Orion's Curve, extremely quick drop!

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Elizabeth & Orion

Elizabeth & Orion

Member Since 2021
Hello! I am new to posting so I apologize if this is the wrong way to ask for advice. We are giving 2 units every 12 hrs., testing using Alphatrack. AM pre shot was 237, +2hrs we were at 61. Tested again at +3 and we are at 47. We called the vet and are waiting to hear but very concerned about how quickly he has dropped. He has never been this low!
 
Please give your cat some Medium carb wet food, or some High carb wet food and retest in 20 minutes. 1 teaspoon should be plenty. You don't want to fill your cat up.

With an Alphatrak, anything under 68 (<68 mg/dL) is too darn close to hypo territory.

Do you have any honey, maple syrup, corn syrup?

p.s. He needs more than a dried chicken treat. Those are probably low carb.
Where is your closest emergency vet?
 
Deb, I copied the thread to the Main Health Forum to hope to get some more eyes on it to help, as I am not familiar with this insulin. Should I delete it, so as not to confuse?
 
So glad you are testing and caught this. Good job. I'm wondering why you raised the dose when 1 unit looked to be a bit high of a dose? Please going forward dose back down to 1 unit.

Please give honey and high carb gravy food. Test again in 20 min... This is very low for an alpha meter.
 
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Thank you all! Tested again and we are up to 49 - gave more gravy wet food and will test again in 20. The vet moved him to 2 units on Monday after 1 unit for a week but it definitely appears to be too high of a dose for him.
 
Elizabeth Patten said:
Thank you all! Tested again and we are up to 49 - gave more gravy wet food and will test again in 20. The vet moved him to 2 units on Monday after 1 unit for a week but it definitely appears to be too high of a dose for him.
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It went from the 500's to double digits in 1 unit . It was a bad call by your vet. ProZinc is dosed based on the mid cycle numbers not the preshots.


I'm glad it didn't drop further. Is he acting and walking normally? I find party mix/temptations work pretty fast to raise bg too.

You are doing a great job.
 
JanetNJ said:
It went from the 500's to double digits in 1 unit . It was a bad call by your vet. ProZinc is dosed based on the mid cycle numbers not the preshots.


I'm glad it didn't drop further. Is he acting and walking normally? I find party mix/temptations work pretty fast to raise bg too.

You are doing a great job.
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Ah that makes sense! Yes, thankfully acting normally (loving the extra food for sure!) and continues to let us test though he is not a fan - definitely in for a long day but glad I have no where else to go!
 
Elizabeth Patten said:
@JanetNJ You mentioned that 1 unit appeared high for him, can you help me understand what to look for in the number/how that is a higher dose?
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Well I meant that 1 unit dropped him a lot. From 500's down to 80's. Our dosing protocol recommends dropping the dose by 0.25 if the number goes under 90. I think those high preshots could be from doing low and bouncing up.
 
Elizabeth Patten said:
Ah that makes sense! Yes, thankfully acting normally (loving the extra food for sure!) and continues to let us test though he is not a fan - definitely in for a long day but glad I have no where else to go!
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Well that's good that you can be around. Usually they pull these low numbers when you are late for something. Lolol. My cat used to LOVE going low. She was so excited to get gravy. Ha ha
 
JanetNJ said:
Well I meant that 1 unit dropped him a lot. From 500's down to 80's. Our dosing protocol recommends dropping the dose by 0.25 if the number goes under 90. I think those high preshots could be from doing low and bouncing up.
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OK - our vet saw that number and threw it out as an outlier, but seems like it was not an outlier!
 
I
Elizabeth Patten said:
OK - our vet saw that number and threw it out as an outlier, but seems like it was not an outlier!
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think there wasn't enough data to conclude that. Was he just diagnosed this week? What would help is if you could add more info to your signature so we don't ask you the same questions over and over. Click on your name at the top right corner and choose signature. Add info such as your pets name, date diagnosed, insulin type, food you're feeding and any other health concerns. Then hit save. :)
 
Omg if it's 21 you may need to put honey or syrup into the cat rectally with a feeding syringe and on the gums. Head to an er while someone continually rubs honey on r the gums every few minutes. He's in danger of seizures and death at that number
 
The dates are all messed up. But it makes sense the 49 was after the 47.
So the 21 is most likely +4 .
 
Thankfully we have got it back up to 59 now - gave more gravy and honey which seemed to help. His bx hasn't changed at all, is this normal? Is he just hiding it all well?
 
SashaV said:
The dates are all messed up. But it makes sense the 49 was after the 47.
So the 21 is most likely +4 .
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Yeah we didn't know how to put the extra times we tested so sorry it looks confusing! +2 was 61, +3 was 47 then about 20 mins after was 49, +4 was 21 and about 20 mins after +59.
 
Elizabeth Patten said:
Yeah we didn't know how to put the extra times we tested so sorry it looks confusing! +2 was 61, +3 was 47 then about 20 mins after was 49, +4 was 21 and about 20 mins after +59.
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You need to keep testing him every 20 minutes until he's up in numbers, and then 2 hours from the LAST good number, you can take a break. Honey wears off quickly. And do not give any insulin until Deb or Janet tell you too!

Personally, not giving advice on dosage, but the 1U could possibly have been too much. He went from black to yellow in two hours, then yellow to green in two more hours. Prozinc usually doesn't hit THAT hard.
If I were you, I'd tell your vet he should read up on diabetes before giving any other animals a full-blown hypo.
 
SashaV said:
You need to keep testing him every 20 minutes until he's up in numbers, and then 2 hours from the LAST good number, you can take a break. Honey wears off quickly. And do not give any insulin until Deb or Janet tell you too!

Personally, not giving advice on dosage, but the 1U could possibly have been too much. He went from black to yellow in two hours, then yellow to green in two more hours. Prozinc usually doesn't hit THAT hard.
If I were you, I'd tell your vet he should read up on diabetes before giving any other animals a full-blown hypo.
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Yes, we will keep testing - is the safer range 68-99 or would I want it to be higher than that before we go back to 2hr testing? I can see that 1 unit was high looking back on that first curve!
 
Elizabeth Patten said:
Yes, we will keep testing - is the safer range 68-99 or would I want it to be higher than that before we go back to 2hr testing? I can see that 1 unit was high looking back on that first curve!
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Once it's over 70 we can see if he can keep the numbers there without food. If it goes down You will feed again. If it holds or raises wait and test again in 30 min
 
Elizabeth Patten said:
Yes, we will keep testing - is the safer range 68-99 or would I want it to be higher than that before we go back to 2hr testing? I can see that 1 unit was high looking back on that first curve!
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And Janet was here at my rescue!
You did GREAT today, Elizabeth! :bighug:
I know it must have been scary as f....
Do you have enough teststips?
This might take a while, and a lot of strips!
 
Now that the emergency is over, I’ve moved this thread to main health.

@Elizabeth Patten Welcome to FDMB. Sorry for the trial by fire!

All new members start on Main Health :) Also, you probably want to change your UserName. We discourage use of last names here for security and privacy. Just click on your username in the above right, click on “personal details” and then scroll to the bottom to “change username”. Please send me a private message if you need help. To do that, click on my username at left and then “start a conversation”.

Finally, now that things are improved here, please read our post on How We Can Help You. It will give you the information and format for your signature block.

To those helping, I’ve deleted the duplicate thread on Main Health that @Shiloh & Rhonda (GA) posted (thank you!!).
 
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