Feb 17th - New member - need advice on insulin not working?

[inja]

Hi everybody! I’m new here and panicking a bit, I’m so sorry if I do this wrong but I just really need some advice and haven’t been able to find any about this despite googling for hours. I’m Finnish and in Finland so also pls excuse errors and weirdness.

My 10yo Eddie-cat was diagnosed about a month ago, he’s been on Lantus now (first 1 unit twice and day, now 2 units twice a day). I just went to the vet on Monday and turns out his fructosamine is now 570 when in the beginning of January, before we started on Lantus, it was 455 (the cut-off in Finland is 400 for healthy). I have no idea what’s going on and the vet didn’t call me back when I left her a message about this. It feels like the treatment is making the situation worse?

I’m really freaking out about this, I thought he was doing better, he’s been more active and vocal lately. Though hungry, but I have transitioned him into diabetic food and he gets dry food only very rarely (when my other cat leaves some of hers in her bowl).

Eddie’s blood sugar was 16,6 today, right before evening insulin, I haven’t measured it earlier because he seemed to be doing okay. At the vet, two weeks ago, his blood sugar was 16,9. He does get really nervous at the vet but it shouldn’t make the fructosamine higher since both of those were taken at the vet.

Could it be that insulin doesn’t work for him? What do I do then or do I even have any options? I’ll try to call the vet again tomorrow but like I said, I live in a smallish town in northern Finland and it seems to be pretty impossible here to find a vet that knows about diabetes.



thank you

 

[Veronica & Babu-chiri]

Hi and welcome!

This probably the best place you can be right now, there are lots of experienced people here that can help you so just take a big breath, there are many reasons to why his numbers may appear to be worse than before too much insulin could be one of them or maybe too little he may need more but let's not get ahead of ourselves, feline diabetes requires a LOT and I mean A LOT of patience and getting him regulated may take some time so let's start by getting to know you and Eddie a bit more.

Does Eddie has any other health issues besides the diabetes?
You mention diabetic food which food are you giving ?do you by any chance know how many carbohidrates per 100g does it have?
It seems that you are testing at home ( congratulations on that is a very good first step) , so could you please share with us the results you are getting that will really help to try and understand what's going on

We use a spreadsheet that helps everyone understand better so maybe you could start using it and that way you can help us help you this is the link to the instructions https://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/how-to-create-a-spreadsheet.241706/

 

[Veronica & Babu-chiri]

Though hungry, but I have transitioned him into diabetic food and he gets dry food only very rarely (when my other cat leaves some of hers in her bowl).

Diabetic cats are always hugry since the glucose in their blood does not allow them to use all the nutrients in the food they get so their bodies crave for more food that would eventually get better and you do need to try and avoid him getting dry high carbohidrate food since that would make getting him regulated harder, you may consider putting both of them on a low carbohydrate, high protein diabetic appropriate diet, it would actually benefit both of them I changed all of mine to this type of diet and it was the best thing I could do, they all got better more active no overweight problems and even their coats got better

 

[Diane Tyler's Mom GA]

Here is a link helping us to help you link. If you noticed, our members have some basic information about their cat's in their signature. This helps us to not pester you by asking the same questions (your cat's name, insulin type, date of diagnosis, etc.) repeatedly. We also have a link to our spreadsheet in our signature. We are very numbers driven. The spreadsheet is a record of your cat's progress. By linking it in your signature, we can follow along and provide feedback should you need the help.

 

[inja]

Thank you for your replies!

I’m sorry for not having a spreadsheet yet, I have ADHD and depression and I have issues dealing with big amount of data and numbers, I have a hard time understanding them. But I will start putting it together.


Food
Currently Eddie eats a variety of diabetes food, he loves food but is fussy so I have three different diabetes foods: kattovit diabetes, smilla diabetes beef and purina pro plan. I couldn’t find the carbohydrate amount though? They only list the amount of protein and other things. I will have to look closer. Sometimes I also give Eddie raw food ”meatballs”, they contain chicken and turkey. Before dg, he was on 50% diet food and 50% raw food. Lately he hasn’t been into the raw meat balls so much so I’ve given them less.

