? Giving Insulin Advice

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Catlover3

Catlover3

Member Since 2019
Hello I am new to Feline Diabetes my cat was just diagnosed with diabetes 2 months ago and started Prozinc 1 unit twice a day 1.5 weeks ago. I feed half can Friskies at 8 and 8 and 1/4 can in between feedings. My vet said it take 2 weeks to regulate her so I should start taking BG in about 14 days after starting insulin. I still checked it once a day. This morning my she only ate half her food so about 1/4 can. I thought that was out of the norm for her so I checked her BG on a Relion meter and it was 79! I gave her this mornings shot! What do I do? I am worried now. Like a dummy I gave her shot before she finished her food and before checking her BG. Please help. She also threw up a hairball this morning if that could do anything.
 
Catlover3 said:
Hello I am new to Feline Diabetes my cat was just diagnosed with diabetes 2 months ago and started Prozinc 1 unit twice a day 1.5 weeks ago. I feed half can Friskies at 8 and 8 and 1/4 can in between feedings. My vet said it take 2 weeks to regulate her so I should start taking BG in about 14 days after starting insulin. I still checked it once a day. This morning my she only ate half her food so about 1/4 can. I thought that was out of the norm for her so I checked her BG on a Relion meter and it was 79! I gave her this mornings shot! What do I do? I am worried now. Like a dummy I gave her shot before she finished her food and before checking her BG. Please help. She also threw up a hairball this morning if that could do anything.
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What was the dose? What kind of insulin? How much time has it been since the shot?
 
Since it's been 20 min since your last post can you please take another reading now and let me know what it is please
 
Thank goodness you replied. She is on Prozinc I gave 1 unit at about 8:20 am (central) I checked BG at 8:30 am and it was 79 It is a human meter Relion I was worried because she did not finish her meal this morning which is out of character for her.
 
Just checked it and it is 64

Edit: I panicked. I had a 10ml syringe on Pure Honey and I gave her about 4 ml of Honey.
 
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do you have ketone strips too (Ketostix, Diastix, or equivalent) ? after you recheck the BG, after you apply the high-carb "rescue" if needed, you would be wise to check her urine for ketones for a while, this sounds so much like a recipe for ketoacidosis .. short of food, probably dehydrated from the vomiting, dealing with low BG, stressed, and YOU are stressed too

my idea, experienced caregivers correct me if I'm wrong, next time you offer food, add extra water to it, make it into "gravy"

thank goodness she is on ProZinc and not Vetsulin !

:bighug:
 
CandyH and Catcat said:
do you have ketone strips too (Ketostix, Diastix, or equivalent) ? after you recheck the BG, after you apply the high-carb "rescue" if needed, you would be wise to check her urine for ketones for a while, this sounds so much like a recipe for ketoacidosis .. short of food, probably dehydrated from the vomiting, dealing with low BG, stressed, and YOU are stressed too
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I believe the 'recipe' for ketones is when there is high BG, and they are not eating. So, I don't think that is an immediate concern here. (Also, throwing up one hairball doesn't usually cause dehydration.)
 
Thank you so much for your response CandyH and Catcat. She has been drinking water and she just coughed up a hairball so I do not think she is dehydrated. I do not have any Ketone Strips.
 
Catlover3 said:
Just checked it and it is 64

Edit: I panicked. I had a 10ml syringe on Pure Honey and I gave her about 4 ml of Honey.
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That's okay. It's understandable to panic when it's your first time dealing with this. So, it has been an hour and 15 mins since her shot?
 
I gave Honey. How long will it work? Is Vetsulin worse than Prozinc in this situation?

Edit: Yes it has been about an 1hour 15 minutes. give or take. When she be considered "out of the woods" for hypoglycemia?
 
Catlover3 said:
I gave Honey. How long will it work? Is Vetsulin worse than Prozinc in this situation?
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The honey should be pretty fast-acting. Vetsulin is a little 'harsher' and can have an earlier onset.

To be at 64 on a human meter an hour and 15 mins after a ProZinc shot is concerning. Nadir (lowest point in cycle) is usually somewhere between 4 and 8 hours after the shot, so you have a way to go.

Do you have any medium or high carb food on hand?

I would test her 20/30 mins after the last test.
 
Catlover3 said:
I have dry cat food and Hills m/d. So how long will the Honey high last?
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Generally not very long. You should continue testing every half hour to verify her levels are still rising. If you need to give her dry food, don't give too much that she fills up on it. Otherwise she may not eat more if you need to give her more.

