Back on insulin for one week now, need dosing advice.

ChicagoBeck

ChicagoBeck

Member
Hi all,

Going to try to keep this concise, which isn't my strong suit, lol. There is more information that I've put in Buddy's spreadsheet.

My Buddy was diagnosed in July of 2023. We got him up to 6 units by testing at vet's office alone. Then came his dental in March, 2024. Vet advised to continue on 6 units for next 3 weeks post-dental, even though he knew/had instructed that I had withdrawn dry food. Of course you know what happened. 4 days later, I woke at 4:30 a.m., luckily, for no reason, to find him unconscious in vomit, eyes open and body twitching. Used honey and regained consciousness to a degree. Spent next 24 hours at the ER.

After that, he had zero diabetes symptoms that I could see. I haven't seen him at the water bowl once since before his dental. I thought he was in remission. But he has not had dry food since then, either, which is probably the difference.

In the month after the dental, he's been losing weight and then started not doing well. Been to the vet twice in the last couple of weeks. Found out he is still diabetic (see spreadsheet for lab values). He has pancreatitis (not the first time). He's currently waxing and waning, sometimes seeming pretty good and sometimes seeming lethargic, unwell, and feverish.

I have spent as much time as I could since that visit learning here. I realize that this is all on me and I can't count on my vet for accurate info, even though I really like him for most other things.

While I'm still keeping the dry food away (no plans to bring it back), I'm fudging a bit on diet by giving some Gerber baby food and a bit of gravy to get enough food in him since his appetite is not good.

Started at .5 units a week ago and I'm guessing I need to up it to 1 unit at this point. Could you check his spreadsheet and tell me what you think? I think his readings are going to continue to be erratic while the pancreatitis persists and while I'm giving him more carbs than I'd prefer.

This is really stressful and I'm losing tons of sleep. Hoping things even out soon. He currently looks like an 18-year-old cat even though he's 9.

Thanks in advance. I'm very grateful for this site, forum, and everyone that chips in to help!

Let me know if you have any questions, please. I have multiple cats plus fosters, so feeding time takes a while. I start preparing food at 6:30 (AM and PM), test around 7:00, give meds and put food down, then shoot at around 7:15 or 7:30. I leave food down and they can snack until it's gone, but I make sure there is no food down in the few hours before testing again.

Have to go feed 9 feral colonies in industrial parks right now, but will be back in an hour or two. Thank you!
 
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Oh wow. I am so sorry for what happened to your Buddy. That was really bad advice your vet gave you. How fortunate that you woke up and found him before it was too late. I am very glad that you are testing and collecting data on him now. From his spreadsheet and the excellent information on there, I feel certain that we can safely increase Buddy’s dose to .75 units now. If you have a blue preshot or lower then I would decrease the dose — at least until we can gather data on how he does when starting with a lower preshot. This is assuming that you will be able to monitor his cycles in the excellent way that you already have been.

I completely understand about nursing a sick cat and how taxing and tiring it is. I have been at the regular vet and specialist vet/ER all week with one of my cats and have been having to syringe feed her because she just wouldn’t eat. She’s turned the corner now (due to my not taking the advice of the vets.) But this isn’t about me. Can you syringe feed Buddy? Will he let you? Do you have any Mirataz to stimulate his appetite? I see he’s already getting Gabapentin and Cerenia. Buprenorphine probably would be better for pancreatitis pain. I take care of feral cat colonies too, and have foster cats/kittens. Feeding time here can take a while as well. Fortunately for me, I have my daughter’s help and my son’s as well.

Here is our Primer on Pancreatitis that may also be helpful for you. Stick around this forum and we will do our best to help you and Buddy.
https://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/a-primer-on-pancreatitis.79693/
 
With SLGS the target BG range we will be looking for (gradually) is between 90-150. Normal BC for a cat is about 50 to 120 (with non-diabetic cats sometimes hanging out in the 40s and generally staying below 120.) When he starts eating again, you will be feeding him a low carb wet food diet, right? I know you said that you have cut out the dry, but I am wondering what his regular diet will be when he starts eating normally again.
 
