How do I tell if my insulin is bad?

shivermewhiskers

shivermewhiskers

Member
Sophie hasn't been on insulin all that long, the expiration isn't until February either way and I am not shaking it, just gently turning it to mix like the vet told me. We started out in a hopeful direction and her diet hasn't been problematic but I can't get her blood sugar down. I'm getting really worried and I've been kind of paycheck to paycheck right now so I haven't booked with a new vet after this nightmare of my old one. They gave me this bottle for free supposedly because the expiration is close (February? Then again, this is my first bottle of insulin so IDK.) but now I'm wondering if its just bad because for a minute there we were heading down in a healthy way I thought, then I was having a few days where I got both high and low doses. Now its consistently high. If you look at my spread sheet, there are some blanks where I didn't take her BG because I knew it would be really high and it stresses her out so I didn't want to make her more stressed and spike it higher. There is one instance where I gave zero, and its because she really wasn't eating. She wants to eat, she doesn't seem nauseous. I think between her BG being so high and her teeth trouble she just isn't doing so hot unless I hand feed her. I was worried about how little she had been eating and even though it was high I was scared to risk it. She was doing so good because we added the b12 recommended to me to her diet. I was crushing it and mixing that with her dasuquin and welactin and syringe feeding it to her. SHe was regaining mobility again. Now shes starting to do what she did the last time it was too high. I had been giving her a calorie booster for a bit and cut it because I thought maybe that was triggering it being too high but shes been off it long enough that I should have seen results. Any suggestions for what I am doing wrong, or how to know if I just have crap insulin? At this point, I won't take her back to that vet. They've messed her up too often. Adjacent, any chance I can learn/give sub q fluids at home? I am worried that she is dehydrated and might go DKA. I am still learning all of this.
I'm sorry for the rambling post. This has been a rough time with a lot of setbacks. I feel so blessed to have a stubborn and resilient kitty, and this forum.
 
Unfortunately without any midcycle tests and/or BG curves I can't give much advice. If that 102 was real and not a bad strip, that tells me the dose may be too high. And without midcycle tests I can't tell you if insulin is working or not

Please do not skip insulin when numbers are that high (above 300), if uncomfortable shooting you can always do something like a half dose. The "recipe" for DKA is inappetence + not enough insulin + underlying infection/stress. So right now she kind of checks all of those boxes. Do you have ketone strips to check her urine? At this point if she's feeling poorly I'd test daily.

A lot of us do subQ fluids at home, but the vet has to be willing to teach you and give you supplies. But the key to warding off ketones is keeping her eating and keeping up with insulin, including dose increases as needed.

Are you sure she isn't nauseous? Does she kind of just hang around food and water bowls but not really eat? Lick lips? Sit in the meatloaf position? Have you tried raising her bowls so she doesn't have to lean down?

Can you do a BG curve any time soon? And start getting more midcycle tests in, both AM and PM?

Side note - the a/d food is a little higher carb than we like to see. Any specific reason that's what you're feeding?
 
FrostD said:
Unfortunately without any midcycle tests and/or BG curves I can't give much advice. If that 102 was real and not a bad strip, that tells me the dose may be too high. And without midcycle tests I can't tell you if insulin is working or not

Please do not skip insulin when numbers are that high (above 300), if uncomfortable shooting you can always do something like a half dose. The "recipe" for DKA is inappetence + not enough insulin + underlying infection/stress. So right now she kind of checks all of those boxes. Do you have ketone strips to check her urine? At this point if she's feeling poorly I'd test daily.

A lot of us do subQ fluids at home, but the vet has to be willing to teach you and give you supplies. But the key to warding off ketones is keeping her eating and keeping up with insulin, including dose increases as needed.

Are you sure she isn't nauseous? Does she kind of just hang around food and water bowls but not really eat? Lick lips? Sit in the meatloaf position? Have you tried raising her bowls so she doesn't have to lean down?

Can you do a BG curve any time soon? And start getting more midcycle tests in, both AM and PM?

Side note - the a/d food is a little higher carb than we like to see. Any specific reason that's what you're feeding?
Click to expand...

I'm no longer feeding A/D food, I was doing it because the previous diet debacle caused her to lose a dangerous amount of weight. She is now on Fancy Feast Chicken Feast Classic Pate. The list said it only had 3 on carbs. But she's eating about half of what she should, so I have to help her to get her to eat more. J think her teeth are bothering her because she's excited to eat and tries to eat, she just struggles with actually eating. So I alternate between mixing it with water or cubing it up sort of and feeding it to her on a fork. She doesn't have her front teeth so it helps her. Shes drinking well, though starting to drink more in the last day. I won't skip again, thank you for the guidance. I'm trying to get her back where we were before that bad couple weeks with that awful hills diabetic diet.

I was thinking I should do the curve and saved the links, but I've been waiting for my schedule to be right because I'm the only one able to do any of the readings/insulin for her. I have time on yhe coming schedule. I thought I had to do it alongside a vet though so I will have to reread the guide.

I think I have ketone strips in my cupboard. I will check it asap.
 
Ok would you mind updating signature when you get a chance? That still says A/D.

You could also try mixing more water in with her food, it will help get her more water and maybe easier for her to eat?

And no, no need for curve to be done with a vet! Just test the BG every hour for 12 hours, but honestly even every other hour is good.

I know you said finances were tight, but any chance you can get the teeth taken care of? I'm sure that's contributing to her high numbers as well
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top