My other cat, Mischa, currently eats Latz soup and diet dry food Eddie used to eat, she fell in love with it. She is quite the odd cat and at the moment I can’t make her eat anything else She is a ”former” feral cat, trapped from a colony three years ago and came to me as a foster about 2,5yrs back, she fell in love with Eddie so I couldn’t separate them and adopted her. She has probably gone through some trauma because I still can’t touch her. She loves cuddling with Eddie and lives a happy life here - as long as I don’t try to touch her. So basically I have very little control over her. They mostly keep to their own foods but Mischa always wants to eat next to Eddie and with Eddie so controlling their eating and food is a bit of a challenge. I can however hide Mischa’s food under the couch so Eddie can’t get there (she is tiny and Eddie is big) but since she mostly wants to eat with him, it’s a bit complicated.


Health
Eddie doesn’t have other health issues that I know of. The diabetes was discovered at the end of December at a ”senior check”, I took him there because I felt he was a bit quiet or something, I just had a feeling. He is a bit overweight (7,2kg) but he has always been a big cat. When he was 6 months old, he fell from a window but didn’t break anything. In 2015, he had a mast cell tumor on his toe and it was amputated, according to the doctor, all of the tumor came out and none has appeared since, fingers crossed.

So far I’ve only taken the one blood sugar at home, I feel I lanced through his ear and I don’t think that’s right. I tried on his toe beans but there wasn’t enough blood. I will try to learn it better.

Eddie is on Lantus solostar, two units in the morning and two at night.


I will get to the spreadsheet and try to make it.

 

[Bron and Sheba (GA)]

Hi Inja and Eddie and welcome to the forum.
Diabetes can be scary in the beginning before you understand it, but you have come to the best place to learn about and how to care for Eddie.
I’m going to ask @Bandit's Mom if she will set up the Spreadsheet for you and help you with the signature. She will send you a message so look out for it.
If you can start putting in the blood glucose data as you get it, that will help us a lot to help you.
Always test before every dose of insulin to make sure it is safe to give the dose. And then if you can test during the cycle to see how low the dose is taking Eddie, that will tell us if the dose is a good dose of not. If you can test around +3 to +7 (3 to 7 hours after the dose) and vary the times, that will give us a good idea.

It sounds as if you are home testing so that is great and it is the best way you can keep Eddie safe.
Can you tell us what type of glucose meter you are using please. It is a human meter of a pet meter?
Hometesting hints https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/hometesting-links-and-tips.287/

It looks as if you are using a solostar pen which means you can only go up in1 unit increments. What would be much better would be if you can get some U100 3/10 30 or 31 gauge and 6 to 8 mm insulin syringe with 1/2 unit markings. There are a lot of brands but make sure you get that exact type. If you use the syringes, you can go up in 1/4 unit which is much better for Eddie.
You can draw the insulin out of the cartridge that is in the pen. Make sure you store the insulin in the fridge.

Syringes like this, except you won’t get the ReliOn brand in Finland and don’t forget to ask for half unit syringes.

 

[inja]

I’m going to ask @Bandit's Mom if she will set up the Spreadsheet for you and help you with the signature. She will send you a message so look out for it.
If you can start putting in the blood glucose data as you get it, that will help us a lot to help you.
Always test before every dose of insulin to make sure it is safe to give the dose. And then if you can test during the cycle to see how low the dose is taking Eddie, that will tell us if the dose is a good dose of not. If you can test around +3 to +7 (3 to 7 hours after the dose) and vary the times, that will give us a good idea.

I'll try to do the spreadsheet now, let's see what happens!

I might not be able to test before every dose of insulin as I'm in a really bad place with money now. I have some strips and will try to start doing it daily but I might simply not be able to. I'm currently not able to work because of my own health issues. My mother helps me with doctor's appointments for Eddie and insulin but other than that, I struggle to buy food for myself without my mom's help, so. It's a difficult situation.

