No insulin #s the same as .4 u

Status
Not open for further replies.
Mancat

Mancat

Member
Hi, guys. So I've been away lately with the holidays and working a bunch of overtime at work but I should be back now. I hope everyone and their kitties had a wonderful holiday. I have made a couple posts but I feel like they were a bit hasty given the fact that I hadn't been able to take any curve readings. Nala is still doing alright. Negative for ketones in her urine and she's already gained a little bit weight back which makes me think I was underfeeding her. Now if I can just figure out her insulin.

Last week I did a little experiment and took her off for a day to see what would happen. Her numbers actually stayed consistent with what they had been prior when she was getting .4 units. Skipped a day and it was like nothing happened. However, on the 3rd I decided to push her a little bit and give her .2 units twice a day. Her numbers went right back into the the purples at low range. I'm not sure why no insulin would give her lower numbers than .2, but .4 gives her the same the as no insulin. Today she's back on .4 and getting a curve to see how she's doing. When she eats she's still shoving her face in the food like its her last meal ever and I feel like I'm abusing her and starving her. It's not a good feeling. Am I crazy? Stupid? Doing something wrong?
 
I really think she needs a higher dose. Staying in the pinks and even yellows can make her body more resistant to insulin. The higher flatter ranges can make her hungry as she is unregulated.. She looks pretty flat to me overall, not dropping for nadir. I think you need to be working toward seeing some blues and greens at nadir.

I would up her dose to maybe 0.6 and see how she looks. If after three cycles, she is still in higher ranges, I would increase to 0.8
 
Perfect, Sue. I'll take your advice. I gave her .4 this morning but I will up her to .6 tonight and see how she's doing. I really appreciate it. And I'm sorry but could you explain how one gets to OTJ? I think it was you that mentioned it. I looked through the forum and saw some amazing stories but I didn't know if people were lowering insulin or increasing it to force blues and greens and eventually it stayed there? Thanks again :bighug:
 
Generally people increase the insulin until they are getting good ranges consistently - so nadirs above 50 but still in double digits. They start lowering their shot range to under 200 (being sure they can monitor carefully and bring up low nadirs if needed). Over time, as the numbers get lower, they then start adjusting their doses down so they are eventually giving very low doses. Most often, they see longer cycles as the pancreas helps out, keeping the numbers in lower ranges longer.

You might look in the remission thread at the top of this page. Check out the spreadsheets of cats who have gone OTJ. They vary in approach but generally involve hitting a threshold where the numbers and doses need adjusting downward rather than upward.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top