Blood Glucose Test Before or After Meals?

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Blamethecats and Hannah

Blamethecats and Hannah

Member Since 2014
I am new to this forum and to the curse of feline diabetes. My little 13-year-old Hannah was recently diagnosed and started insulin on June 23, 2014. To this point, we are having quite a time getting her BG numbers to come down and even out. I have a lot of questions, but my initial questions is this: Should I be taking her blood glucose readings before she eats or after? I know she must eat before injections, but I'm just not sure of when to do the readings. To this point, I have been taking them about 45 minutes after she eats, just prior to her insulin. I also take a mid-day reading about 6 hours after her morning injection and a couple hours after her mid-day meal. Any advice will be a big help and appreciated. I am so confused and overwhelmed by all of this. :-|
 
45 minutes after eating is too long. By that time BG will have risen due to food.
Best is to test before eating.
And welcome too.

Testing 6 hours after injection is good and periodically at other times too. However, it really depends upon the insulin you are using.
 
Thanks so much for your quick reply! I really do appreciate your help and will try this approach to Hannah's BG testing. I hope to learn a lot from those who participate in this forum. Hannie and I need all the help and advice we can get. I think we have a long haul ahead of us. I am praying for success.
 
Blamethecats - Just wanted to say WELCOME ... and I love that user name! :lol:

DH and I have only been testing Alice for 8 days, so I'm no expert, but I always test first thing in the morning, before any food. That's what is known here as the AMPS - AM Pre-shot.

If you can find the Spreadsheet info and set up a glucose test sheet for Hannah, it will be a huge help. It's an amazing tool and really helps to clarify the whole process. A lot of us have links in our signatures you can click on to see our cat's spreadsheets.

Edited to Add: Blamehecats - here's the link to the Spreadsheet Instructions

What food are you feeding Hannah?

Just a week and a half ago, I was overwhelmed and confused too. Still am to a degree, but it does get easier! Read, read, read and don't be afraid to ask questions!
 
Geneva, thanks for your reply. I looked at the spreadsheet that you recommend but couldn't figure out how to print just the first page. I guess I'm not very spreadsheet savvy, either. Would prefer to have a paper copy for the kitchen counter. It's just easier for me, right now. Hannah gets Fancy Feast Classic. She doesn't eat very much and I wish I could get her to eat more -- usually 1 to 1 1/3 cans per day. She currently weighs under 7 pounds. She used to weigh a little over 9. Even with this small amount of food, her readings are very high. Her vet lowered her insulin dose this past week and she now gets the lower dose twice a day instead of a larger dose once a day. Her BG was generally better on the previous dose, except for a couple of very low readings in the afternoons -- had to give her Karo Syrup -- very scary. Now we are pretty much back to where we started a few weeks ago. I think she is handling this better than I am.
 
I do not use the Google docs spreadsheet since I find it too hard to use. Instead, I use a spreadsheet on my iPad. If necessary, I can export to Google Docs.
 
ProZinc insulin, very small doses, twice a day. Our vet just reduced her amount because her BG dropped very low in the afternoons. Probably because she isn't enthused about eating. The last time, she needed Karo Syrup. Scary!
 
How small?
1 unit
0.5 units
0.2 units by using U-100 syringes and converting the measurement to adjust for the different concentration (basically, each half unit mark on a U-100 syringe = 0.2 units of a U-40 insulin))
 
Geneva said:
Blamethecats - Just wanted to say WELCOME ... and I love that user name! :lol:

DH and I have only been testing Alice for 8 days, so I'm no expert, but I always test first thing in the morning, before any food. That's what is known here as the AMPS - AM Pre-shot.

If you can find the Spreadsheet info and set up a glucose test sheet for Hannah, it will be a huge help. It's an amazing tool and really helps to clarify the whole process. A lot of us have links in our signatures you can click on to see our cat's spreadsheets.

Edited to Add: Blamehecats - here's the link to the Spreadsheet Instructions

What food are you feeding Hannah?

Just a week and a half ago, I was overwhelmed and confused too. Still am to a degree, but it does get easier! Read, read, read and don't be afraid to ask questions!
Click to expand...
Hi,
I'm new to the forum. I clicked on the spreadsheet instructions and it says "error". Does someone have the spreadsheet, which they can upload?
 
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