Klinger 7/8 - Dose advice please

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Marcy & Klinger (GA)

Member Since 2010
Hi all,
I'm at a loss with Klinger's numbers...he was doing great - lot of blues and some green and then blamo we're in the reds. I just read through Marci and Buddy's post and I think I should reduce, but if you would take a look at Klinger's ss - that would be wonderful.

I'll reduce tonight, since I have to shoot in a few minutes...but I'm second guessing myself.

He seems to be acting normal - we've had a few heavy thunderstorms which could be causing some stress, but...????

Also, I'm still using the same vial - we're going on 7 months. nailbite_smile Maybe it's time for a new one?
I can't imagine it would just poop out like that, but maybe?

Thanks,
Marcy & Klinger
 
Hi Marcy,
I'm not one to give advice but I did go and look at your SS. To me it looks like it started on july 4th where the am shot looks to have packed no punch...and then got steadily worse from there. So not all that sudden.
Are you using a vial or a pen?
And I'm sure your handling right....but it does look like lack of punch from the insulin.
And I have used tom's pen for over 7 months so I don't think they all wear out.
Have you looked at it's expy date?
Shame to see her do so well and then this! I'm sure she will get back on track.
Not much help I suppose, but waving hello....
Lori
 
Oh no, Sheila!! Hope you feel better soon. Thanks for taking the time to post.
I gave him .75 tonight. If that doesn't do the job, I'll work on the increase.

Thanks to you to Lori. We are using the vial. The expy date is in 2013. If the decease and or increase doesn't work, I'll pick up a new vial and see if that's the cause.
 
You know, that's great question about the vial. So here's another - how long have you been using it? Do you inject air into it before you draw the insulin? Not sure if that makes a difference on the efficacy of Lev because with the pens, we don't inject air at all and they are in a vacuum. So air might make it become less effective over time.

Just a thought.

As for his spreadsheet, it does look to be all of a sudden. I don't think there's any harm in reducing the dose like you did. There's a possibility that he had a low which testing did not catch, but if so, he should have recovered some of those blues by now.

Also, anything change in his health, like eating habits, peeing, pooping normally, etc? He had quite a few reds in June too but regained some control after you raised the dose. Or it was a coincident that you didn't have AC at that time!

Another question, I noticed you've reduced his doses fairly often recently, without really seeing a low enough green to warrant the reduction. Why I'm pointing this out, is that the reds now could simply be because his shed has finally depleted and he can't hold the blue or green numbers now.

All kinds of confusing isn't it, but when the shed runs out of juice, it can cause a sudden change in overall numbers like this.

In that case, well .75U was the wrong direction to go! But it's worth a try, just don't wait too long to see if he comes down off the red ledge. I'd say 3 days max.

hope that helps.
 
Thanks, Vicky!

We've been using the same vial from when we made the switch to Lev in January. We try our best not to get any air into the vial, but I'm sure some gets in. We push the plunger in all the way to remove the air before we insert it into the vial...is there anything else we should do?

All p's are in place - the only thing out of the norm have been fireworks and thunderstorms.

I think I depleted his shed. Darn it! He remained in the 400's all night - well that I know of.
We've increased him this morning. Dose hopping :oops:

Sending extra purrs, prayers, and healing vibes to all of our furbabies and their beans today. :YMHUG:
 
dose hopping shmose hopping....you did exactly what i would have done.
tom is on his second pen since january. we must have made the switch at the same time Marcy.
i KNOW i get a little air in the pen. no much...but i also pust insulin back into the pen (which i hear is a no-no becuase of the silicone) but rebel that i am i don't waste insulin pumping it down the drain.
and at .2 doses, nobody gets that right without a bit of needle in the vial adjusting. :lol:
i think i'd call the company and ask about how long they expect a vial of insulin to be potent once in use.
that is what i would do.....just to hear it from them.
and next time maybe use pens.
lori
and tomtom giving high paws to klinger.
 
