A little overwhelmed with all this!

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sde

Member Since 2013
Allow me to start of by saying hello! And I apologize if this is long winded. So here goes........

Got back with the ball of fur named Happy from the vets a few hours ago. The diagnosis was of course, diabetes. I couldn't make heads or tails of the mound of paperwork I got and felt like throwing the towel in. BUT, I got online and found this place (which is going to be my go-to for all this so any and all help will be appreciated!). I've spent the past 3 hours reading just about every post made and decided to jump in for help.
The problem is where to start. Happy (the cat) was acting funny for about the past month, drinking a bit more (and therefore relieving himself more often) than usual (he usually consumes about 10-12 or so ounces a day for as long as I can remember but was drinking about 15 ounces right before we took him to the vet). He was making two or three extra puddles. Originally, we wrote it off as the extremely dry,cold weather that has been hanging around. But Monday night, around 8 or so, while relieving himself, was having trouble going. When he did, he let out a nasty meow. He went on to wee-wee two other times that night (I was awake and he never made a sound and both were about the normal size around 2 a.m. and then again 6 or 7).
I dug out the full blood work from back in July when we took him for being almost comatose. Only thing high was his glucose (it was 172 but the vet said 150 or so was the highest he liked) and he was low on potassium. After getting that in him, he bounced back and we kept an eye on him to watch for signs of low potassium. So after getting this new urinalysis/blood work, everything was fine (literally, three quarters of the numbers is either right in the middle and the other bit is running well within the normal range) except he had a very mild UTI/kidney infection (14 days, once a day, of Baytril), low on potassium again and according to the vet, "sky high glucose" (427). Now, this cat is very high strung and I'm scared half the time for him to sleep beside me because he has such a temper :lol: . I thought maybe it was because of stress of the vets because other than one lady who works there, he has slashed open every person who works there. When I left after dropping him off, he was screaming like I had never heard in all his 8 1/2 years.
Anyways, the vet (brace yourselves for this part.........) prescribed 3 units of Novolin/N twice a day. Everyday. No going back. For the rest of his life. I read some of the stuff on here and it seems like an outrageous amount of insulin. I contacted the vet ( I don't like him but the only other vet for 60 miles puts down animals for even having a simple respiratory problem and the rest only deal with horses/cattle). and he said to follow it like he said.
The cat has been on the insulin since 1/30 and got it at 7 and 7 for the past two days. And to be honest, he's just out of it. He gets up for a bit and does some cat stuff but he seems worse now then when he went in (I have kept a VERY close eye on him for becoming hypo and have my bottle of syrup beside the bed.....my grandmother I lived with was diabetic so I know the danger of a hypo). Is this truly to much insulin? I've talked to a guy who retired years ago as a vet and he said he would of tried changing the kitty off the dry food into wet first and then tried his BG at the house to get a real estimate.
I also have the complete blood work and urinalysis if that helps. Negative for PROT, BILI, KET, NIT, BLD, >1.050 for the S.G., 2000+ for GLU, and the color was clear yellow with no cloudiness.
 
Other thing I forgot. The kitty uses prednisone for a skin ailment and just finished the standard 5 day cycle on Thursday night or Friday night.
And yes, the local Walmart should be getting more monitors in and I'll be jumping on one as soon as they get them (the vet tried selling me a $200 monitor and about $300 of diabetic dry food).
 
STOP giving him 3u 2x a day!! you are not testing and you are shooting blind! My cat has been Dx for almost 2yrs. and she still throws off a low # now and again .... you will kill him if you continue. You need to get a human meter, at WalMart or wherever and test him before each shot. I would go down to 1u 2x a day and test him before each shot. Then as you have #s to go by adjust up or down accordingly.

Even if he is of a bad nature, if you give treats each time you test .... he will learn to associate the treats with testing. You don't need to include the vet in this, you have the cat. The procedure is to start slow and work up as needed.

