Should I Give My Cat her PM Insulin dose?

samirr12

samirr12

Member Since 2026
Can anyone suggest if I should proceed with my cats insulin tonight? I use a human Relion meter and I have been testing her the last few days and the results are as follows:
https://docs.google.com/.../1g3poTo5W4evYZ4bztoJX.../edit...
My vet told me to proceed with giving her 0.50 units (Prozinc). But i want to be sure because I am worried she might drop to low? I gave her the 0.50 unit last night when she was at 290 and she dropped to 156 by 11:30pm. So I am anxious that if I give her the 0.50 units she will drop too low.
 
Hello. I am sorry that I was not here earlier to see this question. I do think that you should have given some insulin tonight, but I understand that since she was below 200 and you were unsure that you skipped the shot. It will be all right. We can get her back on track. I would like to help you with that. It would have been good today if you could’ve gotten a test around six hours after her shot so we could see how low that .5 unit dose was taking her today. Next time, see if you can get that mid-cycle test. Tonight, I think I would have recommended giving her a .25 unit dose instead of the .5 dose, but that would be if you were able to get a few tests this evening to make sure that she was safe and to make sure that you knew how low that dose was taking her with the lower pre-shot level. It looks like she doesn’t need much insulin support, but does still need a little bit. We can work on that. The 156 BG number that she had yesterday evening was quite a good number and very safe. We need to gradually get you to the point where you can shoot lower numbers, but we will verify with the BG tests that it is safe. Okay?
 
Okay thank you so much. It is good to know for next time. I am slightly concerned b/c now she is up again this morning with a BG of 356mg/dl. I adminstered the 0.50 units of Prozinc after she ate and will test her again later when I get home from work/before i feed her. How concerned should I be about that high BG reading? I should not have increased the dose I gave her correct? Sorry I'm slightly anxious that I messed up her numbers by skipping the dose last night. :/
 
samirr12 said:
Okay thank you so much. It is good to know for next time. I am slightly concerned b/c now she is up again this morning with a BG of 356mg/dl. I adminstered the 0.50 units of Prozinc after she ate and will test her again later when I get home from work/before i feed her. How concerned should I be about that high BG reading? I should not have increased the dose I gave her correct? Sorry I'm slightly anxious that I messed up her numbers by skipping the dose last night. :/
Click to expand...
Yes. She’s higher this morning because of the skipped dose last night, but she should start coming back down today. At how many hours past her shot time will you be back home to get a test?

And .5 is her regular dose for right now so you were right to give her .5 units this morning.
 
Question: how many hours after her shot do you usually leave for work? And what is her feeding schedule? Does she have an automatic feeder to give her snacks of wet food while you are away at work?
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
Yes. She’s higher this morning because of the skipped dose last night, but she should start coming back down today. At how many hours past her shot time will you be back home to get a test?

And .5 is her regular dose for right now so you were right to give her .5 units this morning.
Click to expand...
I will be back home around 5pm so around 10 hours after her shot this morning. I will be testing her every few hours on Saturday though as I am home from work so I will hopefully have a better grasp of her levels throughout the day after that.
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
Question: how many hours after her shot do you usually leave for work? And what is her feeding schedule? Does she have an automatic feeder to give her snacks of wet food while you are away at work?
Click to expand...
I usually leave for work around 2.5 hours after her shot. Her feeding schedule is around 6:45-7pm and 6:45-7am. ( it was 630am and 630pm but recently moved the times) I do not have an automatic feeder to give her snacks of wet food while at work. I was originally told by the vet to minimize feeding more than her morning and night meals and to not leave food out throughout the day. However, not to minimize my vet but i do feel i have received more information and accurate advice from this forum than from my veterinary hospital. So should I be looking into getting one? Do you have a suggestion as to a good one?
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
Question: how many hours after her shot do you usually leave for work? And what is her feeding schedule? Does she have an automatic feeder to give her snacks of wet food while you are away at work?
Click to expand...
Also, would you mind explaining to me a little more about the automatic feeding schedule? I was reading some older posts on here that you were responding to about it but I just want some clarification. Kitty has always been a grazer and had previously always ate small meals throughout the day. With the diabetes diagnosis we stopped this to do two larger meals a day (though she never finishes it in one sitting--she usually finishes her AM meal completely about 2-2.5 hours after insulin shot) My question is: how does this work with the insulin? Would her main meals in AM & PM before insulin be bigger than the other meals throughout the day? How would i go about splitting this up ?
 
