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Kadie (Juba's Mom)

Kadie (Juba's Mom)

Member Since 2015
Our kitty Jubalee was tested this morning at our vet's and her BG came back at 102 before her breakfast and before her 1 unit of insulin that morning. Our vet recommended we stick with the 1 unit 2x/day for the next 2 weeks until Juba's next visit.
I was a little weary of giving her insulin to her this morning (Lantus) since her number was so good.
After communicating with many of the FDMB I was suggested not to shoot this am.
So at 5:15pm MST we were finally able to test her BG level (after buying different gage lancets and using the rice sock method.) Her BG was 302 using a Relion Confirm meter.
So my question is, I assume we should shoot tonight? And would the 1 unit be safe?
 
Juba weighs about 8 pounds and is currently getting about 1/4 a large can of Fancy Feast and Friskies Pate combined. (So about half of a FF sized can) per feeding. She gets 2 snacks in between her meals, 1 teaspoon divided into 2 snacks.
 
OK....Lantus has 2 different protocols we use here....the Tight Regulation Protocol gives the best chance of going into remission. The Start Low, Go Slow protocol is another way to go.

If you can test at least every Pre-shot and once somewhere "mid-cycle" during the day and at least once "before bed" at night, I'd suggest trying the TR protocol

Using that protocol, there's a weight based starting point. At 8 pounds, that would be .9 unit, so you could reasonably start at either .5, .75 or 1 unit...but if you start at 1 unit, I'd want to make sure you could test...especially since she was only at 102 this morning

I think I'd start her at .5 unit and monitor her ...you can always go up if you need to!
 
Alright, so after her dinner tonight (8:45 pm MST) .5 unit of Lantus or 1 unit of Lantus would be wise to shoot her with tonight?
Like if we give her .5 and 2 hours later check her and her numerbs are still over a certain amount then give her another .5 unit?
 
Hello and welcome to you and Juba. We only give insulin twice a day, about 12 hours apart. So if you give .5U tonight, that would be it for the night. Lantus is a depot insulin - you may not see immediate results, you have to wait for the depot to build. But that's what makes Lantus (and Levemir) great long lasting insulins.
 
No...it takes 5-7 days to "build the depot" with Lantus...that's why I had asked you how long she'd been on insulin....once the depot is "full", you really start to see the effects of that dose, so you want to give the same dose for 5-7 days unless she drops below 50. We never give another dose before 12 hours though. Better too high for a day than too low for a moment!

Several questions for you though....I see she was recently DKA.....are you testing for ketones too? Has she been retested at the vet since coming home? When they've recently been DKA, we might want you to be a bit more aggressive with dosing, even if it means feeding a higher carb food to keep her numbers up.

DKA is caused by a mix of too little insulin, too little food and infection/inflammation....how's she doing since her DKA ?
 
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Juba has been on insulin since last Saturday (April 4 2015) and has been given 1 unit 2x/day. Her BG was tested on Wednesday (April 8) at 1:00pm with a number of 314, then again at 5:30pm with a number of 492.
Then I tried testing Juba on April 12th (Sunday) at 5:00pm and got a number of 43...which I wasn't sure if that was correct.
Then today (Tuesday April 14) at 8:40am before food and insulin we went to the vets to get a BG test and the number was 102. I was surprised her number was so low.
Then at 5:15pm we were able to test her again and her BG number was 303 using a Relion Confirm meter.
So now it's getting close to feeding time and insulin.
I'm not sure if we should give her a full unit or a half dose.
Juba has been on Lantus since last Tuesday, receiving 1 unit 2x/day until this morning where her number was 102 so we skipped morning insulin all together.
Was this wrong to do?
Also we haven't tested her urine for ketones since she's been out of the hospital. Would this be wise to do also?
 
If she got to 43 on the 1.0u, you would reduce the dose. Don't give her 1.0u again at this point. I think I'd drop to 0.5u and start there.

You should check for ketones once or twice a day right now. You can get ketostix at any pharmacy and you test the urine. Either stick the ketostix in her urine stream or stick a spoon under her to catch some, or put some plastic wrap down where you think she might aim, so a drop or two gets caught without soaking into the litter. Or you can make an alternative box by sliding a box lid into a plastic garbage bag and putting something non-absorbent in there, like aquarium gravel.

