Low reading

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Laura13

Member Since 2014
Tested Rupert this morning and his levels were 23.3. Tonight they are 6.4. I haven't given him any insulin, is that the right thing to do? I'll try and test again tonight before we go to bed, it will be +2
 
If you can't do any additional testing there's probably not much else you can do. It's a shame because these are the sorts of numbers you want to keep him in to give his pancreas a chance to heal.
 
That's right, Laura. No insulin at that preshot.
You can 'stall'; that is, don't feed, and test again later to see if you get a shootable number. (But that may throw your shooting schedule off if you need to wait long enough for that 6.4 to rise to a number you're comfortable shooting at.)

Rupert does seem to throw these occasional low preshots. If you continue to get preshots that are too low too shoot it might be worth considering reducing the dose a tad in hopes that you can arrive at a dose you can shoot consistently, am and pm.
It may be though that some of the high numbers are caused by Rupert dropping low during the insulin cycle, and swinging up high as a response to that (what we call 'bouncing'). Without some mid-cycle data it's not going to be possible to work out the full story.

Does Rupert have any history of ketones at all?

Best wishes,

Eliz
 
I've already fed him so I can't stall.

As for ketones, I'm not sure. We don't test for them and I think last time we were at the vet they tested but I don't remember the result, it was a while ago. When we were in the diagnosing stage I brought the special litter home with the syringe thingy to get a sample of his urine. It took two hours for him to urinate. I am not in a hurry to do that again, I had to stay with him in the bathroom otherwise he would have scratched the door down. What do ketones show?

We can get some mid-cycle data this weekend. I don't expect the levels to stay low, they'll probably be up again by morning.
 
that's a bounce. It's normal. His body isn't used to being that low .
I have to agree. That jump up absolutely looks like a 'bounce'....

In fact, this test result is very useful data in that it seems to be further evidence that Rupert may have a pattern of dropping too low and then bouncing.
(Laura, "too low" doesn't necessarily mean 'hypo low'. Bouncing can be triggered just by the blood glucose dropping lower that the cat has become accustomed to.)

It would be good to know how low Rupert is actually dropping. It could well be that a dose reduction is needed.
Laura, did I read somewhere that you may be able to get some more tests in over the weekend...?

Eliz
 
Yes, we have no plans this weekend so should be home to test during the day. I'm interested now to see how often he gets these low numbers. I've dropped his insulin to 1.25 units now. BG was still up this morning.
 
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