Our first day was yesterday!

[Taline & Bibo]

Good Morning,
I don't know if you can read my other posts, to give you an idea where I'm coming from as far as our new struggle with diabetes with my beloved Bibo who's 12 yrs old male cat. After 3 weeks of challenging times, and giving Bibo Glipizide for 2 weeks, I took him to the vet yesterday asking for PZI insulin shots. Bibo's bg at the vet was 297 and the vet gave him a 1unit of PZI and we came home. Six hours later, I checked Bibo's bg and it was 130, and 12 hours after the first shot,bg was 148. So I decided to not give him a insulin, so I fed him and went to sleep. I woke up early, at 5:00am to check his bg and it was 458, this # was the highest I've ever seen, I was terrified and gave him my first shot of 1.25u with some food. I do know that's too low of a dosage but I'm so new in this and I'm scared. The shot was very easy BTW!! I am confused whether if this is a normal pattern, to have a nice # for 13 hours and then suddenly the #s go higher overnight? I wanna start a spreadsheet, and I don't know if you guys copy a sample from somewhere and then attach it? I'm not a computer savvy, but I definitely want to start one, so you guys can help me walk through this path, to help my beloved Bibo. Thank you so much for reading my post.

 

[Laurie and Mr Tinkles]

Welcome Taline! I did read your other posts, I'm glad you were able to get Bilbo in to the vet and get him started on insulin! Which PZI is he on, is it ProZinc, BCP PZI, or something else?

Good for you, testing him to see where his BG is. You are off to an excellent start. :smile: Good decision to not give the shot when his BG was 148. Most people start out with a no-shoot number of 200. When his BG is below 200 at shot time, don't give the shot, wait 1/2 hour, test again...if still too low, repeat until you get a number above 200. As you gain more data, you may start to lower that no shoot number...but for now, stick to 200.

Most cats need insulin shots at least twice a day, they have a fast metabolism so even the long lasting insulins don't last 24 hours. I suspect that if you had tested an hour or two after the 148, you would have found that his BG had risen high enough to give him another shot.

I'm not sure why you gave 1.25u this morning, was it because his BG was so high? I would suggest that you stay with 1.0u for a while. It will take time for his body to adjust to getting insulin, so staying with a constant dose is the best way in the beginning. In fact, the 1.0u may be too high for him, because his BG was so low after 12 hours. That usually indicates that the dose is a little high when the next PS number is low. The reason why his BG was so high this morning was because 1) no shot last night, and 2) when their body is used to high BG, and the insulin brings it down lower, sometimes their liver "panics" and dumps sugar into the blood to compensate for what it thinks is a risk of hypoglycemia. You don't want to raise the dose in response to that. Stick with the dose, and let his body get used to it.

I hope that makes sense, please ask questions if not. Keep testing and posting those results, and we will help you.

For the spreadsheet, here's a link to the directions: http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/view ... 07&start=0

 

[Terri and Lucy]

Hi Taline--looks like Bilbo responded very nicely to the PZI yesterday. The fact that he got more than 12 hours of duration is very very positive. But it also means that the 1.0 dose was a bit too high. Sliding scales (adjusting the dose based on preshot) can be useful, but before you start making adjustments you need to collect data for 4-5 days. I would drop the dose to .8 units (or somewhere between .5 and 1.0 if you're using the U-40 syringes). What you want to achieve is a nice U shaped curve over a 12 hour period. If you see an L shape, that tells you the last dose was too high and you need to drop it a bit more.

 

[Taline & Bibo]

Hi Laurie and Terri,
Thank you so much for responding. I finally was able to make a spreadsheet so you can see. I feel terrible I gave bibo 1.25, and now after 3 hours of his shot, his bg was 57. Now I'm scared that he's gonna be hypo. I gave him wet ff food immediately, and now he's sleeping. 10 minutes ago, he came and purred while I was lying on the bed, and that's the onlyplace he would come to me. He seemed loving, and ok but I don't know. I must tell you that he runs away from me, anytime I get close, and he bites me so hard when I test him. Anyway, I'm so glad I have you guys, because in my community, there aren't cat lovers and don't understand what I'm going through. So pleasecheck my posts if you have time, because I'll be writing a lot now, until I feel more confident and knowledgable! Thanks again.

 

[Rob & Harley (GA)]

Hi Taline & welcome,

Please go test him again, 57 is a good non diabetic bg for a cat, but you don't want it to go too much lower than that. Feeding him was the perfect thing to do, you have good instincts.

Do you have any Karo Syrup or Honey handy just in case he does go lower? You would rub it on his gums, the sugar in it will raise his bg back up.

But you must keep testing until his #'s start going back up, ok?

I agree with what everyone else said above. You're doing great! You might have a low dose kitty there who will have a chance at becoming diet controlled.

Keep asking questions, if you don't get a response here fast enough, go over to Health and post there, sometime there is more traffic over there.

Good luck,
Robin

 

[Joanna & Bix (GA)]

Hi & welcome!!! No need to feel bad that you raised the dose for the high # - it's a natural response, and there are times when that is actually what you would want to do. The good news is that he is clearly responding well to the insulin, and it's clearcut the dose is a bit high, so that is actually really good information for you moving forward, you are lucky!!!

Your +6 of 76 is perfect! The PZI is probably around it's strongest right now - peak time, when the BG will be the lowest in the cycle (nadir). I would probably get another test in if you can just to be sure the BG# is headed up, especially if you have been feeding him to keep the #s up. Sometimes they can drop lower later in the cycle - I wouldn't particularly expect that, but it's nice to have a test for confirmation if you can get one.

Unless you have been feeding a lot up til this point, if the #s are steady or headed up, you probably won't need to feed more, and hopefully he will get a nice ride for a few hours in good #s!!!

 

[Terri and Lucy]

Good morning Taline,

Just looked at your spreadsheet. You did a great job yesterday handling the 57 and then the low preshot.

A few tips to make testing easier (Lucy's a biter too). What is it that Bilbo loves? For Lucy it was newspaper. If I leave a newspaper on the floor, she will lay on it. I used that to create a special "testing" spot. When I was testing her, I sat on the floor so that she could lay on the newspaper. She understood the compromise. She still fought but I didn't have to pull her from under the bed to do the test.

I also explained the entire process to her as I was doing it. Talking made me feel more confident which translated into less stress/tension. She always picks up on my moods. I was also very firm that we were going to do this whether she wanted to do or not. After the first few days, she realized it was helping and she became more cooperative. Singing is another way to help you/him stay calm. And treats afterwards are very good. I use Wild Salmon. Just 1-2 pieces is enough for a reward.