? Very Low Numbers After First Lantus Shot, Do I Give Her the PM Shot?

swinneg

swinneg

Member Since 2026
Hello everyone,

My beautiful daughter was diagnosed on Monday and the vet said her number was around 450. She prescribed us 1U of Lantus 2x a day and a Libre 3 continuous monitor, which I put on her this morning after she chewed off the one the vet put on her last night. We gave her her first dose of insulin this morning and all went well, we tested her with the Contour Next Gen human monitor and it was surprisingly easy and gave a 224 number which makes sense and is not scary. I went to work and my husband stayed home to monitor her with the Libre app. Her glucose stayed around 50-60 for most of the day before dropping to 45 and then the monitor shut off for a few hours. I rushed home so we could test her, and after many panicked attempts we got a reading of 48. This seemed too low so we tried again with the CVS monitor I also got, and that read 46! We gave her some treats to try and get her level up and an hour later the Libre started saying 50s and 60s again so we calmed down. We manually tested her just now for her PM shot at that was supposed to be at 8PM, and she is at 81 before eating. I gave her dinner, but this means no PM shot right? Is this normal for just starting out or does this mean her dose is too high? Should I continue giving her insulin 2x a day even if her numbers are this low? I am so scared and I will do anything to help my baby.
 
Hi Sarah, Do not be surprised if your post is moved to the main forum; they like for new folks to post there first so that your post isn't overlooked in this busier Lantus forum. It looks like you have your spreadsheet set up as well as your signature, which is good.

We don't use times here; rather, we use +1, +2, etc. from the shot. Where are you right now? I'm going to tag a few folks for you to get some eyes on your post.
@Christie & Maverick @Bandit's Mom @tiffmaxee
 
Hello, sorry about that! Right now we are at +13ish from her first dose at 8AM. Thank you for responding! The Libre monitor is reading 103 right now btw
 
Hold off on giving her a shot right now. Let's see if we can get some input from some more experienced folks on whether or not to shoot tonight.
 
Thank you for letting me know! I am also scared because we go to bed around 10PM so would not be awake if she were to have a hypo event and the closest ER Vet is a 20 min drive with traffic or 5 min on a bike (but idk about cat on a bike).
 
I would try 0.75u tomorrow morning, provided of course that she gives you a blood glucose number that is shootable, which typically for brand new members is 200 and since you are just starting out with not much data on how she responds to insulin.
 
Christie & Maverick said:
I would try 0.75u tomorrow morning, provided of course that she gives you a blood glucose number that is shootable, which typically for brand new members is 200 and since you are just starting out with not much data on how she responds to insulin.
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The syringes I have are only in full unit measurements, is there an easy place to get .5 or .25 unit measurement syringes same day?
 
Christie & Maverick said:
Most pharmacies carry the U100 insulin syringes with half unit markings, but that leads me to another question: hopefully you are using U100 insulin syringes?
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Yes, the vet gave me a prescription for the very tiny U100 insulin syringes. So if she is 200 or over in the morning, I should grab some better syringes from CVS (hopefully) and give her .75u? Or should I try .5u first?
 
These are the ones I used to use. You can’t get syringes with less than half unit markings, so you have to eyeball in between full unit to half unit lines.

How much does she weigh?

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As shown on the pic above, 1u is just to the first small line from zero, you could draw up to that and squeeze out a few drops to get to 0.75u. Based on her weight, 1u wasn’t a bad starting dose. You didn’t happen to make any food changes from high carb diet to low carb?
 
Christie & Maverick said:
As shown on the pic above, 1u is just to the first small line from zero, you could draw up to that and squeeze out a few drops to get to 0.75u. Based on her weight, 1u wasn’t a bad starting dose. You didn’t happen to make any food changes from high carb diet to low carb?
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Yes we did! She was on hills science diet sensitive stomach which is apparently like 50% carbs (!) and we switched her to Sheba perfect portions wet food which is only about 3% carbs. We made the switch Monday night immediately after her diagnosis.
 
Oh boy ok, that could very well explain her quick improvement. I’ve seen more than a few cats who have had diet changes from dry food to low carb food need significantly less insulin and or become diet controlled quickly. Since you’ve just made the change, I would suggest holding off on insulin tomorrow or perhaps try 0.5u if her BG high enough and if you can monitor. Kind of hard to say how she might go post-food switch.
 
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Jude went into remission early after his dx when I switched him to a LC food.

She should go ahead and test tomorrow, right, Christie?? Hold off on shooting, but test to see where Nutmeg is.
 
Yes, it would be good to see where the BG is at…sorry, I made a small edit above. Usually you want to be careful when making a diet change like that and Nutmeg may still need a bit of insulin, it’s just hard to say. A test or two before bed tonight will help as well. She may end up bouncing a little.
 
I’ve been monitoring the libre that is on her and is has been hovering around 100 since she ate dinner at 8. She still has a decent amount of food left in her bowl though. Do you think her BG might bounce up or down during the night? It is actually trending down according to the libre app, now hovering around 90. is this a cause for concern?
 
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Numbers may fluctuate a little on the Libre. Depending on your usual feeding schedule you may find giving breaking up her food into main meals at usual preshot times and having a few snacks in between can be beneficial, especially if she was a grazer to begin with. Some kitties will bounce to higher numbers after they’ve had a quick drop in BG or a lower number than they are used to.
 
Hello, we just tested here and she is at 176 per the manual tester and 190 per the libre. Should we give her .5 u of lantus?
 
Also, if you don’t mind, Sarah, could you please start a new post for today, just put in your title today’s date, Nutmeg and then AMPS and subsequent tests. Also please add your data into your SS when you get a chance, including NS in the pm cell for insulin dose.

It will be easier to follow her numbers today with a new post. Usually the +2 is a good indication of how the cycle may go, because often kitties will onset (when the insulin dose starts to work) around then. I will keep watching for updates about Nutmeg through the day and will help if you need it.
 
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