds again in with pate and a few temptations treats to try and boost him up more tonight. He was very mad cause it took me 3 pokes but I know it has to be done. I need to get a lot better at testing.
 
I'm here. Congrats on getting that test! I saw that in another post you are using the warm sock and got a larger lancet. Kudos to you for taking those steps :bighug:
The more you test, the easier it gets.
 
Thank you for the hugs and being here. I hope the 81 reading is much better. I will test him again in am before my husband goes to work. I will give him a carby dinner tonight as well as in am. We are all stressed here. I need to get better at blood testing. Poor Stewie. He went in the other room. He'll trust me again after a yummy dinner. :bighug:
 
How long has Stewie been a diabetic?
Four units is a lot of insulin, especially if he is recently diagnosed.
Because he dropped down to 34 and 41, you need to reduce the dose you are giving.
When you speak to the vet tomorrow please come back on here and tell us the dose he wants you to give.
Do not give 4 Units again.....it is not safe to do so.
Did Stewie have DKA when he was diagnosed?
We are very happy to help you so ask lots of questions.
Congratulations on starting to test. You have probably saved Stewies life.
 
He was diagnosed in early Jan with a reading of 503. She started him on 2 units 2x per day and then 3 units 2x per day after first curve. By the 2nd curve 2 weeks later, he was so freaked out and his numbers were still at 350 and up so she put to 4 units 2x per day. That was on 2/4. He was still getting 1/8th of a cup of Blue buffalo grain free chicken 2x per day mixed in with his pate. I discontinued all dry food that evening. I think that is why he plummeted. I have only had him on Pate only since 2/4 and I needed my husbands help with bg and today he was here to help finally. Thank god! I tried to thin of a lancet and went and got bigger on and that did the trick. I don't know what a DKA is. Thank you for concern and advise.
 
Stewie's Mom said:
She started him on 2 units 2x per day and then 3 units 2x per day after first curve. By the 2nd curve 2 weeks later, he was so freaked out and his numbers were still at 350 and up so she put to 4 units 2x per day.
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Sorry...had to deal with an emergency with my mom (everything's OK)

Your vet doesn't know what she's doing. Very small changes in doses can make a huge difference in the numbers. We don't do increases in whole units....we only go up in .25 unit increments so we don't bypass what could be a "perfect" dose.

Now that you have a few tests behind you, you need to start testing and keeping track of your results on our spreadsheet.

Since you removed the high carb dry, I'd suggest starting back at a much smaller dose than 4U until we can see how he's really doing without the extra carbs in his diet. Maybe back to 2 or 2.5U and then let us help you decide when to increase (if you need to!)

The people here have a lot more experience dealing with diabetes than your vet. They just can't stay up to date on the latest treatments and have time to treat patients.

81 is a perfectly safe number by the way......but 30's are definitely too low and thank goodness you were testing and caught them!!
 
Should I give him some dry food.mixed in with Turkey shreds for dinner at 9? I feed him 6 meals per day cause he begs for it. The vets said 2x per day but Stewie drives me nuts for good and I saw on here a lot of people feed more often so I started doing that. I told the vet and she said she needs to see his bg.
 
so it sounds like you are up to about +9 which is 9 hours after the last dose of insulin. Because we live all over the world, we talk in +number of hours after the dose of insulin. Then we all know where we are up to.

When cats go to the vet they are nearly always stressed. And getting a curve done at the vet almost always has the blood sugar levels( BSL) higher than they would be at home. And now you have taken the dryout of the diet, his insulin needs are less.
We only raise the dose of insulin in 0.25 unit increments not whole dose increments,so as not to go past the best dose, and to keep kitty safe.
If there is no DKA in the picture ( DKA is a serious illness which diabetic cats can get and they need to be hospitalised sometimes for days to get over it.) I think you should probably drop the dose back down to 1 or 2 units. Curve Readings in the 300s are not really high especially if taken at the vet. I don't use Prozinc but I am going to tag a couple of people who do so they can help you.
@Kris & Teasel @Djamila
 
Stewie's Mom said:
Should I give him some dry food.mixed in with Turkey shreds for dinner at 9?
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No....throw the dry away......feeding high carb food while trying to reduce the blood glucose numbers is like trying to put out a fire while you're still throwing gasoline on it. It just doesn't work

Most of us feed multiple times a day...it's actually better for the pancreas to deal with multiple small meals than 2 big ones per day. That's "old school" thinking by your vet
 
Stewie's Mom said:
Should I give him some dry food.mixed in with Turkey shreds for dinner at 9? I feed him 6 meals per day cause he begs for it. The vets said 2x per day but Stewie drives me nuts for good and I saw on here a lot of people feed more often so I started doing that. I told the vet and she said she needs to see his bg.
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Feeding 6 Small meals a day is fine.
I agree with Chris, your vet doesn't know what she is doing. Taking out the dry and at the same time increasing the dose is wrong.
 
