Food and Insulin--Advice needed ASAP!

Status
Not open for further replies.
L

LGoddess

Member
I'm about to start another day of home glucose testing but first I need to know for sure: how long after eating do I give the insulin? She's on 5 units/twice day with PZI. She eats about 1/2 can of Nine Lives twice a day and free eats dry food throughout the day.

I've been trying to wean her and her two non-diabetic "sisters" off dry food, but their hunger schedules are so erratic of when they demand food, that I don't know what to do with them. The youngest non-diabetic will tear my room apart at night as she tries to get me up to feed her breakfast.

Relevant information:

Dollbaby was diagnosed in June 2008. She uses PZI insulin.
She was on 1-2 units/twice a day until November 2009 when her new vet moved her to 3 units/twice a day.
Since the end of January 2010 she was progressively moved to the current 5 units/twice a day.
I tested her with the ReliOn Micro this morning between breakfast and her insulin shot. She came in at the lowest ever: 133!
She usually tests in the 250-450 range since her diagnoses.
 
I'm new to this, so I'm not going to offer too much advice, but I do know that you can leave wet food out all day for them to free feed on. That is what I have been doing. I just add a little water to the bowls of canned. Also, if you take away the dry food, be sure to closely monitor BG's, 5U is a pretty high dose, and the BG's might drop quite a bit just from the change in food. Just my little bit of knowledge, there will be others coming by that have done this a lot longer than me, that can help you with dosing and numbers.
 
LGoddess...Welcome to our world! There are a few quite good advisors on this page, so hang on and they will be around soon...I am sure the very first thing they will ask you is to get a profile together (type of insulin, dosage and schedule of dosing, food, etc.). They all need something to work with if you want help. Secondly, most will agree to stop feeding the SugarKitty dry food....almost guaranteed...Try to get some of this together before your next visit so they can start helping you out...We are all learning here!
 
Hi and welcome.

Great for you that you are hometesting. Can I assume by home glucose testing you mean you're using a glucometer and testing the blood?

Can you tell us more about your kitty, how long has your cat been diabetic, how was it diagnosed?

Can you also tell us what the BGs have been like?

5U of PZI BID is high, unless you've worked your way up to that number over time.
 
Do you post it as your signature? I just went through the User control panel and didn't see a place specifically for that information. Thank you!
 
133 is a little low to be giving PZI. When my cats were on PZI, I would have a no shoot line around 180. I assume the 5U have already been given.

Normally, with a low preshot level, we recommend that you wait and test again in an hour to see whether you have a more shootable number, or that you reduce your normal dose. See FAQ 4.4 on this page.
 
Ok, there are a few things to consider...

1. since you weren't hometesting, what were the dose increases based on

2. have you changed her food recently?

3. You do not have data to know what is a safe to shoot at number, so I'd consider 200 as your cut off.

Jen
 
Welcome!!!! Congratulations on getting home testing under your belt, that is a great accomplishment.

I would guess that the higher dose correlates to the dry food - my cat needed around 4u on dry, but only 1u on LC canned. I let mine free-feed on the canned food and that works well for us.

With a PS (pre-shot BG test) as low as 133, I would suggest you consider lowering the dose a little and get some data. I agree with 200 as a no-shoot until you have some data, especially with this dose. Be sure to let her have as much dry food as she wants today and as long as you are at higher doses - that will balance out the insulin.

With PZI as long as they eat in the early part of the cycle - sometime in the 1st few hours, that is fine. A lot of people feed a small meal around shot time and then another small meal around maybe +4 or so, or free feed.

Feel free to join us as well in the PZI forum, and post any questions you have!
 
p.s. if you head over to the Tech forum, you can find instructions on setting up a Profile & Spreadsheet, and just ask if you get lost! Our help/sticky files are still a work in progress, but there are lots of people here and on the Tech forum who are happy to help out if you get stuck.

Most important though is to be sure she is eating well, and to focus on collecting more data when you have opportunities. Especially if you do stay at this dose (as I said I would consider lowering it a bit), please try to get some mid-cycle #s - with a PS of 133, you want to be sure she is not getting too low when the insulin is at peak. The dry food may be preventing that, but it's hard to say without some more data.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top