Bg seemed to be heading down

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terri1962

terri1962

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Gave her the shot of Lantus at 8 it wa 86 just checked it she has been eating now at 64 I need to go to bed I have a very important appointmant at 9 in the morning. I have every kind of food out possible. What should I do?
 
I cross posted this in Lantus ISG....hopefully someone will come advise you.
 
Terri,
How many test strips do you have? You're going to need a few. It's been 2.5 hours since her shot. You're going to have to test her in 15-20 minutes.
Is she eating any of what you put out?
Carl
 
I have plenty of strips. Not sure if she will let me keep testing her. I have not been testing her at home the vet told me not to.
 
I don`t even know what a nadir is. the vet told me not to test at home the threw a fit that I even tried to do it. She is a skittish cat thats runs so it would be hard for me to test hert ten to twelve times a day.
 
Nadir is the time between shots when her BG is the lowest, when the insulin has reached peak effectiveness.

Your vet was obviously wrong, but we can talk about that later.

How is she acting right now?

carl
 
For most kitties on Lantus, Nadir usually takes place about 6 hours after the shot. Halfway between shots.
 
I am sure glad you decided to test her tonight!

I was hoping you might have tested before and had an idea of when she would be at her lowest point (nadir)

Usually (although every cat is different), lantus is at the lowest point around 4-6 hours after the shot.

So, if she were mine, I would test again in 20-30 minutes and depending on how low she is going, keep testing until she starts back up.

I know that won't be easy for you tonight, but it is possible that she could go so low that the situation would be dangerous and you would have to give her honey to being her back up.
 
I just tested her again and she was at 67. I am thinking that if I go to bed and let things calm down and quite chasing her she will eat. she is a night eater.
I am going to ream the vets ass for this I told them she is on to much insulin and the will not listen.
 
Eating probably will help but you can't be sure she won't go too low. If nothing else, I would set your alarm for about 5 hours after the shot and take another test. If she is 40 or below, follow the hypo directions. (come on and post but not sure how many people will be on that late)
 
Terri,
You can read my response about your vet in the other thread you had going tonight.

If it would be possible, can you stay up for another 20-30 minutes and test her one more time? I know tomorrow is a big day and you have an early meeting, but if you knew for sure that she was going "up", it would be much better.

Carl
 
These are the instructions we use on the Lantus board for managing low numbers. I don't know that I'd go to sleep and assume your cat's numbers will come up especially since you don't have any data.

Personally, unless your vet is going to make him/herself available 24/7 to help you, you need to have a means to keep your cat safe. Home testing is the best way to do this. You might want to pass this journal article along to your vet. It's written by the vets who developed the Lantus tight regulation protocol and encourages home testing.
 

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Terri, do you have high carb food, like catfood with gravy? Or Karo syrup?

We would love to see another test before you go to sleep, just to see whether BG is stabilizing or dropping more.
 
hi terri!

there's no safe way to just leave her with food. an 86 is too low to shoot without monitoring and knowing how your cat is going to respond.

for tonight, i'd test her every 30 minutes and record the numbers. i think you've gotten the link earlier for how to open a spreadsheet - if you need it again just ask.

if she goes down below 50, open a high carb can of cat food and give her about a teaspoon of the gravy from the can. wait about 20 minutes for it to get in her system and retest her. if she's still 50's or lower, repeat the process. you want to see her above 60 and staying there. sometimes they can wobble back and forth til they've passed the nadir, the point where the insulin peaks and the BG is the lowest.

you can also use the regular food and add about a 1/2 tsp of karo syrup.

what most of us do is set an alarm and get up to test, then sleep til the next test.

you can't go by her behavior. cats on lantus often don't have a dramatic seizure type of response to going hypoglycemic. you will only know by testing her BG. the symptom i've seen the most often reported is that a cat that's hypo on lantus will start looking confused, kinda checked out or weird in behavior. that's reaching a critical point because the brain is being deprived of sugar. that's a crisis and if you have to, rub karo on her gums if you can't get her to eat.
 
