12/29 Jacky amps 320 First day of Lev

Jacky's Mom

Jacky's Mom

Member Since 2019
Thanks for the welcome on the 24th. I have been cowardly putting off the switch from Novolin to Levemir. I just felt unprepared. I didn't even know which end to get the insulin out of the pen. Lol
So we took the leap this morning. I started him at .75 units which was a little hard to figure out. I think that's probably way low, but I'm not sure the Novolin he was taking was even still effective.
Here we go!
 
Welcome! The first time I tried giving an insulin shot to Phoebe Squeak, I had a vial of insulin and I kept poking it with the syringe and it wouldn't work. Turns out, I didn't know there was a foil cap on the vial that you are supposed to remove first. :banghead:
I knew less than nothing about all this, but the people here are so generous with their knowledge & time that there is lots of support. Wishing you & Jacky all the best!
 
J.J. and Phoebe Squeak said:
Welcome! The first time I tried giving an insulin shot to Phoebe Squeak, I had a vial of insulin and I kept poking it with the syringe and it wouldn't work. Turns out, I didn't know there was a foil cap on the vial that you are supposed to remove first. :banghead:
I knew less than nothing about all this, but the people here are so generous with their knowledge & time that there is lots of support. Wishing you & Jacky all the best!
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Thanks! I love your story about the foil cap. Definitely sounds like something I would do. Haha.
The thing is that I hated the NovolinN, but... after 3 months of it, I could have administered it in my sleep. And, I knew how he reacted and what to expect.
So, we're just going slow here until we get used to the change.
 
Wendy&Neko said:
Here is the link to your previous post here, we include those links for continuity http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/12-24-first-post-in-this-forum.223366/

In that post, you said you were going to start with 1 unit, which I said was too low. Why did you go with 0.75 units? 1.0 units is also easier to measure. ;)
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Hi Wendy. I'm sorry you misunderstood my post on the 24th. My vet said she wasn't familiar with Levemir and set the dose at 1 unit. My understanding of that was that she knew I was going to make the dosage decision. I didn't take the Novolin dose into consideration because I really think it had lost its effectiveness.
Minus all that, I read that .5 unit was a good place to start if your cat was already on low carb food. So, 1 unit or .5? I compromised between the 2.
 
When you are switching from another insulin to Lantus, you can make a direct change to the same dose as your previous insulin. Since you are at 2.0u of Vetsulin, you could have started Jacky at 2.0u of Lantus. In some cases, the starting dose when a cat is switching from Lantus to Lev (or vice versa) is reduced by 30% -- which would be about 1.5u.

I suspect Wendy's concern is the same as mine -- you will be under dosing Jacky. Given that SLGS stipulates that you hold the dose for a week and doses are increased by 0.25u, it could be a while before you see Jacky in good numbers.

Also, another point. You really need to get spot checks with Levemir. (You likely should have been getting them with Vetsulin given how it can yank numbers into low ranges.) With Lev and SLGS, you need to get at least one test during both the AM and PM cycles in addition to your pre-shot tests. Dose reductions with Lev are based on the lowest number in the cycle (the nadir) and not on pre-shot numbers.
 
Jacky's Mom said:
I read that .5 unit was a good place to start if your cat was already on low carb food. So, 1 unit or .5?
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Jacky wasn’t starting out new on insulin. My concern is as Sienne stated, I don’t want Jacky lingering in high numbers longer than needed. From what I have seen so far with just two cycles of data of Lev, I would go up in dose. If you have good reason to think the N vial was faulty (hard to tell with no data besides preshots), then 1.0 is better than 0.75. But I note that in mid November when you last took mid cycle tests for N, there was some movement of the numbers.

Any chance you are awake and about an hour or two before shot time in the morning? If so, could you get a test as soon as you get up? Or just before you go to bed at night if not?
 
Looks like you've gotten some great advice above! I hope you'll comply and raise that dose so that those numbers will come down soon...

Have a great evening...Jacky is adorable btw!
 
Wendy&Neko said:
Jacky wasn’t starting out new on insulin. My concern is as Sienne stated, I don’t want Jacky lingering in high numbers longer than needed. From what I have seen so far with just two cycles of data of Lev, I would go up in dose. If you have good reason to think the N vial was faulty (hard to tell with no data besides preshots), then 1.0 is better than 0.75. But I note that in mid November when you last took mid cycle tests for N, there was some movement of the numbers.

Any chance you are awake and about an hour or two before shot time in the morning? If so, could you get a test as soon as you get up? Or just before you go to bed at night if not?
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Thanks! I have upped the dose to 1 unit and will get a test before bed.
 
Looks pretty flat to me. Remember that the onset of Lev is later than Lantus. +4 is the typical Lev onset, though I have seen from+3 to +5. Numbers will keep going up from the previous cycles nadir, until the new shot starts taking effect after onset.
 
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