Just stopping in to say hi, I am watching all this great advise you are getting because it pertains to Alley right now. Can you believe so many of us are shooting under 1 unit? We are talking drops only. My vet still says it is impossible to get any reaction from these dosages. Very old school. Anyway, I am following your lead, hope Klinger gets back on track soon.
The Taurine does not seem to be making a difference, BUT I agree with you about the thunderstorms lately, they have been wicked up here too.
I haven't been posting because I always seem to find the answers I am looking for on someone else's posts. Monkey see, monkey do, that's me.
Fingers & paws crossed...
 
It may be that vials do lose potency. I was reading online way back when Beau was first diagnosed that the amount of times the rubber stopper gets punctured, AND the amount of air vs insulin in the vial effects potency. This was with vetsulin, but I bet it is the same with any insulin which is why someone developed the flex pens with their vacuum stopper bottom (top? opposite end to where the syringe goes).

Pam, your vet would never believe then that Beau could drop to 39 on .05u of lev. I think the disconnect there is that like all diseases, the base of knowledge on treatment comes from humans and humans don't go into remission. An awakening pancreas is just a totally foreign concept to medicine but if you think about the possess of slowly reducing the dose down to just vapors as resetting (rebootig to use a more modern term) the pancreas it makes sense - and that is greatly simplified because we would have to talk about insulin resistance etc.
 
Hi Pam!! It's great to see you on. Haven't the thunderstorms been crazy this past week!? The tornato sirens were going off on my street Thursday! The rain has been blessing tho.

I've increased to 1.5 tonight. I'll keep increasing his dose every three cycles - unless we see better numbers and we reach 2.25/2.5. If we don't see better numbers by then, I'll pick up a new vial.

Have a great night!
 
We increased to 1.5 last night.
So, I decided to give his ears a little bit of break today thinking I'm home all week, I don't want to kill his ears. In the past he hasn't shown much movement until we get to 2 units...

AMPS 336
+4 413 :YMSIGH: was going to get a +6 but got involved with paying bills...
+8 115, tested again 118 - huh???

That seems like a pretty big dive to me...any thoughts??
 
lori and tom said:
shed full, dose kicking in?

I hope so!
+9 91 :mrgreen: Well heellloooo Mr. Green. It's been a while since you popped up. :mrgreen:

Do I stay with 1.5? I don't want to make the mistake of reducing too quickly again. ohmygod_smile
 
That Klinger....up, down all around! These blue's and yellow's look much better though. :)

What is he liking to eat these days? I think you said the raw wasn't going over so well?
 
Hi Pamela, I think Klinger's doing the Hokey-Pokey and he turned himself about.

He stopped eating the raw mixed in with his FF. So we tried Before Grain and that lasted two meals...I think...and then he wouldn't touch the stuff. So, back to FF Classics for the moment.
 
Oh, Klinger. Once your mom thinks she has you all figured out, you go and throw numbers like this! How funny that he needed a kickstart again. That shed is a weird thing. I thought that lev in a vial only lasts 45 days? I've been tossing mine out (usually with about 1/4 vial left) after 45 days. Does it last longer than that? I can't believe you've been on the same vial for 7 months. Why did I think it's only good for 45 days??? I'll have to ask the other acromoms, too, but I think I'm one of the few who have insulin left in the vial after 45 days :o
 
That Klinger likes to keep me on my toes! I'm surprised it's been 7 months too. I should be able to get another vial tomorrow. It will be interesting to see if the strenght of the new vial will earn him some reductions.

Claudia, how's Charlie doing????
 
The dose reduction didn't go well at all. :evil: His p's were going down. I haven't updated his ss in several days, but there's not much to see. I'll try to get on that today. He is back up to 8.5u (we dropped down at 9 when we got a bg of 59 then 33). The best I've seen in this experiment is mid-200s. :? I'll probably go to 8.75 before 9. I'm scared to try 9 again. These cats are so unpredictable!
 
Claudia - the reduction did work in the sense that he wasn't going as low as 33. :-D ;-) Give Charlie some extra chin scritches from us.

Peggy, this diabetes game is very hard. I still feel like I don't know the rules of the game! ohmygod_smile
 
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