? BG's are all over the place

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Louise & "Abby"

Louise & "Abby"

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Abby was diagnosed diabetic 2 months ago. Over the past couple of weeks she has had some surprisingly low pre-shot BG's, especially in the last few days. From what I have read, cats who have been switched over to a low carb canned food diet & blood sugar has begun to be controlled with insulin shots, glucose toxicitycease to attack newly generated tissue, and many cats are able to regenerate some of the damaged pancreatic beta cells and slowly resume insulin production.
Could this be happening with Abby? It almost appears that close to her next scheduled shot when the previous shot is wearing off, her body is releasing her own insulin & giving her better BG's than she would normally get at nadir with insulin shots. It doesn't seem to last too long but in the meantime, I have to test & test again while withholding food. Finally, I have to feed her because I don't want to starve her in the meantime, then test again in 2 hours. Sometimes, I still get a BG that is too low to shoot. This is becoming problematic as it's throwing her schedule way off. When her BG does rise enough to give her a shot, it's much later than her usual time & it's a guessing game how much to give her. I don't want to skip the shot but at the same time give her some insulin, not too much to put her in the danger zone but enough so that she doesn't go too high for when she is due for her next shot.
I have been searching the forums looking for some guidelines on how to deal with this but so far haven't been able to find anything. Except, that once a cat has been OTJ for 2 weeks, they are classed as on a honeymoon.
So far, if her body is starting to produce insulin again, it seems to be just on & off. With this happening, I have to test her more often than I did before because I never know when I'll have to give her the next shot & if I do, what dosage to give her.
I'm happy to see this happening but it's perplexing at the same time. Is this the way it normally happens when a cat may be on the road to going on a "Honeymoon?"
@@Merlin , if you are available please look at Abby's SS & let me know what you think or anyone else who may have some words of wisdom.
Thanks,
Louise
 
Hi Louise,

Abby is looking good! It could be that the pancreas is kicking in every so often; it could be that the dose is a little too high. The only way to tell if the pancreas is working is to feed when her numbers are lower at preshot (not during the stalling time) and see if she goes down instead of up with food. This is usually done when they are going OTJ and the bean is skipping shooting very low numbers, waiting for a shootable number. We don't usually see the pancreas working until they are getting really low doses and the insulin is lasting a long time.

I think I'd lower the dose just a little. I hope Cindi will check in and see if she thinks the scale needs a tweak. It will be good information to see what the 1.2 does today for the 236.

I know this is nerve wracking, getting lower pre shots and stalling. But it is really good news. She is gradually going down in levels and needing less insulin.
 
Sue and Oliver (GA) said:
The only way to tell if the pancreas is working is to feed when her numbers are lower at preshot (not during the stalling time) and see if she goes down instead of up with food.
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I will give this a try. How long should I wait after feeding her to check again, to see if she goes down instead of up.
Sue and Oliver (GA) said:
It will be good information to see what the 1.2 does today for the 236.
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I'm going to check Abby in about 15 mins. It will be +5 hrs since her shot & 4 hrs since she last ate.
 
Sue and Oliver (GA) said:
Looks like she continued to go down.
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Yes, I was surprised she was lower at +12 hrs than she was at her previous tests throughout the day, with her dose only being 1.2u!
Sue and Oliver (GA) said:
I would get a before bed test just to see how things are going.
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Didn't happen last evening. Bedtime was 30 mins after her shot. Hubby works on the weekends & has to be up early; morning comes pretty quick when you have to be up at 4am!
Will test in about 30 mins (@ +9 hrs), when it's been 2 hrs since she last ate. Don't know what to expect with her dose only being 0.6u last night.
 
Hey Louise. Just got home and took a look at your ss. Wow - interesting day today. Here is one thing you might want to consider. Looks like Abby is taking on the same pattern that Merlin has i.e. higher in the am and lower in the pm. See all the pink numbers on the left side and all the yellows/blue on the right side (Preshots #'s). What I have to do is shoot 13 hours after the AM shot and 11 hours after the PM shot. So typically, your 12 cycle shot time is 5:15am/5:15pm. In order to give Abby a little more time to bring up her BG number for the PM shot time, you would then shoot like 5:15am/6:15pm. That way, your AM shot is a little lower and your PM shot is a little higher. Just a thought if she continues to do this. Otherwise, I like all the bluea here lately and great job in testing and collecting good data.
 
Merlin said:
In order to give Abby a little more time to bring up her BG number for the PM shot time, you would then shoot like 5:15am/6:15pm.
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Oh, good idea Cindi! Maybe I will try that. I was going to test her in about 10 mins, (2 hrs after she ate), which would be 14 hrs since her AM shot, just to see what the change was in another 2 hrs. Hmmm, I wonder what her BG will be?
 
@Merlin, just tested Abby & she is still 5.3 (95). That was after her getting pissed off with me, as I couldn't get a drop of blood quickly. She swatted & scratched my right pinkie finger & I was bleeding instead of her! I get the feeling she is getting sick of being poked so frequently.
Well, doesn't look like she is getting a shot tonight!
 