This is why we recommend testing before every shot.
 
Okay. I was following my vet's advice with the testing. I will always test before shot now. OMG I am so worried. I put her in her carrier case because she was running from me :( I hate I did this
 
thanks for correcting me, I panicked when I saw those numbers too -- learn a little every day, I have some Temptation and Whisker Lickin' treats left over, plus honey and Karo syrup, in case we have a similar low BG situation
 
Catlover3 said:
Okay. I was following my vet's advice with the testing. I will always test before shot now. OMG I am so worried. I put her in her carrier case because she was running from me :( I hate I did this
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Don't beat yourself up. The fact that you are testing at all puts you way ahead of a lot of others. You caught that she was lower than she should be right after shot time, so you are going to be on top of it, and it will be okay. I know this sounds impossible, but please try your best to stay calm. Being stressed and in a panic will not help you or her. Just take deep breaths. Maybe sing to her. :cat: Read over that hypo link I gave you. I think your next test is due at 10:05am CST - correct?

I think this is where we are so far:
1u ProZinc given at 8:20am CST
10 mins after shot (8:30am) = 79
+1.25 (9:35am) = 64 *Gave 4ml of honey
+1.75 (10:05am) =

(We use +XXX to show how long after the shot the test was taken. So, for example, +1.25 is 1 hour and 15 mins after the shot. We are all on different time zones so it gets confusing if we just use actual times.)
 
Just checked it and it is now 245? how? that is a big jump isn't it?

Edit: She is drinking water now.
 
Catlover3 said:
Just checked it and it is not 245? how? that is a big jump isn't it?
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That is a big jump, but you did give her honey. I would check again in another 30 min. (10:35am CST) You want to keep on monitoring until you know she is staying in safe numbers. Since you are so early in the cycle, the honey could wear off and she could still have time to go too low.
 
Honey will cause a spike like that? I was thinking may 20-50 point increase. She does seem a little stressed out to since I have been pricking her ears a lot. She is use to 1 prick a day. My poor baby.
 
Catlover3 said:
Just checked it and it is now 245? how? that is a big jump isn't it?

Edit: She is drinking water now.
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It's because of the honey. You may have over compansated . 64 is still a safe number. Don't feed any more and let's see what it is in a half hour. 4 ml is a lot of honey to give.
 
Catlover3 said:
Honey will cause a spike like that? I was thinking may 20-50 point increase. She does seem a little stressed out to since I have been pricking her ears a lot. She is use to 1 prick a day. My poor baby.
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You are probably right that stress is elevating her BG, too. Honey is basically pure sugar, so it is going to cause a fast, significant jump. That is why syrups are normally reserved for when a cat is in very low numbers. You jumped the gun a little this time, but that is understandable since it's your first time.

We don't have any data to go on here since you don't appear to have set up one of the spreadsheets we use to record test results and insulin doses given. So, we don't know for sure how the insulin dose normally impacts her... when it starts working, when her nadir occurs, when she starts going back up, etc. After this is over, please consider setting one up. It really is very important and helpful.

I have to leave, but it looks like others are monitoring this and will be able to help you as things progress. BREATHE! :bighug:
 
Going forward, after today, please test before each shot, then try to get at least one mid cycle number to see how low a dose takes her.
 
It could be the honey. I am thinking I may have jumped the gun on this one. I panicked. Now she vomited and lost her breakfast.
 
I did check before a shot Thursday and it was 248. I check Friday after 6 hour of her evening shot and it was 183 if that will help. I am looking at the spreadsheet now.
 
Check it again in 30 and 60 minutes. If there is not much change she should be ok. For your PM shot she probably will be higher than normal.
 
okay I think she is tired of me. I will leave her be now and just watch her. She only ate a few bites of her breakfast so I guess I will leave that out for her to graze on if she wants. Thank you guys so much! You guys are awesome! I am glad I found this community. Knowing me I would have rushed her to the Emergency Vet.

Edit: I will Check it again in 1 hour.
 
Catlover3 said:
okay I think she is tired of me. I will leave her be now and just watch her. She only ate a few bites of her breakfast so I guess I will leave that out for her to graze on if she wants. Thank you guys so much! You guys are awesome! I am glad I found this community. Knowing me I would have rushed her to the Emergency Vet.