So with ProZinc it’s best to feed multiple small meals throughout the early part of the cycle. ProZinc will start to lower BG at approximately +2. If she likes to graze on her breakfast for two hours or so, then that is just fine.
 
The larger meals are the breakfast and dinner meals, and the snacks are small — like a spoonful or two (depending upon the cat.) if she grazes for a couple of hours at main mealtimes then maybe you just need to have food available at about +4.

The snacks (and grazing if she’s a reliable grazer) are important to help smooth her cycle and help to prevent steep drops in blood glucose. If she drops too fast, that can set her up to bounce and have some high BG as a result. Have you read about bouncing? I will be happy to answer questions about it.
 
Okay. Since you are home in the morning for a while after her shot, it would be good if you can get a +2 before you leave for work. This can be a good indicator of how the cycle is going to go. If the +2 is quiet a bit lower than the preshot number then you may need to leave extra food out for her. Then when you come home it would be excellent information to get that +10 test and will prepare you for the PMPS number.

Then you can fill in some gaps for us on the weekends.
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
Okay. Since you are home in the morning for a while after her shot, it would be good if you can get a +2 before you leave for work. This can be a good indicator of how the cycle is going to go. If the +2 is quiet a bit lower than the preshot number then you may need to leave extra food out for her. Then when you come home it would be excellent information to get that +10 test and will prepare you for the PMPS number.

Then you can fill in some gaps for us on the weekends.
Click to expand...
okay thanks so much.
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
Hello. I am sorry that I was not here earlier to see this question. I do think that you should have given some insulin tonight, but I understand that since she was below 200 and you were unsure that you skipped the shot. It will be all right. We can get her back on track. I would like to help you with that. It would have been good today if you could’ve gotten a test around six hours after her shot so we could see how low that .5 unit dose was taking her today. Next time, see if you can get that mid-cycle test. Tonight, I think I would have recommended giving her a .25 unit dose instead of the .5 dose, but that would be if you were able to get a few tests this evening to make sure that she was safe and to make sure that you knew how low that dose was taking her with the lower pre-shot level. It looks like she doesn’t need much insulin support, but does still need a little bit. We can work on that. The 156 BG number that she had yesterday evening was quite a good number and very safe. We need to gradually get you to the point where you can shoot lower numbers, but we will verify with the BG tests that it is safe. Okay?
Click to expand...
Would you mind taking a look at Kittys current BG chart? After skipping Kittys insulin on Tuesday night her BG levels have been super high and not coming down much. I thought they were slowly coming back down but her reading this morning shows she is back up again.
BG Readings:
Tuesday PM =skipped
Wednesday AM =356
Wednesday PM=332
Thursday AM=256
Thursday PM=262
Friday AM=348

Kitty (Sierra Elizabeth Amirr) 's Sugar Sheet

Should I be concerned? Is this normal or should i consult my vet and possibly increase her dose to .75 or 1 unit for PM dose? We were starting to taper her down as we think she is going into remission but now I am concerned.

Also, I apoloigize, I read this post wrong the other day and so I have not tried only giving her .25 unit yet to see how low that amount will take her. I will do that this weekend if recommened and test her periodically to track BG. Would you still recommend this based off of her high numberd these last few days?
 
Last edited:
I
samirr12 said:
Would you mind taking a look at Kittys current BG chart? After skipping Kittys insulin on Tuesday night her BG levels have been super high and not coming down much. I thought they were slowly coming back down but her reading this morning shows she is back up again.
BG Readings:
Tuesday PM =skipped
Wednesday AM =356
Wednesday PM=332
Thursday AM=256
Thursday PM=262
Friday AM=348

Kitty (Sierra Elizabeth Amirr) 's Sugar Sheet

Should I be concerned? Is this normal or should i consult my vet and possibly increase her dose to .75 or 1 unit for PM dose? We were starting to taper her down as we think she is going into remission but now I am concerned.