I have the Contour Next (One?) meter!


ETA: Okay so I have managed to start the spreadsheet and put in some lab values (will continue doing that whenever I have time) but the first page is quite the mystery to me for some reason.

I also have some labs that I couldn't find on the list, does somebody know what labs these might refer to:

UREA
Osm Calc
PCT
RETIC
%RETIC
RETIC-HGB

And which is the code for Fructosamine?


Thank you so much!

 

[Bron and Sheba (GA)]

I am sorry you are in that difficult position at the moment. I don’t know how much test strips are in Finland but they might be cheaper online.
I wouldn’t increase the dose of insulin at the moment until you are testing a bit more.
Do you have a hypo kit set up with some high carb food and some honey incase he drops low?

 

[inja]

I am sorry you are in that difficult position at the moment. I don’t know how much test strips are in Finland but they might be cheaper online.
I wouldn’t increase the dose of insulin at the moment until you are testing a bit more.
Do you have a hypo kit set up with some high carb food and some honey incase he drops low?

Yes I do!

 

[Veronica & Babu-chiri]

I'm sorry to hear your are at a hard spot right now, and I do hope you can find some cheap test strips somewhere where you live because testing is almost as important as giving insulin, since giving insulin without knowing his blood glucose levels before shooting can be dangerous, so as they mentioned do not raise the dose until you can test regularly, I know is hard because of the cost and because is not easy in the beginning, we all have been there is scary to say the least, and don't worry too much about his ear even if you went all the way through, it happens to the best of us, as a matter of fact the first time I was able to test Babu I made a hole so big I thought I was going to need an earing for him but he healed just fine so just keep trying

And since you are not testing regularly yet, please do read very carefully this info about hypos, it's symptoms and how to treat them is very important that you are prepared this is the link https://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/how-to-treat-hypos-they-can-kill-print-this-out.15887/

You are using Lantus so you probably should start thinking and learning about the dosing methods, so that you can choose wich one will be best for you, although because you are not going to be testing a lot probably the strart low go slow (SLGS) method will suit you best anyway is your decision, this is the link https://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB...-low-go-slow-slgs-tight-regulation-tr.210110/


I know it seems like a lot of information at first so please feel free to ask all you need

 

[inja]

I actually just now realized I got some strips from my vet! The last time I went, they gave me lancing needles and needles for the insulin, there were also strips but I simply forgot. There aren’t a huge amount but probably 20 or so. Now I just have to figure out the testing. Yesterday I did it but punctured a hole in his ear, I’m really afraid to do that again because there is definitely a bruise there and I don’t want his entire ears to be full of holes.

I tried his paw but not enough came out even if he was flinching. I have to study more videos for this, in the end I couldn’t get today’s test because he got so annoyed and upset. But I definitely do want to learn this and do anything and everything I can.

I hope the vet will call me tomorrow and give me some insight on what they think is going on with the fructosamine.

Thank you for the links, because of my ADHD I have some cognitive issues with lots of information but I will try my best to absorb it all.


Oh and I mark down every insulin injection on my calendar, I know I sound forgetful but when it’s something super important, I mark it down, I’m so afraid of a Memento situation.


ETA:

I decided that I will practice checking the blood sugar and finally managed to get a sample, even if I probably did puncture his ear again. But this is really mysterious:

Yesterday before his insulin, the result was 16,6. Today, an hour after insulin, it was 16,9. Isn’t it supposed to go down after insulin?

He is very hungry but not lethargic, actually he seems more active and has a lot to say.

 

[Veronica & Babu-chiri]

Yesterday I did it but punctured a hole in his ear, I’m really afraid to do that again because there is definitely a bruise there and I don’t want his entire ears to be full of holes.

You can try on both ears, and I know it sounds counterintuitive but really it isn't that bad for them since there aren't many nerve endings there and they do heal quite fast just think cats are built to endure other cat's scratches and all sorts of rough love that goes between them, it's not like when poking your own finger, so don't worry so much and just keep trying is really important to test him before giving insulin

I hope the vet will call me tomorrow and give me some insight on what they think is going on with the fructosamine.

