How do you know if you're using the wrong insulin

[WendyG]

Tysons numbers just seem to keep climbing up. I am probably just impatient, but I feel like I should see his number level off, or go down, and they just keep climbing, and I keep having to up his doses. Should it be the other way around? I also feel I may be feeding him too much. The vet had told me to increase his food from 3oz to 5 per serving which I though was way too much, so I did 4-4.5 because he seems so ravenous. I still feel like this is too much. He's only 8 1/2 pounds. How much do y'all feed your felines? I think 3oz should be enough each meal. i hate to overfeed when that's one of the main causes of diabetes to begin with.

 

[Kris & Teasel]

That 2 u dose got him down into yellow so you know it works. He's a bouncer though so you have those blacks. You haven't been at this very long and wonky numbers are very common at the start. We generally say to give an insulin a good 6 months to see how they settle on it. After that amount of time you'll have enough data to know if you need to try something else or not.

If he's underweight and always hungry let him eat. Split it into several small meals a day. When his BG is under better control the ravenous hunger should subside.

Re dose: keep increasing by 0.25 u every few days (around 4 cycles) until you see more yellow and blue on his SS. Then you can slow the rate of increase to hone in on the good dose range.

Re time to regulation: this can take months so a huge dose of patience is what you need. It's a marathon, not a sprint (often repeated here!).

 

[WendyG]

That 2 u dose got him down into yellow so you know it works. He's a bouncer though so you have those blacks. You haven't been at this very long and wonky numbers are very common at the start. We generally say to give an insulin a good 6 months to see how they settle on it. After that amount of time you'll have enough data to know if you need to try something else or not.

If he's underweight and always hungry let him eat. Split it into several small meals a day. When his BG is under better control the ravenous hunger should subside.

Re dose: keep increasing by 0.25 u every few days (around 4 cycles) until you see more yellow and blue on his SS. Then you can slow the rate of increase to hone in on the good dose range.

Re time to regulation: this can take months so a huge dose of patience is what you need. It's a marathon, not a sprint (often repeated here!).

Thanks. Again, I know I need to relax. Everytime I do, I dont again! I just dont like those blacks, they scare me. I keep telling myself he's acting fine. I just dont understand how he can act perfectly healthy, 150% better than before, and be in the black. I also dont understand why his number vary so greatly from one ear to the other when I take his BG. His right ear is always stupid low, so I've been pricking his left mostly and its so sore. his little ears are so paper thin. Sigh.. i just want to give the little guy a break.

 

[Djamila]

I second what Kris said about giving extra food right now. When a cat is unregulated, they can't use the nutrients in the food very efficiently, so they really do need extra food. Regular meals are also one of the ways that cats can stop themselves from bouncing too dramatically. I believe Steph posted on your other thread about how she had to experiment with the timing for her kitty to get his snacks and his BG to work together well. Since you work during the day, you might consider getting a timed feeder such as this one:

https://www.amazon.com/PetSafe-5-Me...d=1524535314&sr=8-3&keywords=timed+feeder+pet

That way you can put food in it and will open while you're away to give some snacks. And you can experiment with the timing on weekends when you can monitor. In general, you want to aim for snacks before the +6, but every cat is different.

It really shouldn't matter which ear you test as far as the numbers go. I'm guessing what you were seeing was meter variation. The meter can vary up to 20% and still be within allowed accuracy, and when you're looking at say 250, 20% variation means you could get anywhere from 200-300 on tests within seconds of each other. So it's okay to spread the tests around and give his left ear a little rest.

And yes, patience. It's so hard. But hang in there! We're all in this together!

 

[WendyG]

Thanks Djamila. I think the ear thing must just be me. The last time I tried the right one, the read out was 30. I had a mini heart attack, and tested the left ear and it was in the 400's. Maybe not enough blood, bad angle on my part? The ear always just seems colder too and he's not a fan of me trying to warm his ears too much, I think he knows whats coming, although he's getting much calmer about it, because he does like the cuddles. I'm getting better at relaxing I think, which will help him too.

I'll check out those timed feeders. The one time I tried to give him a snack at lunch time, his sugars went haywire. It was probably way too soon. Initially I wanted to do a 4 time a day feed, which would be 6:30, 12:30, 6:30, 12:30, but the vet knocked me down from that... of course. It just seemed logical from me, from back when I had active diabetes, eating smaller meals throughout the day, to maintain level sugars.

Thank you for the encouragement.

 

[Djamila]

Yes, some vets are still back in the old protocol of feeding twice/day. That's really not best for our kitties, just as you found with your own diabetes. Snacks are better for balancing out the highs and lows. It's just a matter of figuring out when to give the snacks. In general it's suggested to give the snacks before +6 since that's when the insulin is most active. Then withhold snacks later in the cycle when the insulin is wearing off. My kitty however goes sky high if he doesn't get a snack later in the cycle, and will give me much better numbers if he has a snack around +8 or +9. So every cat is different and it takes some experimenting to figure out what's best for Tyson.

And of course making certain that the food is low carb so it doesn't cause a giant spike in the numbers.

 

[WendyG]

Yes, some vets are still back in the old protocol of feeding twice/day. That's really not best for our kitties, just as you found with your own diabetes. Snacks are better for balancing out the highs and lows. It's just a matter of figuring out when to give the snacks. In general it's suggested to give the snacks before +6 since that's when the insulin is most active. Then withhold snacks later in the cycle when the insulin is wearing off. My kitty however goes sky high if he doesn't get a snack later in the cycle, and will give me much better numbers if he has a snack around +8 or +9. So every cat is different and it takes some experimenting to figure out what's best for Tyson.

And of course making certain that the food is low carb so it doesn't cause a giant spike in the numbers.

Makes sense. As far as snacks, what is recommended. Same food as he normally gets, just smaller portion? Would I just start dividing his meals into 4 smaller meals throughout the day?

 

[Djamila]

yes, in general same food as he normally eats. I feed my kitties a few different foods, so I have the feeder give them one of their other varieties, but still what I would call "normal" food for them. And yes, you divide how much food he needs throughout the day, remembering that right now he may need a lot of food until he gets better regulated. Especially given his weight loss over the past few months.

 

[WendyG]

yes, in general same food as he normally eats. I feed my kitties a few different foods, so I have the feeder give them one of their other varieties, but still what I would call "normal" food for them. And yes, you divide how much food he needs throughout the day, remembering that right now he may need a lot of food until he gets better regulated. Especially given his weight loss over the past few months.

Perfect, ty!

 

[Tilou]

This thread has been very helpful as I'm having a similar problem with Bob's numbers at the moment. Got him down in the yellow but then he shot back up and is now mostly red and black. He's always been a bouncer!

I've increased to 2.25ui over the last few days and I've got him on low carb wet food - no more kibbles. At night I set up an automated feeder to provide regular timed portions, otherwise he kicks up all night. During the day I've been trying to give him freshly cooked chicken (with some chicken liver every few days) to avoid carb content.

He was supposed to have a control BG at vet today, but she's rescheduled to see him on Thursday morning.

I'm wondering if I should up his dose to 2.5. Any thoughts appreciated.

 

[Djamila]

I'm wondering if I should up his dose to 2.5. Any thoughts appreciated.

Tilou, if you'd like to start your own thread, we'd be happy to take a look and help you with that! If we give you advice on someone else's thread like this, it will be hard for you to find it later if you want to reference it again. If you need help figuring out how to start your own thread just post here and I'll give you directions on that. I know it can be a little hard to figure this out at first!