Jeter's first blood test by me!

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Not familiar with the insulin your using but I would test a post for advice before you give it.

If you could do that an before would be ideal, but the time I don't know. Any suggestions Chris?
 
Don't be surprised if he's really high in the morning....it's called "bouncing"....when a cat drops too low, drops too quickly or just drops below where their body hasn't gotten used to being, the liver releases stored sugars and hormones to bring them back up fast

With him dropping into the 20's, he'll probably bounce pretty high by morning....BUT even if he's over 200 (which I suspect he'll be) you'll want to REDUCE his dose to .75 unit

With him only being at 69 tonight, 12 hours after his morning shot, 1 unit is obviously too much for him
 
postalbunny said:
Jeter is about 13. He was diagnosed in February and did fine for a while but I'm thinking I may need to switch insulin. He had lost weight both pre and post diagnosis and last I checked weighs 8 pounds. Pretty skinny and hasn't been grooming himself much.( though never did enough)
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You should discuss with your vet. Lantus, levemir, Prozinc, PZI are all good. And each is done differently.

No matter what you use someone here can help you with it. We can point you in the direction of buying and getting the most bang for your buck.
 
Chris & China said:
Don't be surprised if he's really high in the morning....it's called "bouncing"....when a cat drops too low, drops too quickly or just drops below where their body hasn't gotten used to being, the liver releases stored sugars and hormones to bring them back up fast

With him dropping into the 20's, he'll probably bounce pretty high by morning....BUT even if he's over 200 (which I suspect he'll be) you'll want to REDUCE his dose to .75 unit

With him only being at 69 tonight, 12 hours after his morning shot, 1 unit is obviously too much for him
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Chris & China said:
No more food for now....you will want to test every 3o minutes for at least 1 hour from the last time he got any food....and then test at least once more an hour later than that....so you're testing for at least 2 hours from the last food so you know for sure he's up and going to stay up without you having to continue to intervene with food or Karo
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Ok thanks so much Chris
 
postalbunny said:
His shot was at 6:15. I just fed him a couple teaspoons around 10;30 I think.
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We live all over the world here, so was 10:30 Eastern time? If so, I'd test again at 11:30

It would really help if you'd start our spreadsheet and start keeping track of his test numbers too. We really depend on seeing what's been going on with a cat before we like to give a lot of advice, especially using an insulin we aren't familiar with. Here are Instructions on getting the FDMB Spreadsheet

Another thing you can do really quickly is to get your signature lines filled out. Just go to the top right and find your sign on name and there's a drop down menu with "Signature" as a choice. Click there and a new box will pop up

Put information like Your name/cats name, age, sex, date of diagnosis, type of insulin, type of meter, type of food you're feeding and any other health problems...some of us like to put a general idea of where we live too

Once you have that, we won't have to keep asking you the same questions over and over again!

Once you have your spreadsheet set up, the link would go into your signature too
 
Chris & China said:
We live all over the world here, so was 10:30 Eastern time? If so, I'd test again at 11:30

It would really help if you'd start our spreadsheet and start keeping track of his test numbers too. We really depend on seeing what's been going on with a cat before we like to give a lot of advice, especially using an insulin we aren't familiar with. Here are Instructions on getting the FDMB Spreadsheet

Another thing you can do really quickly is to get your signature lines filled out. Just go to the top right and find your sign on name and there's a drop down menu with "Signature" as a choice. Click there and a new box will pop up

Put information like Your name/cats name, age, sex, date of diagnosis, type of insulin, type of meter, type of food you're feeding and any other health problems...some of us like to put a general idea of where we live too

Once you have that, we won't have to keep asking you the same questions over and over again!

Once you have your spreadsheet set up, the link would go into your signature too
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Brigit, my cat used to be on a harsher insulin, like Novolin, too. I would definitely err on the side of caution with his morning shot; Chris is absolutely correct, no more than 0.75U. I might even go down to 0.5U. Before you shoot, test and post your results, asking for dosing advice.

ETA: Please contact your vet in the morning to let him know what's happened!
 
Will you be home around 3 to 4 hours after his shot to check his BG levels? If not, please leave food out for him.

Both my kitties hypoed every shot on Novalin. If it wasn't for the food being out they probably wouldn't have made it.

I shot my Buzz for 5 months without home testing. He was showing signs of low BG but I was following the advice of my vet and not home testing. Woody at one time was at 13 units twice a day. The wonderful people here saw what was happening and advised lowering the dose. We all ended up surprised that Woody survived my bumbling attempts to manage is diabetes.

That bounce will look bad, but it will straighten out. If he were my kitty I would follow Chris' advice and only do .75. You'll see tomorrow evening what that did.

Also, you are feeding him 30 minutes prior to shot time?

What time zone are you in? I'll be up at 6:00 central time
 
Squalliesmom said:
Brigit, my cat used to be on a harsher insulin, like Novolin, too. I would definitely err on the side of caution with his morning shot; Chris is absolutely correct, no more than 0.75U. I might even go down to 0.5U. Before you shoot, test and post your results, asking for dosing advice.
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Ok thanks
 
postalbunny said:
The needle is so small I'm not sure I can measure out .75
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Here's a picture of .75...but this picture is using a U100 insulin syringe with half unit markings....Since Novolin is a U40 insulin that uses a U40 syringe, you'll just need to do the best you can

You might want to just go to .5 (without lines, again, you'll just have to eyeball it)....but you can play with it tonight with some colored water of some kind (tea, coffee, koolaid) and decide where you want it to be....that way you'll have something to compare to in the morning
.75 unit dose.jpg
 
Mum of two felines said:
Will you be home around 3 to 4 hours after his shot to check his BG levels? If not, please leave food out for him.

