Gave first Lantus shot earlier and now low number, help?

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KathyinVancouver

Member Since 2013
Hi, I am brand new to feline diabetes. Our cat Tom was recently diagnosed and we did his first shot of Lantus this afternoon (12 hrs ago). We just checked his blood sugar prior to giving his next dose and his glucose was 3.9 mmol/L (70.2 mg/dl)... so we are thinking we should not give the next dose until tomorrow when we can talk to the vet. We gave him some food. Is there anything else we should do? I appreciate any advice you can give.
Thanks,
Kathy
 
Larry is right, no shot for now.

When you check his glucose this evening, don't be surprised if it is considerably higher. Don't panic when this happens, it is normal when you have to skip a shot.

Can you tell us what is your insulin dose?
 
KathyinVancouver said:
Hi, I am brand new to feline diabetes. Our cat Tom was recently diagnosed and we did his first shot of Lantus this afternoon (12 hrs ago). We just checked his blood sugar prior to giving his next dose and his glucose was 3.9 mmol/L (70.2 mg/dl)... so we are thinking we should not give the next dose until tomorrow when we can talk to the vet. We gave him some food. Is there anything else we should do? I appreciate any advice you can give.
Thanks,
Kathy
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Hi Kathy,
I'm in Langley at the moment, so fairly close by.
I wanted to ask a few questions:
1. What dose of insulin did you give.
2. What food are you feeding Tom.
3. What meter are you using to test.
 
Thanks everyone! I'm glad we held off on the insulin. To answer your questions:

1. Our vet prescribed 1.5 units of Lantus twice a day.

2.Tom is eating Friskies Ocean Whitefish pate. He gets 1/8th of a can 3 times a day. He also gets Evo Cat and Kitten dry food (8% carbs).

3. We use an AccuChek Aviva glucose meter (our vet uses the same one).

4. We hadn't taken a pre shot gluocse value as he had it done at the vet's the previous afternoon. Our vet wanted us to have him on Lantus for a week before we started taking our curves so we were just doing a spot check before administering the next dose (I'm glad we did!).

We spoke to the vet today and she reduced his dose to 1 unit. We checked his glucose before administering and it was 19.8 mmol/l. She gave use guidelines for tonight's shot based on what his glucose is then.

Whew! We are still trying to get the hang of this but Tom is such a good boy and is handling it all really well:)
 
Hello there from another Canadian (Toronto!)

I am thinking a few things

Would you set up a spreadsheet? That way you, his vet, and we can track his trends that way and see how his dose is doing. http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=18207

We normally make dose adjustments in 0.25 units, and only after seeing what the mid-cycle numbers are and holding the same dose (unless the numbers are really low) for at least 3 days. Vets are used to 1unit increment changes but the issue with that is they can skip past the good dose, cats are small creatures and small doses can make a huge difference. But try 1unit and lets see how it goes (hoping the spreadsheet will be set up for then!)

You want always to test before every shot. But to see how he is doing and keep him safe we also recommend a midday (5-7 hours after his shot) when you can, and a before bed test (hopefully a few hours after his nighttime shot).

Dont feed for 2 hours before his shot. That way when you measure him his number isnt influenced by food. If you see a number under 200, then dont shoot, dont feed and come on here and post 911 and someone will be along to help advise. Meanwhile wait 30minutes and test again to see how his blood is trending.

Wendy
 
Hi Kathy (and Tom) and welcome from a neighbour. I'm just across the bridge from you in North Van.

There is a lot of information about Lantus and the protocol we use here on the Lantus TR forum. Read all the starred Sticky Notes at the top. You might want to print out the one on Shooting and Handling Low Numbers. It's a good one to have handy.
 
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