Changing dose tonight.... advise...

Status
Not open for further replies.

RockStar033

Active Member
Just wanted some advice about Annies dose tonight.... Shes had the 6 cycles of being on the 0.5u BID, her nadirs are still around the 330-400 range so we want to up her dose tonight to 1u. I read under the TR that if her nadirs are above 300 you can up the dose by .5.

Can i ask for some input please?
 
Hi!

great to see you again! you don't want to increase annie's dose right now. she's having a bounce. Here is a link explaining 2 things that happen with Lantus - one is when you increase a dose, sometimes you see a day or two of increased numbers before it settles back down.

the second thing that can happen is bouncing. the description for that is further down the thread. if a cat's BG gets into a range they aren't used to, their liver will let loose stored hormones and sugars to increase the BG. that's what Annie's doing right now.

she had blue numbers a couple of nights ago - her liver reacted, and sent her high. that's why she's had solid high numbers for a couple of days ago. you want to hold the dose unchanged at least until tomorrow. we allow at least 72 hours (3 days) from when the "event" happened that triggered the liver for those hormones to clear. then it's time to re-evaluate the dose and see if you need to increase. don't increase in the meantime, because when the bounce clears, and it will, then she could be overdose.

http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=46012

she's actually looking pretty good. seeing those blue numbers - well that's great. i'm glad you've gone to the 2 shots of the same amount per day now.

does that all make sense?
 
Ok, thank you so much, i'm following your advise and holding the .5 and see what happens .... we are gonna do a curve tonight until tomorrow night(hubby and i are taking shifts, haha) just so we have more numbers of all hours and nadirs.
 
i wouldn't waste your strips doing a curve tonight. maybe by tomorrow she'll have cleared the bounce, and you could do it then. there's no curve during a bounce - it's just high numbers and pretty meaningless.
 
he's sleeping right now, we were gonna have me do the curve till 3am, then wake him up to do the rest of the night while i sleep, so when he gets up at 3 i'll just tell him lets save our strips and wait till tomorrow :smile:

*edit* - but we really wanna get some night numbers anyway, so maybe i'll do a few before i go to bed
 
i saw your other post today - sorry i had you open a new one! :lol: if you want to follow TR, you're going to want to post on the TR support group. it's a very nice group and you have practically instant advice. you're doing all the things you would need to do to follow it, you'll just learn all the quirks of lantus so you can move annie along as quickly as is safely possible. it gives her the best chance of going off of insulin.
 
i saw your other post today - sorry i had you open a new one! :lol: if you want to follow TR, you're going to want to post on the TR support group. it's a very nice group and you have practically instant advice. you're doing all the things you would need to do to follow it, you'll just learn all the quirks of lantus so you can move annie along as quickly as is safely possible. it gives her the best chance of going off of insulin.

i'll be curious about what numbers you turn up and will try to look for you tomorrow.

enjoy your poke fest tonight! ;-) :lol:
 
ok - it's 72 hrs past the "bounce-causing" event. i think you are safe to increase by .25u. don't do the .5u that you were talking about yesterday. this is the kind of situation where you don't want to overshoot the right dose or increase too quickly. it's better to move slowly with increases and be certain of what each dose does. lantus isn't an insulin that you can "yank" numbers down with.

so if i were you, i would increase by .25u and get preshot tests and one test in each 12 hr cycle in between to see where it's taking here. just ballpark the .75u as best as you can - the main thing is to be consistent. things to notice include where the flat of the plunger lies in relationship to the lines on the syringes, air space between, etc. it's a good idea to use an old syringe to figure out the dose with colored water, tea, pop, something so you can see it, and save that syringe for reference.

you wouldn't adjust the dose in less than 6 shots unless annie drops below 50. otherwise you would hold for at least 6 shots and then ask for advice to re-evaluate to see if you're seeing a bounce, or new dose wonkiness that i posted you about earlier.
 
so her nadirs aren't high enough to give the 1u? i don't think we can eye .75 on our syringes ....

*edit* - so as i was writing this, my hubby went ahead and gave her the 1u.... we've been arguing about this process for days. All the info i relay to him it goes in one ear, out the other. Its so frusterating trying to follow protocols and rules with him doing his own thing :(
 
no - i wouldn't increase to 1unit, even if it's easier to measure. you can draw up one unit and then squeeze out 2 drops, or something like that to help you get to .75.

the reason i say that is because the .5u got annie into low 100's 3 nights ago. if it did it before, it would do it again. you only want her a little bit below that. going from .5u to 1.0u is DOUBLING her insulin. that's a huge increase. you just want her a little lower. trust me. :-D

i just posted the link to the TR forum for someone else as well. i really would encourage you to post there. then you have LOTS of experienced Lantus people who will watch and guide you. studies have proven that cats following the TR protocol have the best possible chance of going off of insulin. http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewforum.php?f=9
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top