confusing low BG 10 hours post insulin??

[staleytjp]

Hi, I have posted on the regular message board as a new member, but also will post here with the hope of someone with Lantus experience giving feedback.
Thank you so much!

New to this site and wish to introduce myself and my cat Bo(diabetic since Sept2014). He is and was being treated for IBD, on steroids and antibiotic prior to diabetes. Pancreatitis per blood test and is now on Cyclosporine. Low carb food. Home testing BID. Dosing with Lantus(.5U) using Alphatrak. Have wanted to try tight regulation as feel diabetes could have been diet and steroid induced. He has done well and BG numbers consistently 90-120(occasionally a little lower or higher). Confusing and scary BG 2 hours prior to insulin of 53 two days ago.
Fed, skipped dose and rechecked 4 hours later and was up to 143. 12 hours after the reading of 53 he was back down to 132 without insulin. Fed and gave him his normal .5 unit and checked 2 hours after and had come down to 86. Tested every 3 hours and slowly came back up to 116. Fed him and gave .5units.
Checked BG 2 1/2 hours after insulin and food and BG was 59.
Am wondering about dosing at this point??? Unpredicatable nadir. What are the options?? He was at 115 this a.m. I fed and gave .25 and he has slowly gone up to 122 so far. Do I skip dose and try 24 hours and see?? Try .25 unit again for evening?? what if he goes hypo?? How do I begin transition to see if possible remission??
Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated! Teri

 

[BJM]

I replied on Health.

I wouldn't shoot. He may be getting off the juice.
Those numbers without insulin are normal.

 

[Sienne and Gabby (GA)]

Hi, Teri and welcome to Lantus Land.

A little more information may help me to respond to your question. Have you started keeping a spreadsheet? If so, being able to look at the pattern of Bo's numbers will allow us to tailor a reply that's specific to your kitty. If you've not started a spreadsheet, I'd encourage you to do so and to keep a note of when you're giving steroids. If Bo's schedule for his steroids is not daily, that may contribute to the variability in his numbers. This is the link for setting up a spreadsheet.

One of the curious (or frustrating -- depending on your outlook) things about nadirs is that they may typically fall at around the same time -- except when they don't. For example, my kitty's nadir is generally early -- at around +3 or +4. Then there are days when her nadir is closer to mid-cycle or later. The nadir can shift and there usually isn't a good explanation as to why. It does help to remember that Lantus has a cumulative effect and there is carry over from one cycle to the next. It's possible that the nadir is shifting because of the influence of the steroids, activity level or what phase the moon is in (and I'm only partially kidding about the latter explanation).

What you may see if you look at our spreadsheets is that once we have data, many of us here will shoot low numbers. I have years of data on Gabby and you'll notice that I shot a 56 a few mornings ago. I'd also encourage you to consider that there is a difference between low numbers and symptomatic hypoglycemia. As long as you are home testing and attentive to what the numbers are telling you, the likelihood of symptomatic hypoglycemia is small.

On this board, we usually suggest that new members post and ask for help if their pre-shot test result is less than 150.

 

[Marycatmom]

Hello and Welcome! I am also a newbie, and I've gotten a whole lot of excellent help on this forum. I can't give you any dosing advice, but one thing that might be helpful to those who can, is if you add a signature to your posts that states that you use an Alphatrak meter. As you probably know, that's critical information, since the numbers are different than those on a human meter. If you don't know how to do that, just post that, and someone with a clue will tell you how. It looks to this newbie like you're doing an excellent job taking care of your cat. Can you believe how complicated this is? Our babies are so worth it, though.