Dose woes

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Ry & Scooter

Ry & Scooter

Member Since 2011
Well, we're into the 9th cycle with Scooter at 1.5u now and he's been consistently above let's say 150, I wish I had more tests on the 11th but I was sleeping. But I doubt he dropped lower than mid blue.

In the last month and a half, his numbers have not improved much at all. Behavior wise, he has not improved since he started insulin. The reduction in his polydipsia, polyuria, and back end strength were all notable when I changed his diet to low carb canned, weeks before we started the insulin.

Edited this due to my stupid mistake. I wish there weren't so many inconsistencies between the metric system and imperial system on here.
 
3 Units sounds like a big starting dose for a 12 pound cat.
I would not increase by more than 0.25.
 
Oh, I misread then - I thought it was .25 per pound of ideal weight, not KG... inconsistencies with the metric system here drive me nuts....!!! i hate having to convert my spreadsheet... i know all the number ranges for mg/dl but not mmol/l which is what my meter and vet both use... meh.

even if he was supposed to be started at 1.5 we still wasted a month and a half getting there, i made threads occasionally, no one said anything about a dose increase to me until recently... i didn't increase on my own because he was hitting greens randomly...

I dont have half unit syringes anymore so I can try to eyeball another quarter unit i guess.
 
I can't get syringes with 1/2 units marked here as long as you're using the 0.3 syringes you shouldn't have too much trouble eyeballing the .25

From the TR sticky:

Increasing the dose:

Hold the dose for 3 - 5 days (6 - 10 consecutive cycles) if nadirs are less than 200 before increasing the dose.
After 3 days (6 consecutive cycles)... if nadirs are greater than 200, but less than 300 increase the dose by 0.25 unit.
After 3 days (6 consecutive cycles)... if nadirs are greater than 300 increase the dose by 0.5 unit.

I'm not game enough to increase on my own either but I look at the protocol and then ask when I think he needs an increase. A couple of times when I asked I shouldn't have been increasing so I think it's always good to get confirmation while we're still learning.

I also think in American when my meter and vet use world but if you focus on the colour coding instead that could help you, i.e. for the above

Hold the dose for 3 - 5 days (6 - 10 consecutive cycles) if nadirs are blue before increasing the dose.
After 3 days (6 consecutive cycles)... if nadirs are yellow increase the dose by 0.25 unit.
After 3 days (6 consecutive cycles)... if nadirs are pink or greater increase the dose by 0.5 unit.
 
The idea behind TR is to bring numbers down as quickly and safely as possible. That means evaluating the dose every 3 days if the nadir is above 200. If there are bounces, you don't want to increase until the bounce clears. It's been tricky to navigate around Scooter's bounces. I'm not sure when you will be shooting, but it would be fine to increase this morning.

I'm not sure if you were aware that there is a "World" template for your SS. This allows you to enter the data in metric and it automatically converts the numbers into US format on a separate tab. If you go into the Google template gallery, it's the SS that Randi owns.
 
It's just difficult because this forum speaks in american units, so i know what numbers are normal, what numbers are too high, too low, etc. but i can't make the conversion to mmol/l in my head. i can't do math to save my life so when i test Scooter I have to put the number in the spreadsheet to be converted before i can understand where it actually is.

And yes I know about the conversion. I always put the mmol/l readings in the chart. It converts them to mg/dl so the forum can read it. it's a pain and the spreadsheet is missing formulas, auto fills in 0's in blank spots, etc. and maintaining it is really annoying sometimes.
 
There's a chart somewhere. If I can dig it up, would that help so you would have a print out/visual so you didn't have to do the math? Also, as far as "too low," when I wrote the Handling Low Numbers info, I did put the cut off in metric and in US numbers.

I found this conversion chart.
 
I'm in Canada and I use the One Touch Ultra Mini meter.
You can change the settings on it to display in mg instead of mmol.
I choose to leave mine in mmol just for the vet.
There are a few other meters that you can also change the settings for.
Usually if you phone the toll free number in the booklet that came with your meter,
they will walk you through the steps of changing the display.
 
I'm using a Bayer Contour bought in Canada and the manual made it sound like it wasn't possible to change it. I can see mg/dl on the display but I don't know how to change it. :sad:
 
It may not be possible to change that one but ring the support people and ask, as Noreen said there will be a number in the booklet that came with the meter.
 
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