Thank you so much. I did .75 tonight, to the best of my ability. I'm using 40UL syringes, so trying to differentiate between .5 and .75 is challenging. If he is going to be settling into less than 1 unit, I'll get the other syringes and do the conversion.

With the baby food, I think he is getting enough food in him. I hesitate to syringe feed just because it is a bit stressful, and my experience with pancreatitis over the years has led me to believe that it can be very stress related. I can normally trace pancreatitis bouts back to a stressful moment/time. That's just been my experience with it over the years.

Buddy does not do well with Buprenorphine. He had a 3-month stint with FIC where he was on Buprenorphine. He was quite stressed and aggitated, which is the opposite of his personality. That was a very rough 3 months for both of us. I finally figured out that it was a side effect of Buprenorphine. I switched him to Gabapentin and his FIC resolved quickly after that.

I'm hesitant with Mirataz as I had a cat that had severe neurological side effects from it. Buddy, like that cat, is not a hearty cat and I feel he is prone to have whatever side effects there are for a medication, so I tread lightly. I'm not ruling it out, however.

I'll be feeding as low carb as I can. Buddy would drink his meals if he could, meaning he likes either liquids or a watered-down baby food consistency, if he has his way. I did some research and found Tiki Cats Mousse. He doesn't love it, but I'm hoping he'll take to it more once he feels better. Aside from that, I mostly stick to poultry pate. He'll eat some of the pate, but will always choose something liquid or creamy over pate any day. He can't tolerate any beef or seafood.

Sorry to hear about the trouble your girl is having. Glad she is turning a corner, though!
 
Yes, panc flares can definitely be exacerbated by stress (as with many things in our beloved cats!)

Hopefully you have the U-40 syringes with the half unit markings… to eyeball the space between the half unit and the 1 unit.
 
Oh and the Mirataz— you want to start with a very small amount and use maybe every other day. Start tiny and work up to find what works. I have had cats act very strangely on Mirtazapine.
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
It does make things easier!
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The syringes came in. SO much better. I think making sure to get the .3cc/ml version is important, too, as I think they are skinnier so the markings are further apart (similar to the difference between the 1ml and .5ml U-40 syringes). The plunger moves more smoothly on this brand (UltiCare) than the others I was getting (Monoject). Oddly, the syringes require an Rx on Chewy, but not on Amazon, so I got them on Amazon so they would arrive quicker.

I think Buddy has turned the corner with the pancreatitis. He had put on 5 oz. in one week since starting back on insulin, and I'm pretty sure he's put on at least another 5 oz. I can't feel his spine protruding as much. He's having fewer episodes where he clearly feels bad.

It seems like he needs to move up to 1 unit, but I'll also be starting to cut back on the baby food and as his appetite resumes. I may try to eliminate the baby food during the day today, when I can keep an eye on him and it's easier to test more often. I thought I had read that there really aren't a ton of carbs in Gerber meat baby food, though I could be wrong? Any thoughts on his numbers and moving him to 1 unit?
 
Let me look at his spreadsheet in a bit, but the pure meat baby foods are low in carbs- the ones that only contain meat and a little cornstarch. The chicken is 2 percent carbs.
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His numbers definitely show that he needs an increase to 1 unit, but if you want to wait until he is back on all LC cat food and not people food, that is perfectly fine. It’s so encouraging that he’s gaining some weight! Now we can get him into better BG numbers and he will soon be feeling even better and gaining more.
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
His numbers definitely show that he needs an increase to 1 unit, but if you want to wait until he is back on all LC cat food and not people food, that is perfectly fine. It’s so encouraging that he’s gaining some weight! Now we can get him into better BG numbers and he will soon be feeling even better and gaining more.
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Still gave him some baby food today, but it occurred to me that he's probably getting most of the carbs from the pill pocket(s) I'm using for the Gabapentin and Cerenia. I'm using these: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01KLILPWC, but trying to use as little as possible.

