2-22 Sam tested low again

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NadjaAndSam

NadjaAndSam

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I jsut tested Sam 11:40 min after his pm shot and he tested 90.
Yesterday was the first day I changed his dose to 0.25U.
I eyeballed 0.25u on the 40u syringe on his am shot but last night I had someone from the board on the phone to guide me on how to convert 0.25u on the 100u syringe so I'm confident I gave him the right dosage.
Well I should add that he was fasting for about a little less than 10 hrs when I tested him. i don't leave food out at night otherwise my other piggie cat will eat everything.
Well of course I won't give his shot this morning but what should I do to get a smile curve?
 
Don't worry about the smile curve on a BG of 90! That 90 is enough to make you smile!

Are you home during the day?
 
Great question! He has one of the most unusual reactions to insulin i have seen. It looks like .25 is too much and going without any sends him high. Sure glad you went with that dose!

Will you be around today? It would be nice to know if he goes up slowly or jumps right back after the insulin should be gone (12 hours). If you could get a number a few hours after he ate this am?

Definitely skip. Guess we try .1 tonight if he is high enough. (or maybe wave the vial under his nose :mrgreen: )

I would see if there is any way to let him eat something at night. His reactions are so volatile that it would be nice if he'd have food to bring himself up if he needs to. They eat if they feel low. Maybe in a room alone with some food just until we figure out what to do with him....
 
Today I am for the most part, I have a class in 2 hrs so will be back in 3 hrs. I just don't want to make the same mistake I had made before.
Sometime last week he tested low in the morning I had given him 0.5U, then I tested him at 2pm and he was 291 so I freaked out and gave him his 0.5u shot which meant I had to stay up at 2am for his shot.

What should I do? what time should I test him? should I skip his am shot all together and give his pm shot at 9pm?
From what I'm seeing the insulin starts to kick in very late in the cycle. But maybe it's something else since i'm still new to this thing! I still nedd to update the ss for this morning results.
 
Thanks Sue I we wrote at the same time :mrgreen:
I will test him in 2 hrs before i go to my class, when I come back (about 3 hrs later I will tst him again).
I also want to be more organized with his food, yesterday and the day before I let him munch all day long.
I will see what I can do at night though.
Well I will keep you all posted with test results so I know what dosage to give hima t night :D
 
DO NOT give any insulin now! The 90 is a great number. If I was you, I would skip --but, continue to test throughout the day to see how long he stays in these numbers and how fast the rise is once the insulin wears off. You could gain A LOT of data and information by seeing where he goes. I also think the .25 is too much-- well at least it appears that way for now. Ideally, you would like to find a dose that will leave you with shootable numbers at 12 hour intervals. If you have a cat this is toying with going off insulin (OTJ)- you might have to do some micro dosing and adjust your schedule when it is necessary to shoot. I know this might seem frustrating to you....BUT, you are doing Great!

Test today and post your results and lets see what we can figure out. There is a great group here with lots of insight--- I am sure today will provide us good data!
 
wow it will be a dream come true if gets off insulin. I think I want this more than a new job :mrgreen: (i really dislike mine)

I will keep y'all informed with tests during the day so we can figure out even a smaller dosage!! :mrgreen:
 
Donna's min dosing could indeed be in your future. A good tool for you. Complicates your life but usually not for long.

The idea is that you find a dose that will bring him down but not dangerously low (the trick in your case is to find that dose). Then you pick a number above 200. (at least that's what I would do - no lower. He is too volatile.) When he reaches that number and is clearing rising, you give him the mini dose. In his case, it could be 14-16 or more hours after the normal shot time. You test and don't shoot again until he is above 200 and rising again. You want to let him have the long cycle if he needs it, but to catch him before he gets really high.

We need to get some baseline numbers first. Today will help with that. And we need to find a reasonable dose. It may be a drop. There are ways to do that.
 
Hi Nadja and Sam,

Welcome to our group. Another mini dosing kitty.

I see you've gotten alot of really great advise so far.