Thank you everyone for your help and relieving my situation. I gave Stewie more temptations cause I want him to feel good. I will just give Pate with a little shreds again at 9:15pm. Should I test him before or after I feed him in am at 7:15 tomorrow. I am going to stick with the 6 meals and no fry food added. Thanks for that advise. I panicked so much that I wanted to get his numbers right up. I will post what the vets says in am. I will have you guys advise me on how much insulin to give after my first am reading. Thanks to everyone. You don't know how much I appreciate your support. Thank God for this site!
 
It would be a good idea to get a few more tests in to see what the BSL does after those lows . I would just feed normal food too unless he drops again which he shouldn't.
 
Stewie's Mom said:
Should I test him before or after I feed him in am at 7:15 tomorrow.
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You should Test/Feed/Shoot.....Test to make sure he's high enough to get insulin at all, Feed to make sure he's willing to eat and Shoot.

Don't let him eat for the 2 hours immediately before the Pre-Shot tests so you get a number that's not influenced by food. After that, just feed normally the rest of the cycle until +10 (10 hours after the shot) and then it's PMPS time again (PM Pre-Shot)
 
Stewie's Mom said:
Thank you everyone for your help and relieving my situation. I gave Stewie more temptations cause I want him to feel good. I will just give Pate with a little shreds again at 9:15pm. Should I test him before or after I feed him in am at 7:15 tomorrow. I am going to stick with the 6 meals and no fry food added. Thanks for that advise. I panicked so much that I wanted to get his numbers right up. I will post what the vets says in am. I will have you guys advise me on how much insulin to give after my first am reading. Thanks to everyone. You don't know how much I appreciate your support. Thank God for this site!
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Please tag someone to help you....I livein Australia so will be fast asleep. To tag someone you just type @Bron and Sheba and a little box will come up and you click it.
Also change your subject line and say something like 'newbie need help with am dose urgent'
 
Stewie's Mom said:
What should his numbers be at before he gets insulin again?
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At least 200 until you have a lot more experience and data.....and I wouldn't give more than 2U tomorrow morning no matter how high he is.

Because he went so low today, he'll probably "bounce".....Bounces happen when 1. they drop too low, 2. they drop too quickly and 3. they drop into numbers their body isn't used to anymore (or any combination of all 3)

His body has gotten used to living in higher numbers, so when he drops low, or even just drops lower than he's used to, his liver releases stored sugars and hormones to bring him back up fast. He "bounces" high.

We don't want to panic when he bounces.....it can take up to 6 cycles for those hormones and sugars to clear out
 
Stewie's Mom said:
What should his numbers be at before he gets insulin again? I guess you guys will advise tomorrow?
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Until you start getting some data, I would not give any insulin if the BSL is under 200
Once you start getting data you will be able to lower the BSL limit.

But post and ask for help.:bighug:​
 
Hi there and welcome! It looks like you've had quite an adventure today!!! I'm so glad people were here to help.

I don't come out to this Main Forum very often. Most of the time I'm hiding out over in the Prozinc forum. If you'd like to post there, we would be happy to help you sort out the dosing for your kitty! I'm so glad you are changing healthy, low-carb wet food, and that you are home testing to keep Stewie safe! It's a lot to learn all at once, but it sounds like you are doing well.

I'd recommend getting our spreadsheet set up so you have somewhere to keep all of the numbers you are getting. And you'll find it an incredibly valuable tool in sorting out dosing. Here is a link to the directions for getting started. http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/fdmb-spreadsheet-instructions.130337/ If you run into any trouble just ask and someone can help you with it.

We look forward to seeing you over in Prozinc when you're ready! :)
 
Stewie's Mom said:
I usually feed him at 7:00 am ish cause he's hungry and again at 9:30 am as that's when he gets his insulin normally.
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You might want to consider changing your shot time to 7am (if it works for your schedule)…..that way you could test at 7am…..then feed/shoot.

As long as he's high enough to shoot, you can feed/shoot within just a minute or two of testing...but if he's NOT above 200, you don't want to feed him.....Stall for 20-30 minutes, post for help and test again after 20-30 minutes.

It would also let you get some tests in on the PM cycle without having to stay up terribly late
 
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