Hi there,
I just wanted to confirm that you are using Lantus but you are not following Tilly protocol, yes?
I am asking because I had expected to see the usual increase/decrease increments of .25u or .5u, but I am seeing full unit increases. Those increases may end up causing you problems. Also, Lantus likes consistency, so from 12/5 and onwards, it's no wonder that Tubby's numbers are all over. Going from 4u to 3u to 3.5u to some other dose, is causing his shed to go nuts. I don't know if anyone's mentioned how the dosing works best on Lantus, but here is the gist of it for you:
"General" Guidelines:
--- Hold the initial starting dose for 5 - 7 days (10 - 14 cycles) unless the numbers tell you otherwise. Kitties experiencing high flat curves or prone to ketones may want to increase the starting dose after 3 days (6 cycles).
--- Each subsequent dose is held for a minimum of 3 days (6 cycles) unless kitty earns a reduction (See: Reducing the dose...).
--- Adjustments to dose are based on nadirs with only some consideration given to preshot numbers.
Increasing the dose...
--- Hold the dose for 3 - 5 days (6 - 10 cycles) if nadirs are less than 200 before increasing the dose.
--- After 3 consecutive days (6 cycles)... if nadirs are greater than 200, but less than 300 increase the dose by 0.25 unit.
--- After 3 consecutive days (6 cycles)... if nadirs are greater than 300 increase the dose by 0.5 unit.
Reducing the dose...
--- If kitty drops below 40 (long term diabetic) or 50 (newly diagnosed diabetic) reduce the dose by 0.25 unit. If kitty has a history of not holding reductions well or if reductions are close together... sneak the dose down by shaving the dose rather than reducing by a full quarter unit. Alternatively, at each newly reduced dose... try to make sure kitty maintains numbers in the normal range for seven days before reducing the dose further.
--- If an attempted reduction fails, go right back up to the last good dose.
--- Try to go from 0.25u to 0.1u before stopping insulin completely.
Random Notes...
Because of the cumulative nature of Lantus and Levemir:
An early shot = a dose increase.
A late shot = a dose reduction.
A "cycle" refers to the period of time between shots. There are 2 cycles in one day when shooting twice a day.
Sometimes a dose will need to be "fine tuned" by adding some "fat" or "skinny-ing up" the dose.
Anyways, I wanted to be sure that you understood the food thing, about not feeding until you have made a decision to give a shot or not.
The reason that everyone says no food for 2hours prior to your normal shot time, at +12, is so that there is no food in the cat`s system that can give you a false high number when you test at ps. It's perfectly fine to have the food all ready to give to the cat but don't. Get your ps BG number and see where you are.
If the number is something that makes you pause, do not feed. There is nothing wrong in waiting 15min and testing again because you want to see a rising number, and that number must be a pure, not food affected, number. If the next test at +12.25 is lower, keep waiting and do not feed. Test again in another 15min.
When you give even a tiny piece of food, the body will take that food and possibly give you a rising number in the next test, so you will think oh good, the number's rising, but it's still not that safe to shoot because that food will wear off quickly, and the numbers may start to drop again. And you will then be looking at wanting the numbers to rise before that Lantus kicks in after a couple hours following the shot.
So, keep testing on the empty stomach until you have decided, shoot or no shot. Then slap down the food and give the shot or record no shot.
give extra nose kissies for me... :smile: