Don & Tigger
Member Since 2018
Hello everyone! Tiger was diagnosed as diabetic on 8/17/18 so I'm joining later than I should have, been getting info from google searches, just recently found this site.
I'm getting to the party late as Tigger seems to be going into remission, which is what I'm trying to learn about. It's been a long, stressful, anxiety filled 4 months learning and dealing with diabetes, as many of you know.
A quick synopsis of me and Tigger's journey.
The first thing I did was change from dry to low carb wet food, Fancy Feast Classic Pate, and 10 days later brought Tiggy back to the vet for a BG check (I didn't have a meter yet) but his BG was still in the mid 400's. I left Tiggy with the vet and they started Prozinc that day, 1u and monitored him. They found his BG sunk very low and stayed low, they recommended only 1 shot per day.
The next day I gave him his morning shot and by noon he seemed to have symptoms of mild hypo, I got scared and skipped the next days shot & brought him back to the vet, his BG was 277. Resumed insulin the next day, but same issue. Skipped the next day, talked to the vet and decided to drop to .5u, which I did the following day with similar results. At this point I got so scared that I stopped insulin for a week as Tigger seemed so healthy with out the stuff. I then tried again with .25u shots, first once a day and soon after, twice a day. I bought a meter, but initially needed someone to help me do a check, so I didn't check much. I did a curve and we upped dosage to .5u. In fact we kept upping until we got to 2u in November, on that curve was the first time I got readings below 200 at his nadir, but his peak BG levels actually got higher, into the 500's. It was very confusing and discouraging.
By this time Tigger was comfortable enough that I could do BG tests by myself. I did a second curve at 2u in the beginning of Dec. and his numbers were much lower, peaks in the 300's and nadir below 100. Now I had to be careful of overdosing so I began checking his BG frequently, and I began seeing stray numbers that were very low, too low to give a 2u shot. Not knowing what to do, I skipped the shot the first 2 times it happened and he rebounded back the 300 & 400's by the time of the next shot. After this I began to reduce the dosage on low pre-shot readings.
December 14 was the last day he got a 2u shot, I've been reducing doses by .25u. Last night his pre-shot reading was 114, I skipped the shot. This morning his pre-shot reading was 200, so I dropped his current .5u dose to .25. I checked his BG three hours later and it had dropped to 81.
I'm not sure how to proceed, but based on today's readings I don't want to shot if his pre-shot reading is below 200. I don't think I can do a smaller dose than .25u, should I postpone a shot say 4 or 6 hours?
Anyhow that's were I'm at now. I wish I had found this site a few months ago, nothing beats real life experience. I don't know all the lingo and abbreviations that are used here. I don't have any confidence in my vet, when I told her Tigger's BG levels were dropping she said to just keep him at 1.5u and stop checking his blood so much. Thank God I didn't listen to her.
I'm getting to the party late as Tigger seems to be going into remission, which is what I'm trying to learn about. It's been a long, stressful, anxiety filled 4 months learning and dealing with diabetes, as many of you know.
A quick synopsis of me and Tigger's journey.
The first thing I did was change from dry to low carb wet food, Fancy Feast Classic Pate, and 10 days later brought Tiggy back to the vet for a BG check (I didn't have a meter yet) but his BG was still in the mid 400's. I left Tiggy with the vet and they started Prozinc that day, 1u and monitored him. They found his BG sunk very low and stayed low, they recommended only 1 shot per day.
The next day I gave him his morning shot and by noon he seemed to have symptoms of mild hypo, I got scared and skipped the next days shot & brought him back to the vet, his BG was 277. Resumed insulin the next day, but same issue. Skipped the next day, talked to the vet and decided to drop to .5u, which I did the following day with similar results. At this point I got so scared that I stopped insulin for a week as Tigger seemed so healthy with out the stuff. I then tried again with .25u shots, first once a day and soon after, twice a day. I bought a meter, but initially needed someone to help me do a check, so I didn't check much. I did a curve and we upped dosage to .5u. In fact we kept upping until we got to 2u in November, on that curve was the first time I got readings below 200 at his nadir, but his peak BG levels actually got higher, into the 500's. It was very confusing and discouraging.
By this time Tigger was comfortable enough that I could do BG tests by myself. I did a second curve at 2u in the beginning of Dec. and his numbers were much lower, peaks in the 300's and nadir below 100. Now I had to be careful of overdosing so I began checking his BG frequently, and I began seeing stray numbers that were very low, too low to give a 2u shot. Not knowing what to do, I skipped the shot the first 2 times it happened and he rebounded back the 300 & 400's by the time of the next shot. After this I began to reduce the dosage on low pre-shot readings.
December 14 was the last day he got a 2u shot, I've been reducing doses by .25u. Last night his pre-shot reading was 114, I skipped the shot. This morning his pre-shot reading was 200, so I dropped his current .5u dose to .25. I checked his BG three hours later and it had dropped to 81.
I'm not sure how to proceed, but based on today's readings I don't want to shot if his pre-shot reading is below 200. I don't think I can do a smaller dose than .25u, should I postpone a shot say 4 or 6 hours?
Anyhow that's were I'm at now. I wish I had found this site a few months ago, nothing beats real life experience. I don't know all the lingo and abbreviations that are used here. I don't have any confidence in my vet, when I told her Tigger's BG levels were dropping she said to just keep him at 1.5u and stop checking his blood so much. Thank God I didn't listen to her.
