Dosing advice - shooting under 200?

[Holly and Josie]

I know that everyone typically says not to shoot under 200. When Josie was first diagnosed, I did sometimes, but that was because she was on such a large amount of insulin (3 units) that it was easy enough to just give her 1-1.5 units at those numbers and she was fine.

However, now that she is on a low amount of insulin (.5) I have no idea what to give her if she is under 200. Lately, I have just been riding it out and waiting for a shootable number. But that is no longer really working any more for two reasons.

#1 We are getting wildly off schedule. Unfortunately, we are not home all of the time time to wait it out and then she ends up going too long without a shot. Plus, 12am and 12pm really works best for our schedule.

#2 Sometimes she will seem to hang out at about 170-180 for hours and then will take a massive jump up to the mid 300's (sometimes even higher!) an hour later. I want to avoid that huge jump.

So I think we are going to have to start shooting under 200 when that happens. I wouldn't shoot too low, but I was thinking maybe 170 or above?

Does anyone have any advice as to how much less you should shoot if you are under 200? Half the normal amount? Just a little bit less?

This is particularly confusing to me because while I have managed to stick with close to the same dose for several days in a row, the results aren't always the same. Sometimes .5 seems to be almost too much (as in the case with my 3/19 AMPS) or not enough (last night's PMPS).

I would love any advice anyone has about this subject, even if it's not specific to us/our dose. Thanks!

 

[dmartini4]

You have to feel comfortable shooting under 200 and the data to be able to back up your dosage
I personally will shoot under 200 , but not under say 165ish
If you are ok with shooting 170 and above then I would do it
The amount is really a trial basis
I would reduce maybe by half at first and then go from there for the next time

 

[Holly and Josie]

You have to feel comfortable shooting under 200 and the data to be able to back up your dosage
I personally will shoot under 200 , but not under say 165ish
If you are ok with shooting 170 and above then I would do it
The amount is really a trial basis
I would reduce maybe by half at first and then go from there for the next time

Thanks for your advice! I was thinking that I would probably try to reduce by half the first time.

 

[Teresa and Poopy]

Half sounds good to me too, especially if you can get any numbers at all during the cycle so you'll have a better idea what to do if it happens again...which it sounds like it very well might.

 

[Carl & Polly & Bob (GA)]

Looking at your spreadsheet, it looks like shooting a .25 unit dose at 170 should be okay. You just have to make sure that the number is on the way up when you shoot (just like any other time you shoot). You gave .5 two days ago on a 210 and although you got greens from that, they weren't "unsafe" numbers.

When Bob was on insulin, and I wasn't here to ask for advice, I routinely shot numbers lower than 170. ECID, of course, and I didn't really know that shooting under 200 was "the line in the sand". My vet told me under 100 was a no-shoot, so that's what I was going by.

It all comes down to two things - your comfort level shooting low, and having the data to be confident when you make a shoot/no shoot decision. But you can always ask for 2nd opinions!

Carl

 

[Holly and Josie]

Half sounds good to me too, especially if you can get any numbers at all during the cycle so you'll have a better idea what to do if it happens again...which it sounds like it very well might.

Thanks for your thoughts!

 

[Holly and Josie]

Looking at your spreadsheet, it looks like shooting a .25 unit dose at 170 should be okay. You just have to make sure that the number is on the way up when you shoot (just like any other time you shoot). You gave .5 two days ago on a 210 and although you got greens from that, they weren't "unsafe" numbers.

When Bob was on insulin, and I wasn't here to ask for advice, I routinely shot numbers lower than 170. ECID, of course, and I didn't really know that shooting under 200 was "the line in the sand". My vet told me under 100 was a no-shoot, so that's what I was going by.

It all comes down to two things - your comfort level shooting low, and having the data to be confident when you make a shoot/no shoot decision. But you can always ask for 2nd opinions!

Carl

See, it's the numbers from two days ago that are actually making me hesitant. 62 at 4+ made me nervous just because her peak is normally at least an hour or two later. So my thought was "how much lower is she going to go?" I actually fed some medium carb food to keep the numbers steady. However, that was a fat .5 and I figure .25 is a lot less so maybe it would be OK.

Although I am getting some crazy numbers tonight so I'm not sure. I am going to start a separate post on that.