BG Numbers

[Sarah/Nancy]

Sarah has been on insulin for a couple of weeks now. Just increased dose to 1.5u bid her numbers are still high. She seems ok eating well doesnt seem to be drinking as much water but cant get these numbers down. Have to take her back next week to vet for them to ck bg. she is on Humilin N thinking about asking them to give me a script for Lantus everyone seems to like that one alot. Ideas?

 

[KPassa]

Yes, I would recommend switching to Lantus since Humulin usually doesn't last long enough in most cats to provide full coverage throughout the day/night with twice daily dosing. For further reading, here's a Primer on Humulin that you might find helpful.

It looks like you're not getting any mid-cycle tests and are only getting pre-shot tests in. It'd be helpful to know how low Sarah is going on this dose, so if you could please try grabbing a test sometime between 4-7 hours after the shot over the next couple of cycles, that will give us a bit more data to go off.

 

[BJM]

Humulin N lasts about 6-8 hours in the cat. Once it wears off, the glucose shoots back up. Many people raise the dose because of that, only to have the cat go into hypoglycemia (too low glucose) and die.

You need to get test around the nadir - about +3 to +4 hours after the shot - to see how low it is taking the glucose before attempting any dose increase.

Another option is to test and shoot 3 times a day (TID) about 8 hours apart. Total the current daily doses, then divide by 3 and round to the nearest quarter unit.
Ex: 1.5 + 1.5= 3; 3/3 = 1 unit, every 8 hours.