Actually don't worry to much about the fructosamine results, what they give you is sort of an average of how his blood glucose is been for a period of time ( 2 to 3 weeks approximately) which is very good for diagnose but not really very useful to actually regulating him

To regulate him you need to know how he is doing now, just before you give him his insulin and how his body is reacting to the insulin right now since that can change from one day to another and even from one hour to another, for that the only way of doing it is by home testing, once you get the hang of it you will start gathering information so that you ( we will of course help you here at the forum) can see the effect insulin is having and determine if you need to raise his dose or lower it, there isn't like an exact dose since insulin is a hormone not medicine (that means there is not an specific dose you give based on his weight, age or something like that like with meds) and every cat is different so we need to test Eddie and start learning how his body is acting

But this is really mysterious:

Yesterday before his insulin, the result was 16,6. Today, an hour after insulin, it was 16,9. Isn’t it supposed to go down after insulin?

Ok first of all that is not a very big variation it seems he is basically the same today as he was yesterday and you are comparing two totally different days and totally different situations and second we do not have enough information yet on Eddie to really know what's going on the reason for this could be he had ate something a bit higher in carbs today that he didn't got yesterday for example since what he eats impacts his blood glucose numbers directly also how long since he ate can influence maybe more time had passed since he last ate yesterday than today or maybe he needs a dose adjustment but without more information it would only be speculation this are just a few examples of what could have happened.

All of this is the reason we establish a schedule for testing and giving insulin and following the protocols, we withdraw all kind of food for two hours before the time when the cat gets his insulin, so that when we test before giving insulin the result we get is not influenced by the food and record the value we get and of course if his blood glucose levels are low that would mean we have to wait or even not give insulin depending on how low it is (we can go into more detail later on on this once you get a bit familiar with the protocol), we use de spreadsheet where we record that result and the one of any other test we make later during the day or night (it does not matter if he ate or not for the next tests only for the test pre shoot)noting how many hours since the insulin shoot passed when we got the test those are the +1 , +2 etc numbers you have in the spreadsheet, and this is important because his body acts different as time goes by since the insulin shoot

He is very hungry but not lethargic, actually he seems more active and has a lot to say.

It's good it seems that even though he is not regulated and still with fairly high numbers the insulin is having some effect on him and he is feeling slightly better

 

[Diane Tyler's Mom GA]

Always aim for the sweet spot warm the ears up first, you can put rice in a sock and put it in the microwave, test it on the inside of your wrist to be sure it's not to hot, like you would test a babies bottle. You can fill a pill bottle with warm water and roll it on the ears also.Just keep rubbing the ears with your fingers to warm them up

6. As the ears get used to bleeding and grow more capilares, it gets easier to get the amount of blood you need on the first try. If he won’t stand still, you can get the blood onto a clean finger nail and test from there.
When you do get some blood you can try milking the ear.
Get you finger and gently push up toward the blood , more will appear
You will put the cotton round behind his ear in case you poke your finger, after you are done testing you will fold the cotton round over his ear to stop the bleeding , press gently for about 20 seconds until it stops
Get 26 or 28 gauge lancets
A lot of us use the lancets to test freehand
I find it better to see where I'm aiming

Here is a video one of our members did
VIDEO: How to test your cat's blood sugar

 

[inja]

Okay, so I've now started Eddie's spreadsheet, it should be viewable in my signature! Today I took two BG's, the preshot and hour after the insulin, I would really appreciate if somebody took a look at the spreadsheet and told me if I'm at least going in the right direction.

Still not doing so good with blood glucose, I do it from the ear but it still feels like I'm puncturing his ear... And he's not into it, though he does mostly stay still, I just hate how he gives me this disappointed and sad look.

Once again, thank you so much for all of your help! I'm still a bit confused as to why it seems his blood sugar goes up after insulin.

 

[Veronica & Babu-chiri]

Hey Congratulations on the testing !!!!