I did move to 1 unit this morning and he finally is barely in the blue. I'll keep testing for at least the next 2 hours, but I don't think it's going to go very low.
 
But it’s good! A blue is a blue and we will be happy for it, right? I am. He probably will be back up to pink tonight. Just stick with the 1 unit. A lot of cats tend to drop lower at night. We don’t know if that is his pattern yet, but you have plenty of room for that to happen if it will.
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
But it’s good! A blue is a blue and we will be happy for it, right? I am. He probably will be back up to pink tonight. Just stick with the 1 unit. A lot of cats tend to drop lower at night. We don’t know if that is his pattern yet, but you have plenty of room for that to happen if it will.
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Just tested prior to morning shot and he's at 229. About to put food down and don't know what does to do as that's his lowest preshot number so far. Thoughts?
 
It’s okay. It might have been helpful if you had stalled without feeding and then retested in 30 minutes to see if his numbers were already rising on their own(without the influence of food and as the insulin from the previous shot is waning.). But you did well. Just be sure to start testing by at least +2, okay?
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
It’s okay. It might have been helpful if you had stalled without feeding and then retested in 30 minutes to see if his numbers were already rising on their own(without the influence of food and as the insulin from the previous shot is waning.). But you did well. Just be sure to start testing by at least +2, okay?
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Thanks for getting back to me. I tested right at +2 and it was 310, so should have waited, it seems! Live and learn.

I'm trying to not get crazy with testing as he only has one ear to test. The other ear is tipped, but also missing the entire outside edge. Something happened when he was a feral in the industrial park...
 
Hi all. I am trying to figure out where I am going wrong these days. Buddy has gotten into a pattern of having low preshot numbers (low enough I skip the shot) every other dose. The spreadsheet wasn't really working for me, so I came up with my own spreadsheet which I keep on paper and then scan into Evernote at the end of each week. I've entered the last weeks' numbers into the online spreadsheet so you can see the chaos that is happening.

He gets no dry food at all. He eats poultry pate as he cannot tolerate any beef or seafood. Wet food is available to him from feeding time up until two hours before the next shot which is when I pull anything that's left (95% of the time, there is still some food left at that time).

Do I need to really push snacks even though he has food available to him? He's a pretty good eater so I would think he would be snacking if he's hungry.

I can't make heads or tails of this and why it seems to be happening when it didn't before. This has been the pattern for about 2 weeks. I can't think of anything that has changed in our routine.
 
Hi there. I am glad to know you and Buddy are doing all right! I was wondering.

If you could post here more often and try to put in your spreadsheet data, it would really help me to help you. I’m sorry if that is a burden and your spreadsheet has given you trouble. If there are specific problems then we have people who can fix spreadsheet issues.

One thing is that it looks like the skipped shots are not helping him. A problem for me in interpreting his numbers is that when the shots are skipped there are no tests. But I can see that his next preshot number is too high. Would it be possible for you to please input the previous week’s data?

I think we need to go with a reduced dose instead of a skip when he has a lower preshot number as long as you can monitor the cycle a bit. It is also possible that he may need a reduction in general.
 
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Sorry for the delay. I'm dealing with health issues and am not having a good weekend.

I wasn't having technical issues with the spreadsheet, I just needed to be able to record things in writing and have more space, so I made the spreadsheet below. I also needed to be able to easily see testing/shot times. The other side has a custom spreadsheet that I use for work and personal things, so I carry this around with me each day.

I haven't been able to put in the previous week yet, but I'm continuing to transfer my results to the online spreadsheet.

Tonight was interesting, as you'll see on the online spreadsheet. I tested him (it had been a little more than 12 hours since his previous shot), and the result was 44! He was NOT symptomatic. I immediately put another strip in, pricked his ear again, and got a result of 64! What's up with that?!

