? Please help review spreadsheet

[Jess and Marky Mark]

Hello,

If this would be better posted in the main forum, please let me know and I'll repost over there. I'm still learning my way around here.

This evening, Mark's PMPS was 95 (taken 30 minutes later than normal). He ate well then his bg at +2.5 was 85. I'm getting a little nervous that he may drop too low tonight and plan wake up to check him around +6.

He has been on Lantus since July 12th. He started at 2u twice a day. We've adjusted things a bit here and there and now he's at 1.25u twice a day. His numbers seem to regularly be in what appears to be the 'don't shoot' range for most kitties (if I'm understanding . Would someone please review his spreadsheet and help me interpret? I just want to make sure I understand the big picture and that we are settling into this new lifestyle correctly.

Thank you.

 

[julie & punkin (ga)]

The good news is that a newly diagnosed cat whose blood sugar is brought back into normal range as quickly as is safely possible, has a possibility of having their pancreas heal and begin to put out insulin again.

What that looks like is that the blood sugar spends more and more time in normal range - on your AT2, that's going to be somewhere under 130ish. We don't have an exact number to use for that because our documents all use human glucometer numbers. But it's clear that Marky Mark is spending a lot of time in normal range. When the body is in normal range, healing can occur in some cats.

You may end up doing the dance going down the dosing scale. I'd really strongly encourage you to do a little more testing in order to keep him safe. If his pancreas is sputtering back to life, you need to catch him to prevent a hypo and you also need to reduce the dose as his own pancreas puts out a little bit.

The way Lantus works is that your dosing is based primarily upon answering the question "how low can this dose cause my cat's blood sugar to go?" The low point is typically somewhere in between the shots. Sometimes it will be at shot time, but most typically the lowest numbers are a few hours after the shot.

Right now we can't say for certain how low he's going on the dose because you mostly have preshot test numbers. Those are very helpful and a great place to begin, but since his needs seem to be changing, if he were mine, I'd try to get a test before bed, always, and if someone is home during the day try to get a test somewhere in between the shots. It's really helpful to vary the times you test - for example, maybe tonight you could get a +5. Then tomorrow night get a +3. During the day I liked to get tests before +6 because Punkin typically had his lowest numbers around +5.5. Your goal is to learn how low the dose is taking Marky!

Hope some of that helps.

 

[Wendy&Neko]

Hello and welcome to you and kitty Mark.

Since you are using an AT, 68 is the number we don't want them to go below. If you get up and see him below that, give him a couple tsps of high carb food, or his regular food with a drop of honey, karo, or syrup. And you'll have to keep testing every 1/2 hour to make sure he comes back up over 68. If he's safely above 68 when you test again, you can just give him a couple of tsp of his regular low carb food to try to keep in good healing numbers.

There is a lot of good information in the Sticky Notes on the top of this forum. Feel free to ask questions, we love to help here. We have two methods we use here for dosing, Tight Regulation and Start Low Go Slow. Right now you are testing the amount that would mean following SLGS, and Mark would have earned a reduction to 1.0 units, by going below 90 tonight. If you were following TR, the reduction point is 68.

 

[Jess and Marky Mark]

Thank you both! There is so much information out there that I've been a bit overwhelmed. I really appreciate you taking the time to answer.

We will start doing a test before bed but cannot get one midday during the week. I updated my signature so that's apparent when I have questions in the future.