Don't worry about him being mad at you, cats are very smart creatures and they really know deep down you are doing it to help him and if anything I think all this diabetic stuff (testing, shooting, testing urine for ketones, etc) ends up making our relationship with our suggar babies stronger seriously they do end loving you more so don't worry about ruining your relationship with him, and do pet him a lot during testing times and a lot at other times and also giving him some treat after poking ( puncturing ) his ear does wonders for them to start associating the test with something positive.

Once again, thank you so much for all of your help! I'm still a bit confused as to why it seems his blood sugar goes up after insulin.

Does he get food after giving him his insulin?

 

[inja]

He gets food and then I give him his insulin right after (or even during eating sometimes), the vet told me to do this.

 

[Veronica & Babu-chiri]

He gets food and then I give him his insulin right after (or even during eating sometimes), the vet told me to do this.

Yes that's just fine, as long as you test before giving food but that does explain why his blood glucose levels are a bit higher after, thing is food gets converted into blood glucose so after eating blood glucose levels always raise and that's when insulin starts working helping the body absorb this glucose ( it's actually what is giving the body it's fuel to go around), but that is not instantaneous it takes some time, could be a few hours. that been said, each cat is different and with testing we are going to be learning how Eddie's body reacts to both the food he's getting and the insulin how long does it take for him to lower his blood glucose for some cats it's lower point can be around mid cycle ( a cycle would be a 12 hour period between shoots) but that is not a rule some start going down after one or two hours we need to get some more tests and learn.

This is also one of the main reasons you have to make sure all the food he's eating is low in carbohydrates, since carbohydrates get converted into glucose the more carbohydrates the more glucose you get and if food has a lot of it you get a lot of glucose which is not really very good for diabetics.

 

[Hendrick Cuddleclaw]

Hi Inja and welcome. I am new here as well, my Hendrick was diagnosed on 1/5/22. I really struggled with the home testing at first but eventually I got the hang of it because of all the help I got here!

A couple really good tips I got:

Pick a spot for the testing and stick with it, get everything spread out in front of you within reach (treats, meter, strips, lancets, cotton round, etc)
Sing a little song
Always give a treat after you try to test, whether you are successful or not
I wear a headlamp for extra light so I can really see what I'm doing, and my reading glasses
A member here suggested using a cotton round, hold it behind the ear and then it is right there to apply a little pressure and clean off the blood after
Petroleum jelly is a must I think, if I don't put a little on the edge of his ear, the blood droplet doesn't bead up it just goes into the fur


It sounds like you're doing great honestly, you probably don't need my tips at this point. I have also put the lancet right through his ear before and as long as it is along the very edge in the sweet spot it doesnt really seem to bother him at all. He purrs right through the whole thing.

 

[inja]

Hi Inja and welcome. I am new here as well, my Hendrick was diagnosed on 1/5/22. I really struggled with the home testing at first but eventually I got the hang of it because of all the help I got here!

Thank you

I’ve taken two BGs today, he does hate it so it feels pretty bad. His ears look like he’d been in a fight. It always feels so bad to do any of this to your own kitty, I volunteer for a local fostering association and I actually often deal with feral cats, even cats that bite and are quite aggressive and it doesn’t bother me, I was bitten twice last week. But when I have to ”catch” and hold my own cat still, it feels so bad. I won’t stop trying though.

Has anybody had luck with taking blood from their paw pads? It would be so much easier but whenever I’ve tried, not enough blood comes out.

 

[Hendrick Cuddleclaw]

Thank you

I’ve taken two BGs today, he does hate it so it feels pretty bad. His ears look like he’d been in a fight. It always feels so bad to do any of this to your own kitty, I volunteer for a local fostering association and I actually often deal with feral cats, even cats that bite and are quite aggressive and it doesn’t bother me, I was bitten twice last week. But when I have to ”catch” and hold my own cat still, it feels so bad. I won’t stop trying though.

