Need some help - to shoot or not to shoot?

[jmason7]

I need some advice. I am trying to get my Lucky cat on a consistent dosing schedule. His numbers usually run anywhere between 105-150 so it seems like I am chasing his insulin. Meaning, I will give him .20 when it gets closer to the 150 mark and then do nothing for 2 days until it seems to creep back up there again. I can't imagine this is the best way to go. So here I am at PM shot time and his BG is a 117 - I am tempted to give him a .20 to see where that puts his levels over the next 12 hrs. I was really trying to get him regulated where I can give him the lowest dose at .20 at morning AND night or just get him off insulin completely. Is this unrealistic? Like I said, I am tempted to just try the .20 at a 117 level and see how low that goes.

I can't imagine this is healthy for him to let him slowly build up to a point where I need to give him insulin and also I am leaving for vacation in a few weeks and my neighbor will give him insulin but won't be doing the ear pricks to test his levels.

Thanks!

BTW - he is on Prozinc and I am using U-100's. He gets canned Hills C/D - I know this is a higher carb canned but he is prone to crystals in the urine (that is why I am using this food).

Julie

 

[Sue and Oliver (GA)]

You are giving mini doses the way we suggest for ProZinc. I think you are doing great! He is under the renal threshold so your chasing the number to 150 and then shooting is a good approach. Our assumption is that his pancreas is healing and it is helping his levels stay under 150 for longer and longer periods. So it isn't a 12/12 schedule any more; it is helping out the pancreas when it needs some help from a low dose of insulin.

117 would be too low for me to shoot. A cat in remission runs from 40-120, off insulin, with the majority of the time in double digits. He is really close to that range.

 

[Carl & Polly & Bob (GA)]

I agree with everything Sue said, but I wanted to bring up one other point.

I am leaving for vacation in a few weeks and my neighbor will give him insulin but won't be doing the ear pricks to test his levels.

In a few weeks, it quite possibly won't be an issue with the numbers you are seeing recently. But with those numbers, there's no way I'd have anyone shoot insulin without getting tests first. Could be dangerous. We'll come up with a better plan before then, assuming you even need to be worried about giving shots a few weeks from now...

Carl

 

[jmason7]

Ok. thanks for the help. I guess I need to get it out of my head that he will get a consistent dose of insulin morning and night.