BG Curve at Home?

[Laurie and Phoebe]

Thanks for your replies to my earlier post - a couple of you suggested I do a curve. I honestly thought this was a procedure done at the vet's office via a series of blood draws. Needless to say, I am not familiar with the timing of testing and how to interpret the results. If someone could give me some details on this, I would be very grateful. Also, how often do you do this?

 

[Jen & Squeak]

Hi there

Yes, we do test at home, just like human diabetics do! for so many reasons it is way better than testing at the clinic. Even better, veterinary associations and veterinary journal articles are supporting it more and more.

Have you read our faq yet? That might be a good place to start...

Jen

 

[Phoebe_TiggyGA_NortonGA]

getting comfortable with home testing takes some practice and time --

I would suggest planning to do a curve after you've been testing for a few weeks.

We do them on a weekend when we'll be home, and test ever two hours from morning shot time to evening shot time.

This gives you (and us if you post the results) an idea of how your kitty is using the insulin and what next steps are needed (increase, decrease or stay the same dose)

 

[Jen & Squeak]

FOr more details....

we test for several reasons
1. we test prior to injecting to a. collect data and b. ensure that blood glucose levels aren't unusually low aka unsafe to inject
2. we test inbetween shots when we can, to collect data
3. we test when something seems 'off'
4. we do curves after a period of time to collect data

test results tell us how the insulin is working...i.e., when it kicks in, how low it takes blood glucose levels, when it starts wearing off, and also look at the 'shape' of the curve to see if it is steep or gentle.

We adjust dosage differently depending on whether we are just starting out and don't have a lot of data vs if we've got lots of data and know how our cat responds to a particular dose of insulin.

Hope this helps

Jen

 

[cjleo]

Laurie,

To respond directly to your questions, a curve is a series of blood glucose tests done over a 12 hour period.

Doing the curve at home gets much more accurate results (stress of ride and vet visit raises blood glucose).

A full curve can be a preshot AM test and then a test every 2 or 3 hours until the evening preshot test.

Just note the number of hours after insulin is given. Your curve will look somwhat like this:

AMPS 180
+3 163
+6 110
+8 130
+10 150
PMPS 170

Obviously, these numbers are an example. The lowest number is the nadir. In this example, it falls at +6. Very nice when the nadir falls at the mid point between shots. Doesn't always happen. It is one of the reasons to do a curve - determining where the nadir is for your insulin on your cat. Every cat is different.

The type of insulin you are using will impact how you interpret the curve for dosing purposes.

Hope this helps.

Claudia

 

[Just-As-Appy]

You are exactly right - it is a series of blood draws as you can see from the previous posts. You can test every 1, 2, or 3 hours - partly depending on your insulin type. For the more gentle ones like Lantus and Levemir every 2 or 3 hours is probably good. I used Caninsulin previously and tested every hour for a curve because it is a faster acting insuin. The best part about doing this at home is that it is more accurate than at the vet (stress raises bg #s) and the vet will charge you something like $20 for each test that you can do at home for $1. Add a day's hospital stay and you can be looking at a pretty significant bill for some not-so-great information. There have been a few cats recently that have had a curve done at the vet and the dose has been increased based on those numbers. The dose ended up too high for the cat.

 

[JenElliot]

The best part about doing a curve at home - the price! Ok, well I guess the more accurate results are really the best part, but the price is a very close second. When I took my cat to the vet for a curve it cost several hundred dollars each time, doing it at home will cost about $5-10.

If you want to try a smaller curve the first time just test before the shot then every 4 hours after that (the last test being just before the next shot). It won't be quite as accurate as an 'every 2 hours' curve, but it may help you ease into it and you will still get some very useful information.