Both my kitties hypoed every shot on Novalin. If it wasn't for the food being out they probably wouldn't have made it.

I shot my Buzz for 5 months without home testing. He was showing signs of low BG but I was following the advice of my vet and not home testing. Woody at one time was at 13 units twice a day. The wonderful people here saw what was happening and advised lowering the dose. We all ended up surprised that Woody survived my bumbling attempts to manage is diabetes.

That bounce will look bad, but it will straighten out. If he were my kitty I would follow Chris' advice and only do .75. You'll see tomorrow evening what that did.

Also, you are feeding him 30 minutes prior to shot time?

What time zone are you in? I'll be up at 6:00 central time
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Chris & China said:
Here's a picture of .75...but this picture is using a U100 insulin syringe with half unit markings....Since Novolin is a U40 insulin that uses a U40 syringe, you'll just need to do the best you can

You might want to just go to .5 (without lines, again, you'll just have to eyeball it)....but you can play with it tonight with some colored water of some kind (tea, coffee, koolaid) and decide where you want it to be....that way you'll have something to compare to in the morningView attachment 19685
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Ok will do
 
Mum of two felines said:
Will you be home around 3 to 4 hours after his shot to check his BG levels? If not, please leave food out for him.

Both my kitties hypoed every shot on Novalin. If it wasn't for the food being out they probably wouldn't have made it.

I shot my Buzz for 5 months without home testing. He was showing signs of low BG but I was following the advice of my vet and not home testing. Woody at one time was at 13 units twice a day. The wonderful people here saw what was happening and advised lowering the dose. We all ended up surprised that Woody survived my bumbling attempts to manage is diabetes.

That bounce will look bad, but it will straighten out. If he were my kitty I would follow Chris' advice and only do .75. You'll see tomorrow evening what that did.

Also, you are feeding him 30 minutes prior to shot time?

What time zone are you in? I'll be up at 6:00 central time
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Trying to figure out things-sorry. No I'm working tomorrow usually feed everyone at 5:20 or so and give Jeter his shot an hour later. He takes a long time to eat usually. will figure out a way for leaving out the food. Thanks for all the help! I'm on Eastern time.
 
Good luck, and don't feel bad, we've all been there! It's quite a learning process, but you'll be amazed at how quickly you begin to assimilate it all! :):):)
 
postalbunny said:
Trying to figure out things-sorry. No I'm working tomorrow usually feed everyone at 5:20 or so and give Jeter his shot an hour later. He takes a long time to eat usually. will figure out a way for leaving out the food. Thanks for all the help! I'm on Eastern time.
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You are doing great! If you need help setting up the spreadsheet there are numerous people here that can do it for you. Just let us know. In the am start a new thread with the prefix ?
 
My cat gets a tiny dose that is very hard for me to see. I have found that if I hold it horizontally against a white or light colored background, just like in the picture Chris posted, it is easier to see how much I have drawn up. Glad he's up to 114, he's headed in the right direction! :)

ETA: Sometimes holding it up to the light can help, too!
 
Make sure you test before you feed in the morning...it's good that you don't shoot right away (usually we say to wait 30 minutes) but that will give you a little time to post if he's below 200 in the morning (which I doubt he will be, but he's a cat!!:cat::cat::cat:)
 
If you do need advice on shooting, make sure your subject line says something like "STALLING...NEED HELP!".....so you'll hopefully get someone's attention...you can always change it later once you have someone's attention

We have people from all over the world here, so there's usually someone around pretty much 24/7
 
Hi all,

I'm pleased and relieved to see that Brigit and Jeter are safe and well. Thanks to everyone who pitched in to help last night; there was no way I could have stayed (I'm utterly exhausted these days).

@postalbunny - Be sure to let your vet know that the dose was too high and be sure to keep testing, even on the reduced dose.


Mogs
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postalbunny said:
He seems a little better..I'm kicking myself
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Don't kick yourself, whatever you do. You are learning, just as we all are every day. You're doing great, seriously. Just by starting hometesting and insulin etc you have taken some really positive steps. The people on the board are here to guide you through. We would never learn if we didn't make a few mistakes along the way!
 
Just a quick bit of information here. My cat was previously on Novolin N and his insulin was a U100 not the U40 as someone mentioned above. Do your syringes have the orange cap? If so then you are using the U100 syringes which I think is the right one to use for Novolin N. Maybe another Novolin N user can weigh in here with their syringes?
 
postalbunny said:
..I'm kicking myself
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Please try not to be so hard on yourself, Brigit. :bighug: So many of us arrive here with wrong doses and little or no instruction from a vet on how to manage our diabetic kitties. Instead of beating yourself up, you should be congratulating yourself on your decision to learn more in order to help Jeter. In particular you should give yourself one HUMUNGOUS pat on the back for choosing to learn to home test. That decision you made protected Jeter last night. Well done! :)

And have another :bighug:.


Mogs
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Yes I have the u100 syringes with an orange cap. They hold 50 units and I didnt see half unit markings unless I am reading it wrong. Vet visit today- Jeter has a fever and is started on antibiotic with blood drawn for a full panel. The vet is thinking he is anemic due to the thin quality of the blood and that this could indicate that his kidneys aren't functioning well. Will find out more when the panel comes back. In the meantime he said to hold off on the insulin.
 
postalbunny said:
Yes I have the u100 syringes with an orange cap. They hold 50 units and I didnt see half unit markings unless I am reading it wrong. Vet visit today- Jeter has a fever and is started on antibiotic with blood drawn for a full panel. The vet is thinking he is anemic due to the thin quality of the blood and that this could indicate that his kidneys aren't functioning well. Will find out more when the panel comes back. In the meantime he said to hold off on the insulin.
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Glad that you took him to the vet! And you did a great job last night! I know that you had to have been terrified!
 
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