? Low - Very Low Numbers First Day of Insulin, But High Numbers Second Day?

swinneg

swinneg

Member Since 2026
Hello,

My baby was recently diagnosed with diabetes on 1/12 and we started her on 1u of Lantis yesterday. Yesterday's AMPS was 273 which makes sense, so we gave her the 1u while she was eating breakfast and all went well so I went to work. My husband works from home Fridays so he was able to monitor her Libre monitor and he let me know that it was reading very low starting at about 1pm and her chart on the app looks like a straight downwards line from 300ish down to below 50 when the sensor cut off. I told him to give her some treats and food and rushed home, we were able to do a manual test at about 3:45pm which read 38 and a retest of 46. At the advice of this forum I decided not to give her a PM dose because her PMPS BG was only 81 and I wouldn't be able to monitor her overnight. We gave her .5u of insulin this morning at about 8:30AM and, according to the libre, her BG has been between 260 and 180 all day, with the highest after breakfast and a test just recently at +8 at 179bg. I'm confused because 1u seemed to be too much since she dipped so crazy low, but on .5u she is still fairly high. I am going to give her .5u tonight as well to be on the safe side, but should we try 1u tomorrow morning and see if there is a repeat of yesterday or just keep it to .5u for a few days? Is it normal for a cat to react strongly to the first dose then even out, or maybe i'm just terrible at this and didn't give her the insulin shot properly?
 
Hello and welcome from me.

Stick with 0.5 unit dosing tomorrow. Lantus is a depot style insulin, meaning that it's effectiveness builds over time. It's also likely that sweet Nutmeg is currently bouncing from those lower numbers yesterday:
Bouncing is simply a natural reaction to what the cat's system perceives as a BG value that is "too low". "Too low" is relative. If a cat is used to BGs in the 200's, 300's, or higher for a long time, then even a BG that drops to 150 can trigger a "bounce". Bouncing can also be triggered if the blood glucose drops too low and/or too fast.The pancreas, then the liver, release glucogon, glycogen and counter-regulatory hormones. The end result is a dumping of "sugar" into the bloodstream to save the cat from going hypoglycemic from a perceived low. The action is often referred to as "liver panic" or "panicky liver". *Usually*, a bounce will clear kitty's system within 3 days (6 cycles).
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For more details on Lantus and the depot, start reading the yellow starred Sticky Notes at the top of the Lantus form: Lantus / Levemir / Biosimilars. There is a lot to read, pace yourself!
 
It will be interesting to see how she does tonight. Please stick with 0.5u for a few days, she seems to be doing fairly well after skipping last night, bouncing aside.
 
Christie & Maverick said:
Good stuff, at least you have a little line now to draw up to! Remember, if you see a good drop in BG at +2, that could signal a bit more action tonight.
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Hello, her bg is 199 +2 after .5u. She ripped off her libre and I am now a bit anxious. Do you think 199 is ok, am I good to go to sleep or should I stay up and test again?
 
Do you have a handheld meter? Nutmeg may not be a fan of your poking her ear but a handheld meter is helpful if the Libre gives you a low reading or if you don't have any spare sensors around to reinstall.
 
Hello, thank you for responding! We have been cross checking with a contour next gen meter as well as the libre when it was still on. Her bg at +3 was 154 so I think she's fine. We will test her again at +6 and +9 before PMPS to make sure her numbers are ok and we are hoping to get another libre prescription from the vet tomorrow because I am way too anxious for this!
 
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