Low numbers - hypo 2 days ago

[Tara & Buster]

I am new to home testing. I was able to do the first one at lunch today and Buster read 33. I hadn't found the handy bit of information on what to do with low numbers yet, so I fed him 1/2 can W/D and was not able to test again until now (my husband was home to watch him). This test came up with 49.

2 days ago, kitty went hypo and I had to get him to ER. He was on 3.5u Lantus.

Today's dosing:
7:15am 2.5u Lantus
11:30 test - 33
7pm test 49

Is it normal for him to be so low? He is really fighting the testing - I wasn't going to push it anymore tonight. I plan to try to test again later tonight. If it's a battle I will at least feed him some very low carb wet food before retiring.

Tara & Buster

 

[MommaOfMuse]

Absolutely do not give him insulin when he is that low!!! Anything under 50 is an automatic reduction in dose. Since you are just getting use to home testing and have switched him over to a low carb diet I would drop him way back in dose to either .5u or 1u twice a day and keep testing. I've been a care giver to FD cats now for 3 years and I still will not shoot below 100. You can alway go up if it isn't enough insulin but as you know you can't get it back out once it is shot. I would much rather see your baby a little bit too high for a few days than for him to be too low for a moment again.

One of the big keys to getting them use to testing is...TREATS!!!! Find a nice low carb treat that he really loves, this can be any type of meat, cream cheese, sardines, human tuna etc. Or even a non-food item like for my Maxwell there is nothing in the world he loves more than a good brushing so when I was training him to except home testing I would start by brushing him at his testing spot, once I got him relaxed, purring and drooling (Yeah he is a happy drooler) I would lean in for a quick ear poke, followed by more brushing. Now for Autumn her happy trigger is tiny pieces of either plain boiled (no spices) or raw chicken breast...she will crawl over broken glass for that so that is her treat at testing time, Musette it was low fat cream cheese...so you just need to find something Buster puts a high value on for a treat and use that. Cats are smart it doesn't take them long to figure out that a tiny little poke in the ear is worth it for their favorite treat. In fact Autumn who is my only insulin dependent girl at the moment will actually now come looking for me if I'm running late at test time to remind me that she needs to be tested.

Mel, Maxwell, Autumn & The Fur Gang

 

[Blue]

I am new to home testing. I was able to do the first one at lunch today and Buster read 33. I hadn't found the handy bit of information on what to do with low numbers yet, so I fed him 1/2 can W/D and was not able to test again until now (my husband was home to watch him). This test came up with 49.

2 days ago, kitty went hypo and I had to get him to ER. He was on 3.5u Lantus.

Today's dosing:
7:15am 2.5u Lantus
11:30 test - 33
7pm test 49

Is it normal for him to be so low? He is really fighting the testing - I wasn't going to push it anymore tonight. I plan to try to test again later tonight. If it's a battle I will at least feed him some very low carb wet food before retiring.

Tara & Buster

Hi Tara,
I am not too sure how you got up to such a high dose, but I think you need to drop back to the suggestions of .5u or 1u because the dose is way too high.
Just stick to a lower dose, maybe 1u, and get used to testing regularly.
You want to test before every shot... I don't want to think if you had not tested, and Buster was 33 and you gave him his usual dose.

Keep up the testing as you have been... at shot time and then somewhere in mid cycle. In the evening, just test before the shot again and get a before-bed test, just to make sure Buster's not gone low again as some cats do go lower at nite.