I was not doing well this morning, so I didn't test him after his shot, which is not typical of me. His preshot number this morning was very high, so I really wasn't worried about him, plus he was acting fine. Now I wish I had been testing him.

Should I reduce his dose and see if things start to even out? I'm so lost right now. His numbers tonight really threw me. I skipped tonight's dose, of course.

It almost feels like the Prozinc is lasting more than 12 hours or something.

I will say that he is doing a lot better lately. His fur is softer, he is instigating wrestling bouts with his brothers multiple times a day which is a good sign that he feels well, and he's back to snuggling more instead of staying off by himself.

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First. Yes. Reduce his dose down to 1.25 units right away. He has earned a reduction based on the 44 that you got. I will be back with more, but this is the most important thing right now.
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
First. Yes. Reduce his dose down to 1.25 units right away. He has earned a reduction based on the 44 that you got. I will be back with more, but this is the most important thing right now.
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I gave him his shot about 5 minutes before your reply, unfortunately. I reduced him down to 1 as I was really concerned about the 44. I guess we'll see how things go today with that.

Looking forward to your other thoughts on what's going on. I just don't understand the low numbers at 12+ hours.

Thank you! Hope you had a great holiday weekend :)
 
I did a little research on the Somogyi response and the duration of effect of Prozinc in cats. You probably know all this already, but I found the following online. Both are from this study:

  • Studies have identified substantial variability in absorption kinetics of PZI among cats. Time to peak blood insulin concentration ranged from 4 to 12 hours, time of the blood glucose nadir ranged from 1 to 12 hours, and time for blood insulin concentration to return to baseline ranged from 8 to 24 hours after SC administration of PZI to healthy and diabetic cats.1,13,1
  • Once-daily administration of PZIR may be effective in maintaining control of glycemia in some diabetic cats and should be considered in those cats where the blood glucose nadir occurs 10 hours or longer after administration of PZIR, especially if hypoglycemia or the Somogyi response become recurring problems.15

Hopefully the lowered dose will handle it. I might start trying to get some random tests in between +7 and +12 just to see what's happening.
 
ProZinc can last more than 12 hours in some cats. I see some getting 14 hours of so duration out of it... it's not common, but can occur. Some cats just tend to nadir later than others and that is also a common occurrence when a cat is breaking a bounce. The bounce effect is waning and the ProZinc is acting to reduce BG so you can get a late nadir. Usually it's fine because you will also have a delay before the next shot onsets (at least 2 hours, in general, in some cats longer).

It's been a while since we talked about what he's eating and when. In order for me to not keep asking that question, can you please put in your signature some things like what he's eating, when he was diagnosed, his age, type of insulin, the dosing method being followed, any other medical conditions or medications being given.

Anyway, tell me what he's currently eating (hopefully low carb wet food) and if you are giving him snacks of low carb wet food at around +2, and +4. The feeding schedule will also have a lot to do with how fast the cat drops and when the nadir will occur.

So, my primary observation is the same as what I mentioned a couple of days ago. He is not being well-served by the skipped shots (of course, I don't mean the skipped shot when his PMPS was 44! That was exactly the right thing to do!) Recently, when his BG has been between 92-147, you have skipped the evening shot. In the morning his BG has been in the yellows and pinks. I would not skip the shot entirely because it's allowing his BG to climb too high. Try a half dose as long as you will be able to monitor the cycle and gather data for the next time (to see if the half dose is too much or to little) and to keep him safe.

I am actually okay with you dropping the dose down to 1 unit for the time being and gathering data to see how that dose is working. Today I see his lowest recorded BG is 104. So a half dose to consider giving if the PMPS is low would be .5 units (again, as long as you can monitor and gather some data.)
 
Thanks! I put more info in my signature.

