Dropping BG Levels.

[Raelinkun]

Hey guys, I'm relatively new at this. My boy Gabby was diagnosed in late January this year. He's been on Vetsulin, and I have been blood testing him at home.

Yesterday morning, after Gabby got his insulin shot, he threw up. This is the first time he's thrown up to my knowledge, so I got panicky. I put down a bunch of treats for him to make sure he had something in his stomach.
When I tested him that afternoon his blood glucose was at 77.
My vet said to lower his dose, but all of my research said to skip it all together, so I did.

This morning I tested him again and his BG is a 66. So obviously I'm not going to give him inslin this morning either.

Is he headed for hypoglycemia?
Should I be trying to raise his blood sugar?
Should I be excited his little pancreas is still kicking?

Any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated!!
-Raelin

 

[Elizabeth and Bertie]

Hello Raelin,

66 (3.6) is a lovely normal number.
Is it right that Gabby has had no Vetsulin for 24 hours now? If so, that number is very good news indeed!
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[Elizabeth and Bertie]

More info...
Vetsulin usually only has a fairly short duration in the cat's system, and is often 'done and dusted' by around 8 - 10 hours after the shot. Some cats get closer to 12 hours duration, but those cats seem to be in the minority.
Therefore, any good numbers that you see after that time are likely to be because the cat's own body is producing insulin.
Good numbers 24 hours after a Vetsulin shot are definitely cause for excitement!
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[Critter Mom]

Hi Raelin,

When I tested him that afternoon his blood glucose was at 77. My vet said to lower his dose, but all of my research said to skip it all together, so I did.

Very smart move.

This morning I tested him again and his BG is a 66. So obviously I'm not going to give him inslin this morning either.

Another very smart move.

Please can you tell us the type of meter you are using to test Gabby's BG?

Should I be excited his little pancreas is still kicking?

Yep!

You may get some carryover from the previous doses of Vetsulin so I suggest you do a couple of spot-checks during the day to see how Gabby's numbers go and whether or not they start to trend upwards the longer he goes without any insulin* (hopefully they won't). Particularly useful would be to do the following:

1. Keep Gabby away from food for 2 hours.

2. Test BG.

3. Feed Gabby a normal meal then remove any remaining food again.

4. Test again in 3 hours (then go back to feeding as normal).

It will give you an idea of how Gabby's pancreas is responding at mealtimes and therefore better inform how his treatment should progress from this point onwards.

FWIW, I did not feel comfortable giving Saoirse Caninsulin if her blood glucose was less than 200 on an Alphatrak (veterinary meter). If I had been using a human meter I would have set her 'no shot' threshold higher than this. Vetsulin is typically very harsh in its action. With signs that the pancrease may be kicking back into gear even greater caution is well-advised.

Whichever tests you do take, it would be great if you could post the results here and get some feedback from members before you consider giving Gabby any more Vetsulin. If it should prove that he may still need insulin support for a little while longer, it might be an idea to consider switching to a gentler-acting insulin such as Lantus to see him the rest of the way towards (fingers crossed and anti-jinx) what looks like a possible remission.


Mogs
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EDITED TO ADD:

* For general info, when Saoirse' s pancreas started healing it became unsafe to give her Caninsulin (plus it absolutely hammered her system and made her feel lousy and utterly miserable). While I was waiting to switch her to Lantus there were days when I could not give her any Caninsulin at all but for about 18-24 hours after the previous dose there was still a small residual effect from the Caninsulin which kept her numbers from soaring upwards again. As soon as that carryover effect wore off her BG would head upwards again (hence my recommendation that you keep an eye on Gabby's numbers to watch for any upward drift).

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[Elizabeth and Bertie]

Raelin @Raelinkun , any update on how Gabby is doing now?
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[Raelinkun]

Hey everyone!
First of all thank you all so so much for your reassurance and all the information. I cannot begin to tell you how much better it felt getting other opinions and thoughts on the matter.
Gabby is doing great! I tested him around midday today and his BG was back up to 72. However I just tested him before he was about to get dinner and his BG was back down to 63. So I am currently hoping beyond hope that this might be a real remission, as he hasn't received any insulin since 4:30am yesterday morning. His pancreas is definitely putting in some work!

As for the meter I've been using, it's just a generic one from Amazon meant for humans. The name of the meter itself is TrueResult, and it uses TrueTest strips.

When he was first diagnosed he was testing around the 230 range, then for about a month he's been in the 170 range but slowly dropping to 130's.
Now he's in the 60's and it kinda feels like a dream haha.

Again thank you all so much for your support! I really really appreciate not feeling like I was taking huge risks by not following my vets decisions.

 

[Ferndoc]

Did you test your meter against the vet's? I ask because I had that one at first and it read way low for Fern. As in 50% of what my vet's read.

 

[Tuxedo Mom]

Another thing to test your meter is to do a test on yourself. If you are not diabetic the numbers for a person should show up as between 70-110 fasting or up to 140 2 hours after eating.