help with insulin

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Patty & Tiger

Patty & Tiger

Member Since 2012
Tiger was doing good, but a few days ago his BG was 147 PMPS and I gave him a dose of 1 unit. His usual dose is 2 units. His BG dropped to 28 that night so we did the syrup and I syringe fed since he was still not eating.The progress we made went backward. The next day it stayed low most of the day. That night it went up to 450 and I gave him a dose of 2 units. This morning was 158 so no dose. At noon it was 38 and I did the syrup again and fed with syringe. This evening it was 152 so I didn't give a shot because the last time I did when it was below 200 it dropped way low. He is eating a little bit on his own. He is also getting SubQ fluids in the morning and evening due to being dehydrated. I just checked his BG and it is 237 and my question is since I didn't give him his shot this morning or this evening if it goes up to 300 by bedtime should I give a shot. I get scared because since he isn't eating much I am afraid it will drop low again, but if I don't give the shot it may go up and that is just as bad. I get so confused as to when to give the shot. Can someone please help me with this.
 
actually, dropping too low is WAY worse than going high. it sounds like he's on a rollercoaster and needs to get off.

i will first say, get several people's advice before making a decision, but i think i would give him a little break and no insulin tonight. if he's high enough tomorrow morning, i would consider starting over at maybe 1/2 a unit and go from there. clearly 2 units is too much so i wouldn't give that again. and sometimes after going too low they are sensitive so even 1 may be too much. thus why i would say start over and work up if it's warranted.

i'm not around much anymore so i'm not as familiar with everyone as i once was so i have to ask, has kitty ever had ketones or ketoacidosis? that may change things a little as far as what dose to go with but probably not by much

edited: just looked at the spreadsheet and i think i'd consider holding off on insulin longer even. the numbers are barely or rarely high enough to warrant insulin and when insulin has been given, it's almost as if kitty is bouncing from it's effects.

why you are having to syringe feed is a bigger concern too. why isn't kitty eating? has any testing or anything been done to figure out why kitty doesn't eat on his own? and are you still giving appetite stimulants? and are the fluids due to dehydration from not eating? or kidney disease? or? fwiw, the rollercoaster could be playing into the inappetance too
 
I am testing his urine for ketones and it is negative. The vet gave him a B12 shot and valium to stimulate his eating a week ago. He started eating a few bites on his own then. When his BG fell to the 31 that first time he quit eating again. Tonight he is eating more than he had been since he was diagnosed. The vet said his kidneys seemed to be ok. He was severely dehydrated when I first took him in and I think the vet was considering putting him down. I told him I could do the fluids from home if that would help and he said ok. Right now he seems to be better except he can't stand up. This is something new that just started tonight. Could that be from being so weak from not eating or drinking for so long. He is sitting beside me right now taking his foot and putting it in the food and licking it off.
 
Are you using U-40 syringes or U-100 ? The latter let you do very small doses, using a conversion chart.

Its looking like 2 units of ProZinc is too much for him particularly since his appetite is low.

I think I would go with only a token 0.5 next shot time if he's over 200, no matter how high he is. Part of the 400+ may have been bouncing from going low because he isn't eating.
Also note how much he eats at that shot time, too.

When the appetite is variable, you have to be very careful to track the intake in addition to the glucose, so you can take both factors into account. So 400 plus no food will need less than 400 plus full meal.
 
You chart is a little confusing to follow because you have multiple lines for 1 day so its hard to understand how far it is between shots and some of those low numbers. The template is set up for one line per day: AMPS is your AM shot,then 12 hour spot for any testing between shots, PMPS is your evening shot. then 12 more spots for night time tests before morning. I think I am following what you are doing and that is adding a line for every test ??

My first suggestion would be to do 2 things together: Stop insulin for a little while along with stopping feeding this "Nibbles at dry food - Friskies indoor" if that is still being done. That may be what is causing those rises and removing that may stop the need for insulin. It looks like an all low carb wet food diet may control his diabetes.

If you do give more insulin, start at no more than 0.5U. You need a dose that you can comfortably give consistently. 2U and 1U obviously drop and bounce way too much (though if you are feeding high carb dry food, I suspect those higher numbers are from the food and not bounces). I'd also recommend confirming that you are drawing the correct amount of insulin just to make sure you were giving a 2U and don't have the wrong syringes or are drawing 20U instead of 2U or something. Not saying that I think that was what you were doing, I've just seen it happen enough that its always worth checking out when a cat repeatedly dive into really low numbers every time gets insulin.
 
Sorry, I am new to all of this and the SS. I looked at some on here and they are all different. Tiger ate about 10 morsels of dry food and about a 1/4 jar of baby food chicken. I just checked his BG and it was 354 and he won't be eating any more tonight so I am not going to give him a shot. Thanks to everyone who replied, it was very helpful. This forum has taught me a lot about cat diabetes. How do I take the 911 from my post.
 
Go uo to your 1st post and you shoud see an Edit option in the right.
Click that, the select the Post icon you want to use, if any.
 
Anytime the bg drops to 50 or below, you need to reduce the insulin dose.

feeding dry food is not a good idea as it will stay in the system a very long time and can keep the bg elevated. So, if you can remove the dry completely you will be better off.

You can experiment with canned food and the carb content to keep the bg up or down. I took care of a cat who was super carb sensitive that I took the cans and labeled them with the carb %. When he dropped too low, I gave him a 7% carb food and when I wanted him to cruise at a level, I'd give him 0-3% carb food.

If you experience a super low BG, you could feed a higher carb canned food, even add gravy to a low carb canned food and manage it that way. At least you won't have the dry food to contend with too.

Having some gravy lovers fancy feast may be good for your hypo kit.

just some more to consider.
 
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