Just did first glucose test at home.....

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higgs

higgs

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Hi Everyone,

I just did my first blood test on my cat tony - it was easy.

He's already eaten this morning, and had a 4 unit shot of insulin at about 7:45am. it's now 9:43 and the reading i got was 550!!!

he was on 2 units, twice per day... but after a glucose curve at the vet, they upped it to 4 units in the AM and 3 units in the PM.

Since he's already had his first shot today, what can i do until next feeding/insulin shot?
 
I guess what i mean is that i know that number is high... should i be concerned that something could happen today?

the biggest problem is that he is on dry prescrip food... i wanted to switch to wet low carb... but obviously wanted to wait till i had a meter to test him to avoid hypo.

so, wet low carb pate it is!

i just need some reassurance that i don't need to bring him to the vet with a number in the 500's today.

thankS
 
Make your food switch gradually.

A little more wet food each day and a little less dry food.

That's a high dose of insulin, and if you switch all at once that could spell trouble.

For one thing, some cats do not tolerate sudden food switched (tummy problems).

For another thing, switch to low-carb food will lower the BG quickly by 100 points or more.

It would be good for you to have some KetoStix from the pharmacy (ask pharmicist...not expensive)
and check pee, especially if he stops eating.

That's high, and keytones are always a possibility when the BG is that high.

Be sure he keeps eating.

For today, it would be useful if you could get a BG reading around +6 (6 hours after shot given).

And what is the insulin ?

We love questions, so don't hesitate to post.
 
thanks!

he's on Caninsulin right now... i asked the vet about Lantus and he agreed that it's a good one but stated that most of his patients are on caninsulin... but I'll likely make the switch when the vile of caninsulin is done (won't be long with 7 units per day!)

he eats normally! so that part is ok. he was just at the vet thursday - no keytones. I'll grab some sticks today though.

I'll make the gradual switch to wet low carb...
 
How do you feel about getting in some spot checks, 2 hours after insulin, 4 hours after insulin, 6 hours after, 8 hours, (+2,+4, +6, +8). It would be good to see if the high dose of Caninsulin is bringing the BGs too low and then causing them to go up.

If you do go with wet food only, I'd highly suggest you lower the dose. BGs come down naturally on diet change. My newly adopted kitty, I got him two weeks ago, he's off insulin on diet change alone, he immediately came off, same day he arrived, for some cats it's fast. In my cat's case I'm assuming less stress at my home was a factor too, but diet was a huge part of it.
 
He ate Friskies white fish and tuna wet food and had a 3 unit caninsulin shot 1 hr ago.

I measured his glucose just now and it's down to 480... so that's a good start...

he had a bit of dry food before the wet because he grazes a bit and i left it down. I picked up the dry food now :)
 
Tested him a few times yesterday too and his sugar was down at 330 on the last test.

didn't get to test him this morning before shot (late for work) but my fiance will throughout the day as she's home.

So - if his blood sugar is coming down with the change in food, and I'm only scheduled to go back to the vet in 2 weeks, should i change the amount of units i'm giving him?

The vet increased his units of Caninsulin from 2U twice daily, to 4U's in the morning and 3U in the evening. (but that was with him eating prescrip. dry food.) He's now on low carb wet food.

If his sugar is consistantly in the 300's or lower, should i consider backing off on the dose? is there a chart or spreadsheet somewhere that can suggest the amount of insulin (assuming it's the same for all cats) relative to the amount of blood sugar before giving the shot etc?

thanks!
 
We should see where his sugars are. 300s are still high.

You might see big drops in his BGs now that the diet is changing, if you do start to see that then a dose reduction is probably best. Do you have high carb foods on hand, just in case? Have you and your fiance seen the hypo instructions? That may not happen at all, but it's always good to know this stuff, get prepared now so that in the middle of the night someday, should you need it, you have a "hypo toolkit" on hand.
 
We still have some prescrip dry food (hills M/D), some whiska's dry (old food that we used to give him) and some of his old treats (whiska's) - we also have some honey...

One more question about testing that i can't find the answer to...

Shoud i test him Before eating, and before insulin? or should i test him after eating, but before insulin?
 
Before eating and insulin. Otherwise you are likely to be seeing a food spike if after eating.

Mel, Maxwell and The Fur Gang
 
That is a huge increase in insulin :( Doses should be increased by only 0.5 units at a time (in the vast majority of instances anyways). You may see high numbers from rebound or who knows why...without being methodical, its going to be tough to know what is going on.
 
yea i agree - it's a high dose so it does have me concerned, especially with his blood sugar coming down consistantly with the food change. I still let him graze on some prescrip dry food, but only put about a 1/4 to 1/2 cup per day down.... he doesn't even touch it though since he loves his wet food :D.

I'll be honest, i've only been giving him 3 units twice per day because i switched his food and can test his blood at home now.

tonight i will test him before the shot and 1-2 hours after the shot...

This coming weekend, I plan on doing (at least) a 12 hour glucose curve to see how his sugar changes over time. I have a GC scheduled at the vet in a week and a half - so i think i might cancel it since i'm all set up at home now, but we'll see i guess i should chat with the vet first.
 
the process is to test the BG, feed & shoot the insulin, all in a row in that order, as quickly as you can get through the process. a lot of people inject the insulin while the cat is eating because they are usually distracted. Food increases the blood glucose (BG) so if you test after they've eaten, you're seeing a number that is raised by the food. you want to make sure that there is 2 hours between having eaten and testing, otherwise you're not seeing "accurate" numbers. The only exception to that is when you're treating them if their numbers have gone too low (hypoglycemia) in which case you feed and test every 15 minutes. A great plan is to test every 2-3 hours over your waking hours - 3 days of that will give you a ton of information, but even a day will tell a lot.

when you're comfortable with the testing, get rid of the dry food 100%. positively no grazing with dry food. a few kibbles will raise your cat's BG for hours, 1/4 cup could last a day. you can't get control of the BG with any dry food. we don't use it for treating hypoglycemia because it takes too long to take effect and it lasts too long.

the tools you need for treating a hypo are high carb cat food as the first line of defense and karo syrup (or honey, or pancake syrup) as the next tool.

Here's some helpful info for you:
canned food info - low carb is less than 10carbs: http://binkyspage.tripod.com/canfood.html
how to set up a spreadsheet: http://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=18207&start=0
how to treat a hypoglycemia: http://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=1122

that will keep you busy for a bit! and welcome! good for you for taking the best steps for your cat!
 
Cool :) We have a few folks in BC, several of us in Alberta :), one or two in Sask and MB, many in the GTA and some in the atlantic provinces, so please let us know if we can provide local help.
 
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