? 3.8 mmol/L, what to do??

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Elisawish

Elisawish

Member Since 2021
Hi, so Robin is now 3.8mmol/L 4.5+ after 1.5u I gave him food 30min before the insulin. Started doing that to day.
He's getting caninsulin.
Should I give him 1 more food can? He's getting Purina Gourmet Gold Mousse.

He's not acting strange, he's just

For those who dont know Robin he was diagnosed in late March and we live in Iceland not in the main city.
The vet here dose not know much about feline diabetes. We only have caninsulin and she made us start giving him 3U í think and from there very quickly to 5.5u then 5u again. He was on Hill's™ Prescription Diet™ m/d™ Feline Chicken.

I started testing he's blood G on Monday and on Thursday he was acting very wierd and forgot how to cat. He was like he was blind so I tested him and he was 5 mmol I gave him little sugerwater and liver icelandic food. He was a little better and then he started being wierd again, then he was 4. We gave him syrup and in hour he was better. I seemed advise on the FB group and got it. They said to try giving him 1U and switching his food. I made and SS and he's getting better but know I'm wondering should we try again 1U instead of 1.5.U ?
And what should I do now about him being 3.8mmol/L 4.5+ ?
I'm going on a hospital trip to the city 4 hours away from him. My sister (his owner) will be at my place and see to him but I need all the advice I can have before I leave so I can do my best before I go.

 
Please give Robin some high carb food. I'll post more but you need to get Robin's numbers up to a safer range. Try a teaspoon or 2 of high carb food or a few drops of syrup.
 
Thank you will do that, can you tell me what the save numbers are and when I should test him again
 
I'm guessing that no one linked your to our guidelines for using Caninsulin. It's a rather fast acting insulin that can rapidly drop numbers, hence my comment above. You MUST have food on-board prior to giving your cat a shot. The other issue with Caninsulin is that it does not have a long enough duration -- it doesn't last 12-hours. As a result, the American Animal Hospital Assn does to recommend it for treating feline diabetes.The recommended insulins are either glargine (Lantus, Basaglar, Semglee) or Prozinc.

With Caninsulin, you want to reduce the dose if numbers drop below 90. Thus, based on Robin's numbers last night, the dose today should have been 1.25u. Please reduce the dose tonight.

I am a worrier when it comes to low numbers -- especially with Caninsulin. I would re-test in 20 min to make sure that numbers are rising and keep testing at 20 min intervals until you see that numbers are above 90. This post on handling lower numbers was written for Lantus. The basic principle holds for any insulin.
 
Okei thanks for that. I'm am going to speak to the vet on Monday about human insulin. And I will test him again after 20 min. Trying to give him Purina Gourmet mom petit in gravy 1/2 a bag.
I will not leave before he's better.

I don't think the shot always 1.25u only 1u and 1.5u and 2u...
 
I'm not sure what you meant by, "I don't think the shot always 1.25u only 1u and 1.5u and 2u..."

If you mean that your syringes aren't in 0.25u increments, that's correct. No syringes are calibrated in quarter unit amounts. You have to do your best to estimate the "in between" doses.
 
That's correct. The pens only dispense in 1.0u amounts. You will need to estimate the 1.25u dose with a syringe. You will need to purchase U40 syringes that are marked in half unit increments.
 
He was 5.3 mmol 4.5+ and 5.1 mmol 5+ so I gave him a little more food.
This is what I owe: https://ibb.co/jb5H6xV
Can u use some of this?
Because I live in the country the farmasist are closed on Sundays.
 
I have no idea if those syringes will work. You'll need to speak with a vet or pharmacist. You do need to reduce the dose.

Also, you will get more help if you post using the US numbers on your spreadsheet. Most of the people here are from the US. If you post in the numbers on the World tab (or on your meter), most people won't recognize if the numbers are low. You also need to manually enter the numbers on the US tab if you put anything except a number on the World side. If you look, there's an error message on the US tab.
 
Elisawish said:
This is what I owe: https://ibb.co/jb5H6xV
Can u use some of this?
Click to expand...
Those are not suitable at all for injecting insulin. The top syringe hold 6 ml which would be 240 units (was 2.4 Units until I caught my error)of your U40 caninsulin.
The second one down from top is not even made to attach a needle to. It is used for feeding.
The needles are not suitable for injecting insulin. They are 19 guage, which wouod be OK ard administering subQ fluids.
 
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Elisawish said:
Can u use some of this?
Click to expand...

Those won't work for insulin. Will your pen do 1/2 unit and whole unit doses only? If you can only do whole and half, you should reduce down to 1U until you can get the correct type of syringes.

The diet change is sure making a big difference!
 
I was wondering how to fix that on the sheets. I'll fix that manually in few hours. But I can still write in the mmol/L and it will come automatically in US? Or do I have find out the what mmol/L is in BG US and write it like that in the sheet? (Like kg->lbs) .

Chris told me to use 1U tonight. Should I still try to find these syringes at the pharmacy or vet?
 
Elisawish said:
Should I still try to find these syringes at the pharmacy or vet?
Click to expand...

U40 syringes you'll probably need to get from a vet unless there's a veterinary supply place you can order online but you'll need to get 3/10ml, 30 or 31 gauge syringes, preferably with half unit marks. The problem is that you have a pen that only allows dose changes in .5 unit increments and when it comes to Caninsulin in cats, that's too large of an increase.

You can also use U100 syringes if you use this conversion chart. You may have better luck finding these since most human insulin's are U100 so anyplace that sells human insulin should also sell syringes. B/D is a major world-wide manufacturer of insulin syringes. They have a 3/10cc, 30 gauge "Demi" that has half unit marks. I'd call around and see if you can find someplace that has them or will order them for you.
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Elisawish said:
Chris told me to use 1U tonight.
Click to expand...

When I suggested that, it was because you can't do .25 unit changes with the pens. I didn't know he was only 6.9 (124) tonight or I would have told you to stall or skip.

With Robin only being at 124 at PMPS tonight, you're going to need to keep a close eye on him tonight.
1U may be too much now that he's off the dry food so PLEASE don't give 1U again unless he's over 200 (11.1).

Have you read the information in the Beginners Guide to Caninsulin? The most important part I want you to remember is if you get a Pre-Shot under 11.1 (200), you should stall, DON'T feed and test again in 20-30 minutes to see if the blood glucose comes up enough to give insulin at all.

I know in the UK, vets used to have to try Caninsulin first and then if it didn't work, they could prescribe something different, but they changed that several years ago and now they can offer ProZinc as a "first" insulin. I don't know what the laws are in Iceland, but it would be really great if you could get Robin onto a better insulin like ProZinc, Glargine (Lantus, Basaglar) or Levemir. Glargine is a human insulin that works very well in cats so I'm sure you'd be able to find it since I'm sure there are diabetic humans in Iceland IF you can get your vet to let you use it.
 

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Okei i just saw this now, been in alot of doctors appoments yesterday! so he got this morning 1uand was under 11.1...
I talked to a vet student in the city ( Reykjavík) they have levemir and Lantus. I have been trying to get in touch with our vet in our town and they have not answered yet.
 
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