Kathy,
She posted this earlier on her other thread....
I think she fed the FF w/gravy, but not sure how much kitty ate.

I just gave Lilly her evening shot of Lantus 1 unit and she was not acting right so I got out the gravied FF. She would not eat it. I checked her BG it was 86. What should it be. ?
Click to expand...

It sounds like there were visible signs of low BG.

Carl
 
She is not online. I feel terrible. Her kitty looks so much like mine.

You are all right. Terri, you SHOULD NOT GO TO BED without more tests. It is not safe.

I will check one more time for an update.
 
She seems fine this morning. I did not give her a shot this morning as I has to leave real early and did not want to give her the shot and leave her at home by herself. She is in her usual place beside the bed.
I think the vet has her on to much insulin. I have told them that. They just did a curve on her an did reduce her by half a unit a day. But I still think its to much. She is not a big eater and I have a real hard time getting her to eat.
 
Good morning Terri
Glad to hear she's doing fine this morning. I just want to point out that you don't need your vet's permission to lower her dose, or home test, or anything at all. If you think something seem's "wrong" with what they are telling you, just post questions here. As you saw last night, there is never a shortage of people here that are willing to jump in and try to help.
Carl
 
I am not going to be able to do much home testing because this is a cat that runs and hides if she thinks you are even going to pick her up. I was able to test her a couple of times last night only because she was not herself and I could catch her. I caught a low BG once before when I noticed odd behavior and was able to test her. But overall she barely tolerates me giving her the shot.
 
Well if she was 86 at shot time, she might not need much or any insulin, so testing may not be too much of an issue. Considering this low number, extreme caution is warranted at shot time, and if you CAN get a test prior, I'd strongly suggest it, along with a no shot rule of say 150 and under....with a very low dose...
 
Darn. If you base your testing on unusual behavior, you can be going from one crisis of low bg to another. We have lots of people who have figured out ways to test their difficult kitties. If you want help and ideas, just ask.

Are you sure rewarding her with a treat every time you poke? We gave our shot to Oliver when his face was deep in his breakfast and dinner and he seemed not to notice.
 
If I remember correctly from my visit with you, you were concerned something besides diabetes might be going on.

Please remember you can call or text me if you need urgent help. (I will be in class or driving from 4:30-9:30 Sunday nights and unavailable)
 
BJ

Thanks, she is doing something that she has not done much of before, coughing. What is that a sign of? Could that indicate heart disease or something else? I had to have her sister put down about a year and had ago due a lung tumor. She was coughing and I took her to the vet and she had this huge lung tumor.
Yes I do think something else could be going on, but not sure about that, the coughing does concern me.

Terri
 
Simplest answer: Coughing can just be from a hairball or a kitty cold. These can be very common occurances in some cats. If you have some hairball remedy (or pea-sized ball of plain petroleum jelly), you could see if it helped (read hairball remedy label carefully for any contraindications and dosing suggestions).

More complex answer: You'd need recent lab work, listening to the lungs and heart, physical exam with thorough palpation of the internal organs and structures, maybe a urinalysis, and possibly an x-ray to get a good idea of what was going on ... in other words, a vet exam. Some of that you may have had recently; you can request copies of the results, although they might charge a fee for the copies.

If she'll let you, put an ear to her side and listen to her breathing. If you hear any crackles or wheezes, its a vet issue. If she ever seems to have any difficulty breathing, contact the vet.

Also, if you can, slowly massage your hands over her neck, back, chest, and belly, feeling for unusual lumps. If you find any, contact the vet.

Given the family history, I'd make the vet aware of it (as a reminder for him - its probably in the files there, somewhere), if you haven't already.

Note: Non-vets cannot officially diagnose illness in animals - that'd be practicing veterinary medicine without a license.
 
I can hear breathing from clear across the room. I have brought this to the attention of the vet several times and they say when they check her lungs they don`t hear anything. She is wheezing for sure so I don`t know and she has been for awhile.
 
Terri,
Have they ruled out asthma and bronchitis?

Carl
 
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