Has anybody had luck with taking blood from their paw pads? It would be so much easier but whenever I’ve tried, not enough blood comes out.

no we tried the pads, no luck at all

regarding his ears looking like he's been in a fight..why is that? If you're hitting the sweet spot I wouldn't expect that, did you hit the marginal vein by accident maybe? I know i did one time and it was awful.

 

[Veronica & Babu-chiri]

Has anybody had luck with taking blood from their paw pads? It would be so much easier but whenever I’ve tried, not enough blood comes out.

I tried paws on Babu and with other cat (when I was starting to learn the other cats also "volunteered " as test subjects) and they hated it so I sticked with the ear

 

[inja]

I tried paws on Babu and with other cat (when I was starting to learn the other cats also "volunteered " as test subjects) and they hated it so I sticked with the ear

Eddie HATES the ear, he stays still but when the needle touches his ear, he sometimes flips his head and I’m pretty sure that makes the ”hole” bigger. I’ll keep practicing, maybe will consider his paws as well. In general he is okay with me touching his paws, I think more than cats usually are so in that way it would be easier, if I could just get enough blood out.

 

[Hendrick Cuddleclaw]

he sometimes flips his head and I’m pretty sure that makes the ”hole” bigger.

this has happened to me and it definitely made a bigger hole than I intended, I hit the marginal vein, and it was not a good time for Hendrick. He was sad kittah and didn't even want his post-poke-treat that time. Well not for like 30 seconds, he ran away and came back for it.

so I can totally sympathize with that. Very tricky if you don't have a helper -- you might want to consider swaddling (rolling up) Eddie in a towel and holding him between your legs while on your knees, that has worked for other people.

 

[Cookee]

Been where you are a few weeks ago. Practice...and it gets easier.
We had to use the lancing device in the end to make it easier....
DEFINETLY, warm the ear with a rice bag or other warm compress.

Just starting to see lower numbers with my guy and we have done incremental increases for months...

 

[Sienne and Gabby (GA)]

Giving a treat each time you test -- whether the test is successful or not -- will help Eddie to associate testing with a treat. I hope you can find treats that are low in carbohydrates. Many people here use a freeze dried protein such as freeze dried chicken. If Eddie likes raw, a piece of either raw or cooked chicken also works.

Lantus is a bit different than many other types of insulin. It is long acting which makes it an excellent choice given that cats have a fast metabolism. In other words, its duration is approximately 12 hours. Because it's long acting, it doesn't start acting on lowering blood glucose immediately. This is why you don't see much of a change in the numbers an hour after you give a shot (at +1). In fact, for most cats, Lantus onset doesn't start until +2. Between when onset starts and the influence of food, you are not likely to see numbers drop until later in the cycle. I'm linking a post from the Lantus board that provides information about some of the basics about Lantus that I think you may find helpful.

If you need to find an approximate value for carbohydrates in what you're feeding your cat, there are online cat food carb calculators. You plug in the percentage of protein, fat, moisture, etc. and it will give you an approximate percent of carbs. Occasionally, the food manufacturer's website will include carbohydrates in the nutritional information. I don't think I've ever seen carbohydrates on the can label. We consider low carb to be under 10% although most people here feed their cats around 5% carb. A raw diet is fine for a diabetic cat. Please be sure you are including all of the necessary supplements to be cure that your cat is getting a nutritionally complete diet if you're feeding raw.

 

[Wendy&Neko]

A number of the so called "diabetic" foods you get from the vet have more carbs than we'd normally feed a diabetic cat. This UK Cat Food List contains a list of foods available in Europe as well. You want the %kcal from carbs entry to be less than 10%.

 

[inja]

I looked for diabetic foods (or regular foods) that have no carb sources like grain, rice or potato, or have them under 1%, wouldn’t that mean there’s very little or no carbohydrates? Or am I wrong about this, I’ll have to study the calculator.

The raw food I have is ”complete”, meaning it has all the nutrients, or that’s what it says on the label (it’s Finnish food so hard to translate, sorry!), however I don’t give only that because at the moment Eddie doesn’t really like it so much. So I often give raw food and diabetic wet food or just diabetic wet food. The raw food is frozen though, so it’s handy to keep and just thaw out the needed amount of meat balls.