Tested at +8 and got 97, so still going down. Will keep testing every hour or two until his next shot. I'll update later. He is acting "off" today, so I'm watching him closely.
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
Any tests after the half dose last night? The daytime cycle was nice.
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He felt feverish yesterday. I first noticed that his body was warm. Then for the rest of the afternoon and everning, his ears were extremely warm, along with his nose. I filled in the spreadsheet. I checked on him every hour last night just to make sure he was okay. Rough night for sleeping. Hopefully he's not having a pancreatitis flare up.

He feels fine so far this morning and seemed to be excited for breakfast just like normal. Fingers crossed.

Too early to say, but I wonder if he will level out at 1 or .75 both AM and PM. Hope so.

EDIT: Ears/nose back to feeling a bit warm around lunchtime.
 
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From last night’s data, it looks like the half dose wasn’t quite enough. Next time he’s in a similar place for a preshot number, I would try .75. The good part is that the half dose did keep him out of the pinks this morning.

I am sorry Buddy seems unwell. I hope he will keep eating.
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
From last night’s data, it looks like the half dose wasn’t quite enough. Next time he’s in a similar place for a preshot number, I would try .75. The good part is that the half dose did keep him out of the pinks this morning.

I am sorry Buddy seems unwell. I hope he will keep eating.
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Thanks. Preshot was 320 tonight! 44 the night before last, and now 320. I'll be glad when things level out.

What are the chances of the meter not being accurate? When 44 came up the other night, I immediately got out another strip, pricked him again, and tested him again. The result was 64. I understand a little difference, but that seems pretty dramatic.

He was a little warmer throughout the afternoon, but today was much better than yesterday. He's acting, more or less, normal.
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
How is Buddy feeling? Why the reduced dose last night when he was so high at PMPS? Was he not eating?
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Seems to be waxing and waning. I think some low-grade pancreatitis happening. He is eating though.

I increased his dose to .75 last night. I thought that's what I was supposed to do? I thought the idea was to not change things too much and too frequently? Sorry, I guess I wasn't clear on what to do with all of these erratic numbers lately.

I have no idea what's going on with his high numbers the last 24 hours. He's definitely not eating any more than usual.
 
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ChicagoBeck said:
Seems to be waxing and waning. I think some low-grade pancreatitis happening. He is eating though.

I increased his dose to .75 last night. I thought that's what I was supposed to do? I thought the idea was to not change things too much and too frequently?

I have no idea what's going on with his high numbers the last 24 hours. He's definitely not eating any more than usual.
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Oh. Okay. I now understand your confusion. My apologies. I recommended the half dose of .5 only for the one cycle because you were concerned about his PMPS of 144. That was only a temporary dose reduction for that single cycle. If you recall (see post number 22 above from Tuesday, September 3) I said to reduce his dose from 1.5 down to 1.25 units because of the lime green 44. You did not see that message in time and shot 1 unit. I said I thought it would be okay if you wanted to keep him at 1 unit for a few days to see how it went. So really his normal dose should either be 1.25 or 1 unit at this point.
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
Oh. Okay. I now understand your confusion. My apologies. I recommended the half dose of .5 only for the one cycle because you were concerned about his PMPS of 144. That was only a temporary dose reduction for that single cycle. If you recall (see post number 22 above from Tuesday, September 3) I said to reduce his dose from 1.5 down to 1.25 units because of the lime green 44. You did not see that message in time and shot 1 unit. I said I thought it would be okay if you wanted to keep him at 1 unit for a few days to see how it went. So really his normal dose should either be 1.25 or 1 unit at this point.
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Okay. I think my confusion was mostly that his doses were different for AM and PM. So when you said to reduce to 1.25 (and I ended up doing 1 just before I saw that), I thought that was for the AM dose only and were were doing something else for the PM dose.

So I should try to do 1 unit both AM and PM as long as the preshot number justifies it, right? What number would you be okay with doing 1 unit? And when should I reduce to either .75 or .5?

