Anyone around for nighttime dosing help?

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oscarthecat

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Hi, my cat Oscar is on Lantus and has had a bit of a rocky day. Just dx 4 weeks ago and still figuring out a dosing system to go with the low carb wet food diet.

Insulin is Lantus

wet food breakfast @ 0500
AMBG 15.2 (273)
2units @ 0800

just a few nibblies during the day until...

+9 BG 8.6 (155) @ 1720
vomiting with obvious signs of hypoglycemia
wet/dry food mix of DM @ 1730
resolution of symptoms by 1755

PMBG 14.3 (257)

He seems fine now but last time PMBG was around the same number and I didn't dose him, his morning sugar was 32.8 (591).

Should I just give him 1 unit and leave some food out overnight??

Thanks to anyone who can give any advice.
 
i posted in the lantus isg, linking to this thread, as i'm sure there will be someone around to help with your question. wait just a few minutes k
 
What were the "obvious signs of hypoglycemia?" 155 is not a hypo number by any means. Any signs of illness, wobbliness or lethargy at this stage are concerning, not so much because of hypo risk, especially if you are home-testing you have the proof of BG right there, but because they can develop ketones, which is life threatening.

Has anyone explained ketone strips to you and how to use them? Diabetics use them to test their urine and you can get strips for just ketones, but some test both for sugar and ketones in urine, either is fine. You can try to catch pee in a large spoon or ladle or you can empty litter pan and see if they will use it or put fish tank gravel in it which won't absorb the pee like litter, so you can dip the stick in it.

If you're uncomfortable giving the full 2U because of how low his BG is, you might give 1.5U because his BG of 257 isn't much lower than this AM, but please try to test for ketones as soon as possible. 155 would not cause hypoglycemia symptoms, what you saw was something else. Hope this helps.
 
I work in health care so I'm quite familiar with diabetes and I know that the 8.6 wasn't a low number but he was definitely showing signs of hypoglycemia. He was vomiting, disoriented and uncoordinated, for how long I'm not sure because I was out and within 10 minutes of eating he was completely normal again. His blood sugar has been in the 35+ range for months so I think that that rapid a drop was a real shock to his system.

I am not testing for ketones and do not plan to as I simply cannot manage it. Things are complicated right now and Oscar's diabetes is really not helping the situation. If my husband had his way, Oscar would have been put down when he was diagnosed.
 
I am not sure what you mean exactly when you say you can not manage testing ketones.
There isn't any "management" for simply testing for ketones. It's much like testing hot tub water for ph levels and such.
You have a "dip stick" that you put in the urine, then match it to the side of the bottle.
Testing is important because you DON'T want Oscar having ketones in his urine.
That can be life threatening.

Here's a picture of the testing strips.

keto-diastix.jpg
 
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