New to Lantus, need some help for insulin dosage

[Gozde Yildirim]

Hi,
I have started Insulin usage on 15th of January with 0.5 unit twice in a day. In first 3 days, I could check my cats glokose only 3 times in a day. I realized that at first day, she replied to the Lantus very well. Her Glokose decreased from around 300 to 120 in the lowest time. Next day, she started at peak time around 300 but decreased to around 200 in her lowest time.
I couldn't test for 2 weeks beacuse I was away for business trip and my parents continued to give her 0.5 dosegae twice in a day. When I came back, she was still around 200 in her lowest time so I inreased the dosage to 1 unit. On first day, I got great results, her glocose decreased to 89 after 5 hours. However next day, her dosage increased to 376 during the peak time, then decreased to 340 after 6 hours, back to 385 at night just before the insulin.
Meanwhile, I changed her food from Fancy feast to Evo (dry food). Now I again turned back to Fancy Feast.
I will again test her Glokose tomorrow ,but I can not understand why it inreased so much in two days? Do you think I should wait or should I increase the dosage?

Thanks, Gozde.

 

[Blue]

Hi,
I have started Insulin usage on 15th of January with 0.5 unit twice in a day. In first 3 days, I could check my cats glokose only 3 times in a day. I realized that at first day, she replied to the Lantus very well. Her Glokose decreased from around 300 to 120 in the lowest time. Next day, she started at peak time around 300 but decreased to around 200 in her lowest time.
I couldn't test for 2 weeks beacuse I was away for business trip and my parents continued to give her 0.5 dosegae twice in a day. When I came back, she was still around 200 in her lowest time so I inreased the dosage to 1 unit. On first day, I got great results, her glocose decreased to 89 after 5 hours. However next day, her dosage increased to 376 during the peak time, then decreased to 340 after 6 hours, back to 385 at night just before the insulin.
Meanwhile, I changed her food from Fancy feast to Evo (dry food). Now I again turned back to Fancy Feast.
I will again test her Glokose tomorrow ,but I can not understand why it inreased so much in two days? Do you think I should wait or should I increase the dosage?

Thanks, Gozde.

Hello and welcome,

I want to talk about the food first. The dry food can cause her blood glucose to rise, so I am glad that you are feeding fancy feast again... one question - are you feeding fancy feast dry food or wet food? If you are feeding fancy feast dry food, you will get better numbers with wet food.

For the insulin dose - you were getting good numbers with a 0.5u dose twice a day, but wanted to get better numbers, so you increased to 1u dose twice a day. One thing to remember is that when you increase the dose with Lantus insulin, you may see some higher numbers the first day or so because the shed needs to be increased.

If you are feeding wet food but are still getting the higher numbers, maybe you need to decrease the dose to .75u twice a day and see if you get better numbers.

 

[Gozde Yildirim]

Hi,
I was using Fancy food wet food. Can a higher dosage cause the Glokose to increase?
I can decrease to 0.75 if this is the case.
Thanks a lot. Gözde.

 

[Gozde Yildirim]

Hi again,
I coudn't understand what shed is and what needs to increase in first days. Can you please explain it?
Many thanks, Gozde.

 

[Blue]

Hi again,
I coudn't understand what shed is and what needs to increase in first days. Can you please explain it?
Many thanks, Gozde.

The shed is like a spare tank of gas in the trunk of your car.
There's a post on a full explanation...
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=150

You know when you go to your doctor and get some medicine for yourself, and the doctor says it will take a few days before it starts working because it needs to build up in your body...

When you give your first shot of Lantus, most of it goes to your shed-95%, the spare tank, and very little-5% to your cat.
The 2nd shot of Lantus, most goes to the shed-80%, and a little bit more-20% goes to your cat.
The 3rd shot, 60% to the shed, 40% to the cat.

Those are not exact numbers but just to give you an idea....
Once the shed is full, the whole shot goes to help your cat.

If you have to increase the dose, you can expect the same sort of delay.... on the first shot of the decrease, a little bit of that shot goes into the shed. I think of it as driving in your car 10miles, and you have 10miles of gas in your tank to get you there and back, but you have enough for the whole trip in your trunk just in case you need it.

If you get too low numbers and you decrease the dose, you will not see the change on the first shot because some of the extra shed needs to drain off. Say you are giving 5units and it's too much. You decrease the dose to 4units, but the shed needs to dump 1unit to equal the 4unit dose. That means on the first decreased shot, you give 4units and the shed dumps 1unit equaling the same 5units of insulin. and you can expect to see the better numbers on the 2nd shot of the 4units dose.

maybe some others will have some better examples to help you understand the shed.