Also, I apoloigize, I read this post wrong the other day and so I have not tried only giving her .25 unit yet to see how low that amount will take her. I will do that this weekend if recommened and test her periodically to track BG. Would you still recommend this based off of her high numberd these last few days?
Click to expand...
I will look, but with the BG numbers you have written in your message, she’s definitely not in remission or nearing remission. Cats in remission will consistently be in almost all green numbers (under 100) with a few very low blues from time to time. Normal blood glucose for a cat is about 50-120. I will look at the spreadsheet to see if I can help.
 
Well, we are kind of in the same situation as a few days ago. We don’t know what her nadirs are? We don’t know how low she’s going. You have documented an occasional blue number, but I can’t tell just from the preshot numbers how low she’s may be going. I doubt it’s anything dangerous, but I would need to know in order to make any recommendations on the dose (and honestly your vet should want to know this information too, because otherwise it’s just guessing — and I am not willing to risk Kitty’s life on speculating.). Will you be home this weekend to get some tests?
 
samirr12 said:
Would you mind taking a look at Kittys current BG chart? After skipping Kittys insulin on Tuesday night her BG levels have been super high and not coming down much. I thought they were slowly coming back down but her reading this morning shows she is back up again.
BG Readings:
Tuesday PM =skipped
Wednesday AM =356
Wednesday PM=332
Thursday AM=256
Thursday PM=262
Friday AM=348

Kitty (Sierra Elizabeth Amirr) 's Sugar Sheet

Should I be concerned? Is this normal or should i consult my vet and possibly increase her dose to .75 or 1 unit for PM dose? We were starting to taper her down as we think she is going into remission but now I am concerned.
Click to expand...

Suzanne & Darcy said:
I

I will look, but with the BG numbers you have written in your message, she’s definitely not in remission or nearing remission. Cats in remission will consistently be in almost all green numbers (under 100) with a few very low blues from time to time. Normal blood glucose for a cat is about 50-120. I will look at the spreadsheet to see if I can help.
Click to expand...
Okay thank you so much I really appreciate your help!
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
Well, we are kind of in the same situation as a few days ago. We don’t know what her nadirs are? We don’t know how low she’s going. You have documented an occasional blue number, but I can’t tell just from the preshot numbers how low she’s may be going. I doubt it’s anything dangerous, but I would need to know in order to make any recommendations on the dose (and honestly your vet should want to know this information too, because otherwise it’s just guessing — and I am not willing to risk Kitty’s life on speculating.). Will you be home this weekend to get some tests?
Click to expand...
Yes I will be home this weekend and be able to get more frequent numbers. So I will keep her on the .50 dose until I can get those readings.
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
I know I am being a pain. I want to help though. I know we can get her numbers down and into healthier BG. I think it’s encouraging that you have seen occasional lower numbers.
Click to expand...
No not at all! I appreciate you being so thorough and that you are so willing to help me figure this out. It is a relief to feel like I am not alone and able to reach out here for help when I need. I apologize that I keep pestering you with so many questions! I will get those more frequent BG levels this weekend and hopefully be able to understand her levels a little better.
 
You are never pestering! It’s good to ask questions. There’s so much new to take in! And we worry so much about our special kitties! We love them so much!
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
You are never pestering! It’s good to ask questions. There’s so much new to take in! And we worry so much about our special kitties! We love them so much!
Click to expand...
Exactly! She is my whole world. Has been with me through every milestone big and small. Legit my best friend. I would do anything for her ! It is so comforting to know others feel the same way.
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
Well, we are kind of in the same situation as a few days ago. We don’t know what her nadirs are? We don’t know how low she’s going. You have documented an occasional blue number, but I can’t tell just from the preshot numbers how low she’s may be going. I doubt it’s anything dangerous, but I would need to know in order to make any recommendations on the dose (and honestly your vet should want to know this information too, because otherwise it’s just guessing — and I am not willing to risk Kitty’s life on speculating.). Will you be home this weekend to get some tests?
Click to expand...
Hello me again! 😬 I am doing BG readings every 2-2.5 hours today. Would you mind looking at Kitty's chart later and seeing if I need to possibly increase her PM dose? Her numbers seem so be going up and down based off her first two readings this morning but not by by much. Im wondering if this is maybe insulin resistance? Or is her dose just too low?
 
