New Member October 14 - Trouble Getting BG Under Control

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Kathleen and Jerry

Kathleen and Jerry

Member Since 2021
Hello! I'm very happy I have found this board. My 9 yr old male cat, Jerry was diagnosed in late August. He's been on 2U of Vetsulin 2x per day since then. The vet put him on prescription dry food, but I switched this past weekend to canned TikiCat. I have been home testing for about 2 weeks and can't get his BG below 275. He starts in the high 400's each morning after eating, drops to 250-270 mid day and goes back to 350-400 before evening insulin. Jerry is about 13 pounds. He just does not seem to improve or get to a reasonable BG level on 2 doses of insulin per day. I have been reading and wonder if another type of insulin may work (Lantus or ProZinc). Does he need more time to be on the canned food? Any other suggestions are welcome.

Thank You,

Kathleen
 
Welcome Kathleen and Jerry I can tag some members for you , but mean time I'm going to give you a link so that you can give us some information about Jerry
Here is a link helping us to help you link. If you noticed, our members have some basic information about their cat's in their signature. This helps us to not pester you by asking the same questions (your cat's name, insulin type, date of diagnosis, etc.) repeatedly. We also have a link to our spreadsheet in our signature. We are very numbers driven. The spreadsheet is a record of your cat's progress. By linking it in your signature, we can follow along and provide feedback should you need the help.

I can also ask one of our members to set up our spreadsheet for you , the link I gave you will explain how it works
@Bandit's Mom Thank you Bhooma
Bhooma will send you a private message , look for it in your inbox upper right hand corner

Good that you are already home testing Jerry, most of us feed Fancy Feast Classic Pate or Friskies you want to stay under 10% carbs, preferably 5% and under
The Fancy Feast is either 2 or 3 percent carbs
I don't know what the Tikicat carbs are that you are feeding Jerry
I will give you the link to our food chart also
https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/dr-pierson-new-food-chart.174147/
 
ProZinc or lantus are the recommended insulins. If 2 units isn't enough than the simple answer is raise the dose. We recommend raising in 0.25-0.5 increments. No use keeping a dose for more than a week if it's not enough.

If you set up a spreadsheet As recommended previously that would help very much. Very good that you are testing from home.
 
Vetsulin was created for use in dogs, who have a slower metabolisim than cats. Some cats do fine on it... . but many find that vetsulin is too harsh (drops the fast) and doesn't have a long enough duration. The recommended insulins for cats are Prozinc and Lantus... so if you find that your cat isn't getting 10+ hours of duration you may consider switching.

If after awhile depending on how Jerry does on vetsulin and you want to switch to Lantus we can tell you where to buy it for the best price. Just let us know :cat:
 
JanetNJ said:
ProZinc or lantus are the recommended insulins. If 2 units isn't enough than the simple answer is raise the dose. We recommend raising in 0.25-0.5 increments. No use keeping a dose for more than a week if it's not enough.

If you set up a spreadsheet As recommended previously that would help very much. Very good that you are testing from home.
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I was just going to tag you Janet :p
@JanetNJ
 
Thank you Janet and Diane! I have started Jerry's spreadsheet and updated my information. I see I need to be more consistent with testing AMPS and PMPS. It helps to see that his BG does seem to dip 7-8 hours post dosing, but he also had not eaten prior to those readings. I think the testing timing strategy has become more apparent to me by filling out the spreadsheet. I will keep going with this guidance - always AMPS and PMPS. I did take Janet's advise and increased his evening does by .25 since he had a high PS reading.
 
Kathleen W said:
Thank you Janet and Diane! I have started Jerry's spreadsheet and updated my information. I see I need to be more consistent with testing AMPS and PMPS. It helps to see that his BG does seem to dip 7-8 hours post dosing, but he also had not eaten prior to those readings. I think the testing timing strategy has become more apparent to me by filling out the spreadsheet. I will keep going with this guidance - always AMPS and PMPS. I did take Janet's advise and increased his evening does by .25 since he had a high PS reading.
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Hi Kathleen you need to fill in how many units on your spreadsheet, also you need to set up your signature
Here is a link helping us to help you link. If you noticed, our members have some basic information about their cat's in their signature. This helps us to not pester you by asking the same questions (your cat's name, insulin type, date of diagnosis, etc.) repeatedly.
Do you see mine after my post it starts off with the word Tyler


