Dosage help needed

danowics

Member Since 2025
Hello FDMB community,
My name is Dany, I'm from Romania
I'm new here and could really use some advice on my diabetic cat, Puffy. He's a 5.75 kg male, rescued cat, one of 12, diagnosed with diabetes about 13 months ago. He's on Lantus insulin, injected every 12 hours at 9 AM and 9 PM. His diet is strict raw BARF low-carb: mostly raw meat, hearts, organs (heart, liver), taurine supplement, vitamin B12, inactive yeast, boiled egg yolk, kefir (minimal, about 1 tsp/day), and salmon oil. No carbs over 5-6%,
His blood glucose has been unstable lately with a yo-yo cycle: low mornings (even hipo like 61), skip dose, high evenings (400+), then back to 5U, and repeat. I use Accu-Chek Instant meter. Here's his recent spreadsheet with values, doses, and notes:
Google Sheets Link: Puffy's BG Spreadsheet. Hello everyone,
The idea is that I didn't know what else to do or who to ask for advice and help anymore, so I turned to AI for support — first ChatGPT, then Grok. I decided to follow the advice from Grok, which said it is based on many books and real examples from various groups, and it told me to increase the dose to 5 units, then to 6 units. But it’s not giving results. Honestly, I don't know where else to turn for help anymore. The veterinarians (no offense) are overwhelmed by the situation and don't really have much knowledge about insulin and blood glucose in cats. I heard about this group, and that's how I ended up asking you for help and advice too.

P.S on spread sheet, the last approx. last 2 weeks, the dosage was 5 u
Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart.
Puffy (Daniel Pup) 's Sugar Sheet
 
Hello Dany and welcome to you and Puffy.

Would it be possible to fill in the Units, or size of the dose on the spreadsheet since December 3rd on the spreadsheet. For example, I don't know what dose he got on December 14th PM, and December 15 he saw that 57. Please ignore Grok, it is totally wrong.

What can help is to also get some more PM tests. Many cats go lower at night, we determine how to change the dose based on how low it is taking the cat. It would be great if you can get a test before going to bed, if that is at least a couple hours after the PM dose. That will give us an idea if he's going lower at night. It's also helpful if you can fill in your signature with information listed in this post: New? How You Can Help Us Help You!

Finally, I expect a lot of the varying blood sugar numbers you are seeing is due to something we call bouncing:
  • Bouncing - Bouncing is simply a natural reaction to what the cat's system perceives as a BG value that is "too low". "Too low" is relative. If a cat is used to BGs in the 200's, 300's, or higher for a long time, then even a BG that drops to 150 can trigger a "bounce". Bouncing can also be triggered if the blood glucose drops too low and/or too fast.The pancreas, then the liver, release glucogon, glycogen and counter-regulatory hormones. The end result is a dumping of "sugar" into the bloodstream to save the cat from going hypoglycemic from a perceived low. The action is often referred to as "liver panic" or "panicky liver". *Usually*, a bounce will clear kitty's system within 3 days (6 cycles).
 
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