We rely heavily on the spreadsheet for helping people, so as soon as you can put the info in there, it would really help.

If a cat's had DKA it's not a good idea to skip a dose soon afterwards. On the other hand, if you can't monitor, that's a problem. Don't worry about it now, but next time you're faced with a low preshot post here and ask for help figuring out how to move ahead.
 
Yes...especially with her recent DKA it's important that you're checking for ketones. If you catch them early, they're a lot easier (and cheaper) to deal with.

Here are some Urine Testing Tips for you

I think I'd reduce her since that 43 and the 102 this morning....I'd start with .5 and work your way up
 
My mistake - i see you did post and ask this morning. Under ordinary circumstances for a new member faced with a preshot of 100, it's probably a good idea to skip, but with DKA in the recent picture that changes everything.

One option would've been to stall without feeding and as soon as he was rising to go ahead and shoot.
A second option would've been to shoot the regular dose and give high carb food if necessary throughout the cycle if it was needed. That's something we would only do for a cat recently out of DKA, so it's not likely that everyone would know about that.

In any case, don't worry about it now. There is a ton to learn here and lots of little "but if there is this situation . . . " that changes things. I would check ketones at least daily though - if caught at a trace you can deal with them at home. If they get to more than that, typically you need a vet's intervention. You'll want to remind anyone helping you that she had DKA recently so you've been encouraged not to skip shots.
 
I just called our emergency vet asking for advice and unfortunately the Dr. wasn't available but a head technician was and said to just give her her normal dose of 1 unit of insulin.
I'm just scared/worried/anxious.
I don't want Juba to go into shock or anything like that, and I feel like maybe I should have given her insulin to her this morning despite her low number.
I just don't want to screw this up after all the hard work we've put in, thousands of dollars, and endless hours worrying about Juba's health.
Tomorrow we will go out and buy ketone strips.
Our primary vet hasn't advised us to purchase a glucose meter or ketone strips. The glucose meter was a self purchase because we wanted to know her numbers at home besides once a week at the Vets.
 
No, please don't give her 1u. Did the vet tech know she got to 43 on the 1u already?

You need to reduce it - you can give 0.75u if you promise to test tonight and post for help.
 
Most vets either don't mention home testing because they don't want to overwhelm people (they think they'll just chose to euthanize), they really don't understand how much information we get from it, or they don't want to lose the money stream coming in from always having all the tests done there

Knowledge is power against this disease and home testing is the best thing you can do for your cat since you'll know immediately what her blood glucose is and how it's working. It also keeps her safe

The people here also have years of experience with diabetic cats. Most vets MAY see a dozen or so in their entire career.

Do you have syringes with half unit markings?

Here's a picture of .75 if that's what you choose to do tonight, but I'd probably go with the .5 if it were my cat....better a little too high and even a bit too low
.75 unit dose.jpg
 
I shouldn't have just said no - the choice is always yours. But it's important for you to know that 43 is a low number.

The 2 dosing methods we use - the Tight Regulation protocol which calls for a dose reduction when the cat goes below 50; and the Start Low Go Slow, which would have you starting the dose at 0.5u and reducing if Juba goes below 90.

With either one you would reduce the dose with a 43.

if you do decide to shoot the whole unit, you may need to give her high carbs to keep her blood sugar up. Just be aware of that possibility and be prepared to test.

Don't sweat about anything that happened before. this is one big old HUGE learning curve and most everything will come around again. Just learn from everything and incorporate that as you move on.
 
Alright, I will give her .75 unit tonight After feeding her normal diet (FF and FP) and then retest her in a couple hours. I will let you guys know her number and what to do from there.
Thank you guys so much for the support through this crazy time!
I'm just a nervous nelly, lol.
And just how accurate are the Relion Confirm meters?
I'm nervous to test and come back with a number that seems low for the meter, but high for the kitty.
 
See my signature link Glucometer Notes for feline-specific reference ranges.
 
The Confirm is a very popular meter around here that a lot of us use

ALL meters are allowed a 20% variance by the FDA....but what you'll learn to watch for are the "patterns" that your kitty will develop over time.

Lantus dosing is based on how LOW it takes them, not how high the pre-shot is
 
I used a Relion for a couple of years. They are accurate enough. For any meter, what is important is how low a cat gets. High is high - you need to take action when a cat goes low and most meters are accurate enough in low numbers.

