Caninsulin dosing question

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Cheryl & Jazzy

Cheryl & Jazzy

Member Since 2020
My cat is on Caninsulin. He gets 2 units in the morning and 1 in the evening. Yesterday his BG level dropped to 3.8 before his PM test. Today it dropped to 3.4 six hours after his morning shot. I gave him 3 temptations treats after checking it. He is a little bit shaky, which is why we did the test. He's never had a drastic drop in his levels before. What do we do?
 
So, filling in a little more thoughts while we're waiting for the next number:

-- 2U is a high-ish dose for Caninsulin
-- the 3.8 at pre-shot yesterday very likely indicates that he went a lot lower during the day yesterday. Caninsulin typically has the most effect in the first half of the cycle, so being that low at the end is telling us something.
-- Once a cat goes low enough to have a symptomatic hypo, they're often more sensitive to insulin afterwards.

Definitely, a reduction in dose is in order. I don't generally give specific dosing advice for Caninsulin; tagging @Deb & Wink for that.
 
Originally the vet prescribed 3 units in the morning and 2 at night. After a few days of research, I lowered it on my own. After his curve the vet agreed that it should be lower, and brought it down to 2 in the morning and 1 at night. Apparently that is still too high, but I've never seen his numbers this low before yesterday.
 
Hi Cheryl, it is possible your kitty's blood glucose dropped lower earlier in the cycle...
With Caninsulin the lowest number is 'most often' around 4 - 4.5 hours after the insulin shot. Occasionally though it may be earlier or later than that, and from the data that you have it looks like your kitty 'may' have a relatively late nadir (lowest number). In this situation that would be a good thing...

With Caninsulin the 'general advice' initially is to try to not let the blood glucose drop below about 5 as measured on a human meter. That is because Caninsulin can drop the blood glucose fast, and trying to not let it drop below 5 gives some buffer of safety.

What is certain is that the dose is too high. The nadir is too low anyway for Caninsulin, but it also looks like the blood glucose has been dropping and 'bouncing'.
If this was my kitty I'd probably skip the next scheduled shot and try to let the blood glucose settle out a bit (as long as the kitty has no history of ketones).

What are you feeding your kitty? And have you changed the diet recently?
 
Ok so we just did his test for his usual time. His levels have come back up to 18.3. I'm concerned that if he didn't have any insulin then he will be extremely high in the morning. Should I maybe give him .5 unit instead of the usual 1? Or avoid any insulin tonight and figure it out in the morning?
 
He is 'bouncing' from the low number today, not unexpected.

If you are comfortable with 0.5U, I think that would be OK, just make sure to get at least one test in tonight, at +3 or +4, to see what he's doing. Again, he's bouncing now, and likely will be for a while, but just in case he surprises you again!
 
Ok maybe I better not give him any tonight as nobody will be up later on. I'll ask for advice in the morning. I don't want anything to happen during the night ☹️
 
Nan & Amber (GA) said:
He is 'bouncing' from the low number today, not unexpected.

If you are comfortable with 0.5U, I think that would be OK, just make sure to get at least one test in tonight, at +3 or +4, to see what he's doing. Again, he's bouncing now, and likely will be for a while, but just in case he surprises you again!
Click to expand...
We just did Jazzy's morning test and were quite surprised that his numbers werent crazy. He didn't have any insulin last night and his level was only 19.6 from 18.3 last night. So I'm looking for advice on what a safe dosage should be this morning so we don't have the same scare as yesterday. Thanks for your help.
 
When is your usual shot time?

If no one else comes by in time to offer their thoughts, I'll suggest 0.5. That's likely on the conservative side, but as I said I don't work with Caninsulin enough to have a "feel" for it, so I err in that direction. You would still want to make sure to get some tests in the first half of the cycle-- +2 or +3 to start. He very likely will be high all today due to the lows yesterday, but we want to keep a close eye on him anyway!
 
His usual shot time is about 8:45 am so pretty much now. Thank you for your help. I'll do my best to get things right for him. I'm alone today and so far it's always taken 2 of us working with him to get tests in. At some point we've got to be able to do it alone, so today will be a test for me as well.
 
That 61 BG your kitty Jazzy got yesterday AM 5/6/20, earned him a dose reduction of 0.25U.
Plus that 68 you got at PMPS on 5/5/20 the night before also said "dose reduction" NOW.

I would not give him more than 1.5U for an ongoing basis for now, since that is the reduction he earned. I'm even thinking a max of 1U for Jazzy. But lets see how he does on his reduced dose that he got today, the 0.5U

With the diet change to low carb wet and raw food, the 1U may even be a bit too much insulin.

Let's see how he does on the 0.5U reduced dose for today. Please be sure to test around +4 and +6 if at all possible. Cats can be more sensitive to insulin, when they go so low. Then they "bounce".

I think you may end up staying at the 0.5U dose until you make the switch to Lantus. Good luck with the testing.

p.s. Didn't see the tag for me yesterday. Got it today.
 
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