You sound as if you really care, test and change his food to either Fancy Feast pates or Friskies pates, add a little water in .... water helps the kidneys to flush. Diabetes is manageable but you need to test.

Two nights ago my Payne tested 107 for her last shot. Had I shot 3.2U (her usual dose) with that # she would have hypoed on me .... I skipped her shot. Testing puts you in charge, helps to keep your kitty safe.

I think 6u for a cat that is just Dx is a LOT of insulin. You need to take charge. Most vets don't treat diabetes in cats that often, we do. Each one of us had taken care of one or more cats with diabetes and we understand what it takes, most vets treat 1-2? cats a year.You can do this.

Nancy and Payne .....
eBay is a good place for meters and strips. Pred will make his #s higher, you will need to adjust because of that but you need #s! No dry food ever again!!
 
This will come as a shocker, but.........the vet said it would be fine. :roll: Just bring him back in two weeks for another cycle test (reading about that on here and it sounds like he fleeced me). Once I get to testing, I'm hoping the diet change will help a big amount and will be able to use some of the fine folks on here to get a good estimate of treatments. I figure after the amount I just payed for all this "consulting" (which means the good docs house payment was caught up for a month or two) I'll use the experience of people here over him. My cat, my rules.
But I thought it was an awful large amount to be giving a less than 3 day old diagnosed cat to start with. I'm still a bit apprehensive about using Novolin. I'm looking into more about that and the options.
Not worried about getting ate up when I poke and probe on him. One thing about him is he loves plain old grass so I keep a little pot of it growing (the kind at Walmart for a couple bucks) and when he needs his meds (potassium and antibiotics), I snip off a small amount and he could care less what I shove down him or poke him with....as long as he can see the pot of grass.
I'm trying the wet tomorrow but I got patience.....he has never been interested in it and prefers his old crunchy kibble (which is all but out the door). Thinking about blending a little bit of his grass in to attract him to it (he'll be asleep on the bed and he can smell me cutting it in the living room). The vet did say the ulcer problem on his skin would be fine without using prednisone (since he is now banned from....doc said he would only write a script for it IF the cat had no option but to be on it) but I would have to keep a close eye on it for infections.
If anybody else has anything, I'm all ears. Still pounding it all down from the boards (which has 1000x better info then he gave me).
 
Hello to you and to Happy (great name!),

Before I say anything else I'm going to say this:
Absolutely do not remove dry food from your cat's diet until your are testing his blood glucose at home.

Dry food can significantly raise blood glucose levels, therefore removing dry food can signifiicantly reduce blood glucose levels. This means that an insulin dose prescribed when the cat was on dry food may be way too much when the dry food is reduced or removed. Once a cat is on insulin it is imperative that dry food is only removed if the person looking after the cat can monitor the effects of that change by testing the blood glucose at home ('hometesting').

I agree with the previous poster. The starting dose suggested by your vet is way too high. The general advice here with regard to insulin dosages is to 'start low and go slow' until you have gained experience and gathered some data about how your cat responds to the insulin. A typical starting dose is one unit.

Novalin has a reputation for being quite a harsh insulin for cats. Most people here use longer lasting and gentler insulins such as Lantus/Glargine, PZI/'Prozinc', or Levemir.

Most of us here test our cat's blood glucose at home. It won't hurt your cat and is not hard to learn. It only involves taking the teensiest droplet of blood from the outer edge of your cat's ear. Hometesting will help you to keep Happy safe, it will save him a lot of stress (fewer vet visits), it will give you a sense of control over the situation, and it will save you a heap of money in vet's bills.