Hang in there.

Robin
 
That is great Nadja!

I don't have an updated SS to look at- all of his numbers are from last night. Glad you went with the .25.

Gotta love those greens :mrgreen: !
 
I'm updating the SS in a couple of minutes. Since he just tested 474 should I give him any insulin? he eating a little bit right now . not sure what to do!
 
If you gave him insulin now, would you be able to make that your new schedule if necessary? So-- you would be at 10:30 am and 10:30 pm, I guess you are on pacific time-- it is 1:30 here on the East Coast!
 
I'm on mountain time, it's 11:44am here. I'd rather not having to give his pm shot at 11:45pm because I work tomorrow morning and I go to bed before this time but I don't want to put him in danger either. So is 0.25u a good amount? or should I reduce it? should I shot him soon? :-|
 
I'm leaving in 15 minutes to take a test which I'm sure I will fail since i didn't study much, I will be back close to 2:30pm mountain time. but I will check this board before I leave to see if I got any replies!! thanks :mrgreen:
 
In my opinion you have two choices----

1) you could let him run high the rest of this cycle---you have 9 hours left, but that would leave your shot times the same

2) shoot now---BUT, that would mean that you need to change your shot schedule--to11:45 and 11:45-- not perfect!

I would hate to let him run high the entire cycle. If you choose to let the cycle play out and not shoot for another 9 hours, then I would still test and see if he will come down on his on some. It is very possible that the 475 you are getting is a bounce from the lower numbers during the previous cycle and some of that will clear on its own. Meaning, if it is a bounce, the BG numbers PROBABLY will not remain as high for the entire cycle. BUT, there is no way to tell without not shooting and continuing to test. If you test and in 2 more hours he is still high or higher--you can always shoot then--but, you need to consider the 12 hour schedule and when his next shot would be due.

Just remember--12 hours-- whenever you shoot--you need to be prepared to shoot again in 12 hours.

If I did shoot now-- I would reduce the dose--- as the .25 lasted a long time and left you unshootable at your am preshot-- maybe just back off of the .25 a little.

I am not sure which I would do in Sam was my cat--- these are just the options as I see them.
 
Don't worry about the test, just do the best you can!!!! In the big picture of LIFE.....it will be okay! :mrgreen:
 
that is true. I feel like I'm going to martyrdom :mrgreen: but I just need to organize my schedule better but I know I'm doing this for my cat so I hope I will be blessed on my next test somehow!

Yes I'm not sure which option I will choose :/ I think I will wait for now and when I come back from class i will test him and see what his levels are. But I don't want to wake up at 3 am again so I will probably wait until 9pm to give insulin.. unless I'm encouraged to do otherwise. I don't know how much lower dosage I should give him either..we'll see what more experienced people have to suggest me!
well I will let you know what he tests in 3 hrs :D

thank you!
 
The other variable here is he hasn't been having just 12 hours cycles - more like 14? If that were the case, would the next shot be at a better or worse time?

I would shoot half of the .25 - as close to .1 as you can get.
 
If you elect to wait--you can always resume your schedule a little earlier if that would work. You could shoot at 7 and 7 or 8 and 8-- that way Sam will not have to wait the entire 12 hours for insulin.

Good Luck on your Test!
 
Thank you this is a really good idea, 7am and 7pm will work for now then slowly I would have to go back to 9am/9pm but not until Monday.
well I gotta run now!
 
well 12-14 hrs from now would mean I would have to wake up at 3 am or 5 am which wouldn't be good. I think 5 am wouldn't be as bad as 3am :sad:
for his new dose on the u100 syringe would it be between the first big right hash and the first small hash? would this be half of 0.25u on the u40 syringe? the dose seems so low!
 
If he hasn't moved in three hours (gone down a little but hard to tell with the normal 20% variance in meters) I think I'd stall until you have a decent possible schedule to work with tomorrow. Test again in 30-45 minutes to see if he has moved. If the number jumps, I'd shoot.

