How to adjust for Lower BG Numbers?

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oreosmom

Member Since 2012
Hello,

As some of you have read, Oreo is a very special cat with GI lymphoma. He is on chemo drugs and Prednisilone. So the ideal BG range for Oreo is around 100-200. We are using the Alpha Trak 2 meter.

Oreo has been using 3 units Landus twice daily for several months. At the advise of our vet, my husband and I did not test daily for the first few months. Then we started doing our own weekly curves. One night , we realized that he was dipping from his usual high 200's to 89. Yikes! We phoned the vet and did not give insulin that night, and gave him high carb food. Then went back to 3 units as directed.
We are now testing 3 times a day. Before meals, and at one nadir. Overall, his numbers are lowering. His numbers today were 200 at 5:00 AM, 144 at 11:00 AM and 127 at 5:00 PM.
We felt that 3 units were to high and dropped to 2 units. Our vet felt it was better to keep him consistantly on 3 units even though the numbers were declining. Seriously, we feel as if we are playing Russian Roulette with three units. Our vet's tech said "don't worry, if he goes hypo, you will know it and can deal with the event when it occurs". We don't want to have an event at all!!!
Our vet said that consistancy with dosage and scheduling is very important, but what do you do when the numbers begin dropping? We wondered if you adjust the doses to the appropriate levels based on readings, or do you keep the insulin the same all the time?

We appreciate your advise on this.
Oreo's Mom and Dad
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Just like with a human diabetic when the numbers start going down we adjust the dose accordingly. With Lantus each increase and decrease needs to be done in small amounts no more than half a unit at a time. So with Oreo if he was mine I would drop him back to 2.5u and let that dose settle for a week or two and then run a curve again to see where that dose is taking him by the time he hits his nadir. Because you are right you are playing Russian Roulette if he is dipping that low & no you don't want a Hypo event to happen if you can prevent it and that is exactly why we test at home to prevent them from going hypo.

Mel, Maxwell, Autumn & The Fur Gang
 
Hi Sandy,

No the pred dose has not been changed. Our vet thinks it should remain the same since he has lymphoma as well as the diabetes. I am interested in why you asked?

Thanks,

Oreo's Mom
 
Hi Oreo's mom
I was thinking that if the pred dose was decreased that his sugar may be running lower. My kitty Brie has either mast cell ca or lymphoma. He was started on pred too in the beginning of the month. His sugars have been running higher since starting the pred. I knew that this could happen and boy did it happen. I was pretty lucky the last four years. Brie's diabetes was so easy to manage and now managing his sugars is a work in progress.

Sandy
 
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