1st Timer Here- Pls Help w/ Spreadsheet

Dessi

Dessi

Member Since 2026
Hello! My cat's name is Boots! We just started testing last night and started insulin this morning. Boots glucose was measured at 540 according to his bloodwork from the vet the other day. I have no idea what I'm looking at or how to interpret these numbers- I just know it seems better than what it was at the vet. Any thoughts or observations would be greatly appreciated! (PS I hope/think I did the sheet right)
20260210_211943.jpg
 
Hi Dessi, welcome!

Great job on the spreadsheet, don’t forget to also setup your signature so everyone can see all Boots details and the live spreadsheet link. See this thread: 'New? How You Can Help Us Help You!'
Sticky - New? How You Can Help Us Help You!

There is a lot of information to learn and digest about feline diabetes, but you’re in the right place!

Also awesome job on the testing and keep up the consistency if you can. Are you manually testing with an ear poke and a meter or using a libre?

Keep up with the testing for the next few days and you will hopefully start to see some patterns emerging (or not), then you can start making decisions about dosing & diet changes etc. I’ve put a few things below that really helped me once I figured them out with Kitty:

Most important test numbers are AM and PM before insulin. Second most important is the nadir, which is the lowest point the insulin takes Boots’ Blood Glucose before it begins to rise again. You will slowly start to see trends as Boots’ adjusts to insulin doses, and understanding these trends will help you regulate Boots.

I can see you’re using Glargine, so have a look at the Lantus/Glargine forum and read through all the pinned/sticky threads there, as this will explain everything about picking your dosing method, the insulin depot etc.

Essentially, a cat without diabetes would be in the ranges of 50-80 (I think!). The aim of the game is to adjust Boots insulin dosage to somewhere where the blood glucose range is close to normal ranges.

From the numbers in Boots spreadsheet above, you can see that the .5 units brought Boots down a few points to a nadir of 201 at +5, and then began to rise again before the PMPS.

If you are following the Start Low Go Slow protocol, you would hold Boots dose at .5 units for a few days to see if you need to increase or decrease the dose. You would increase if his nadir stays around the 200, or decrease if it dropped below 90. Dosage increases are recommended in .25s

Lots of info so hopefully I haven’t overwhelmed you!
 
You're almost there with the spreadsheet. You just have to share the spreadsheet and put the shareable link into your signature. The instructions are here: https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/how-to-create-a-spreadsheet.241706/

Two days of numbers won't really tell you anything. Keep testing daily and enter the numbers into the spreadsheet. Your cat's numbers are high right now but that's normal for new diabetics. It does look like the insulin and dose is working a bit to lower numbers. Give the 0.5 units twice a day dose at least a week to work before you do a curve (testing approximately every 2 hours for a day).
 
Welcome to FDMB
You are doing a great job, we do need you to create your signature, as mentioned above, also the correct glucose level for a non-diabetic cats is 50-120
also, as Squeem3 mention about the curve, this you can do at home, taking your cat to the vet for a curve not only is expensive but they get very stressed, resulting in higher glucose levels and resulting in probably an unnecessary dose increase.
 
This is a link from one of the posts linked about that discusses how to use the spreadsheet.

Part of why your cat's numbers are better than at the vet's office is because the blood glucose level was probably elevated due to stress. Most cats experience stress hyperglycemia when at the vet's office. This is one of the reasons why home testing is so important. If numbers are falsely elevated due to stress, it's entirely possible that a vet will tell you to increase the dose. However, if you know that the numbers are reliably lower at home, a dose increase may not be necessary.
 
ErinKitty said:
Hi Dessi, welcome!

Great job on the spreadsheet, don’t forget to also setup your signature so everyone can see all Boots details and the live spreadsheet link. See this thread: 'New? How You Can Help Us Help You!'
Sticky - New? How You Can Help Us Help You!

There is a lot of information to learn and digest about feline diabetes, but you’re in the right place!

