Concerned About Insulin Dosage

Discussion in 'Caninsulin / Vetsulin and N / NPH' started by Heyzeus, Sep 18, 2021.

  1. Heyzeus

    Heyzeus New Member

    Joined:
    Sep 17, 2021
    Hi all, very new to all this.
    On 09/09/21 we brought Lionheart into the vet since he had been peeing a lot and forgoing the litterbox. Thought at first it was stress from losing his best friend Jayfeather, but after it continued for about a month and a half we thought it could be a UTI or something like that.
    When we brought him in, they told us he had about a 580 BG measurement (US). We called daily and they said they wouldn't send him home unless he hit 300 or lower.
    From the best of my knowledge, they started him around 6U of vetsulin and have upped it from there to 15 units over the course of a week, finally letting him come home with us yesterday.
    When I pulled the syringe out for 15U yesterday, it sure seemed like a lot so I started looking things up...
    Went this morning and bought new food and a testing meter (Relion classic), after about a 30 minute struggle figuring it out we got a blood sample and he read 346. I had at least a partial, if not a complete, fur shot with the 15U yesterday and he has not ate nor been given more insulin since about 8PM, it is now 12:50PM.

    With all that said, should I continue to give him the 15U that the vet has him dosed at? We used to feed only a low quality dry food, and are now switching to the FF classics.
    I plan to monitor him every 2 hours afterwards and have syrup ready in case it is too much.
    He also seems to be having trouble peeing now (hasn't gone since we got home, and walks to the litter box them sits and meows), the complete opposite of before where he would pee constantly and in bulk.

    ----------
    Edit: Went ahead and gave 8 units, will still be checking after 2 hours, 4hr, etc. The 15U number scared me after seeing people using 1-2U and even that seemingly being high. He is a 14lb male cat if that helps with any suggestions.
    Edit2: He has now peed, seems like a normal amount and it isn't clumping up the litter like he had been.
     
    Last edited: Sep 18, 2021
    Reason for edit: Updating info
  2. Heyzeus

    Heyzeus New Member

    Joined:
    Sep 17, 2021
    Test at +2, reading of 58 (mg/dL). Has been pretty lazy after giving him the 8 units, although not drooping his head or anything like that.
    Considering nadir isn't supposed to happen typically for another couple hours at least, should I give him some higher carb food right now to prevent it from dropping into hypoglycemic territory, or maybe wait and test again in half an hour to an hour?
     
  3. FrostD

    FrostD Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    May 27, 2020
    Oh dear I am sorry nobody has seen this - the Feline Health forum has more traffic and is best for urgent questions.

    I believe that dose as a starting dose is WAY too high, you easily saved his life by doing your own legwork, reducing dose, and having the hypo kit!

    58 is too low on Vetsulin, we recommend you don't go under 90. Good job keeping an eye on him today and keeping his numbers up.

    A barrage of questions:

    Is he fully transitioned to low carb food? Based on the spreadsheet it appears so. When did you start the transition, and if he's not fully transitioned, what is current % of each roughly? (Ie 25% dry, 75% wet, plus the carb % of each - if you don't know, just tell us the name as we can find it)

    Do you have a hypo kit? Lots of test strips?

    Does he have any other health conditions you know if? Any history of DKA?

    Lastly - I'd strongly suggest you find a new vet. This could have very easily killed your cat. And there is no reason to board a cat with high BG unless there are other issues like ketones, inappetence, underlying medical conditions.

    I'm going to tag @Bandit's Mom and @Sienne and Gabby (GA) - I know you ladies aren't comfortable with Vetsulin dosing, but I'd just like eyes on this thread overnight. I can't "pin the tail" on a dose until I have answers above, too many variables. If no history of DKA, I'd recommend something around 3U if preshot above 200 (looks like a bounce, unsurprisingly).
     
    Sienne and Gabby (GA) likes this.
  4. Heyzeus

    Heyzeus New Member

    Joined:
    Sep 17, 2021
    Hi hi!

    I probably should have updated this post too, but I went ahead and started another post on the main forum after he had a 44 reading (was starting to freak out!).
    He seems to have stabilized now and we've been bouncing a few ideas around in there.

    For the last 12 years he'd been on a diet that was almost exclusively the cheapest, or close to it, dry food from Wal-mart - but he did like to eat chunks of tuna and other such treats. Since he started acting a bit funny back in July after losing our other kitty, we tried a couple different dry foods that he absolutely despised, but it wasn't until today that we actively made the switch wholly from dry food (all of which has been high carb, at least 35+% from what I can tell: Meow Mix Original, Blue Buffalo Adult Indoor Health, Hill's Urinary Hairball Control, and at the vet he was fed a dry food called Hill's Metabolic Weight Management) into wet food.

    After testing him for the AMPS at a reading of 346, we went ahead and fed him his first official can of wet food - Fancy Feast Turkey & Giblets which he devoured (the chart shows a 39/58/02 protein/fat/carb breakdown and it looks about similar on the can's analysis).

    I made sure to grab everything we would need for a hypo emergency this morning since I was already a bit wary of the 15U dosage and stocked up on all the testing supplies.

    Other than being overweight before he started having problems these last 2 months, he's been generally healthy. No DKA.

    I've really been considering finding another vet after we lost Jayfeather in July, he passed from complications surrounding his enlarged heart and the stuff I read up on after it was too late really made me question whether the vet knew what he was doing. Toughest part is that we live so far away from any of them, but that might only be a tiny downside at this point.
     
  5. FrostD

    FrostD Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    May 27, 2020
    Ok thanks! I'll go reply over there
     

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