If you catch a number under 50, pop open a can of gravy high carb cat food, give a teaspoon of the gravy part and then post here for help. If you don't have gravy cat food then give a couple of drops of karo syrup, honey, maple syrup, or pancake syrup. It's not an emergency when they hit the 40's, but you don't want them going lower. You'll retest again in 15-20 minutes.

Everyone is nervous in the beginning. As you learn more it will get infinitely easier. Keep asking questions - no one minds.

When you get a new test, edit your subject line and put it in there along with how many hours since th shot. So if it's 150 3 hrs after the shot, it'll read +3/150. You can see how others do it. That lets people watch you from the main page.
 
I hate being the bearer of bad news, but I just couldn't get a decent amount of blood for a meter test. My husband and I tried for an hour with a 26 gauge needle, a rice sock, changing ears, and it just wasn't happening. Juba is so worked up right now, and we just said enough for tonight.
We will try again tomorrow before her am feeding and insulin.
It's been about 2 hours since her shot and no signs of hypo so far.
Sorry to disappoint you guys. My husband and I are feeling very discouraged right now...
 
Please don't beat yourself up!! There are lots of people who wouldn't even TRY and you're doing the best you can!!

As you poke more and more, new capillaries will grow in and it'll make it much easier....I hardly have to poke China anymore...If I grab her ear, it bleeds.

In a week or so, you'll be a pro
 
Don't be discouraged..we all had trouble in the beginning getting blood to test the BSL. It takes a week or two for the ear to learn to bleed. It grows extra veins....you will be a pro before you know it. Have you tried massaging the ear gently towards the prick to get it to bleed after you have pricked the ear? :) Are you giving Juba a treat after each test? It important she associates the testing with getting a treat.

It would be good if you could possibly get a test at about + 5 or +6 as this is when the nadir is around this time (the low point of the cycle). Once a cat is showing signs of a hypo the blood sugar is very low. If you can test and see what it is, you are so much more in control of the situation and can intervene with the strategies Julie has outlined in the above post. It would be a good idea to leave out food for her to eat overnight if she drops low and need to eat food.

You are both doing a great job....it just takes time for you and the cat to get used to it all. You have been getting great advice above, from very experienced people.
ETA....I see Chris has responded. I thought you had gone offline Chris!
 
Thank you so much for the support!
We feel so bad about not getting a reading tonight, but I'm going to wake up in a few hours and check to see how she's doing. We have Karo syrup on hand and our emergency vet on speed dial in case anything were to change.
I'm thinking positive and trying not to worry too much about how tonight will play out.
Tomorrow is a new day and we will try harder for a reading.
I guess I should also note that Juba has very small ears, so it's not the "easiest" to get a decent drop of the magic liquid, lol. I'll update tomorrow morning.
 
Hi Kadie,
Just checking that you saw the links to the FDMB hometesting info that I posted yesterday:
To Shoot or not to Shoot...

Be aware too that a kitty will pick up on our stress. The more relaxed and 'ordinary' you are about the process, the calmer your kitty is likely to be.
Good luck with the testing. You can do this. :bighug:
.
 
Hi, Kadie!
I'm fairly new here so I don't give advice; I only share our experience. My furbaby, Zoey, hates to have her ears messed with. HATES it. I just could not, for the life of me, get the ear pokes. On probably two occasions we had success but it was so stressful for all of us. I knew that I did not want to shoot without knowing the BG so I opted to collect blood from Zoey from her paw pads. I alternate them each time and I also alternate locations within the pads/toes. Once I prick and test, I immediately put pressure on the poke site and hold it for the ten seconds or so that it takes for the meter to beep. Once the meter beeps and spits out the number, we IMMEDIATELY go and get a teeny bite of tuna treat (in water only). It took less than a day for Zoey to make that connection and now when she sees me with her glucometer bag or I say, let's go get some sugar ... she jumps up on the bed and is waiting for me. I was concerned about possible infection from using the pads and the litter box but the vet told me that chances were small since the paw clots very quickly. We've been at this since February and if you look at Zoe's ss, you will see MANY pokes.

If your furbaby doesn't mind her ears being messed with, the ear is definitely the better place to poke; but if it comes to shooting without knowledge of that BG, the paw is an option that you might give consideration to.