Also awesome job on the testing and keep up the consistency if you can. Are you manually testing with an ear poke and a meter or using a libre?

Keep up with the testing for the next few days and you will hopefully start to see some patterns emerging (or not), then you can start making decisions about dosing & diet changes etc. I’ve put a few things below that really helped me once I figured them out with Kitty:

Most important test numbers are AM and PM before insulin. Second most important is the nadir, which is the lowest point the insulin takes Boots’ Blood Glucose before it begins to rise again. You will slowly start to see trends as Boots’ adjusts to insulin doses, and understanding these trends will help you regulate Boots.

I can see you’re using Glargine, so have a look at the Lantus/Glargine forum and read through all the pinned/sticky threads there, as this will explain everything about picking your dosing method, the insulin depot etc.

Essentially, a cat without diabetes would be in the ranges of 50-80 (I think!). The aim of the game is to adjust Boots insulin dosage to somewhere where the blood glucose range is close to normal ranges.

From the numbers in Boots spreadsheet above, you can see that the .5 units brought Boots down a few points to a nadir of 201 at +5, and then began to rise again before the PMPS.

If you are following the Start Low Go Slow protocol, you would hold Boots dose at .5 units for a few days to see if you need to increase or decrease the dose. You would increase if his nadir stays around the 200, or decrease if it dropped below 90. Dosage increases are recommended in .25s

Lots of info so hopefully I haven’t overwhelmed you!
Click to expand...
Nope- no overwhelm at all! I appreciate the comprehensive information, it makes it easier to not have to piecemeal everything together overtime, I'd rather just see it all in one 😊 thanks!

I tried to add the signature- hope I did it right. Hopefully this weekend I can test more frequently again, for nmrhe next few days just before insulin. And I'm doing ear pokes 😊

I'm having a hard time finding the Lantus/glargine post to read up but hopefully I'll stumble across it soon
 
squeem3 said:
You're almost there with the spreadsheet. You just have to share the spreadsheet and put the shareable link into your signature. The instructions are here: https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/how-to-create-a-spreadsheet.241706/

Two days of numbers won't really tell you anything. Keep testing daily and enter the numbers into the spreadsheet. Your cat's numbers are high right now but that's normal for new diabetics. It does look like the insulin and dose is working a bit to lower numbers. Give the 0.5 units twice a day dose at least a week to work before you do a curve (testing approximately every 2 hours for a day).
Click to expand...
Thanks! Is 3 weeks too long? I'm going out of town soon so a friend will be helping me out with him. I'll only have a week of my own data & she'll just get the am & pm before shots. That's why I started off at .5 instead of 1unit like the vet told me. It was reccomended on a fb group to do a "vacation dose" to limit the potential of running into issues since she may not be able to test beforehand. Once I return I can do another curve to see how he's doing with a few weeks worth of meds in him. Any thoughts?
 
Sienne and Gabby (GA) said:
This is a link from one of the posts linked about that discusses how to use the spreadsheet.

Part of why your cat's numbers are better than at the vet's office is because the blood glucose level was probably elevated due to stress. Most cats experience stress hyperglycemia when at the vet's office. This is one of the reasons why home testing is so important. If numbers are falsely elevated due to stress, it's entirely possible that a vet will tell you to increase the dose. However, if you know that the numbers are reliably lower at home, a dose increase may not be necessary.
Click to expand...
Thank you for that. For sure he was definitely VERY stressed at the vet. Boots does NOT like to go outside, lol. But I also had just started him on wetfood around the time we saw the vet. I was doing hybrid wet & dry but once I received the diagnosis I went entirely wet so this is all very new and I imagine also contributed to his lower numbers.

I imagine the intention is for his numbers to decrease but I see a lot of concern about it getting too low. Whats the difference between hypoglycemic episode vs him just being in remission? Is it that the intention is he gradually get there rather than a sudden drop?

Basically, how can I know when it's an emergency vs when it's a good thing warranting lowering the dose? Hope that silly question makes sense, rather ask here than Google lol
 
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