We all understand how overwhelming this can be at first. We've all been where you are now. But you don't need to 'do' or 'know' everything all at once. Take it in little steps. What I'd suggest you do first is:

1. Reduce the insulin dosage immediately.
2. Learn to hometest ASAP.

Welcome to FDMB! :smile:
 
N insulin is fast acting, short duration and you must feed kitty at least a 1/2 hr. before shooting so food is on board. Agree with the others.....until you are able to hometest do not try and change to wet food and please drop that dose down. That is a high starting dose for any insulin that is being given. Glad you found FDMB :smile:
 
Appreciate the advice so far. Finally found a kit (it's a ReliOn Prime so is that a okay type?....wasn't much to choose from) and did my first test. Uncooperative cat to say the least. The ear thing isn't happening right now (or at least until I can buy some more band-aids) but the foot pad technique worked great. He did get a bit worked up (and so did I). Has picked at his food so no real meal (which isn't unusual for a few days after coming from the vets he doesn't eat a solid meal). First reading was 251 (maybe 10 minutes after eating) and the second was 199 (somewhat more relaxed and he never saw the lancer coming). Told vet and he said he was right on the money with the dosage (his words were "can't believe random people on the internet"........yeah, okay, people who have had diabetic cats for a LONG time or a vet who seems to give two nothings about cats....I'll take the first). Problem is, after seeing that number, I didn't give him any insulin today at all (probably a big no-no but I'm just so darn apprehensive of sending him into hypo state with the up-down numbers). Retired vet (ironically, his retirement opened the door for this new idiot) said to stay fast with whatever I'm doing (which all I'm doing is really reading up on all the info I've gathered from you folks) because the numbers are dropping. He agreed the insulin is way to much and see if "lifestyle changes" would help. Tested for ketones as well (had some dirty looks from the cat on the sudden privacy invasion) and all clear/negative.
I assume I should monitor it the rest of the day (getting quick with the testing and kitty has no problems with it). Any ideas if I should inject or hold out? He is still on the dry food so no change over till I figure this all out.
 
Yep keep checking him today, and see where he is headed.

I haven't read through all your posts yet, but I wanted to mention something when I saw the thing about his skin and pred. I had a guy here that was exactly the same way, tore himself up for years and was on daily pred. He was also being fed dry food (didn't know better at the time), got my first diabetic kitty and learned from the folks here and switched everyone over to grain free canned food, presto no more skin issues for the boy. As it turned out he was allergic to grains, once he was on an all wet diet he is perfect until we lost him fairly suddenly this last November to cancer.

Mel, Maxwell, Autumn & The Fur Gang
 
Welcome!

Well, as you can tell your vet is old school and out of date. Here is a link to the Americal Animal Hospial Association guidelines.. You might print them off to read ... and ever so tactfully provide them to him.

To understand feline nutrition better, pop over to Cat Info That site is written by vet Dr Lisa Pierson and there is a pdf version that may be printed as well, plus a food list of nutritional info for food selection (after you are testing)

Testing for ketones, a by-product of fat breakdown is important, as it may signal the start of diabetic ketoacidosis. My signatur link on Secondary Monitoring Tools explains some ways to do that, as well as some indirect methods of assessing your cat.
 
Thanks for the advice. The vet I have to go to is more of a horse/farm critter vet so I figure I'm in the minority of small pets that visit. The old retired vet is close to 80 now and suffers from Parkinson's so he had to give it up but all he handled was cats and dogs (he was the one who took care of my dog way back in the day and helped her live another great 4 years when every vet said euthanizing was the only option for her). I trust him and all you fine folks way more than the current vet. He also said getting the cat off corn/grain based foods would eliminate the skin issues and no more prednisone.
Still sub 200 BG on the tests and he is on his dry food. No insulin injections today. I got hold of the BG tests from his stay at the vets (vet didn't want to give it all up so I got what I could but then I got lectured hometesting shouldn't be done and was playing Russian roulette with my cat.....if jail didn't scare me so much, I'd of laid him out cold right there in front of his wife and office staff) and other than a few minutes after he was injected, his BG was between 300 to 400 the entire 2 days (the lowest it dropped down to was 320 or so). Yet he is testing under 200 every 2 hours here, whether he has ate or not. And another quick privacy invasion in the box (he's beginning to dislike this!) still shows no ketones, no blood, no smell, no nothing.
I hate to say this, but does anybody think this doctor just flatly screwed up and misdiagnosed? The old timer vet said based on the blood results done, the cat shows no signs of kidney disease at all (which he said there should be a drop or decline in somethings but there isn't) and other than a high BG, seems to be perfectly healthy. He's stumped just as much as I am.
Any ideas about going forward?
 