Okay so I am at quite a loss as to whats going on with her numbers. Scratching my head over here. Seems like her nadir is almost 8 hours after her insulin shot? I will keep testing though. I am hoping I am adminstering her insulin correctly? Maybe I am not going deep enough? I never really thought about it but that is something that came up when i searched google.
 
Nothing is wrong and you don’t need to change anything. The insulin only needs to get under the skin. That is why the needles are so short.
 
Last edited:
Your cycle today is considered to be essentially a “flat” cycle. Ignore the color differences. There is very little difference between the numbers. Blood glucose meters are permitted to have a +/- 20 percent variance. A 200 could also be a 240 (+ 20 percent) or as low as a 160, which would be -20percent). You don’t always see that much variance, but you can sometimes. Even when testing the same drop of blood you could see that variance. This is one reason why we are looking for trends and today’s cycle is pretty flat.
 
I really think, in light of today’s numbers (unless her PMPS tonight is lower than 150) that you should increase her dose to .75 units. Of course, you would want to be able to monitor the cycle a bit this evening. If you want to, just get the before bed test this evening and increase tomorrow when you hopefully can monitor? Good job getting those tests today.
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
I really think, in light of today’s numbers (unless her PMPS tonight is lower than 150) that you should increase her dose to .75 units. Of course, you would want to be able to monitor the cycle a bit this evening. If you want to, just get the before bed test this evening and increase tomorrow when you hopefully can monitor? Good job getting those tests today.
Click to expand...
Okay thanks so much. I will increase her dose for tomorrow morning to the .75 unit and monitor her throughout the day tomorrow. I do have Mother's Day plans from 11-2 ish but I will be able to get tests before and after though. (If you think that will be safe?)
 
samirr12 said:
Okay thanks so much. I will increase her dose for tomorrow morning to the .75 unit and monitor her throughout the day tomorrow. I do have Mother's Day plans from 11-2 ish but I will be able to get tests before and after though. (If you think that will be safe?)
Click to expand...
Yes. I do think that will be perfect! I have some Mothers Day plans tomorrow too!
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
I generally preferred to do dose increases in the morning!
Click to expand...
Okay so she just tested 74 mg/dl about 4 hours after her PM dose of insulin. Would you still suggest going to .75 units tomorrow morning? And also Happy Mother's Day to you!

Edit: I did give her the .75 units this morning as she tested high at 310. I will monitor her today and see how her levels do.
 
Last edited:
If she’s still eating dry food then you should not increase her dose. The dry food can make BG erratic and that is why we recommend that people who are feeding any amount of dry food (freeze dried food or treats don’t count) follow the Start Low Go Slow dosing method, which calls for reducing the dose if the cat goes back 90. I have also worked with a few people where we set a custom reduction point, but with dry food in the picture we can’t set it as low as 50 (which would be the reduction point for cats following the Modified ProZinc Method.)

I had just noticed the Orijen dry food on her spreadsheet and I didn’t see any mention of it in your signature.
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
Now if she’s no longer eating the dry food we can manage things differently.

I see it’s just about her shot time.
Click to expand...
Yes I just saw this and have already given her the 0.75 unit dose :/ I apologize I should have wrote it in my signature.. I do mix the 1/4 tablespoon dry with her wet food. It is such a small amount that i believe I can probably just stop giving it to her and give her a little extra wet food at meal times instead at this point. She was getting about 1/4 cup at the beginning before diabetes diagnosis so I have slowly brought it down to the 1/4 tablespoon over these last few months in hopes to eventually stop. I also do give her either 1 or 2 tempatation treats after only some BG tests as a reward for doing well. But only 1 or 2 and not every time.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top