I just don't know U100 needles. My thought is about half your .25 yesterday - whatever is easiest to measure. Definitely just a tiny bit, but he moves 300 - 350 points on .25! He's amazing.
 
thank you. I will give him half of 0.25u try to eye ball it the best I can!

I will check him again, I hope he doesn't go up so it's a bit easier on me. It's been a crazy week !

I will keep you posted!

thank you for your support :mrgreen:
 
kse he tested 419 7 hrs after he first tested 90. 2 hrs after he tested 90 he tested 474, then 419. I will test him again in about 1 hr.
 
:lol: silly me! well I didn't do terribly bad as I thought I would do BUT if I get a C I will be lucky :] I had to leave 3 question in blank since I had to idea of how to solve them, and they were wroth high points :-| I'm not too worried though :D thank you for asking!
 
just tested Sam and he went up a tad bit 425. He is eating now and I after that I will give him half of 0.25u. I will have to suck it up and wake up at 4:30 am . sighhhh
 
It will be okay. Does you professor ever give you points for trying? Mine do. Or maybe that is because i have nice professors :lol: . It is always hard when you can't immediately think of an answer.

Sam will be okay. You are only at the start of a very long dance where Sam does the very LLlloooooonnnngggg swing.
 
Some of the questions were multiple choice but others were open ended so I'm sure she will give me some points for trying!!

Gosh I wonder how long this dance will last! I need to go to CA in May for a wedding and out of the country towards the end of the year and I'm freaking out, Who will take care of him? Test him, give insulin?
He doesn't do well traveling, she shakes and all that. Specially abroad being on a plane 10+ hrs I think he would freak out and collapse, Franklin would do much better traveling but not my little Sam.
What do people do with their diabetic cats when they have to go out town? :?
 
May is a long way away, and Sam is getting double digit numbers out of .1 unit of insulin. Patience, Nadja. Look how things have changed in just the last few days!
 
I have the same patience issues! I can't WAIT to have it!!!

I"m a mini-doser as well... although I don't get the drops you've gotten, I did have the long cycles. Because of the timeline, I dropped back the dose, and he seems to have settled in to the 300s rather than upper 400s. This has also eliminated the marathon cycles (20-24 hrs) to about 12. I'm not completely rigid w/ a 12 hour timeline, as I've shot early when the numbers were already in the 400s. You'll see that noted on Grayson's right hand column of his spreadsheet.

Now that he's been staying in the 300s for the most part, I've started to up his dose ever so slightly, as his range is pretty slim.

Another thought that hasn't been mentioned, is that maybe the 90 was just a blip. I had a 154 a few nights ago, followed by a 300+. I thought he self-medicated w/ dry kibble when I was at dinner, but after last night, when I had another "low" reading [for him], I retested - twice, and got a number 100 points higher. Maybe your meter just didn't register well, or like in my case last night, I didn't have enough blood, almost errored out, then got a little more... Maybe that was just enough chaos to skew the number. Don't know - but maybe a possible explanation.

Take a look at Grayson's numbers and feel free to ask me any questions.

Lu-Ann
 
Thank you Lu-Ann.
So I looked at Grayson's SS and I noticed you were giving 0.20u now he is taking 0.4u so why do we have to start low? well I guess it's safe but would a higher dose work right of the bat if we have to go up anyways?
For a moment I thought the dosage would go lower and lower until they don't need it anymore :?

I just tested Sam right now, 5 hrs after his shot and he tested 407. he's been munching a little too. I haven't been as strict as i wish when it comes to feeding him a set amount!

I will make sure to retest him if I ever see a lower number again! On Sunday at the vet's office he tested 78 so that's why I didn't think testing 65 the following day could be wrong but who knows!!

Grayson's numbers look pretty steady, they don't go super up and super down!
I'm curious to see what Sam will test tomorrow morning because it seems like it takes a while for the insulin to kick in and it kicks in towards the end of the cycle.
How do vets react when you tell them you've changed doses? For some reason i was thinking about it today since I have an appointment in 1 week!
 
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