Cycle?

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misskitty007

misskitty007

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what is a "cycle" considered? is that 24 hours? a week? confused. we (my vet and I) recently lowered my Fredo's dose from 1 to .5 because of low AM BG #'s. when i skipped a dose he would skyrocket to low 300's by PM. so we are trying .5, but he is definitely peeing and drinking more at this dose. so i am wondering how long we wait to re-asses. ps all of this is very new for us (3 weeks) and we are still struggling with appetite also...
 
1 shot cycle is 12 hours with the long-acting insulins Lantus, Levemir, ProZinc, and PZI.
 
Hiya,

Do you mean 'insulin cycle'? It is the period that a given insulin shot is active in the body. And as BJ says above, with the longer acting insulins that will be about 12 hours (hence shots usually being given 12 hours apart).
The time when the insulin starts to work in the body (begins to drop blood glucose) is called 'onset'. The 'peak' of the cycle is when the insulin is most active and the blood glucose is at it's lowest (also referred to as blood glucose 'nadir'). The length of time that the insulin lasts in the body is called 'duration'.

I looked at your spreadsheet but couldn't see any data entered there (maybe it's a problem with my computer..?). Are you testing Fredo's blood glucose at home yet? That would enable you to see how the insulin cycle is working in his body, and would give valuable data about how well the current dose is working.

How long has he been on the reduced dose?

Eliz
 
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thanks, yes, have not started spreadsheet yet. just too overwhelmed, and i now have the flu. legit, full on flu. anyway he has been on lower dose since 2/2 pm. not very long. but today his preshoot BG was 296 and now 6 hours later, 271. not much of a drop. granted not doing a full curve yet (maybe tomorrow, will be home for days now), but this seems awful high for 6 hours post injection no? i am thinking we may have to go back up. i asked about cycle because i was wondering how long you wait to see if dosage is effective.
 
In the ProZinc forum here, we have a protocol for using it. If, after 36 hours (3 shot cycles) you aren't getting enough drop, you may increase it. With the lowest being above 250 mg/dL, iif you are able to monitor around the nadir, I would increase by 0.5 units and check around +5 hours after the shot.
 
We are still early in this process, but Fredo's numbers were coming down too low to shoot at 1 unit, so we switched to .5, but now his BG is between 190's - 290's and my vet seems to be okay with that. it's only been since 2/2 at this dose. but as i mentioned he is peeing and drinking so much more than he was at the lower numbers. should that be an okay variation with my vet. he really wants to wait until Fredo has been steady at this dose for a week before we full curve.
 
If you want to go by the vet, I understand. Just know they aren't always up to date on diabetes management in cats because they have so much to attempt to stay current on.
Please test for urine ketones and glucose. With the glucose over 180 - 240 mg/dL, glucose may be dumping into the urine and testing for ketones will identify if a potential problem is starting.
 
There are different strategies for that. I actually found that it was easiest for me to just get Gypsy while she was in the litter box. She always went to the litter box right after she ate (no clue why) so I just followed her in there and stuck the strip in the stream. She never even noticed.

That's not always the case, but you might try it to see. Other people have used a clean box with some aquarium gravel or something else in it. It doesn't soak up like litter would so you can just stick the strip in when they are done. I know Sue has mentioned before that her Oliver had to "christen" any clean box, so they could get a ketone test in right after cleaning it. Others used a long handled spoon to catch urine while the kitty is in the box and check that way. Try a couple tricks like that and see if anything works. It took some time for me with Gypsy until I figured out that she didn't care what I did while she was in the box! :D
 
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