Having had that ER visit with him previously, I definitely feel better being conservative if there's any leeway between a higher or lower dose.
 
ChicagoBeck said:
What number would you be okay with doing 1 unit? And when should I reduce to either .75 or .5?
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oh yes. I remember now about the hypo after the vet was overdosing him and they hadn’t wanted you to test him - and you had the diet change to LC food, etc. I am very happy that Buddy is still with you! Just remember that when you are testing, you are in control. You can steer any low numbers with food and any carbs necessary. However, I do understand your anxiety and we can try to take it slowly. Right now we don’t have much data on shooting lower numbers with Buddy. We only have the 144 from September 3 where the .5 unit wasn’t quite enough insulin. So if you have a similar number you can try .75 as long as you can monitor the cycle. If he has a number between 100 and 144/150, you can try the .5 dose and then test to gather data on whether that is to little, just right, or too much. Remember we are not giving him 6 units like they were before and that you can manage his numbers at home. We can take things gradually. Okay?
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
oh yes. I remember now about the hypo after the vet was overdosing him and they hadn’t wanted you to test him - and you had the diet change to LC food, etc. I am very happy that Buddy is still with you! Just remember that when you are testing, you are in control. You can steer any low numbers with food and any carbs necessary. However, I do understand your anxiety and we can try to take it slowly. Right now we don’t have much data on shooting lower numbers with Buddy. We only have the 144 from September 3 where the .5 unit wasn’t quite enough insulin. So if you have a similar number you can try .75 as long as you can monitor the cycle. If he has a number between 100 and 144/150, you can try the .5 dose and then test to gather data on whether that is to little, just right, or too much. Remember we are not giving him 6 units like they were before and that you can manage his numbers at home. We can take things gradually. Okay?
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This was really helpful. Thank you!

Having a rough time with a different cat so sorry for the delay. Hope you had a nice weekend.

Can you take a look at Buddy's spreadsheet? Looks like we've gotten out of the skipping-every-other-dose trend, but now it looks like he needs an increase. Thinking of moving to 1.25 starting tomorrow morning so I can better monitor him. Thoughts?
 
Yes. I agree that he needs the increase to 1.25. He’s doing pretty well; I am happy to see it! I cannot tell where in the world that 91 came from at AMPS. If you can, next time you get a number like that at preshot time, delay feeding him for about 30 minutes and retest to see if he’s already on the way back up as the previous shot is waning. If so, then you can probably give some dose of insulin. If not, you can go ahead and skip. Either way, if you skip a dose like that, it would be good if you could get a test later to see how long it took for his BG to rise and by how much. I am looking forward to seeing even more progress on the new dose.
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
Yes. I agree that he needs the increase to 1.25. He’s doing pretty well; I am happy to see it! I cannot tell where in the world that 91 came from at AMPS. If you can, next time you get a number like that at preshot time, delay feeding him for about 30 minutes and retest to see if he’s already on the way back up as the previous shot is waning. If so, then you can probably give some dose of insulin. If not, you can go ahead and skip. Either way, if you skip a dose like that, it would be good if you could get a test later to see how long it took for his BG to rise and by how much. I am looking forward to seeing even more progress on the new dose.
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Sounds good. He does seem to have erratic numbers here and there.

I increased to 1.25 today. We'll see how it goes!
 
How's Buddy? I would at least give a tiny dose of .25 if he's at 85 like last night and then get a few tests. This would be if you can monitor the cycle with a few tests of course. You can always stall if you get a low BG -- wait, do not feed, and retest in 30 minutes to see if BG is stable or rising. Then shoot based on the test data.

What kind of tests did you get today? I was just trying to check up on Buddy and see how the new dose was going. I hope everything is all right with both you and Buddy.
 
Rough week with health issues, another cat, and had to switch to a new computer.