Best of luck to you ... and since I AM a newbie here I want to tell you that if it weren't for the people on this board, my Zoey would surely have died on more than one occasion from the lack of advice/poor knowledge of diabetes that we received from two previous vets and their techs. Please gather all of your information from all parties and give considerable weight to those who are experienced guides on this forum. They're worth their weight in gold and surprisingly, have much more experience than many vets.
 
Kadie said:
I hate being the bearer of bad news, but I just couldn't get a decent amount of blood for a meter test. My husband and I tried for an hour with a 26 gauge needle, a rice sock, changing ears, and it just wasn't happening. Juba is so worked up right now, and we just said enough for tonight.
We will try again tomorrow before her am feeding and insulin.
It's been about 2 hours since her shot and no signs of hypo so far.
Sorry to disappoint you guys. My husband and I are feeling very discouraged right now...
Click to expand...
Hi Kadie,
I know it can be discouraging, Lulu was diagnosed last month and for the first several days, I was in tears trying to get a blood sample from her, failing miserably. I thought she`d end up hating me and it was heartbreaking. I`m happy to say that now I can get a sample every time I try. I just kept trying, telling myself that this was all for Lulu`s good and what I was doing was an act of love. Members of this site kept encouraging me and giving pointers, until I built up enough confidence. And Lulu still loves me :)
I`m cheering for you guys and Juba.
Hugs
 
Well we tried again for an hour this morning and there just wasn't enough blood to get a reading.
I'm a naturally anxious and stress-induced person and I know that's why Juba won't give any blood when we want to test her.
I've watched so many of those BG home testing videos and have done the rice sock method, the massaging of the ears, the treats, the larger gage lancets.
I think we're just going to take her to the vets for now so we know where she is and so I can at least relax somewhat when giving her insulin to her.
Since she has been testing lower we're just going to be giving her more snack throughout the day and go from there.
I hate disappointing you all!
 
Like @Rose , I use Noodle's paw pads for tests. She has furry black ears that she flicks every time I touch and I was getting so discouraged, I decided to try her back paws one night when I was frustrated and determined. I figured if I could clip her nails I could get a blood sample. I still can't believe she comes more often than not when she hears me setting up the lancet device and meter. Here's what we do:

1. Get the meter and lancet ready, fresh lancet every time (less painful), put in a new strip. I keep it all in a little box that I set on my right side when I sit down to test so I can grab things as needed.
2. Shake the treat bag to get her attention and get three treats out, put by meter. Sit down cross legged, set a towel on my lap and give her the first treat.
3. Pick her up and sit her in my lap, belly facing out, wrap her up in the towel (usually loosely, just to block her from squirming or batting my arm with her front paws), make sure one back leg is accessible. I'll pull the bottom of the towel a little to get her more on her back than bottom, harder to squirm.
4. Put a little aquaphor or vaseline on the paw pad I'm testing, grab a treat and the lancet device. I'll also give it a swipe with an alcohol pad before this most times, too.
5. Give her the second treat and poke her paw while she's preoccupied.
6. Put some gentle pressure to help the blood bead up, grab meter (it's right beside me) and get a test as soon as the bead is about the size of a pinhead.
7. Set meter down, put light pressure on the test site with a cotton ball or just the towel while grabbing the final treat to give her while telling her how amazing she is (this could be the root of her fantastic ego). Dab a small bit of antibiotic pain-relief ointment and let her free!

The key is having everything set up before I start. Jars and tubes open, alcohol pad out of the packet, everything in arms reach, treats out of the bag, too. I've found its important to not give her much of a chance to wriggle out or put up a fuss. If she seems irritated, I'll sing her a silly song or talking in a funny voice about what I'm doing and how good she is being. That helped ME calm down as much as it helped her at first. It's hard to be anxious when you're singing about a blood test, haha. My mom kitty-sat one weekend and the singing and talking is what helped her the most, too. It's also nice to go through the motions a couple times without doing the actual poke, so she learns to expect the treats and knows what you do before she gets them. If she's not in a hurry to get up, I shower her with face scritches and kisses after tests, too. It's a nice time for some loving and bonding. Hope this helps!!


ETA: I also make a point to get some non-test time treats, scritches, and cuddles in. I knew for me, it felt like all our interactions after she was DXed were me poking and prodding. It wears on you and I noticed a big change in my own well being when I set aside a couple moments each day to just give her some non-diabetes attention. I like to think it helps her remember I'm not just scary mom with the sharp things.
 
