Fasting BG numbers...

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lildude

lildude

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This morning I checked Lil Dude's BG & it was 55 (he was fed at around 9pm for the last time & given his 2 units of Lantus)!! I took his blood sugar around 7:30 this morning, fed him, & gave him his 2 units of Lantus.

I am worried that maybe that was too low, but I was also HAPPY that it wasn't 200+ as it has been the past several mornings since he was started on the Lantus. His BG yesterday never got below 200 throughout the day, either, so I am soo curious to see how it does today!

What am I aiming for as far as fasting blood sugar & the end of the 12 hours when he needs another shot of insulin (I made it so that these are around the same time each morning)? Where should his BG be throughout the day?

And he is already starting to act as though he is feeling SO MUCH better!! He is up and about a bit more & purring a lot more. His eyes are a bit brighter & he's not spending hours by the water bowl--AND we can leave him out in the main part of the house without worry of finding pee everywhere!!! I honestly don't know if I could be happier right now! I just need to know what numbers are good for kitties fasting & throughout the day.

Thank you SO much for your help & support~!

Robin & Lil Dude
 
Hi Robin,

I am in absolutely NO position to give advice, but I have a question. Was Lil Dude's bg 55 at 7:30, that was the only test this AM? And at that point you fed him and gave him his shot? That seems pretty low to shoot unless you know the number is already rising and you are data ready to make that decision. Can you get another reading and post? If the new number is low, please change your subject line to draw more attention. I'm sure someone with experience will be along to help.
 
lildude said:
This morning I checked Lil Dude's BG & it was 55 (he was fed at around 9pm for the last time & given his 2 units of Lantus)!! I took his blood sugar around 7:30 this morning, fed him, & gave him his 2 units of Lantus.
Click to expand...

Yes that was too low to shoot. Do you have any Karo syrup on hand or high carb cat food on hand? You need to check his blood sugar thoughout the day today, every hour for the first 6 hours or so.. If he drops to 40, you need to start giving him Karo syrup. I generally give an 1/8th tsp but I think you should offer 1 tsp.

In the meantime, please go to the FDMB Index page and click on "Tech Support." Then click on "How to Create Your Own SS and Publish It in Your Signature." Try to get a spreadsheet set up and post your numbers in it so we can follow along with your BG.

I think 2 units of insulin is pretty high for a new diabetic. Maybe 1 unit might be better for right now.

Lana
 
Are you saying you gave 2 units of Lantus when he was at 55? If so, 55 is a normal non diabetic number. You need to test again in about 15 minutes. This could be a dangerous hypo situation if I am reading your post correctly.
 
I checked his BG at 8:30 (just now), and it was 67, so it is going up. I will monitor him for the next couple of hours & keep you posted.

Thanks for the information.
 
This is a typical lantus curve, although cats like to do their own thing and sometimes it doesn't look like this. but fyi:

Example of a typical Lantus curve:
+0 - PreShot number.
+1 - Usually higher than PreShot number because of the last shot wearing off. May see a food spike in this number.
+2 - Often similar to the PreShot number.
+3 - Lower than the PreShot number, onset has started.
+4 - Lower.
+5 - Lower.
+6 - Nadir/Peak (the lowest number of cycle).
+7 - Surf (hang around the nadir number).
+8 - Slight rise.
+9 - Slight rise.
+10 - Rising.
+11 - Rising (may dip around +10 or +11).
+12 - PreShot number.
Click to expand...

if you see an inverted curve today, that would tell us that your kitty got lower last night and he may bounce. probably you've got too high of a dose going - because if you had a 55 at +12, that was likely the high point of the last cycle. See that curve above, kitties usually rise from mid-cycle when the effect of the lantus is strongest, to the preshot time, when the lantus has mostly lost its effect.

for today, could you test again at about +3 and post it so folks can give you direction?

if he falls below 50 we would want you to give him about a teaspoon of gravy from higher carb food, or about a drop of karo syrup, wait about 15-20 minutes for it to be absorbed, and retest. we want to keep cats from hanging out below 50. so we do that and repeat the cycle (think wash, rinse, repeat) until the numbers are staying above 50 and the lantus is past its strongest point.
 
So far today his numbers are:

7:30am - 55, fed, & given 2 units
8:40am - 67
10:00am - 87
11:30am - 101, and fed his mid-day meal

I will test him again in a few hours, but he seems to be doing just fine so far today. Tonight, to avoid such a low morning BG reading, I may give him just 1 unit. But considering his numbers have been so high for so long (400s-500s), this to me is such a relief because he seems to be feeling SO MUCH better. :)

BTW, the spreadsheet in the tech forum will not work for me so far today (I guess google is messing up), but I will continue to try.
 