Edit: I will Check it again in 1 hour.
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Can you set up a spreadsheet? Do you have the template
 
I just checked it and it was 188. I just started a spreadsheet. this is 3 hours after shot

Edit: Will check again at 6 hour mark
 
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JanetNJ said:
What was the dose you gave this morning? You may want to reduce slightly tonight
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hard for a newbie to figure out how to give less than 1 unit dose which is what she's been shooting for less than two weeks, am sure she could use your help and guidance (it sure helped me, thanking you again)
@JanetNJ
 
I gave her 1 unit this morning. Also, can the honey I gave her cause the runs? She just went to the litter box and #2 was soupy

Edit: yes I have syringes with .5 marking
 
Okay 6 hours after the 1 unit of Prozinc. I did not take her BG but she did eat 1/4 can Friskies Pate Salmon dinner. This should pull her through to the Preshot BG check in another 6 hours. right?

I would check it but its a 2 person job and I haven't learned to do it myself yet.
 
If it were my kitty I would try very hard to get another test. If I’m reading this correctly the last test you got was 3 hours ago and was lower than the previous one, so I’d want to make sure he didn’t keep dropping to a worrisome level. Maybe try getting a test while he’s eating?
 
As you can see, it is very important to test before every shot. One suggestion is that you need to have a "don't shoot" number. What this means is that if the glucose reading is below this number, you skip the dose of insulin. For newbies we generally recommend using 200 as that number. As you become more familiar on how your cat responds to the dose, then you probably will be able to lower that number. The purpose of using it is to prevent your cat from dropping too low again. It is better to skip a dose than to drop too low. You have done so great job today with catching the low reading and preventing your cat from becoming hypoglycemic.

As you become more comfortable with testing, you can do your own curves at home. This will tell you how long it takes to get to the lowest glucose reading between shots. After you have done a few curves then you can decide if it is safe to lower the don't shoot number.
 
So the PMPS was 298. I am going to go ahead with the pm shot with her dinner. This was a very stressful day. Never again will I give shot without testing first.
 
Lisa and Witn (GA) said:
As you can see, it is very important to test before every shot. One suggestion is that you need to have a "don't shoot" number. What this means is that if the glucose reading is below this number, you skip the dose of insulin. For newbies we generally recommend using 200 as that number. As you become more familiar on how your cat responds to the dose, then you probably will be able to lower that number. The purpose of using it is to prevent your cat from dropping too low again. It is better to skip a dose than to drop too low. You have done so great job today with catching the low reading and preventing your cat from becoming hypoglycemic.

As you become more comfortable with testing, you can do your own curves at home. This will tell you how long it takes to get to the lowest glucose reading between shots. After you have done a few curves then you can decide if it is safe to lower the don't shoot number.
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Hi Lisa ,I'm Diane, sorry to ask you but do you think you can take a look at my cat
Tyler's BG numbers, I'm sorry I don't have a spreadsheet because my tablet is to old and will not support Google sheets, I need to get a new one. I've been posting under the title .


Alpha Trak 2 strips vs Freestyle Lite or Freestyle Insulinx test strips
If you look there it's on the second page where under the date of 5-18-19
Saturday and today Sunday, I just don't know what to give him tonight
It looks like the 0.5 U of Vetsulin isn't doing much. His numbers have
been going up lately. He was off insulin for about a week , then had to start
It again. I'm new at this . Thanks so much
 
Please remove the 911. Instead add a question mark. Then change subject to doing advice. I’ve only used lantus so can’t help with dosing.
 
tiffmaxee said:
Please remove the 911. Instead add a question mark. Then change subject to doing advice. I’ve only used lantus so can’t help with dosing.
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Hi so sorry I'm trying to remove the 911 that I mentioned in the message, I didn't
Put it in the subject, that was done by someone else looking for advice.
I only put it there because I wanted the woman who posted there last to see it. Sorry
If I caused any problems
 
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Try clicking on prefix and then click on the 911. It should go away. No need to apologize. It just makes us think someone is in immediate trouble. To get someone’s Attention click on @ follows by the person’s sign on name. So to get your attention I click @Mamakin.
 
tiffmaxee said:
Try clicking on prefix and then click on the 911. It should go away. No need to apologize. It just makes us think someone is in immediate trouble. To get someone’s Attention click on @ follows by the person’s sign on name. So to get your attention I click @Mamakin.
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I will try it now, sorry I am new to posting
 
I don't know what you mean by prefix, where is it, what I'm doing is going to where I changed it to advise, but I can't go into the message I wrote to change it. I'm even trying to delete it
 
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