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[Laceyandsmoo]

Hi everyone,
I'm lacey and my sugarcat is smoo.
He was diagnosed in November, had no ketones but fructose was 469 and I immediately switched his diet to low carb wet.he started on 1unit Lantus then went up to 2 units ( I now know it should have gone up in halves) and his curve numbers are getting higher and higher despite the insulin. I'm now freaking out that he's on too much insulin. I would love some advice if anyone out there could take a look at his spreadsheet for me?
It's not letting me attach it here but I'll try in comments.
Thankyou for all you do!

 

[Laceyandsmoo]

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1xVFcQ1oBk_2z2dXh67fMMTbkES8C_XqdXYrXgFjQEns/edit?usp=sharing

 

[Wendy&Neko]

Hello and welcome to you and smoo.

First a post that gives a little bit of background. New? How You Can Help Us Help You! As you can see, most of us put our cat's spreadsheets in our signature, along with other information that we'll often ask about. Putting it in the signature means you won't have to answer those questions over and over.

Good to see you are home testing, on a great insulin for cats, and moved to low carb wet food. Well done!

As far as dosing goes, we actually increase by 0.25 units at a time, not 0.5 units. Cats can be sensitive to such small dose changes.

I do have some questions about your dosing and how it's entered in the spreadsheet. Are you dosing once or twice a day? If twice, you'll note there is a U (for units) column after the PMPS (PM preshot) cell. You would put the units in there as well. I don't see any data for the 3rd to 9th, did you dose those days? If so, please enter it into the Units cell.

Did you give 0 units today as per the spreadsheet?

 

[Laceyandsmoo]

Hi Wendy,
Thanks for replying, I'm still new and working out the spreadsheet and testing.
We dose twice a day, everyday, except yesterday when I accidentally had my first fur shot. I did some spot checks and his numbers were lower without insulin than with it, so I'm wondering if I should start going backwards by .25 in his dose? His numbers were much lower before insulin. I'll talk to the vet tomorrow, just wondering if anyone else has had this happen and why?

First a post that gives a little bit of background. New? How You Can Help Us Help You! As you can see, most of us put our cat's spreadsheets in our signature, along with other information that we'll often ask about. Putting it in the signature means you won't have to answer those questions over and over.

Good to see you are home testing, on a great insulin for cats, and moved to low carb wet food. Well done!

As far as dosing goes, we actually increase by 0.25 units at a time, not 0.5 units. Cats can be sensitive to such small dose changes.

I do have some questions about your dosing and how it's entered in the spreadsheet. Are you dosing once or twice a day? If twice, you'll note there is a U (for units) column after the PMPS (PM preshot) cell. You would put the units in there as well. I don't see any data for the 3rd to 9th, did you dose those days? If so, please enter it into the Units cell.

Did you give 0 units today as per the spreadsheet?[/QUOTE]

 

[Wendy&Neko]

Fur shots are common enough! If you do a fur shot, just write "FS" after the dose, so we know it happened. We never really know how much went it, so never reshoot.

It's not uncommon to see a cat's numbers go higher as they start insulin. What could be happening is that insulin is causing his blood sugar numbers to go lower than he's used to and a self defense mechanism kicks in, which we call bouncing. If you test at the wrong time, you see the bounce and not the lower numbers. It doesn't have to be hypo low, just lower than he's used to.
Here a description of what we call bouncing - perfectly normal cat reaction:
Bouncing is simply a natural reaction to what the cat's system perceives as a BG value that is "too low". "Too low" is relative. If a cat is used to BGs in the 200's, 300's, or higher for a long time, then even a BG that drops to 150 can trigger a "bounce". Bouncing can also be triggered if the blood glucose drops too low and/or too fast.The pancreas, then the liver, release glucogon, glycogen and counter-regulatory hormones. The end result is a dumping of "sugar" into the bloodstream to save the cat from going hypoglycemic from a perceived low. The action is often referred to as "liver panic" or "panicky liver". *Usually*, a bounce will clear kitty's system within 3 days (6 cycles).

 

[Laceyandsmoo]

Ok got it, thankyou,
Yes I see what you mean, it's not really bouncing though, not even curving much, just getting higher and higher as time goes on. Thankyou for the advice Wendy, I'll talk to the vet tomorrow and let you know

It's not uncommon to see a cat's numbers go higher as they start insulin. What could be happening is that insulin is causing his blood sugar numbers to go lower than he's used to and a self defense mechanism kicks in, which we call bouncing. If you test at the wrong time, you see the bounce and not the lower numbers. It doesn't have to be hypo low, just lower than he's used to.
Here a description of what we call bouncing - perfectly normal cat reaction:
Bouncing is simply a natural reaction to what the cat's system perceives as a BG value that is "too low". "Too low" is relative. If a cat is used to BGs in the 200's, 300's, or higher for a long time, then even a BG that drops to 150 can trigger a "bounce". Bouncing can also be triggered if the blood glucose drops too low and/or too fast.The pancreas, then the liver, release glucogon, glycogen and counter-regulatory hormones. The end result is a dumping of "sugar" into the bloodstream to save the cat from going hypoglycemic from a perceived low. The action is often referred to as "liver panic" or "panicky liver". *Usually*, a bounce will clear kitty's system within 3 days (6 cycles).[/QUOTE]

 

[Sienne and Gabby (GA)]

Welcome to FDMB!

Pardon my offering some housekeeping advice! You don't need to quote another member's post. The good thing about this sort of message board is that all of the comments about your cat are in one place and we can scroll in order to see what you're referring to. If you do want to quote another member, there's an icon above the text box that will let you do that so the quote is obvious. If you hover over the icon that is the 4th from the right (it kind of looks like a flag -- or it does to me), that's the Insert option. Click on the "quote" and then paste the material that you want to quote between the two bracketed commands. I quoted you so you have an idea of what it will look like.

Ok got it, thankyou,
Yes I see what you mean, it's not really bouncing though, not even curving much, just getting higher and higher as time goes on. Thankyou for the advice Wendy, I'll talk to the vet tomorrow and let you know

If you talk to your vet and refer to a "bounce," there's a good chance that the vet will have no idea what you're referring to. It's terminology that we use here.

I'd also make another suggestion. Always get a blood glucose (BG) test before you give insulin. Without knowing where Smoo's BG level is, you have no way of knowing whether it's safe to give a shot. His levels could be at 40 or 400. You would not want to give insulin if his numbers were way too low. It's also important to get at least one test during the PM cycle. Many cats experience lower numbers at night. You don't want to head off to bed without knowing that your cat is in safe numbers. We strongly encourage a minimum of 4 tests per day -- your two pre-shot tests and at least one test during both the AM and PM cycles.