figuring out dose

Status
Not open for further replies.
RobbiesMom

RobbiesMom

Active Member
I finally got my SS done - it doesn't give the full picture as Robbie was on insulin slowly rising from 3 units to 8 over a 6 week period with his numbers not moving (584/775/800's mostly POST shot and breakfast by 2 -2.5 hours or at the end of the day and before home testing was started). Had a Hypo incident almost a week ago and started to figure things out with home testing help and this forum. Will be seeing our vet at the end of the week and I want to have as much info for him as possible and have my questions set. More importantly I want to start getting things evened out for my poor Robbie boy.
If anyone could look at his numbers and give me some feed back - that would be great. Our vet had us on a guideline of 190 to 250 1 unit 250 or higher 2 units - and suggested I use my judgement or call him if I feel something is borderline. So tonight his pmps was 177 - so I would NOT give him any insulin. What I find is that now tomorrow's amps will be highish. After our Hypo experience I don't want to chance going there again - but I'm wondering if maybe a small dose when he's around those types of numbers would keep him more in line? Or am I just being too picky?
 
I really can't give advice as to dose....but I wanted to congratulate you on hometesting...it is so important! Good job!!!!! ;-)
 
I would go ahead and check again, and if he is over 200, I would give at least a small dose to tide things over til morning. If that means your morning shot will be in under 12 hours (but over at least 9, otherwise I'd probably just skip tonights), I would give something around maybe .25 - .4 - enough to hopefully keep the #s from going into the pinks all night. Typically with the no-shoot that's what you want to do if you can - like you said, if you don't give any insulin, he'll be high probably most of the night. So you either give a token dose on the lower PS (not if it's 100 or something really low, but if it's like 150 or higher, but still below your no shoot), or you retest in maybe 20 or 30 minutes & give the shot once they are around the no-shoot level.

As for the ongoing dose, I would pick a dose that you feel comfortable is not too much insulin, and try to stick with that for a few days (barring #s that are too low). That will give you a better read on things. Although there are lots of times when changing the dose around makes sense, it can make it hard to interpret the data. So until you have a better sense of his insulin needs, sticking to one dose and gathering some data will help you get a feel for where he's at. It's not clicking for me what dose to try - if it were me I'd probably start at 0.5, and if the #s are not hitting blues, jump up to 0.75 pretty quickly.
 
I agree with Joanna. I've found with Missy if I don't shoot a lower number, she definitely is higher in the morning. It took me awhile to feel comfortable shooting lower numbers, but we haven't had a problem with it so far. Something between 0.25 and 0.4 sounds like a good place to start to me. For example, Missy was at 160 this evening at +11, but i knew she would jump up within an hour based on her history. So I shot 0.2U to prevent a high jump but not bring her down too low. Missy tends to be pretty sensitive to the insulin and a little goes a long way with her. You know your kitty better than anyone else. I say just go with your gut. I've found that the little voice in the back of my head seems to have the right answer a lot of the time.
 
so at 10pm he is 183 - I gave him as close to .25 as I can figure on the syringe - it's a 22 U syringe and anything lower than .50 doesn't even appear to shoot into him. He will get a small treat before I go to bed in about an hour - I am really trying hard not to test him all the time as he's getting very difficult - he lets me massage his ear to help get the blood going and he lets me prick him but than he just goes nuts and trashes around and he HATES it when I scoop up the blood on the test strip - I have to make sure I go WITH his hair (which is busy wicking up the blood) - when I tried to do it inside his ear he moved too much and I was scared I'd poke his ear badly.
My gut tells me he'll be fine but I'm still very nervous shooting on a lowish number. We'll see how this goes.
thanks
 
Trust me, the first time I shot on a low number, I was scared to death! I shot 0.2 on a 168. Then I was sitting on the couch and Missy was laying on my lap. All of a sudden, her feet and mouth started twitching. I tried to arouse her and she didn't really wake up at first. She finally did but seemed really drowsy. In hindsight, I know she was sound asleep and dreaming (I had kept her up all night testing her blood every hour trying to get a shootable number), but this was just the other day when all the hypos on the Health board were going on, so my first thought was I dropped her too low and she was now having a seizure! I scooped her up and tested her blood to ease my mind. Of course, she was fine. Maybe slightly irritated since I woke her up and poked her ear...

I've just learned to trust my instinct over the past couple of weeks. Most of the time when I've had to make a judgement call, I've been right on the money. It takes some faith, but deep down I believe we all know what is right for our kitties. We just have to trust ourselves.

**You mentioned the hair on his ear wicking up the blood. Have you tried using Vaseline? I put a tiny dab of Vaseline on the tip of her ear where I am going to test. It really helps the blood bead up, which makes it easier to suck up into the test strip.
 
You have gotten some really good advise. How is Robbie doing today?

In the beginning it's all about gathering data so you will know how the insulin effects him.

Have a good day.
 
thanks gang you are so helpful - so the vaseline really works? I don't have any in the house but was going to try it - I have SUCH a hard time with his ears. So I didn't trust myself last night and he had some dry when he woke me screaming for food - (used to be a regular thing - stopped now is starting again) I was worried his body knew he needed food - should have given him wet but I didn't. So he was UP THERE this am (400+ I don't actually remember and am at work but it's on the SS) so I gave him 2 U's and have been stuck at work with new owners in meetings all day - worried about him of course.
 
The vaseline works great for me. Every time I would try to get blood before, the fur would soak it up or make it to where I couldn't get anything onto the strip. But with the Vaseline, the drop of blood beads up very nicely. Don't put too much though. I get a tiny bit on my finger and rub it on the tip of her ear. Then I wipe off some excess, if there is any. I want just enough to slick down the hair, but not enough to interfere with the readings.

I wouldn't beat yourself up about giving him dry food. I'm trying to change Missy to a low carb canned food, and she can be very difficult about it. I place the food in front of her and she gives me the strangest looks. I've mentioned before that sometimes if I pretend to eat it, she'll eat it because Mom likes it. But other times, she gives me this look, as to say "If you like it so much, it is all yours." Sometimes it is easier just to give in and give them what they want, especially if it's the middle of the night and they won't let you sleep until they get it.

I'm not going to comment on the dose. I'm still pretty new to all of this, so I don't want to give you incorrect advice. Missy seems to be very sensitive to the insulin. If she was in the 400s, 0.5unit would be plenty to bring her down to the greens and blues. But lots of cats need a much higher dose than she does. I'm sure someone will be along soon to advise you on that. Again, in the meantime, don't beat yourself up. I'm sure Robbie is fine.
 
We've always fed dry and wet so he's fine with wet although the "new" flavor isn't going over so well. Our poor other cat who is fine looks at this new low carb/high protein food as if to say "did I do something terribly wrong? Why are you punishing me?" Poor thing.
I'll give the vaseline a try tonight.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top