I think I found the right kind of syringe online for starting to give Eddie half doses, meaning I could go up to 2,5 units. Ut’s pretty frustrating trying to find anything in here when I don’t think treating your diabetic cat like this is at all common in northern Finland and everything has to be ordered online.

The vet said I could go up to 3 units, but that was before she knew that Eddie’s fructosamine had gone up since starting the insulin and she hasn’t returned my call after I asked about it last Wednesday. It’s pretty ridiculous. I have to deal with most local vets because I often take foster cats to the vet and it is so frustrating to realize that not many of them have any idea about some of the more rare or difficult issues cats might have.

Anyway, I do feel Eddie would benefit from a higher dosage, I just have to find the right kind of syringe for half unit or then go up to 3 units on a day when I can be next to him all day to see how he reacts and measure his BG.

 

[Veronica & Babu-chiri]

I think I found the right kind of syringe online for starting to give Eddie half doses, meaning I could go up to 2,5 units. Ut’s pretty frustrating trying to find anything in here when I don’t think treating your diabetic cat like this is at all common in northern Finland and everything has to be ordered online.

Glad you found some syringes with what I guess is half unit marks on them, but still increments are best when given in 0.25 increments which means you will have to eye ball half of the 0.5 marks

The vet said I could go up to 3 units

Actually you can go even higher than 3 if is really necessary but that has to be done in small increments, going from 2 to 3 all at once is not going to help him it could actually make regulating him harder and it could be dangerous

Anyway, I do feel Eddie would benefit from a higher dosage

It may be but you need to get a bit more information before making a dose change we need to know how he's reacting to insulin, and you need to make a curve before changing dose, too much insulin can actually look like to little and it can cause high numbers too so waiting till you gather more data is probably better and you need to get the hang of testing so you can confidently test if his numbers drop considerably, remember patience is a very important factor in helping Eddie and geting him regulated, changing his dose to fast or in too big increments is not going to help

 

[inja]

Glad you found some syringes with what I guess is half unit marks on them, but still increments are best when given in 0.25 increments which means you will have to eye ball half of the 0.5 marks

Oh man, I didn't see anything like that. When I ask around, people just offer regular syringes. Can anybody link me syringes like this in a US shop so I could show an example? Or can you tell if this one would be appropriate, this one I could get online:

Kruuse insulin disposable syringe

I have a friend who works in a pharmacy but even she had a bit of trouble finding ones with half unit marks and even in this case, I'm not yet 100% convinced they're the right ones before I see them.

 

[Veronica & Babu-chiri]

I have a friend who works in a pharmacy but even she had a bit of trouble finding ones with half unit marks and even in this case,

You won't find ones with 0.25 units markings at best it will be 0.5 that's why I mentioned you will have to eyeball where the half of that 0.5 mark is and that would be 0.25

 

[inja]

You won't find ones with 0.25 units markings at best it will be 0.5 that's why I mentioned you will have to eyeball where the half of that 0.5 mark is and that would be 0.25

Ah, sorry I misunderstood! I strongly hope I now have the 0.5 unit ones on order and also that they'd arrive soon.

 

[Veronica & Babu-chiri]

This is a photo of an insulin for Lantus syringe I have with 0.5 unit marks the brand is BD

You can see it has some thick marks on the right those are the whole unit marks and some thiner marks on the left, those are the 0.5 unit marks

https://lightroom.adobe.com/shares/3895514a8b3244cc8fdbec65115999a3

 

[Veronica & Babu-chiri]

here's another photo, sorry I'm having a little bit of trouble uploading them

 

[Veronica & Babu-chiri]

And if you were giving 0.25 units of insulin you can see in this photo that the plunger is located a bit between the cero line and the 0.5 mark in this photo that would be 0.25 units

 

[Larry and Kitties]

With small doses I always ched where the mplunger and and marks are when the plunger is fuly depressed. I have fount some syringes would inject about ¼ unit when the plunger was end aligned with the zero mark.