Lori, the 8u was per the vet's request, and she was on a high carb diet at the time (she was eating Hill's Prescription W/D BID). The day we brought Blackie to the vet's on June 12th, their machine was broken. After they got the machine fixed, the vet called us at home and told us to raise her dose not 1u, but 2u, making it 8u BID. The next weekend, I told another of the vets (female vet this time) that I wanted to put Blackie on a low carb wet food diet. The vet agreed on the wet food diet, and still wanted her on the W/D crap. I told her that we'd try it for a week, and if it didn't work for her, I want to try the FF diet. Blackie never gave me a week. She hypo'd on the Tuesday after that last vet visit, and that's when I dropped her dosage right to 1u BID. I called the vet on Wednesday, and told her what was going on. Even gave her the #'s from the day before (Mary had come over the day before that and provided me with a hometesting kit, thank goodness). I asked the vet what we should do next, and she simply told me, "I would've dropped her dosage by 1/2. Just keep doing what you're doing, and bring in or fax the #'s to us when you get them." So far, I have only given them a set of #'s for a week and a few days. Our printer needs ink, and when we get some, I'll print out the SS and show them.
That's how she came to get 8u BID back then. Pretty much each weekend, we'd take Blackie in and pretty much each time we did, the insulin got increased by a unit. We were using the U-40 needles at the time, too. Between Blackie's hypo and after that last vet visit is when I started to do some searching on my own. Hence, I came across this message board, and I'm glad that I did.