Hypo? Do I skip insulin tonight or change dosage?

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The 5 pack is 5 pens of 3 mL (300 units per pen).
Store on a refrigerated, non-moving shelf for longest life - 6 months in general.
 
BJM said:
The 5 pack is 5 pens of 3 mL (300 units per pen).
Store on a refrigerated, non-moving shelf for longest life - 6 months in general.
Click to expand...
Thanks. What is the shelf life for the 10 ml vial?

Trying to find a place that sells the 3 ml pens so I can pick it up quickly.
 
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Ask your local pharmacies - try Target - if they would sell you 1 pen (US). Check Craigslist. Sometimes hospital pharmacies will sell 1 at a time.

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Whatever container of Lantus you open is potentially good for about 6 months. Some people find they last less. Most people want to buy the pens because unless a cat needs a larger than average dose, they likely are able to use up every drop of a pen. If you get the 5 pack you can also sell some of them to another diabetic cat owner if you don't think you want to hold onto them in case you'll need all of them.

http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/lantus-levemir-info-proper-handling-storage.151/
  • Lantus is available in a 10ml vial, in a box of five 3ml cartridges designed for the refillable OptiClik Pen,
    or in a box of five 3ml prefilled SoloStar Pens.

    US RESIDENTS: Effective March 31, 2011, Lantus cartridges will no longer be available for use with the Lantus Opti-Clik Pen.
  • Levemir is available in a 10ml vial or in a box of five 3ml FlexPens FlexTouch® pens.
The syringes I used aren't available anymore, unfortunately. The manufacturer discontinued making them. I don't remember what size exactly, the needle was. It might have been a 31g.
 
Thank you for the info. My cat's BG went from 141 this AM to 75 awhile after I gave her her steroid med and food.
 
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That's actually good progress. If it's at all possible for a cat's pancreas to heal and for the cat to become diet-controlled, they typically need to spend hours in the range of normal blood sugar of a non-diabetic cat.

Blood sugar changes all the time - I'd assume by tomorrow morning's shot time she'll need another shot. If not tomorrow morning, perhaps tomorrow evening. Don't assume that because she got to 75 that she'll stay there for any length of time - that would be very unusual.

Did you give 2u of the Novolin this morning?
 
I assumed the steroid would spike the numbers up. I also assumed since NPH doesn't stay in the body so long, the numbers would charge up quickly. So much I have yet to learn.

I haven't given Novolin since Tuesday morning. Should I resume Novolin? I am afraid of having another hypo episode. From an earlier post on this thread from BJM, my understanding was to wait till the BG gets to 200 before giving insulin again.
 
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Yes, i agree with BJ that you could wait to 200 before giving any insulin - my only point was to not assume how long that might be. Sometimes people will see a number under 100 and take their cat off of insulin thinking that it means that the cat is now in remission. My vet actually did that with us - i just meant that you should continue to test twice a day so if it goes up you know it.
 
Day 4 off insulin. AM BG 105. Vet thinks there's a chance my cat may not need to go back on insulin if numbers stay good and low-carb diet continues. Also if my cat does ok on a reduced dose of steroids given daily. Close home monitoring will continue.

I'd be stunned but absolutely thrilled if my cat didn't need insulin again while on long-term steroids. Is that a possibility?
 
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Eh ... ECID (each cat is different). If you are really, really lucky, stick with the low carb diet, feed mini-meals to keep the glucose from having large spikes, you might be able to go diet-controlled.
With long-term steroids on board, though, I would be running a curve weekly just to make sure the glucose was at a good level consistently, as the risk is pretty high that having needed it once, it would be needed again. And be especially vigilant during infection - dental, bladder, respiratory are common ones.

 
That's my next step, learning and doing the weekly curve.

When you say "be especially vigilant during infection - dental, bladder, respiratory are common ones", are you saying these increase risk of diabetes?
 
Even without using insulin, your cat will be a diabetic - diet-controlled, if lucky.
Infection raises the glucose. Combined with the tendency not to produce enough insulin, it is likely that infection will result in very high glucose levels that will need treatment.
 
BG #'s still good since off insulin. Close to reaching the 1 week mark. Appetite is improved and my cat is acting like herself again.

Am I correct to assume after 2 weeks off insulin, she'll officially be in remission?
Will there be a point where I mat not have to test BG levels daily?
 
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At 2 weeks, she'll officially be off the juice. You might go to weekly, then monthly. Do keep an eye on the Secondary Monitoring Tools in my signature link - food intake and output, dehydration, behavior changes - on a regular basis. A scale is great for detecting weigh changes over time, which may be an indicator of an emerging condition.
 
So far BG #'s are still very good but I haven't done a BG curve yet. Where can I find instructions on how to do the curve?
 
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When you have a moment, could you add a few tidbits to your signature? It will help us give you feedback without having to go look in all your past posts.

Editing your Signature

In the upper right corner of the screen, within the dark blue bar, you will see ID, Inbox, and Alerts

Click on your ID.

On the left, under Settings, Click on Signature.
This is where you will put information that helps us give you feedback.
This is where you paste the link for your spreadsheet, once it is set up.
Add any other text, such as
your name,
cat's name,
date of Dx (diagnosis)
insulin
meter
general location
any other pertinent issues like if there are any food issues, history of DKA, hepatic lipidosis, pancreatitis, allergies, IBD, etc.
Click the Save Changes button at the bottom.

Always click the Save Changes button at the bottom when you have changed anything.
 
Done. Started to do a curve till a member pointed out one isn't needed while OTJ. Since BG #'s continue to be in the 70s and 90s, I haven't seen a need to create a spreadsheet at this time. Thank you again very much for your help and expertise.
 
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