Based on your tests ( and yes the meter you purchased is perfectly fine), he is diabetic. He may be a transient diabetic and not need insulin for long.

What Momma of Muse wrote is the exact situation I had with Maui. She ate dry food all her life and always had skin itchy problems. Over the years it was treated with shampoos, all kinds of meds and steroids. Never was it ever suggested that the dry food could be causing the problems. always the symptoms were treated, never the root cause.

When Maui developed diabetes as a result of the dry food and steroids, it was from this board that I learned about the dry food problem. It took several weeks to teach Maui to eat canned food, but once she started and all the dry was removed, her skin cleared up, she hasn't itched since, her fur grew back (as it was coming out in clumps). I know first hand, just how bad dry food is. Now I don't know what the exact ingredient(s) are the culprit and I no longer care.

It is very possibly that when you remove the dry food, Happy will be happy once more. the challenge is removing the dry.

One alternate to dry that I use is freeze dried raw food which is dry and gives the crunch they miss, but because it is raw food, it is way better than giving dry. this may be something you may want to try, especially to help transition. You can add water to this, my girls don't like it that way.

the product is: http://www.petfood.com/item/stella-and- ... od/498360/

this is where I buy it, they are cheapest I found online and if you sign up for their newsletter, you get extra discount and can auto ship too.

you mentioned that you have a diabetic family member. do you know what insulin she uses? if it is lantus or levimer, maybe she can share with you, just in case you can't get the vet to write you a scrip. depending on where you live, you will need a scrip for insulin syringes too.


this may help you with home testing - it is full of tips on how to do it - where on the ear to test, how to warm ear, etc.

http://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=287

keep asking questions, we are here to help.
 
"Random people on the internet"!!! I would say "you cant trust incompetent and close minded vets". Shame your old one retired.. he sounded better! We have research and lots of experienced members to back us up - plus proof with our happy kitties!

Anyway enough of my ranting.. Congratulations to you on finding this board and doing the hometesting already! The Prime is a good meter - its reliable and cheap strips. Needs a little but more blood that some more expensive meters but once you are used to testing it wont be an issue.

Next thing that would be good for you to do is set up his spreadsheet so we can see what he is up to. http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=18207.

What time is his shot tomorrow? Can you measure him like an hour before that and post if its under 200?

Lastly - any chance you can find a vet who will give you a better insulin?

Wendy
 
sde said:
(...[vet's] words were "can't believe random people on the internet..."
Click to expand...

It is true that FDMB is an open forum and theoretically anyone can post here. But this is also a forum that has a huge amount of knowledge gained from the experience of thousands of people across the world who have dealt - on a day to day basis - with feline diabetes. It is my belief that this forum is the single most important resource in the world for helping people deal with their diabetic cats. There is simply nothing else out there to match FDMB.

This forum saved my cat's life. And it has saved the lives of many, many other cats too. And quite a bit of that 'life saving' has come about directly as a result of people here amending the advice given by vets. I've lost count of the times that dosages suggested by vets have been way too high; and then there are those vets who tell people NOT to test their cat's blood glucose at home because it will be harmful in some way. And there was one last week who told someone not to hometest but to urine test instead because that was more accurate (Huh?) :roll:

I'm not trying to disparage vets. There are some really, really good ones out there (including my own (I'm very lucky!)). But, my goodness, we've seen some real shockers here too...
 
