I'm sure others may be by so leave up your question mark (good job on that btw 
. @tiffmaxee do you have time to pop in here with a new member? To keep Kierra safe, you will want to test before administering insulin every single time - on your SS these are the AMPS (AM Pre-Shot) and PMPS (PM Pre-Shot) tests. Basically, you're insuring Kierra is high enough to shoot. 
I don't know if the starting dose is correct, it is what the vet recommended. How would I know if it is not correct? She pretty much eats LC canned food and there were no changes in her diet proceeding the diabetes dx. She weighs 14 pounds now but had weighed 16 pounds in early October. She has lost a lot of muscle mass.
I looked at Jax spreadsheet. You started out really low dose. Looking back, would you do anything different now knowing what you know or would you approach it the same way? I see all those high BG numbers in the first 3 months and wonder if you had upped the dose sooner that maybe it would have gotten you to the lower BG numbers that you had in September faster? Also, I see you are testing quite a bit everyday. Why is that? I thought once you know the nadir you can move on to less frequent testing. Are you working toward remission? It looks like you are there! I am trying to learn here so please forgive me the naive questions. Tiff's comment above is asking if the starting dose I was given by the vet (2u) is correct and I have no clue. I also don't know how much experience the vet has with diabetes. I trust the people here more I think since being in the trenches is the real world. The vet has said several times that I don't need to be testing so much - like he thinks it is a bad thing or something. I do worry about poking Kierra's ears so much. I know people say it isn't a problem but I still worry. I have switched to using the insulin needles on the syringes to poke her ears (maller than the lancets I have) and they make very tiny punctures on the ear (they are U100 29G) and I can't see much of a mark left from them. I am also following it up by rubbing fresh aloe vera on the ears. Anyway, I would appreciate any advice as I don't have much experience with all this. The reason I joined this forum about 14 years ago was because a vet mis-diagnosed my cat with diabetes. Once I found this forum, learned how to test and got a meter, I figured out he wasn't diabetic at all. Still makes me angry thinking about it. I put my cat through hell injecting insulin when he didn't need it. Well, sorry for such a long post and thanks for your help.
Keep asking questions. You'll find a good path for Kierra Those first two months were on a pet meter (alphatrak) and following my vet's advice. He wasn't pushy just knew minimal about feline diabetes but I knew even less so I just did what he said. If I were to anything different, it would have been to post on this site sooner, read the dosing methods, and start relying on advice from people here who have seen hundreds of diabetic cats. I also switched to a human meter and saved $$.
Maybe. But increasing the dose needs to be done safely - 0.25 increments are recommended so one doesn't "pass by" the good dose. If you notice in my SS, I started posting here 08/22/20 and it was recommended I increase 0.25 - so I did on 08/23. Jax ultimately had three more increases before getting to a good dose (2.25u) for him. If I had increased by half units, I would have skipped by this dose. Also, I was able to increase safely because I had the data to do so. Testing and entering data in the SS is super key.
I test more than is required by Tight Regulation - Jax is so easy to test and I just test every time I feed him. I'm also home and can do it. Also, when he was on little higher doses, he'd sometimes dive down to lower numbers without much warning so I'd try to catch him doing that...for me, I tried keeping him on a dose as long as possible so I could help retrain the liver-pancreas team.
I wouldn't worry about this too much - if you're willing to get help from the board then you'll find the dose for what Kierra needs.
I agree here - I heard someone describe this board a big case study.
I'm sure this is fine - a lot of us on the board use Neosporin with pain relief (I use Targets version). I personally wipe it off before testing and then will reapply afterwards. Also, I've put hundreds of holes in Jax's ears and he's a-okay
I forgot to respond to this one
Nadir can and does move around. Even just looking at Jax's SS and looking at when he dropped below 50 (bright green), that shifted around some. I've always thought Jax's nadir to be in the +3 to +5 range but he has dipped below 50 at +4,+5,+12,+2, and +8. Don't you love cats ?
You just want to check the carb content. Several of those brands post carbs as part of their nutrient info on their website. A lot of us refer to Dr. Pierson's cat food list - linked here - I personally check that list and then see if I can find info on the manufactures site incase the formula has changed since the food list was published.
I think the ones I am using are LC but I will double check them. I am thinking about going raw with her as she likes raw and I have been putting it off for a long time and kicking myself I haven't done it already.
Oh my! Well, I may have to add this to my list of things to do - get caliber, light table, and magnifying glass. With such tiny dosing, it does seem necessary. My head is spinning.
Really any syringe with 1/2 unit markings works but there are a couple of links in the Insulin Care & Syringe Info sticky. I order mine the Sure Comfort ones ADW (link below).
I use a lancet (spring loaded needle). My personal one is by alphatrak but that's only because I bought the alphatrak starter kit when I started testing Jax (I've since switched to a human meter). You do want a 28g or 29g lancet needle (lower number, bigger needle, better chance at getting a good sized droplet). Some people freehand poke
@tiffmaxee and I were discussing on another condo of using a "flashlight" app on a tablet instead of using a light table. This is what I do. And I use jeweler magnifying glasses to free up my hands - link here. The app on my ipad I use is called "MyLight" (and was free!). Here's a pic - mimics a light table.Oh my! Well, I may have to add this to my list of things to do - get caliber, light table, and magnifying glass. With such tiny dosing, it does seem necessary. My head is spinning.
I poke on the inside too (yay black cats!). I pretty much stay in the sweet spot but I know some people move around more...I just find Jax's ears too thin other places.
I am still figuring things out at this point. I will probably try TR, IDK. What is a good schedule for testing ketones? The meter strips are $1 each so that can get expensive. I have urine strips too.Are you going to follow SLGS or TR? Either way you need to go up another .50. Yes, you should test for ketones. Have you had a chance to read the dosing methods we use here? I think y doing a good job of testing.
You just need to do math to get the measurement you need. The 1u measurement doubled is 2u. The 1u measurement halved is 0.5u. If you need 2u, then you double the measurement for the 1u. If you haven't already, I'd read through the caliper post (linked here) - that's what I read to understand how to use them and how to calculate my measurements.Do you have numbers for above 1.75u? I ordered some before I looked at your caliber numbers.
This board likes to do one post per day and then you can link to your previous post for continuity. So next time you post, start a new condo and then you can include a link back to this one.
What does condo mean?
A new thread - at the top of the board, click "Post New Thread". Each day, create a new thread rather than add to your old one. Include a link to your last thread for continuity.
It's after a "cat condo". Cat owners can be silly 
I am sorry if I should be starting a new post for this but hoping it is ok to reply? I got a caliper from Harbor Freight yesterday. So when you say "where the plastic in the barrel stops", does this picture of the terumo show that (from the link you posted)? It is where the plunger meets the end and can't go any further closed, right?
Yes to your question and yes to a new post (for next time
)! You can always tag people if you want to ask them a specific question by using the "@" and writing their screen name (e.g., I would be @JaxBenji ).