Well this is exciting (not the swatting and hissing)! Looks like another present to open tomorrow am. Have a nice, restful sleep tonight!
 
Merlin said:
Well this is exciting
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I'm not sure how to feel about it but it does seem odd. I read that Prozinc lasts from 10 - 14 hrs but would the shot work better for her at +12 - +14 hrs than it does at +5 - +7 hrs? Or, is her body releasing a bit of insulin on it's own? Strange that we see this before & after her PM shot is due & occasionally at the AM preshot......
Merlin said:
Have a nice, restful sleep tonight!
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Thanks Cindi, you too!
 
Not that unusual, Louise. Unfortunately the usual is that every cat is different thing. If you think of insulin as the hormone it is, rather than a "drug", and then think about the different ways hormones affect post menopausal women (for example) , it makes more sense that insulin acts in unpredictable ways.

We often see cats who have different am/pm cycles. It might be activity level or food intake or my favorite: Look, a squirrel! The nice thing about ProZinc is that it is easy to adapt to that. As Cindi does with Merlin, the 13/11 schedule can make the cycles more even.

I haven't seen the pancreas working at doses higher than under one unit. But Abby could be dancing to her own drummer. Your job is to just roll with whatever she throws at you and adapt in ways that give you the results you want. Someone once had this great analogy: It's a sugar dance. Unfortunately the cat is leading and she is the only one who can hear the music. :p
 
Sue and Oliver (GA) said:
Someone once had this great analogy: It's a sugar dance. Unfortunately the cat is leading and she is the only one who can hear the music. :p
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OMG Sue, I Laughed Out Loud at that, too funny & so true! :D

Since Abby has been so unpredictable lately, I'll just take it one day at a time or one cycle at a time. She sure is full of surprises. It would be nice to finally see some consistency & not have to adjust her doses so frequently. Since she was too low to shoot last evening, I skipped her dose. Then this morning she was way up to 459! :eek:
 
Yep, so your next plan is to figure out a way not to skip a dose and keep her more even. If she is too low tonight, I'd definitely look at shooting at +13
 
Sue and Oliver (GA) said:
If she is too low tonight, I'd definitely look at shooting at +13
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Last night at +14, she was still 95. Too low to shoot.
I tried testing her this morning @+4 hrs. She started swatting at me again. I get the feeling she sick & tired of being poked so often & is retaliating. Ok, time to snip the toe nails. I'll try again @+6 hrs & see how she is. That is, if she'll let me. Hubby is at work today, so I don't have a 2nd pair of hands to help me.
 
Hoping the cycle will be a little higher but not too high.

We had to use the cat burrito at first for Oliver. We wrapped him in a towel with only his head out.
 
The 95 at +14 is interesting. Am I correct that you didn't feed Abby at +12 and were stalling?
 
Carl & Polly & Bob (GA) said:
Am I correct that you didn't feed Abby at +12 and were stalling?
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At +12, she was 119. I waited 30 mins (without food) & tested again. She dropped to 95. I had to feed her as she hadn't eaten in 3.5 hrs. Good thing I didn't wait longer to feed her, then to check again. I waited until 2 hrs after she ate & she was still at 95.
 
Sue and Oliver (GA) said:
We had to use the cat burrito at first for Oliver. We wrapped him in a towel with only his head out.
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Abby co-operated better at the beginning. I gather she is just getting fed up with being poked all the time. Since she was diagnosed on Sept. 24th, I'm working on the 3rd box of test strips, with only about 20 left. That's 3 boxes of 100!
 
Ok. Then the cycle ran "long". Which isn't a " bad thing".
 
I would too, even a sharp rise after eating. Unless the insulin is still working.
 
Louise & "Abby" said:
Abby co-operated better at the beginning. I gather she is just getting fed up with being poked all the time. Since she was diagnosed on Sept. 24th, I'm working on the 3rd box of test strips, with only about 20 left. That's 3 boxes of 100!
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Hi Louise I am having the same problem with my cat diagnosed in August It was a breeze to test him before, but in the last few weeks he growls, hisses, swats, and last week, sank his teeth deep into my forearm after I was finished (still taking antibiotics from that one) don't know what to tell you - I am trying to catch him when he is asleep
 
Carol & Murphy said:
last week, sank his teeth deep into my forearm after I was finished (still taking antibiotics from that one)
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Oh, not good Carol! I thought it was bad last evening when Abby lashed out & scratched my pinkie finger & I was bleeding all over the place!
I have put myself in her position & tried to imagine what it would feel like having "my ears pierced" multiple times a day, day after day, week after week, month after month, OUCH! I would have run away from home & this torture long ago. Too bad there wasn't some kind of a numbing spray or lotion that you could apply to the ear before testing so it wouldn't hurt so much!
But, at the end of the day when I stretch out on the couch to watch TV, Abby still crawls up on my chest, nuzzles into my neck, licks my face & purrs into my ear, just like she always has. Ah, she still loves me! :cat:
 
Actually, I was thinking a tiny dab ahead of poking, then blotting and using a tiny bit of petroleum jelly (aka Vaseline).
Whatever works is fine, though.
 
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