Thanks for the help. Still writing down the numbers manually on scrap paper but will fill out the google dox ASAP (with the snow here todady, tomorrow, and Monday, been busy getting peoples orders out). His shot was at 8:30 a.m. Pre feeding BG was 180 (half hour before the shot), post feeding was 175, and half hour after that was about the same (which would of been at shot time). So no shot. Two hours after was 160, three hours were 161, and four hours were 160. Next scheduled shot is 8:30 tonight. Still testing every hour. No idea on the doseage.
There was a spike last night of 301 around 4 in the morning when I woke up and decided to check him (I figured I need the nighttime/just woke up/no caffeine experience for future testing). But after getting up to fix a bowl of cereal for breakfast, I found a demolished Ziplock bag of Zesta crackers under the table. Dog was going to get blamed for it but after seeing the slice marks and realizing I hadn't left them on the table, I had a better suspect. I had left them on top of the fridge for lunch today (I usually keep an eye on him because he will steal whole sleeves of crackers) but I usually hear him knocking them off and dragging the bag into the bedroom. I didn't hear the bag this time. Checked the bag (he didn't eat the plastic....he just slices it open with his back feet while holding the bag with his front paws and proceeds to kick the snot out of it till crackers come out) and there was some missing. Talked to vet and he said crackers carbs = high BG readings. Lesson learned.....all crackers/chips/bread are now in cabinets.
I can't see how it would be harmful to test at home. I've tried the ear test but due to needing better glasses and his desire to slash widely at anything, I went the pad route and he never notices it. I usually get just enough blood for a test before it clots away. And he hasn't limped so I assume he isn't hurting because of the testing (he has been known to fake injuries to strangers so they will pick him up.....he does it to my SIL frequently......he'll walk into the room when he hears her talking and suddenly start limping and letting out this poor meow till she picks him up and holds him in her arms while talking to him.....after she puts him down and leaves, the little fart straightens up). But so far, just the help I have received so far has saved me close to a grand in "consultation fees", not counting the endless amount of vet visits. And he's still alive so something must be working!
 
Good job on the testing

So if I have it right you got 180, 160, 161 etc but that was without the insulin? However there was a spike of 301 last night after he was naughty and munched the crackers? lol bad boy!!

Are you still feeding dry food? It might be worth trying to cut out all the dry food but also hold off the insulin for a few days (keep checking for ketones though) and see what numbers you get. Those numbers you have (asides the 301 spike) arent bad and could be a lot better without the dry!.

Here are some tips for getting them off dry although in his case it might just be a case of sprinkling a little grass, crumbled freeze dried chicken, or something else on top of the wet to tempt him.http://www.catinfo.org/docs/Tips for Transitioning PDF 1-14-11.pdf

Since you are doing paw pad testing you might want to apply a little neosporin w/pain relief afterward to ensure its not going to get infected.

LOL on the faking injury.. what a little troublemaker you have!!

let us know!
Wendy
 
Thanks everybody for the help getting this stuff under control. Decided it was time to do what needed to be done. Tried the wet and he took off on it (I messed up and put it on a plate and was interested but put it in his food bowl, cleaned of course, he recognized it was dinner time and ate). I tried 3 or 4 types and he smelled each one and low and behold, the Fancy Feast Classic Pate Turkey was the winner. Numbers are still around 162 (they go up or down around 6 to 7 points) on the hour by hour testing. Since I've been holding off on his meds, I figure the change over is okay. Got his belly full and perked up. Took him and Dog on a road trip to the old vet and he showed me how to finally inject insulin.
Now, I know not to go wet and then use insulin. But old vet pulled out everything we COULD need and gave a .50 dosage of insulin (his wife uses Lantus and said it would be fine......thinking about going for the Lantus since it seems to be a bit better and easier for cats to handle but that price tag). He tested every hour for 6 hours while Dog and his dog had a play date and the cat sat on the table watching/refereeing the tennis ball match and the lowest it dropped was down to 118. The highest was 131. Testing at home and same numbers. Vet said to call if drops below 100 and to keep pancake syrup nearby (he said cats love it). So, fueling up on some super Earl Grey tea my brother left behind the last time he dropped Dog off but the with the fireplace roaring, Dog snoring in the chair, cat stretched out on the floor soaking up the warmth, and it still snowing nonstop, it's going to be hard to test every hour until 6 a.m. (although walking to the garage to smoke will wake you up.....I know, I know....bad for me but last few days with all this threw away 8 years of being nicotine free :YMSIGH: I'm more scared to death the wife will find out so need to break the habit again and ASAP). Tried talking him into unretiring but no dice. But did say I could bring the stinkpot around anytime and he would help me. He said to check again in the morning and if above 160 on wet, to use .25 but not a drop more. If above 175, dose .50 and that's all. Tomorrow, he's coming by to spend the afternoon (free pizza, little adult beverage, some snacks, his wife busy all day and into the night with a church fundraiser, and the Super Bowl will cause 99% of fellows to drop any plans to hang out!) and he's doing a "curve" for me. He said it wasn't like the new vet would do but he had used the system for 50 years and never lost a cat to hypo nor KA. Said it would give me a idea on what to do based on numbers.
I can't thank you all who have helped me the past few days. If it weren't for you, I have a feeling my little furry buddy would of been overmedicated (and that story would of had a much worse ending) if I hadn't sought out additional help. I truly thank you all for what you do for complete strangers.
 
