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gwen and cinnamon

Member Since 2010
Hello,

My cat Cinnamon's numbers were a little lower than normal this morning. I notice from others spreadsheets that some are administering .5 or .6 dose shots. I read the sticky on this. What type of needles are being used? My needles don't have half points marked. Are people eyeballing it? I delayed my shot this morning after re-reading the sticky and ended up giving a '.5' dose at a later time but am wondering are people using needles that have half and quarter markings on them.

gwen
 
Hi Gwen,

I use walmarts reli on brand syringes. About 12-15$ 100ct. They have 1/2 unit markings on them. Anything smaller or inbetween is eyed. Wherever you get them you have to request that you want 1/2 unit markings. Some will say it on the box, but the ones that I get from walmart don't. I open up the box before I leave to make sure they have them.

I use:

31 gauge
0.3cc [3/10's cc]
5/16" [8mm] short needle

Also here is the link to the sticky "new to the group". viewtopic.php?f=9&t=18139 If you scroll down there is a picture of some of the smaller doses and how to eye them. Wasn't sure if you had seen the pics yet.

Good luck with Cinnamon and welcome.

jan and sara
 
Hello and welcome, Gwen and Cinnamon!!!

There are no insulin needles with .25 mark/hashes. The smallest unit of measurment is the 1/2U markings. When ppl in LL (Lantus Land) say they are giving 0.75U, 0.9U, etc, they are eyeballing it and trying to be as consistent in their measurement as possible. Sometimes it helps to practice with a syringe using water with food coloring. Draw up 2U of water. Squeeze/twist one drop out and look at the level of the colored water, etc etc.

hope that helps!
 
Jan,

I was looking at your spreadsheet. May I ask what the 'f' and 's' that precede your shot doses in the more recent weeks indicates? I am trying to learn as much as possible here so pardon all of the questions. Thank you for your previous reply.

gwen
 
"f" and "s" usually mean skinny or fat. Like f1.5u, or s1.0u. My (f1.0) would have the bottom part of the rubber plunger touching the top of the 1.0 line. A ff, or super fat (cant remember what I called it) would have a small bit of light between the top of the line and plunger. Not everyone's s or f will be exactly the same, but pretty close.

The link given to you about measurements can be helpful. Also, practicing with colored water, as mentioned. You can set up what 'your' skinny and fats are.

I used relion half unit markings as well. I think you can also get some from Hocks (maybe GNC brand?).

ETA: important thing is consistancy of your own dose. However you measure it, whatever you call it...THATS what you want to stick with.
 
No problem Gwen. The s stands for a skinny dose and the f for a fat dose. It is just a little taken off or put on a dose. Sara was getting 1/2 unit and I needed to add a little. Her #'s were consistantly higher than I would like. I will pull up more than I need than move the plunger down. When I get close to the dose I want [lets say I want to add the fat to her 0.5] I turn the plunger. It's much easier. I have gone by the dose I wanted by just pushing the plunger in. Especially when just adding a drop or taking a drop off.

Hope this makes sense.

Glad to help.

jan and sara
 
Hello,
Welcome to Lantus Land Gwen and Cinnamon!

I noticed you shot today's first dose at 2pm, a few hours later than usual? Is that correct?
SS (spreadsheet) comments:
11/25 continued. .5ish unit given 17 hours after pm shot on 11/24 due to bg readings under 200. First shot of the day given at 2:20pm.

Wanted to ask, to be clear, do you plan to shoot your next dose 12 hours today's AMPS?

It's a little quite today, but do continue to read the stickies floating around, a lot of good info in there!
Good to see you posting!
 
Cinnamon's dose today

Hi. I just updated my sheet. I am keeping a lot of comments so I don't get confused. 9:20am today would have been the 12hr mark for a new shot but his numbers were a little low and I chose to do a couple of more bg's and wait. So the first shot today wasn't until 17hrs later than last night's pm shot given at 2:20pm today. I'm studying others spreadsheets to get a sense of how others are handling the shots when the numbers are low and re-reading the stickies. Thanks to all. It helps so much.

gwen
 
Gwen,

If your preshot numbers continue to hover between 150 and 200, you may want to consider lowering the dose slightly. Looks like your cat is responding well to insulin. May I ask if you're feeding low-carb food as well?
 
Welcome to Lantus Land.

Congrats on home testing and getting your spreadsheet (SS) up and running.

If you shot at +17 (2:20) then your next shot is at 2:20 AM -- 12 hours after your last shot. Generally, we don't delay as long as 5 hours because it plays havoc with your schedule. You might want to take a look at this post on how to deal with low preshot numbers.

Please let us know if we can be of help.
 
Yes, this is havoc on my schedule. I will try to manage it differently next time. I think I was a little confused about how people were doing .5 .6 doses etc. I understand it better now. I didn't expect lower numbers so soon. I am also giving him a strict mix of fancy feast chicken/tuna flaked mixed with wet wellness chicken. I haven't switched the ff variety since he's eating it and we were having some trouble there for a while and he is underweight. I've been slowly increasing the proportion of wet wellness hoping to get to a solid 50/50 by the end of the weekend and will do that for a week and then try to go to a 60/40 mix and so on until I can get it to all wellness. I just did a bg at 10+ and got 180. That was on .5u and he's been eating off an on from the above mix. I think we're making progress. I'm really striving for remission although I know this is not guaranteed.

gwen
 
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