hey gator

[Anonymous]

just a note to you, i saw in a post below you said trying to keep tom in 65-85 range while on insulin was not safe or something to that effect. just wanted to let you know those were tom's #'s for the 2+ years he was in remission. if he was even in the green now for 24 hours i would be more than satisfied. yes i would like to get him otj but i am beginning to see that patience and not pushing will be the 'protocol' for us. i'd rather have him where he's at (very slow progress, check ss) than potential hypo.
he's been getting plenty of SID's and yesterday 1/4 u took us 24 hours becuase 12 hours later he was only 139 and alto' tempted i cannot bring myself to shoot that. maybe once my newly ordered strips arrive i'll experiment with it....maybe.

 

[Gator & H (GA)]

OK got the note :smile:

I didn't say it was unsafe just that I doubted you would find anyone here would give you advice on how to keep tom tom at those levels.

Anyway, I'm hoping you can get some U-100's in. I know that when H was at lower numbers and I was still shooting that it gave me a lot more confidence to use the U-100 syringes. I also think from the advice givers standpoint that they will error on the side of caution giving advice knowing that the dose you are giving is not that exact. Ultimately though if you do not feel comfortable using U-100's then it is better to error, and better for advice givers, to error on the safe side.

I probably wouldn't be shooting at 139 with U-40 syringes wither. You are doing good and erroring on the safe side.

Honestly Lori, I think you are doing a good job with this ..... even without tons of advice :smile:

 

[Joanna & Bix (GA)]

I'm aiming for that range, but don't seem to be hitting it much lately, and like you Lori, I don't want to overshoot. It seems like Bix's pancreas is liking #s in the low 100s more than in the DDs, and I'm on the fence about shooting more aggressively to force the #s lower, or just letting things be, and if he runs a little bit high, he runs a little bit high. His pancreas clearly works, and his #s are consistently better than many cats even on insulin. It's a tough call. I've been shooting on some lower #s, but I'm not sure if the results really matter, it's all more or less in the same range. Oh well. Hoping his pancreas will just magically go to 100% one of these days & I won't have to navigate this maze!

confused_cat

 

[Anonymous]

gator i am using u100's, with only a few left and a boat load of u40's. i guess i don't know how to express what i'm shooting with a u100. i suppose it is 1 unit. and that would translate into about 1/3u on a u40 give or take. when i say 1/4u i really mean 1/2u on the u 100's.....so as not to confuse anyone (myself included) i stayed with the u40 language as i have many more of those in stock and will be using them soon.

joanna i too want out of this maze of guess work and shooting. ya know i remember back around the first time i actually missed the testing and shooting when it was all over. i felt a little lost for awhile, i think tomtom did too. i remember we use to go by the 5 P's to determine if all was well regardless of the #'s that were driving us mad.
peeing, pooping, purring, preening and playing.
if they're doing all that then just breath.
also we used to say we are giving our cats the 5 star treatment just by testing, feeding right, shooting and loving them to pieces.
what say to that?

 

[Gator & H (GA)]

Lori,

Each line on a U-100 syringe with 1/2 unit markings is 0.2U. Each marked unit on a U-100 syringe if filled with U-40 insulin is worth 0.4U of U-40 insulin [not 1/3 :smile: ]. You do want to stay with the U-40 language. But the language is very precise [until you get below 0.2U increments]. Also just so you are aware on a U-100 syringe with 1/2 unit markings, between two lines is worth approximately 0.1U of U-40 insulin.

When you do the insulin conversion chart it will tell you how much worth of U-40 insulin you are giving.

I'm not trying to be difficult with you - but I care that you report correctly what you are giving [and that you know who much you are giving]. It is important that you try to be as precise as possible in your dosing and language especially since you are giving so little insulin. For instance I'm finding that H is currently seemingly very sensitive to just 0.1U changes [and sometime even "0.05U" changes].

 

[Anonymous]

so what your saying is i've been giving closer to 1/2u than 1/3u?
ok, when i make the switch over to u40's i'll be doing the eyeball thing.
i don't know what is meant by a u40 insulin....i use pzi idexx, are'nt they all the same?
it's all so very very precise and the dose is so impeccably tiny...hope i'm getting close enough in reporting what i give. fortunatly i'm the only one shooting so I know what he's responding to and at least that's something.
tonights another night we're skipping a dose. +12 1/2 116. i'm riding these #'s slow and patient. he is gradually giving me better amps and better pmps. when i get more strips i'll do an evening curve to see what's going on there since all his higher #'s are amps.
could be that's just the cycle of shooting we're in.
3 days in a row of SID
i love my little guy :mrgreen:

 

[Gator & H (GA)]

so what your saying is i've been giving closer to 1/2u than 1/3u?

What I'm saying is that if you fill a U-100 syringe to the "1U" mark on that U-100 syringe with U-40 insulin then the amount of insulin you are actually measuring is 0.4U.

i don't know what is meant by a u40 insulin....i use pzi idexx, are'nt they all the same?

No not all insulins are the same - very important. Insulin can come in any strength. U-100 is most common for humans [like Lantus on Levimir] and U-40 is common for small animal insulins like PZI Vet. PZI Vet from Idexx is a U-40 insulin. Thus the different needles. One is SUPPOSED to use U-40 syringes with U-40 insulin and U-100 syringes with U-100 insulin [but many use U-100 syringes with U-40 insulin to give doses in more precise gradients]. I believe the "U" strength is the amount of insulin that is in on ml of solution. U-40 is a lower strength than U-100.

I hope I'm making sense.

Just to make sure, here is the conversion chart:
http://www.felinediabetes.com/insulin-conversions.htm