Canninsulin

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LynRich

LynRich

Member Since 2014
As most people know, I'm in the UK & my cat Squiggles is on Canninsulin. Can anyone tell me on average how long a shot lasts & when the blood glucose levels start to rise again ?

The result of her blood glucose test from 15/1/15 is below my signature. Thanks everyone.
 
Samantha gave you the general averages for Canninsulin. We have a saying here : Every cat is different or ECID. The trick is to figure out how Canninsulin works in your cat. And the only way to do that is to collect some tests and see when the lowest point comes, how big of a drop it is, how long before the numbers start to rise. You did get some info from your curve yesterday, but it is great to have two cycles to compare likenesses and differences. You don't need to do another curve, but instead get numbers as you can.

We don't have a whole lot of people on Canninsulin. Another new poster who is using it is rbrumbaugh82 and Poopers. You might check out his spreadsheet:

http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/poopers-glucose-mystery.131461/
 
LynRich said:
Can anyone tell me on average how long a shot lasts & when the blood glucose levels start to rise again ?
Click to expand...
Hi Lynda,
I started out on Caninsulin (am also in the UK).

It usually has a fairly short duration, and can be out of the system in as little as 8 hours. However, we have had members here whose cats had much longer duration with it. As Sue said, the trick to figuring out how it works in your cat is to do some tests and gather data.

My own cat's experience of Caninsulin was fairly 'typical'. The insulin would start to work about 1.5 hours after the shot. The lowest blood glucose of the cycle was around 4 - 4.5 hours after the shot. After that the blood glucose levels would begin to rise again. And about 8 hours after the shot I'd see a much steeper rise in numbers because the insulin was no longer active in the system.
Not all cats show that pattern though. A little while back we had a member whose cat was getting really good duration from the insulin, and it seemed to have some effect for 12 hours in her cat.

In some cats the blood glucose drops very fast in the first few hours. And if that looks like being a pattern it can be helpful to feed a snack/mini-meal a couple of hours after the shot; that will often slow down the blood glucose drop.

I'm intrigued by Squiggles blood glucose numbers...
Have I understood correctly that her preshot was 7/126? That is a normal blood glucose number. (And in fact we'd interpret that number at something like '6' because you're using Alphatrak and the A'track reads a bit higher than the human meters that most of us use).
It is unusual to see that low a number at the end of a Caninsulin cycle because, as I said above the 'typical' pattern is that the duration is short, and so numbers at the end of the cycle tend to be relatively high.
It may be that Squiggles gets good duration from Caninsulin; or it may even be that she's produced a little bit of insulin of her own. But in order to find out what's going on we really need to see more data.

As a general rule, we recommend that - for folks new to dealing with diabetes - no insulin is given if the preshot number is below 11/200. Once some data has been gathered to show how the insulin is working in the cat's system it becomes safer to give insulin at lower preshot numbers. (And, in fact, giving Squiggles insulin on this occasion hasn't done her any harm, because her numbers rose quite quickly anyway.)

Well done, Lynda. You and Squiggles are doing just fine. :)

Eliz
 
Thanks Elizabeth for your encouragement . Squiggles first pre shot number the last time is a complete mystery to me as well. In fact I rang my vet before she started seeing patients to check if it was safe to give Squiggles her shot. She does tend to snack throughout the day , but if I get another low early figure, I'll make sure she does that.

Ourselves & Squiggles are usually such bags of nerves after 5 , 2 hrly blood tests ! that I don't do any more after I've rung the vet at 5.30pm on the day, but I'll try doing at least one later blood test about an hour before her 2nd shot.

Thanks for linking my post Sue.
 
Hi Lynn

Glad you are getting some great replies.

Hopefully now you have a few tests under your belt they will become easier. At the beginning I hated doing it by myself but in the end I was just as easy as with two people.

If you can try to get a test just before you give each new shot you will soon build up some data. Ideally within 15 minutes before feeding and giving the shot but I am sure anything up to an hour before will be fine. Then test again in the early part of the cycle to see the effect it is having and steer with food.

Remi was on caninsulin for a couple of weeks and if you look at his spreadsheet right at the beginning you can see what the effect on him was. We had an early low preshot but I think that was because he went quite low on the cycle before???
 
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