Paw 168 pm how much do I shoot?
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BJM
Member Since 2010
Sorry - just saw this today, mid-afternoon.
It takes about 3 days before you can determine if the dose needs adjustment based on nadir readings. You may not have had the 1.25 shed completely drained yet before you went up from 0.5 to 1.0. And then you needed to skip a shot again because you were below 200.
How about going back to 0.5 units and holding it for a full 3 days before changing it and only increase if, on the 3rd day, the mid-cycle nadir is above 150. And, if you will follow this plan, slightly reduce your 'no shot' limit to 175.
Whatever you do, do not raise the dose based on the pre-shots. Grit your teeth if you must, but hold the dose!
It takes about 3 days before you can determine if the dose needs adjustment based on nadir readings. You may not have had the 1.25 shed completely drained yet before you went up from 0.5 to 1.0. And then you needed to skip a shot again because you were below 200.
How about going back to 0.5 units and holding it for a full 3 days before changing it and only increase if, on the 3rd day, the mid-cycle nadir is above 150. And, if you will follow this plan, slightly reduce your 'no shot' limit to 175.
Whatever you do, do not raise the dose based on the pre-shots. Grit your teeth if you must, but hold the dose!
Thanks so much for replying! I was so nervous last night, not knowing if I should have given him a shot (even the 1/2u you were recommending the other day) or not. I finally decided that I was exhausted & needed sleep, and better a hyper than hypo kitty. So I'm glad you posted today that I wasn't suppose to shoot under 200 anyway!
I'll do as you're saying - .5u for 3 days, will grit my teeth if I see a high #. I'm confused about the no shot part though, give shots as long as the # is 175 or higher? confused_cat
I'll do as you're saying - .5u for 3 days, will grit my teeth if I see a high #. I'm confused about the no shot part though, give shots as long as the # is 175 or higher? confused_cat
MommaOfMuse
Member Since 2010
I know the whole shoot or don't shoot can be confusing, but that is where testing, and testing a lot in the beginning helps, because you learn how your particular cat handles a dose. You start to see patterns in their curves and no two cats are exactly the same. I had 3 diabetics, what worked well with Maxwell, didn't work at all for Musette(GA), and what worked for Musette, doesn't always work for Autumn. Each and every cat dances differently. Maxwell was lazy and didn't like to dance at all so he went OTJ in two weeks..lol. Musette wanted to dance every dance out there and I never could predict how she was going to handle a dose, unfortunately it wasn't until she passed away that I learned she had additional health problems unrelated to her being a diabetic that made her so unpredictable, and now I have Autumn who likes nice slow and easy waltzes.
But with everyone of them I had to learn the steps to their particular dance. And I get the additional challenge of the fact that all three of mine I adopted after they were already diabetic, so I have no clue what is "normal" behavior for them.
When first starting out your absolutely right it is better to have a hyper kitty than a hypo kitty. Which is why we usually set 200 as a cut off point for when to give a shot, as you gather data then that "no shoot" number lowers, because you learn what is safe and what isn't safe. Some cats will barely move on 2u others will plummet on a scant .25u. So it takes learning what your cat will and won't do.
The other concept that is scary at first is when you do start shooting those lower and lower preshot numbers, but what I found helped was to think of it this way. You are trying to find a dose that will hold their blood sugar in normal numbers for the entire day. If the dose is correct they will only raise slightly before each preshot and not dip too low at its lowest point. So ideally you are looking for a dose that allows them to go no higher than 120 by the preshot, but take them no lower than 50 at its lowest point.
So for now, you need to find a "no shoot" number that you are comfortable with...and that can change depending on how you feel on a particular day...if you are comforatable giving .5u on a preshot of 175 or higher great set that as your "no shoot" number for now....but just because 175 is your no shoot number doesn't mean that if there is a day that you are say super tired or maybe just so sick you can't barely crawl out of bed to feed kitty...then it is okay to tell yourself ...today I'm no going to shoot unless he is higher than 200. And conversely say one day you are just hanging out and have plenty of test strips and you get a preshot of 150, then you can say to yourself..I'm here to test, lets see how he handles a full dose on that lower preshot number..and you go ahead and give the full dose, and just test every couple of hours so you can see how that works. It all becomes data that you can use the next time you get a lower than normal preshot number.
Mel, Maxwell, Autumn & The Fur Gang
But with everyone of them I had to learn the steps to their particular dance. And I get the additional challenge of the fact that all three of mine I adopted after they were already diabetic, so I have no clue what is "normal" behavior for them.
When first starting out your absolutely right it is better to have a hyper kitty than a hypo kitty. Which is why we usually set 200 as a cut off point for when to give a shot, as you gather data then that "no shoot" number lowers, because you learn what is safe and what isn't safe. Some cats will barely move on 2u others will plummet on a scant .25u. So it takes learning what your cat will and won't do.
The other concept that is scary at first is when you do start shooting those lower and lower preshot numbers, but what I found helped was to think of it this way. You are trying to find a dose that will hold their blood sugar in normal numbers for the entire day. If the dose is correct they will only raise slightly before each preshot and not dip too low at its lowest point. So ideally you are looking for a dose that allows them to go no higher than 120 by the preshot, but take them no lower than 50 at its lowest point.
So for now, you need to find a "no shoot" number that you are comfortable with...and that can change depending on how you feel on a particular day...if you are comforatable giving .5u on a preshot of 175 or higher great set that as your "no shoot" number for now....but just because 175 is your no shoot number doesn't mean that if there is a day that you are say super tired or maybe just so sick you can't barely crawl out of bed to feed kitty...then it is okay to tell yourself ...today I'm no going to shoot unless he is higher than 200. And conversely say one day you are just hanging out and have plenty of test strips and you get a preshot of 150, then you can say to yourself..I'm here to test, lets see how he handles a full dose on that lower preshot number..and you go ahead and give the full dose, and just test every couple of hours so you can see how that works. It all becomes data that you can use the next time you get a lower than normal preshot number.
Mel, Maxwell, Autumn & The Fur Gang
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