While you work on home blood glucose testing, see my signature link Secondary Monitoring Tools for some additional assessments you can make to evaluate Juba.
 
Here's a simple trick that always works for me. Warm the ear (I use a moist baby washcloth, microwaved for 10 seconds and then put into a plastic baggie, which is easier to wrap around the ear than a rice sock and is smooth and non-irrating). Put a little vaseline on the ear (to make it easier for the blood drop to form). Blood flows from the TIP of the ear down, and if you put a little pressure BELOW the spot where you intend to prick, you will create a dam and the blood drop will form.

Good luck! Everything will get easier!

Ella & Rusty

P.s. I think 26-gauge lancets are way too thick. Try 29 gauge.
 
I use the relion meter and lancets as well. I use the white lancets. I also sometimes prick Jacks ear twice. Once and then again a tiny bit below that first one and it always gives me enough blood. It takes a minute so usually I prick his ear and then put the test strip in the meter by then there is usually enough blood.
You are doing great and don't give up. In a few weeks this will all seem normal.

Glad you found your way here. :)
 
Just remember we all started out not being able to get blood from the ear. It can be frustrating and stressful but you will be successful....You are not disappointing anyone, so don't worry about that. You are doing a great job.:bighug:
 
Kadie...Hang in there! It will get easier!

I hope you're not trying to get a big sample thinking you need one for it to work right...it really only needs about a pinhead size drop. If the strips you have are just "Confirm/Micro", you might want to see if your WalMart has the new "Confirm Plus" strips...they have a very tiny "sipping space" that really seems to "suck up" the sample well! As long as there's a pinhead size droplet, you should be able to get a test in

Another thing to try is to sing while you're trying to test. Cats are very good at picking up on our stress, but when you sing, you force your brain to use different areas and it can really help (although you may get some strange looks from your cat....LOL)

Here's our very special verson of The Hokey Pokey song!
icon_lol.gif
 
Yay! We were finally to get a blood sample from Juba and it worked!
I was much calmer and definitely determined to get a sample, and I think Juba knew how important this was to us.
We just tested her at 4:30pm MST and her number was 51. Then we gave her the afternoon snack of 1 teaspoon of tuna.
Juba is active and alert!
Tomorrow our vet has requested we start a glucose curve so she (our vet) can see the progress Juba has made in the past 8 days being on insulin.
I know this number is low, but our vet told us as long as Juba is getting some carbs in, she shouldn't go into hypo state.
Thanks everyone for the positive support, we are so glad we were able to test her this afternoon!
 
How long has it been since Juba's shot Kadie?

You should get another test in to make sure she's not still dropping either way

I don't mean to scare you, but cats can go into hypo territory and you may not see any signs of it until they start having seizures.

First rule here is we want to be safe!
 
Juba's morning shot was 9:00am MST this morning. She received 1 unit of insulin.
We will attempt to test her again before her evening feeding and insulin.
 
Chris is right - 51 is fine, but we don't know if her blood sugar is on the way up or down. I'd get another test in 1/2 hr after the last one. If you can't get blood, give her some canned food. Pure meat (the tuna) is zero carbs and you want some carbs in her.

You're likely doing everything right - it takes about 2 weeks for more capillaries to grow. After that you'll get blood every time.

In the meantime, try putting a lit flashlight against the inside of her ear so you see the capillaries, then aim and poke from the outside.
 
We just got back from the emergency vets after experiencing a very low home BG test.
We tested at 4:30pm MST with a 51 and then again at 8:30pm MST before Juba's dinner and insulin and her number was 32. I immediately gave her a large helping of FP mixed grill and called our emergency vet who prompt us to come down immediately.
There we tested her BG level with the AlphaTrek and it was 48.
The vet requested us not to give insulin tonight and to test tomorrow before her morning meal. Anything below 200 (just like many of you have told me) do not give insulin.
Juba isn't showing any signs of hypo kitty so far. She hasn't received insulin since this morning. We are keeping an eye on her and just gave her another small helping of the FP.
The vet has also requested we only shoot 1 unit of insulin just ONCE per day now. He said he was very pleased with how her numbers are reducing (although too quickly at this moment) and would like us to start a glucose curve in a few days, once Juba has acclimated somewhat to this new insulin schedule.
I cannot say enough how thankful we were able to successfully home test twice this afternoon.
Home testing saved Juba's life tonight, as shooting her with insulin would have put her into hypo state and we could have very much lost her.
 