Hey there!

Glad he is finally on wet! yay! Its good to be on wet and insulin as long as you are testing- which you are! Because as you said, you dont want to shoot if he goes too low and you want to watch for remission!

So did he give you some Lantus to keep then?

So please can i get you to move across and start posting on the Lantus TR board tonite. http://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewforum.php?f=9

We have experienced members there who will watch your numbers and guide you through the night if you post there. They will also advise on dosing in the morning to keep him safe. It will also give you more insight. These are the people who can be with you once your old vet goes back to his retirement and can help advise future dosing and future questions.

Wendy
 
Just popped over from the Lantus ISG at Wendy's request.

One thing is that we don't dose on a sliding scale. Lantus is a depot insulin and it takes several cycles, generally, for the depot to fill and the kitty to start using the insulin you shoot.

Can you set up his numbers today like this:

Number at shot
+1 BG
+2 BG
+3 BG

Etc....the + followed by a number is the number of hours since the shot. You might not have all those tests, so please just put the ones you have.

Thank you.
 
If you happen to see this between tests....

What time today did the kitty get insulin? And the dose was .5u, right?

Carl
 
I'll post over there and thanks for the heads up. Just a quick run down before I move over.

Insuilin at 6 p.m. BG before shot was 161. He ate at 5:30 and was at 162 (but ate pretty good).

(times are fairly close to the top of the hour):
+1 141
+2 132
+3 129
+4 120
+5 118
+6 119
+7 119

And waiting till 2 a.m. for next test. Amount was .50 units. Other than trip to the pan (no ketones), sleeping with Dog on chair.
 
OK, first thing. All of those numbers are beautiful!

Can you tell me when, and how much, since the shot that your kitty has eaten? And whether it was all canned low carb food?

I think you're okay here, and that you might be able to get some sleep tonight.

Carl
 
Also, for tonight, if you want to keep this thread going, that'd be a good idea since this is where all the information is. It would be great to post in the Lantus forum tomorrow though.

I'll stick around and see if/when you post the 2 am test number.

Carl
 
He has ate maybe around 3 tablespoons of food (hard to judge exact amount but was a decent amount) around midnight. All food he has eaten tonight (both dinner and snack) is Fancy Feast Classic Turkey Pate. No dry, only wet. But seems more interested in sleeping than eating. But not unusual for him to sleep all night and not nibble on any food after a midnight snack and eat a good breakfast.

+1 141
+2 132
+3 129
+4 120
+5 118
+6 119
+7 119
newest reading at 2 a.m.>
+8 119
 
OK, great info!

I know your vet told you that you should stay up all night and test every hour. I won't tell you not to do that. But I will tell you that I don't think you need to do that.

