Hoping It's Okay to Skip Tonight's Injection

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Blamethecats and Hannah

Blamethecats and Hannah

Member Since 2014
I am new to this forum and the subject of diabetes. If it were during daytime and weekday hours, I would call our vet for advice. But it is after 9 PM on a Sunday evening and this forum can hopefully help. Hannah had her usual injection of ProZinc at 8:30 this morning. Her BG was at 406 prior to her injection. To this point in her treatment, her readings have been quite high and we haven't made much progress in getting her diabetes in control. Hannah gets 0.01 ml of ProZinc, twice a day. She was previously on a larger dose once a day but had a couple of very low BG readings approximately 6 hours later. Her vet decided to try the smaller doses twice a day, hoping to avoid this. She is a very tiny kitty with a finicky appetite, as well. I force her to eat when she does not eat on her own and she cooperates quite well. We monitor with an AlphaTrak glucometer. I tested her BG this afternoon at 2:10 PM. It was 273. Her last meal was 1/2 can of Fancy Feast Classic before her morning injection. At 3:00, she ate a little more FF on her own. At 8:00 PM, I tested her BG again and it was 190. We followed that with another small meal, about 1/3 can of FF. Her second injection should have been at 8:30 PM, but we did not follow through with it. With the way it had been dropping throughout the day, I didn't dare, as was afraid of a hypo episode during the night, with no help available. Is it okay to have skipped her evening dose? I didn't know what to do. This is all so new to me. I don't have the knowledge or experience to know what is okay and what is not. Had a teacher in high school that used to say, "When in doubt, leave it out." So that is what I did. Just don't know if that should apply to insulin and my precious baby. I sure would appreciate some good advice before I head off to bed. Thanks!
 
For people who are new to diabetes and post in this forum, we suggest a no shoot cutoff number of 200. Over time you'll have more data and know what your kitty does at lower numbers, but for now, you are OK to skip tonight.

For kitties that have gone hypo (very low BG readings), they can be very sensitive to insulin after that.
 
Thank you so much for your reply. I am now a bit less nervous about skipping tonight's injection. It is so good to have support and advice from folks who know what they are talking about! This is a wonderful forum. As a side note, Hannah seems to be having a good evening. You have one too. cat_pet_icon
 
Hi there, I am a newbie myself, just a few weeks participating on this board. It is a wonderful experience, especially knowing that you are not alone.

The only thing I would add to this discussion is that perhaps you might want to look at the last 8 hours of new posts. I had my own panic attack today starting around 8:30 am Eastern. I then noticed a number of new folks having slightly similar issues. All of us with our panic attacks received very consistent, and helpful, info. The major differences seem to concern the type of insulin and the length of time our kids have been on the insulin. I think if you looked at some of the posts from just today you would feel even more comfortable with the approach you are taking.

Tonight I am feeling a bit down...I feel like I let my Simmie down today but when I reread everything that has educated me from this board, I realize that I really have done the best I could do. That's another one of the great values of this site...helping us alleviate any misguided guilt.

Have a really nice sleep. You sound like a wonderful kitty parent.

'Night all!

ps - do your spreadsheet :-D
 
Lydette is right - the best way for people here to help you with decisions on dosing is to track your blood sugar tests in a spreadsheet format that we all use. Here are the instructions on how to set one up.

BTW - it's awesome that you are blood testing already and feeding the low carb foods. :thumbup
 
Thanks again to everyone who responded to my nervous post. You are the best! Hannah and I both slept well last night, although I think she ate some of her "sister's" DM kibble in the night. Her BG was way up this morning, but I expected that. She acted good, in spite of it. When things don't go right for us, I also feel like a bad mommy and blame myself for what's going on with her. Am just so uptight about this and you help to calm me down. Just knowing there are others out there in the "same boat" makes a difference. YES, I really do need to do the spreadsheet. Will attempt it when I have a few spare moments and hope it goes well. Thanks for the link to the instructions. Am so glad I found this message board! Thank you, again, and blessings to all of you and your furry babies.
 
Okay, after some confusion, think I've figured out the spreadsheet. It's easy to use... had more problems trying to figure out how to link and publish. Hope it's now working. Even though we've been at this for a couple of weeks, I started with yesterday's numbers because that was Hannie's first full day of BG testing prior to eating. Previously took readings after meals, but followed some good advice given on this message board and have now converted to before meals. Makes good sense to me. ;-) Please stick with me. I am learning.
 
Great start to the spreadsheet. Now you just need to add the amount of insulin given. Under the U(nits) column is where we keep that information.

If you want to share a picture of your kitty as an avatar (and please do, we love kitty pics), there are instructions on how to create/shrink a pic for an avatar here.

One last thing, we know Hannah is your kitty - what do we call you?
 
Wendy and Neko, I never even noticed the Units column. Thanks for bringing that to my attention. Still have a lot to learn about the spreadsheet, for sure. And... we now have an avatar. Hope to get a better pic of my baby, soon. Your link to the avatar "shrink link" was very helpful... and easy.
 
Aww, she is just beautiful. You are doing just great.

I love the way this website has been developed over the years. It's been done to consider the viewers needs but with consideration for the users abilities. I have found all the instructions and guidance solves the needs of both communities. I have been in high tech for over 25 years and this is one of the very best sites I have ever seen. Kudos to Rebecca, all the moderators, and caregivers of this site. While content is always 'king' for what we need this site is almost perfect. Thank you
 
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