Wow. Those are very unusual numbers for Lantus. He never went down - he just went up. Any chance you did a fur shot?

Please post your pm number and ask for Lantus help. Normally we tell new diabetics not to shoot under 200 but to wait and test again, without feeding.


If you have trouble getting the spreadsheet to load, try doing it off the FDMB site. Sign onto Google and search Google docs. Then search Browse template Gallery and search for FDMB spreadsheet. Or try this link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc ... zbkE#gid=0
 
I know I didn't get any fur shots because I grab some flab and make sure I can see his skin and the needle go in because it is so hard to tell when giving him the injections because he is a fluffy kitty.

I got the SS to work & am working on it. I will share it ASAP.

:)
 
It comes up fine. On today's line, you can put the numbers going across. For example, under +1 box, put the 8:40 number, 67. (One hour after amps and shot) Then in the +3 box, put 87 - approximately 3 hours after your am shot. The curve will then go across the line, ending with your pmps number on the right. Does that make sense?

I still am completely confused by your numbers today. It would be very unusual to do from the 200s preshot yesterday to a 55 preshot and then get no action from your insulin all day. Hopefully some Lantus users will take a look. Did you open a new box of strips? Anything else change with the meter? (I am wondering if it is working correctly.)
 
My meter works fine. I used it when I had gestational diabetes (which was just a year ago). It is a Contour meter, and my fiance (who has diabetes) has an Aviva Acu-check, and our readings are the same or only vary by 1 or 2. Mine does not require programming with new strips whereas my fiance's does.

I will test him again soon & let you know.
 
hmmm, i looked at lildude's spreadsheet and am not sure what to make of it. i do know testing is your friend in this - because the patterns that will emerge as you get test numbers for us to look at tell a lot.

my first reaction is that lildude probably got too low last night. when a cat's BG drops too low - which is any range lower than they are used to - the liver thinks the cat's going hypoglycemic and it releases stored sugars and hormones to save the cat's life.

think of it like this. if your cat is used to numbers in the 400's the cat's body becomes accustomed to that range and thinks it's normal. If the cat drops to 300 the liver calls out 911 and lets loose with a flood of sugar to pull the cat back up. eventually the liver will adjust to the new 300 levels, but if the cat drops to 200 it does it again. repeat. we call that a bounce.

a non-diabetic cat ranges from 50-120ish. seeing that lildude was at 55 this morning when it should've been the HIGH point of his cycle, tells us that he got lower than that last night. no idea how low, of course, without testing. but no doubt he got low. so his liver let loose with the sugar and he's now bouncing. a bounce can take up to 72 hours to clear. if he were high and bouncing, we would hold the dose until the numbers told us that he had cleared out those counter-regulatory hormones and the sugars.

but in this case, we can be pretty close to certain that he dropped into hypoglycemic ranges last night and is bouncing from that. his liver really WAS needed!

i would think his dose does need to be dropped tonight, but i would like to flag some folks with more experience than me to take a look.

would you please keep testing every 2-3 hours and posting the numbers. i'll see if i can get others to weigh in. what time & zone is your shot time - or how many hours from now?

in the meantime, i'd also like to ask more about the humulin he was on. What dose was he getting and how long had he been on Humulin? When was he diagnosed as diabetic?
 
oh, robin - and on his spreadsheet - instead of listing every test today on a separate line, save the one that says 55 was your morning preshot, you shot 2.0 units.

then going across on that same line look at the top of the page where it lists +2, +3, etc? do you see that? under +2 in the same horizontal line as the 55, list 67.

continue on the same horizontal line and list the next 2 BG numbers under the correct number of hours past the shot time. so if you tested & shot the 2 units at 7am, and the 67 was at 9am, it's your +2. if the 87 was at 11am, it's your +4. does that make sense?

so in one horizontal line we show 24 hours worth of tests. that way one morning can be compared to the same time the morning before.
 
It would help a lot if you could clarify what the entries on your spreadsheet mean. I can't really figure out when you've been testing on a given day. You may need to get your meter to give you the times when you were testing so you can plug them back into your spreadsheet.

It may be a little easier for you to understand what we're talking about if you look at someone else's spreadsheet. If you open Gabby's SS, on the line for today, you'll see her AMPS was 216 and I gave her a dose of 0.75u (Actually it was a Fat dose but ignore that for now.). An hour later, her BG was 189, 2 hours after her shot her BG was 102, 3 hours = 65, etc.
 
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