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Very scary day Kadie!! So glad Juba is OK though!!

We really can't stress enough how much we'd really like to have you get our spreadsheet going so we can help explain how Lantus works, and help advise you on keeping her safe as well as getting her as regulated as possible. Here's the link "How to create your spreadsheet". If you have too much trouble with it, let us know and we'll find someone to help you with getting it set up

Lantus works best given every 12 hours, so if you are getting tests that are too low to shoot half the time and too high numbers the other half, then you might need to reduce the dose so (for example) instead of 1 unit once a day, give .5 unit twice a day.

I'm SO happy you got her tested and realized she was in trouble.....in the future, if you get a number under 50, you can also post here....we're pretty good at being able to help you safely get the numbers up....but we'll also tell you that what we're trying isn't working and you need to take him to the vet.
 
Kadie,
Good call on playing it safe and testing at home! Like I said, I'm new so I don't give advice without that precursor of I'm new, someone with more knowledge will be along soon and explain it better, but I'm going to passionately tell you what we've experienced and learned here:

Like I said before, we're on our third vet because of the misguided advice we've been given. Our first vet was someone we loved and we'd been using for 10+ years so it was a hard decision .... but a lot of these vets could learn a tremendous amount of good information on how Lantus/feline diabetes works if they would look at the hundreds/thousands of spreadsheets that have come across this board over the years that FDMB has been around. The protocols are solid. If you go to Dr. Pierson's catinfo.org you will see her talk about joining this site if you have a diabetic cat (she's like a cat guru, btw, and you will learn tons of useful stuff there while you read).

I have learned that Lantus is an insulin that is dosed according to the low numbers; and that Lantus builds a depot (lingering amounts that are stored for later use). Most vets will dose it according to the high number; but if 1 unit will bring your kitty to 32 within 12 hours, until that depot is gone the next dose has the possibility to bring that same kitty to a low number within that first 12 hours again. After that 12 hours, with only the one daily dose, you will see that each time you feed your kitty, the BG will probably rise through hours 13 - 24 instead of staying flat and in more reasonable numbers. I can also tell you by doing the home testing and using the spreadsheet you can see, and anyone here who checks in, just how kitty responds and around +(your results here) kitty reaches nadir (lowest point) and you will see how the food you feed brings the numbers up. Reactions such as bounces are anticipated and you're prepared for them. There's patterns to all of it and you can take control of the diabetes and lead it instead of it leading you and spending hundreds/thousands by running to the vet with low BGs or hi BGs.

I'm not usually up at this hour, but I am tonight because I took my sweet kitty to the new vet (#3) yesterday, who we really like. He is very supportive and has looked over the spreadsheet and the protocol and is impressed with the 24/7 availability of knowledge and support that is offered here. He is a top rated vet in our area and as compassionate as the day is long. But even with everything going for him, he misses stuff when it comes to diabetic kitties. He treats many kinds of critters and the number of long-term surviving diabetic cats are scarce. Vets' knowledge are based on their experience - good and bad. Yesterday, with every good intention in the world, he prescribed enzymes to help my sweet kitty. Those same enzymes have thrown Zoey into numbers she hasn't seen in weeks. She's going to be well over 500, perhaps even over 600 by the time her dose time gets here in the a.m. She feels awful. Did my vet mean to do that? Absolutely not. He's probably never prescribed these enzymes to a diabetic cat before Zoey and I'm sure he didn't realize an ingredient in it causes food spikes. When I call his office tomorrow, he will now know. If I had been testing like the other vets suggested or as is standard vet protocol, it may have been days or weeks before anyone realized (and only because Zoey would have had to have gotten really sick over the course) that it is not a good fit for a diabetic kitty.

