Adjusting Insulin Dose *HELP PLEASE*

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Shannon Smith

Member Since 2022
Hi everyone!!

Chowder has been on Lantus since 11/22/22 and so far I haven’t really gotten him down much and he seems to hover around 400-500 daily.

Any suggestions on when I should increase his dose and by how much?

His spreadsheet is in my signature.

Thank you!!
 
The first thing I notice is that you are not getting any tests in at all during the pm cycle, which is just as important as the am cycle for gathering data. And cats often drop lower at night.
Do you think you would be able to get a test in every night? A before bed test would be good. If that test is lower than the preshot BG, that is a heads up that it could drop lower, so I would suggest setting the alarm and testing again later if that happens
Also is it possible to get a test in most days during the am cycle? I know it can be hard if you are working. But a test anytime during the cycle is good data.
The dosing of Lantus is based on the nadir, or lowest point in the cycle, so that is why we need to see how low the dose is taking Chowder..
It’s possible for him to have high preshots but be dropping low during the cycles and we wouldn’t know unless you are testing. So looking at your SS at the moment, it does look as if he needs an increase in dose. However, I would not recommend an increase until I saw some tests in the PM cycles to see if he is dropping lower and by how much. Also more am tests if that is possible.

How often are you feeding him? Are you giving him a meal before the dose and then couple of snacks during the first half of all the cycles?
Have a look at our two dosing methods HERE and see which one would suit you.
Which one you choose will make a difference how we advise you.
love his photo btw!
 
Hi! Thanks for the information. Yes, I can definitely do some PM testing as well. If he were friendly, I’d be testing more often but he’s feral and absolutely goes crazy each time so I try not to stress him too much. I did his curve the other day but I’m happy to test during the night tonight and see what it looks like.

yes, he’s getting several meals throughout the day, he eats at least 6 times daily, sometimes more because he’s starving 24/7. I don’t feed before the dose because I thought we needed to withhold food for an hour, test, give insulin and then feed him.
 
Are you giving him a treat as you test him to distract him?
You might like to use the remarks column to add information such as when you fed, how his is, any ketones test results etc
Yes withhold food for the two hours preshot please
 
You want to hold off on feeing Chowder 2 hours prior to your shot time like Bron noted.

Many cats are skittish about testing at the outset. What I would suggest to get him more acclimated to testing is to do a bit of desensitization. At least for now, always test in the same spot. Take him to his test spot, scratch his ears, and give him a treat but don't test. You want to build an association between testing and treats. Keep this up several (lots?) of times during the day so that the times you're testing are far less than the times you're not.

This is a link to our page on home testing. There's a link on the page to information on the psychology of home testing that you may find helpful.
 
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