In case you missed this
most of us feed Fancy Feast Classic Pate or Friskies you want to stay under 10% carbs, preferably 5% and under
The Fancy Feast is either 2 or 3 percent carbs
I don't know what the Tikicat carbs are that you are feeding Jerry
I will give you the link to our food chart also
https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/dr-pierson-new-food-chart.174147/

@Kathleen W
 
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Always have on hand in case Jerry drops too low
med and high carb food on hand in case she drops too low and you need to bring his BG up to safe numbers and some honey

Fancy Feast Gravy Lovers Gourmet Beef Feast in Gravy 20% High Carbs



Fancy Feast Gravy Lovers Gourmet Chicken Feast in Gravy. 15% Med Carbs




Fancy Feast Gravy Lovers Turkey Feast in Gravy. 15% Med Carbs


Fancy Feast Gravy Lovers Chicken and Beef Feast in Gravy 15% Med Carbs

Good idea to mark the cans with magic marker how many carbs

Or any ones from the food chart
 
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Kathleen W said:
Thank you Janet and Diane! I have started Jerry's spreadsheet and updated my information. I see I need to be more consistent with testing AMPS and PMPS. It helps to see that his BG does seem to dip 7-8 hours post dosing, but he also had not eaten prior to those readings. I think the testing timing strategy has become more apparent to me by filling out the spreadsheet. I will keep going with this guidance - always AMPS and PMPS. I did take Janet's advise and increased his evening does by .25 since he had a high PS reading.
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Great! Can you add a link to your spreadsheet in your signature? Id love to take a look.
 
Kathleen don't forget to add how many units you gave on your spreadsheet, also like Janet asked can you add the link to your spreadsheet in your signature, I see you have it where you have your info in your profile
 
Diane Tyler's Mom said:
Kathleen don't forget to add how many units you gave on your spreadsheet, also like Janet asked can you add the link to your spreadsheet in your signature, I see you have it where you have your info in your profile
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Done! I posted in the Tech Support channel as now I'm getting an error when attaching the spreadsheet to my signature line however.
 
I made an appointment to take Jerry to the vet on Tuesday. I want to calibrate my meter to theirs and also see about different insulin. When I made the appointment I asked what his original BG number was when he was diagnosed. It was 434. He is testing higher than that AMPS daily now which is getting discouraging.
 
Kathleen W said:
I am getting an error when trying to apply the spreadsheet link to my signature. I started a separate thread in the Support forum for that. For now the link is: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1G-qeW77NIkW8ik9df-hjioX0nfz0_fZXsk8Np9tbmIs/edit?usp=sharing
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I'll contact Bhooma @Bandit's Mom to see if she can attach your SS to your signature
Bhooma can you try and help Kathleen attach her SS to her signature
Thanks Bhooma :cat:
@Bandit's Mom
@Chris & China (GA)
Hi Chris do you think you can help?

See #14
 
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JanetNJ said:
Thanks for posting that link. So you raised the dose last night but you went back to 2 units this morning? After looking at your numbers I'd go with 2.5 am and pm.
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Thank you! He test PMPS 447 so I went 2.25 tonight. Just saw this so will test and go 2.5 in the morning if he’s over 400 again (which he always is in the morning it seems)
 
Don't limit that dose
Kathleen W said:
Thank you! He test PMPS 447 so I went 2.25 tonight. Just saw this so will test and go 2.5 in the morning if he’s over 400 again (which he always is in the morning it seems)
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change to just over 400 preshots. Anything over 200 should be getting that full dose. We are trying to get the mid cycle numbers down to around 100 and he is far from it right now.
 
Not sure why you are getting an error saying spam etc.

In your Signature, delete the first line that says "Jerry's Spreadsheet". After the line that says "Jerry | 9 yrs | dx Aug 2021 | Vetsulin | Advocate Pet Test | Tiki Cat Wet 0% carb", press enter to go to the next line and paste the link to your signature.
 
Bandit's Mom said:
Not sure why you are getting an error saying spam etc.

In your Signature, delete the first line that says "Jerry's Spreadsheet". After the line that says "Jerry | 9 yrs | dx Aug 2021 | Vetsulin | Advocate Pet Test | Tiki Cat Wet 0% carb", press enter to go to the next line and paste the link to your signature.
Click to expand...
Thank you Bhooma :cat:
 
I had a hard time getting Jerry's post PMPS last night. He was elusive and not as willing to work with me as usual. So after midnight, I let it go. His PMPS was much better - 274! Not great, but first "yellow" reading at PMPS. I gave him 2.5 U insulin. This morning he's back up to 454 :( Gave him another 2.5 U and will see how it goes.
 
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