The night of the 85 was rough (had been up almost 2 days), so I wasn't up to monitoring that night. If that happens again, I'll try to give a tiny dose.

We seem to be going the wrong direction. I don't understand because nothing has changed. Everything is very regimented. Seems like we need to go back up. I don't understand why his numbers are so whacky.

He HATES the testing. He only has one ear to test. The other ear is missing the outer part of the ear (he was a feral in an industrial park prior to me taking him in). That's the reason I try to skimp on the testing, if you've noticed. I'd test him more if he didn't mind it so much.

On the flip side, he couldn't care less about the shots. Doesn't even seem to notice it at all.

Today I ordered a desk cat bed. I work from home 50+ hours a week and Buddy always lays in the doorway as long as I am working. I don't think he gets enough sleep as he's my little watch cat. Hopefully he'll use this bed and get more rest since he'll be next to me all the time. I wonder if that could be affecting him.
 
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ChicagoBeck said:
Bumped him up to 1.5 this morning.
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Good decision to increase to 1.5 units.
Have you ever tried testing his paw pads? I have never do this, but some people find that their cats don’t mind it at all.

We can see from Friday 9/13 that the.75 dose wasn’t quite enough. It’s good information.
 
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I haven't tested his paw pads. He doesn't like his paws touched, so I'm not sure how that would go over. I'm going to think about it.

Got down to 71 last night.

This morning he seemed off, a little too snuggly and out of it, so I was slightly concerned about him. Initial test was 232, but I squeezed out a little more blood and immediately got 181 on a new strip. Second time I've seen pretty dramatic differences with tests done at the same time (see message #30 above). Is there some explanation for this that makes sense?
 
Hello. Sorry to be a pest. Still wondering about the question above. Experienced it again tonight. Got PMPS of 109 which I thought was odd as all the food was gone, so immediately retested and got 160. I don't know what to think of this and am really questioning what is happening.
 
ChicagoBeck said:
Hello. Sorry to be a pest. Still wondering about the question above. Experienced it again tonight. Got PMPS of 109 which I thought was odd as all the food was gone, so immediately retested and got 160. I don't know what to think of this and am really questioning what is happening.
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Oh wow. Just seeing this. Sorry. You are not a pest. Ever! Are you asking about the difference between the 109 and the 160? That does seem a little too much even for the allowed "meter variance" that we talk about. These glucometers are allowed a variance of about 20 percent so a 109 could go as high as about 131, but not 160. Sometimes you just get a bad test strip though and that can account for the difference. We always advise that... if you ever see a number that doesn't seem right to you, retest it to see what you get a second time.
 
ChicagoBeck said:
Initial test was 232, but I squeezed out a little more blood and immediately got 181 on a new strip. Second time I've seen pretty dramatic differences with tests done at the same time (see message #30 above). Is there some explanation for this that makes sense?
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Also, I see you've had his problem before. I've seen the meter variance allowable figure quoted by some moderators as high as 25 percent, but still if you keep having this problem, I might start to question the meter. I rarely had that much variation with my ReliOn Premier meter (or the ReliOn Prime meter.) Are the test strips old or anything? I doubt it, but just asking.
 
Why did you skip his dose on Sunday when his AMPS was 246? Was it because he was unwell? I saw your notes. Is he doing better now? I really hope so. The 57 that evening was just a fine number and is not hypoglycemic. It's good that you were monitoring him though.

His SS isn't up to date, but I hope you reduced his dose. I can't see what's happened on Monday or Tuesday, but after the 57 on Sunday night his new dose going forward would be 1.25. That is according to the SLGS protocol where reductions are generally taken when the cat drops below 90 (human meter).

I'm a little worried about him now because you wrote that he wasn't feeling well. I hope he's not sick. Why the turkey baby food? I mean, will he not eat his regular wet food? I also will use baby food from time to time when my cats are sick and won't eat anything else (Gerber ham is a favorite). Is he having a pancreatitis flare?
 
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