Lantus and dosing questions by Betty and Bear

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I just realized I gave you a dumb answer to your question about feeding snacks. If your trying to simulate a normal day, when you wouldn't be at home to feed her snacks (duh), then I guess you should only give her extra food if the numbers she gives you warrant the food to try to level off or raise her numbers.
What you see might convince you whether or not it makes sense to look at a timed feeder?
Carl
 
Betty - you and Bear are doing so good!
Carl has been giving great advice and support - you all deserve a great big:
drinking24

Good luck on the curve - its not as bad as you think :-D
 
Hi-Probably nobody on this early, but Bear's preshot BG =159. I assume that is too low to give shot, so won't. I wanted to be able to test her am +4 and +6 to see if OK while I'm at work-but I guess that is not happening. She'll be high again tonight, so was hoping to give shot to get pm preshot lower. Am I doing the right thing?
Betty
 
Carl/BMJ-Need some advise. Will I ever be able to give a morning shot? I'm suppose to do my curve tomorrow morning for my vet. What am I going to do if she is low again? Could you let me know what a curve would look like on a well regulated cat? What would its am BG be? Iguess I don't know what we are trying to achieve. I reread your post from last night and you said shoot low to stay low and you may start out at 100 preshot and still give .25. When do you get to the point where it's ok to shoot at 100. Will Bear's pm drops start being less dramatic? I know I sound like a broken record but when will I know it is ok to give her a shot in the morning?
Thanks
Betty
 
Betty,
Even though you didn't give insulin this morning, go ahead a get a +4. Let's see if Bear's pancreas is trying to keep her numbers down.

I'm going to ask a couple of lantus users who've had to deal with this type of situation before if they can offer some of their wisdom.

Carl
 
You might have missed this yesterday

With the large drops on tiny doses, there are 2 options you might consider that may help manage it more easily (not better, just less stressful)

1) switching to a less concentrated, non-depot insulin such as Prozinc. This would let you microdose more easily as it has 40 units per mL, not 100 per mL like Lantus, plus there is minimal carryover shot to shot.
OR
2) slightly increasing the carb level (stay at or under 10% calories from carbs) so you'd have a high enough glucose level to shoot consistently.

Other than those options, go to a 'fat' 0 tonight or about 1 drop. Bear is looking very much like a cat who wants to go off the juice (OTJ), you lucky soul!
 
Carl-Sorry I just read your post so I missed the +4 reading. I actually slept most of the day and didn't figure I had to do anything testing wise until this evening.

BMJ-What food would you sugget? Why would I purposely try to raise her numbers with food? Do you feel it is important to give the two shots ?


BMJ gave me three options. I need some help deciding what is the best route to take. Can you imagine me telling my vet Monday I did my curve using 1 drop of insulin rather than 1 unit?

Thanks
Betty
 
Just another thought. I sometimes wonder if something else isn't up with Bear that is causing the higher BG. She still seems to have some URI issues. She has been fighting it off and on since June. I remember someone suggesting some outside lab work for that. Her URI isn't bad. You can just hear her nose is a little stuffy sometimes when she breathes. But I don't think a URI would cause a 3lb weight loss though.
Betty
 
hello betty. carl asked a few of us to take a look at what's going on with bear.

have you been keeping a written log of some sort? the reason i'm asking is it has now become more important than ever to share all your test results by putting them into a spreadsheet or giving them to us in the format we used before spreadsheets.

an example taken from my cat's spreadsheet yesterday (this is how it looks if you don't use a spreadsheet):

2/15/13

(+12.25) AMPS 115 (2.4u) - fed LC meal
+4 121
+5 75
+6.5 48 - fed LC meal
+8.75 65
(+11.25) PMPS 65 (2.4u) - fed LC meal
+3.25 115
+4.75 85
+6 69
+7 51 - fed LC meal
+9 89

bear is responding very, very well to lantus! at this point and after reading through your threads, i think BJM's suggestions may be a tad premature. if you can present us with the data we need to offer suggestions... we can help. until then, it's almost impossible for any of us to offer dosing advice responsibly. we certainly don't want to cause bear any harm. do you think you can work on putting the information/data together so we can take a look?
it'll go a long way towards helping us help you...
 
Betty

I'm another that Carl asked to hop in and offer help. What I can do for you is set up the Spreadsheet. I've done it for many, many new members who feel overwhelmed with everything else going on. It will take me just a few minutes.

If you would like to take me up on my offer, please just PM me so we don't clog up your condo further, ok?
 
If you were feeding 4-5% and only able to shoot once a day, feeding 7-8% might let you shoot consistently twice a day. It might help moderate the sudden drops, too. Since many cats go lower at night, feeding a very slightly higher carb dinner might help prevent him from going too low when you're trying to sleep.

Lantus, according to the manufacturer should not be diluted, so it is difficult to measure precise doses under 0.5 units. ProZinc is already at a lower concentration (U-40, or 40 units per mL), so micro-dosing can be done as low as 0.2 units when using a conversion table with U-100 syringes.

A chronic URI may impair the ability to smell, which may make food less appetising. This could reduce appetite and thus cause weight loss. If it is feline herpes, adding the amino acid lysine may help supress it. If it is some other respiratory infection, IDEXX offers several respiratory panels on bloodwork. That was how I discovered Spitzer had a form of bartonella and got him on the proper treatment. He was always mildly stuffy, not severly ill.

If there is an ongoing source of infection, that could be what is elevating the glucose. Treatin that could eliminate the need for insulin, given how low Bear is already.
 
Hi everyone-not real good with computers so couldn't post new type of spread sheet but I started a new topic-Bear's numbers please help which hopefully gives the info needed to give some advise.
Thanks
Betty
 
Hi-I thought I would use my other post for Bear's numbers only. I did note on it though that her PMPS # keeps getting higher every night with no insulin in the AM.
Thanks
Betty
 
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