Your kitty's numbers since the shot are terrific. No big drop in BGs. I know your vet told you to have the pancake syrup ready if you saw a number under 100. He's being super cautious, and that is a great thing at the beginning. We are all about "safety" here. But really, I believe that you could put out a few spoonfuls of the Fancy Feast, and you could get some sleep before the AM shot is due.

We usually tell new members not to shoot if the kitty is under 200 (safety is #1), and your vet says 160, and that's probably fine too. My advice would be to draw the line at 175, and only give .25u. The likelihood that you'll see a number between 160 and 175 isn't very high, and really the meters aren't that precise. They can be off by 20% +/1, and that's good enough to get FDA approval. So 160 and 175 are virtually the "same number".

Since you don't know me from Adam, I'll understand if you choose to stay up to test, really. This is just my opinion.

But overall, your cat looks like he's doing great!
Carl
 
He did say I could change the amount based on the reading if I got nervous on the amount to give. If I recall I think his number was actually close to yours (BG of greater than 175 and I could go .25 if giving .5 made me nervous but not to do anything shot wise at 150). His advice was to keep an eye on him and if the numbers were stable for 4 hours without any drops in BG, I should be okay.
I wasn't aware of the +/- of 20% on monitors and to be honest, that's a tad bit bothersome (especially for older people or those with a more severe case of diabetes). But it makes sense now to me since he said to add or subtract 10-15% on the BG testing to keep it over 100 (if the BG number with subtracting 15% dropped below 100 to contact him). Glad you posted that to straighten that out and to know that his BG could be lower than what the number shows. I'll err on the side of caution and use the 20% (which means he could be 105 to 106 when I tested him at +8 and he was 119.... if indeed it is off 20%, right?).

This might be a bit OT but have to say it. Based on today's events alone, if I had went blindly in to this, following the vets orders mind you, and dropped 3 full units of Novolin insulin (which it appears to be a bit stronger type that works suddenly) twice a day into the cat WITHOUT even hometesting, this surely would of ended bad. Like REAL bad. Completely inexcusable on his part. :-x
Thank you to whoever created this board ( and to all those willing to offer help even at 3 in the morning). You probably saved my cats life (and with that amount of insulin, he would of burned up all 9 in one setting because the vet would of closed at 7 p.m. (a full hour before I gave the injection) and the nearest 24 hour animal hospital is at least an hour away).

EDIT: newest number at 3 a.m. (+9)
+1 141
+2 132
+3 129
+4 120
+5 118
+6 119
+7 119
+8 119
+9 120
 
This might be a bit OT but have to say it. Based on today's events alone, if I had went blindly in to this, following the vets orders mind you, and dropped 3 full units of Novolin insulin (which it appears to be a bit stronger type that works suddenly) twice a day into the cat WITHOUT even hometesting, this surely would of ended bad. Like REAL bad
Click to expand...
.

I agree completely.

Try not to get too hung up on the 20% thing. In other words take the numbers at face value especially at the lower ranges. Many people have noted that the meters tend to be more accurate on low numbers and those are the ones that matter most. Don't fall into the trap of "well, that 50 could really be a 60". Assume it's a 50. I pointed it out to let you know that if you were seeing numbers ranging from 130 to 115, the cycle was very flat over a pretty long period of time. Your kitty was doing very well, and neither rising nor falling.

Marje pointed out earlier that lantus is dosed on a consistent basis. Once you have a 'line in the sand" that you will either shoot or not, how far over that line the BG is doesn't really matter. You would shoot that same dose whether he's at 200 or 400.
At that point the 20% variance doesn't matter.

Carl
 
I wrote a very long and, I think ;-) , informative post for you last night at about 1 am and somehow, it dispersed into thin air :lol: Sometimes happens here.

At any rate, I would encourage you to NOT test every hour today. When starting lantus, we usually recommend the preshot (PS), +3, +6, +9 if you want to do a bit of a curve. Spot checks are also really helpful.

I think Wendy or someone gave you a link to doing a spreadsheet so hope we see that soon. If you need assistance, let me know...just PM me. I can set it up in the blink of an eye.
 
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