Dosing 101

[Marylou and Malika]

I've searched but not luck in finding what I'm looking for.
My kitty was diagnosed 10 days ago with a number of 311. Since I was feeding her total junk food as treats (that she loved) and dry food with a small amount of wet food throughout the day (1/4 can) I thought I would try changing her diet before I started giving her insulin.
It went down as low as 255, but is now up higher than the 311, so I have her 1U of Vetsulin as prescribed by my vet.
I am home testing, and I don't know what to expect for numbers, or how often I should check. What does a good spreadsheet look like? (I can guess what a bad one looks like).
I don't know when I should feed her relative to when she gets her dose - before?after? hours? You get my point. I'm clueless.
She has on two occasions eaten too much too fast and thrown up, so I prefer smaller meals throughout the day. Is that okay?
She's happy on very low carb wet food (Tiki, Wevura, Purely Fancy Feast) but I know she's not getting enough calories. Any suggestions on a good wet food - no pate, she snubs it?
I'm sorry for so many questions. I'm sure the answers are out there somewhere but I'm failing in my search.

 

[FurBabiesMama]

Hi. I feed my girls four times a day, every 6 hours. Whatever is left, I leave out for them to graze on until the next meal or until two hours before Mia's shot time. The AAHA Guidelines say that feeding four times daily is ideal (using an auto feeder, if needed). They also say free-feeding is okay if the cat is underweight. I feed them Weruva Chicken Frick A' Zee supplemented with chicken bone broth and chicken breast meat. I also add a little Young Again Mature Zero as a topper.. usually crushed and sprinkled over the food or sometimes just a few kibbles on top. (It has a lot of calories. I add it to Willow's because I want to get extra calories in her. I add it to Mia's because she has been known not to eat if I do not. Even if it is just two kibbles, there has to be some on there or she is not interested. Little brat. )

You want to withhold food for two hours prior to shot time. This is so you can do a BG test and get results that are not impacted by food. At shot time, you want to 1) test, 2) feed, 3) give the shot. Then, you want to test sometime during mid-cycle, when you can, to see the impact the insulin is having. The numbers should start to go down after the shot and should be at their lowest somewhere around mid-cycle, then they should start to head up. The numbers should be highest at pre-shot times. Here is an image of what is supposed to be an ideal Vetsulin curve:

 

[Marylou and Malika]

Your descriptions of your kitties' behaviors made me chuckle.
This was very helpful. I missed it today, but: doing a home BG test throughout the day should be done Prior to feeding? If I give her a freeze dried treat and test right away, is that okay? I don't know how long it takes after food before there are impacts to BG levels.

 

[FurBabiesMama]

The only time you want to withhold food is two hours before the pre-shot test. That is to make sure you get a number not impacted by food. The point of that is that if the number is really low, you want to know it so you would know not to give a shot. Other than that, you can feed on the normal schedule.

I always give Mia a treat (usually shredded chicken breast) when I test her, and she has already started eating it before I finish getting the blood drop on the strip. It does take a few minutes before food impacts BG.