How do I know the insulin is working? How long?

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stan_disuko

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Hello again!

I love this forum...what wonderful advice from such a caring and giving community. I hope to be able to contribute once I have more experience with my newly-diagnosed-diabetic-kitty (eddie).

I have a question about the insulin and how long it takes to um..."start working".

My vet basically diagnosed eddie with diabetes and gave him Caninsulin with a dosage of 2-units every 12 hours.

He's had 3 injections so far. His BG has gone down only slightly before each injection...is this a good sign? Should it continue to go down until he's "regulated" and stops drinking/peeing all the time? My vet didn't really get into this with me, and at the time i didn't ask...

Should I expect his BG to keep going down with every shot?
 
You can test his bg's for determining that.


I tested Simba a ½ hour, and 1 hour after having given the insulin dose, and then after 1 ½ hour, and after 2 hours.

In Simba's case it was after 1 ½ hour, but I am sure this vary from cat to cat, so you have to test to find out what is the most correct time for Eddie.
 
hi,

i'm guessing you might be in the uk?
caninsulin is an intermediate acting insulin. It's peak action is usually around 3 to 4 hours.
If the bg is lower at each pre shot that is a good sign, but you need to be testing at 3,4 and maybe 5 hours.

I would really recommend you read the stickies in the caninsulin forum, gives some excellent guidelines to follow.
Caninsulin is not a brilliant insulin and certainly not one of choice these days. Sadly vets seem to be behind the times as there are much better ones out there. Lantus and levemir are excellent but bth are human insulins and vets in uk seem reluctant (and posibly have their hands tied) to prescribe it.
There is however Prozinc now available and this is for animals. Not used myself but seems to have had very positive comments (see PZI forum-not sure how busy that is now.)
However, for now concentrate on caninsulin, read as much as you can here and keep asking questions.

A regulated kitty needs to be around 140 maximum to say they are regulated. Hard to do on your insulin, but I have seen it done.As kittys numbers come down then you will see a decrease in peeing and ravenous eating.Hopefully weight gain and better coat too.

The ethos of this forum is start low go slow, so usually would have started on 1unit and increased.
To do smaller doses (.2u) you would need to buy the 1/2 unit marking syringes and convert using the chart http://www.felinediabetes.com/insulin-conversions.htm

What food are you giving? Have you looked at the carb content? wet defo over dry (can have up to 50% carbs in it!)
This can also bring bg's down but need to be careful if change as already on insulin, can end up that giving too much insulin.Easy to do if you test reglarly.

Lastly, his bg's won't necessarily keep going down (ace if they do but then you need to do the time tests i said above or kitty could drop too low)
Good luck :mrgreen:
 
thanks everyone. sounds like i need to do a couple things...

- inquire about a different insulin
- do a glucose curve to really understand how the current insulin and dosage is affecting eddie
 
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