The stories could go on and on; even on our short journey I have a half a dozen more. You can click on any member's link and at the bottom you will see that each of us has a wealth of information on our signatures. That's by design. It has everything someone needs to help us. You'll see something like Zoey's Lantus Spreadsheet or China's SS -- click on those and look around. Read the notes. And think about the people here and how many cats they've been involved with over the years. Look at the people who are advising you and see how long they've been a member. They've seen more kitties and have information on more circumstances and reactions for insulin than any vet who sees maybe a half dozen diabetic kitties a year and gives them all the same prescription. Look at our spreadsheets and see how often the doses change and how quickly. They're not at the next vet visit on a schedule. Diabetes doesn't work according to an appointment. It has to be managed.

For instance: If I remember correctly, your vet wanted you to dose 1 u and on this site you were advised to do half and you compromised and did .75. I don't know if it was the .75 that brought your kitty into the 30s, (no spreadsheet to look at) but if it was, think what could have happened had you went with the 1 unit. If you dosed .75 and went to the 30s and you dose one unit in the morning with the false sense that you're doing less insulin because it's only once a day, that dose may not react much differently than the dose you did today within those first 12 hours. You will still need to be diligent and watch for a low BG. Highs (uncontrolled) will slowly kill them over a long period of time ... lows will kill them before you can do anything about it if you're not checking. And your vet? He'll say, we weren't expecting him to respond to his insulin so well.

On a positive note ... look through the site or word search OTJ. That means off the juice. Look at the bottom of the signatures of those members (there are well over a hundred - someone can probably tell you exactly how many) and you will see a link that might say OTJ party. Those who are OTJ have been weened (so to speak) off the insulin and the wonderful, caring people who are here actually throw a video party in celebration. THAT'S how much they care about your kitty and the journey.

This is not Dr. Google you have stumbled upon .... you have landed right in the middle of the biggest safety net of caring and knowledgeable people you will ever come across as it relates to feline diabetes. Use them to learn as much as you can.
 
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Hello again!
Juba tested at 332 this morning before her breakfast and morning insulin.
I'm going to test her again shortly and will start creating a spread sheet to record her numbers electronically besides her journal!
 
I just did another BG reading for Juba and her number was 85 only 2 hours after her insulin. My husband and I were quite shocked in just 2 hours her level dropped that much. We are both concluding that 1 unit even once/day is too much for her now.
We are deciphering if giving her .5 units 2x/day would be wise??
She just ate her am snack (1.5 teaspoon tuna) and I added some dry kibble for extra carbs.
I'm planning to test her again in a couple hours to see if her BG has dropped anymore.
If so, I will update you all and then feed her some higher carb kitty food.
 
Kadie,

I've tagged a couple of people in an effort to get their attention. If she were mine, I would not wait that long to test. Please don't do anything else with her insulin until someone more experienced comes along. If she's already dropped that much (yes, the dose is too high) +2, then you should test her in 30 minutes. Her nadir will be around +6 hours and you've got along ways to go and she's in dangerous territory. Not knowing a history, I would be inclined to tell you if you've not heard from anyone to go ahead and let her free eat the dry kibble today so that the BGs don't go much lower. You can start again in the morning after the depot clears ... but you're in cautious territory right this minute.

Please go to the title and edit it and put 911 on it so someone will look through here quickly.

I've tagged @Wendy&Neko @julie & punkin (ga) @Elizabeth and Bertie @manxcat419 @tiffmaxee @Marje and Gracie ... maybe someone will be on here. Please be vigilant.

@Ella & Rusty & Stu(GA) @pollydoodle @Lori & Lulu
 
I'd definitely test again in 30 minutes - that's a really, really huge drop in numbers in 2 hours. Looks like this could be a very active cycle for Juba!

Going forward, it might well be that splitting the dose so you can give a shot twice a day would be the way to go - and it should keep her numbers more stable over the full 24 hours. But for now, let's focus on making sure she doesn't go low on THIS cycle as it looks like she might be on course for earning a reduction today!!

ETA: Thank you @Rose - good catch on noticing those numbers dropping and getting people looking at the post. :)
 
Thanks, @Rose

Kadie, Rose is correct. You may well need to keep testing (and feeding as appropriate to keep the numbers up) for some hours to come. Though it is possible that the higher carb kibble may have raised her numbers somewhat for now...

Please don't wait another couple of hours to test.
If you last tested about 20 mins ago, then I wouldn't leave it longer than another 10 mins at this point. From there, you can evaluate how to proceed.

Humongous hugs to you. I do fully understand that hometesting hasn't been easy.

Edited to add: Ooops, cross posted with April.....
 
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