Please see his SS & let me know...

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lildude

lildude

Member Since 2011
I am new to Lantus & my kitty just started a couple of days ago. This morning his glucose reading was 55, which I was told was too low. He ate & got his 2 unit injection, and I monitored him for 3 hours. It was 101 the last reading, and he was given his lunch. Here is his SS. His numbers have been very high for a very long time, so I am happy to see the lower numbers, but I want his numbers to be GOOD low, not a BAD low.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub ... utput=html

TIA!!

BTW, I gave him 2 units, twice a day yesterday; his last injection being around 8:45pm. He got his breakfast & shots about 12 hours later this AM.
 
Hi and welcome to Lantus Land!

It's great that you are testing and already have a spreadsheet. I looked at it and I'm slightly confused by your set-up. Most people use one spreadsheet row per day (fill in multiple boxes per row as the day progresses). Could you modify your spreadsheet to reflect this? Otherwise, it will make it difficult for the Guru's to advise you about numbers!

You did the right thing in not giving insulin this morning- it looks like his numbers were pretty low... It does look like he is rising now but you fed him so it might be just a food induced thing (ie will wear off when the food is processed). If it were smokey, I would keep testing and see if he is ready for a shot at the PM time. Hopefully, the gurus will be around soon to advise. If you get into this situation again, have a look at the "Shooting Low Numbers" stickie at the top of the Lantus Board- it has instructions that will be helpful!

You may want to modify your title ( by editing your initial post) to say "9/24 Kitty Name New to Lantus Need Advice" That way people will know that your post is from today and to look.
 
just for the sake of consistency, i'm going to suggest that we link your post on main health here so that people can all post there. otherwise you may get advice from different sources - it helps everyone advising you to see what others are saying. many heads are better than one in the insulin dance!

you might want to start posting daily here in the Lantus support forum, though - we'll help you learn how to read lildude's responses so you can take care of him!

Lil Dude's existing condo for today on main health forum
 
SmokeyD said:
You did the right thing in not giving insulin this morning- it looks like his numbers were pretty low... It does look like he is rising now but you fed him so it might be just a food induced thing (ie will wear off when the food is processed).
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For the sake of clarity, I believe she said she fed him and gave him 2 units this morning!!! It is highly recommended you don't shoot any number below 150 when you're new to Lantus!!! Pleasepleaseplease read the stickies at the top of the Lantus forum. The following quote is from "Lantus & Levemir - Shooting and Handling Low Numbers."
There's no hard and fast rule, but if you don't have data on how your cat responds to insulin, here are some general guidelines. Below 150 mg/dl (8.3 mmol/L), don't give insulin. Between 150 and 200 (8.3-11.1 mmol/L), you have three options: a.) give nothing; b.) give a token dose (10-25% of the usual dose); c.) feed as usual, test in a couple of hours, and make a decision based on that value. Above 200 (11.1 mmol/L) but below the cat's normal pre-shot value, a reduced dose might be wise.
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If you ever have any questions about whether you should shoot or not, just post here on the board and someone is usually around who can help you decide what to do!!

Good luck!!

ETA: Having numbers that rise from preshot on indicate Lildude DID go into hypoglycemic numbers his previous cycle. Because you aren't checking his BG midcycle, you didn't catch this. Champ has had this happen on a few occasions, but because I test a lot, especially when I see a trend of his numbers decreasing, I was able to catch his low numbers and guide them with food. Lildude was very lucky today that he was bouncing off his low numbers from the previous cycle or it would have been disastrous giving him 2u when his number was 55. I'm not trying to scare you (well, maybe a little!), but just trying to make sure you understand how important it is that you learn about Lantus, how it's given, how it works, and the importance of testing as often as you can.
 
That is one reason I came here is to learn, and I do read a lot on this site, but it is not as if I have hours at a time to do so. I am not stupid to diabetes considering I dealt with it when I was pregnant & my fiance has it. Yes, I am in the learning phase of all of this since it is my cat, but to get the feeling I am being talked down to by you people is a little irritating. The reason he was not tested when his blood sugar dropped was because it was overnight. He was fed at 9pm, and I did take his blood sugar then, and it was 291. I am also still learning how to use the spreadsheet.

At any rate, I tested him just now, and his BG was 241. He'll likely be fed 2 more times today, and I will check about 2 or 3 more times today, the last time being around 9pm.
 
Yikes!! I hate the fact that you can't hear inflection in the typed word!!! I would NEVER talk down to anyone on this board. We've all been where you are today...just learning and getting advice and just doing the best we can. Please accept my apologies if I came across as preachy...it wasn't meant that way!!
 
don't be offended, robin. people come here with all different levels of understanding & more experienced users just try to make things as simple as possible. since you dealt with gestational diabetes, you know some about diabetes. most people coming here don't know a thing about it and don't understand the seriousness of hypoglycemia.

no one expects you to have caught a low number in the middle of the night! although now that you know he likely got low last night, you want to be prepared for it to happen again.

it must've taken me 6 months to be able to "see" when punkin was bouncing from a low number. i had to rely on others looking at his spreadsheet and telling me that's what it was.

is the 195 preshot and the 241 at pm+5 - are those maybe from last night? you want to bump those up one line, i think.

the goal is to find a dose that can be shot the same 12 hours apart. skipping doses messes up things, although sometimes you have to - so i'm not criticizing or anything. but our goal is to find that sweet spot dose that he can get every am and pm without going too low/high until he settles in on the lantus.

i don't feel experienced enough to suggest anything and would prefer someone else weigh in on it. i think 2units might be too much, though. i think you're shooting at 7:30pm texas time - is that US eastern zone or central zone? would you check back in here with his preshot number before you shoot and see if there's a suggestion?

when you've checked that preshot number, edit your first post here and put in the preshot BG number with a "dose advice?" by it. that will get some eyes on it. it's good if you can give people a half our or so to see it.
 
oh sorry - just reread and see the 241 is from today.

so if his morning shot today was at 7:30am, then you had a 195, and a 241 - how many hours after his morning shot were those? you want those numbers to go into the column that corresponds with that many hours after the morning shot.

you've got the
amps 55
+1 67
+2 87
+3 101
+ ? 195
+ ? 241

the 195 and 241 should be in the center section between the morning and evening preshot columns (blue-green on my computer).

sorry it's so confusing to explain it. it might seem like it's nothing, or that we're harping on the spreadsheet, but the pattern of the numbers is everything.

there is a ton to learn here, not only how Lantus works, but how each cat's body responds to it - so just keep asking away and we'll keep plugging trying to help.
 
Robin:

I'm sorry if you feel that people are talking down to you. We're doing our best to try to understand the specifics of what's going on with your cat. I'm having a very hard time sorting out what's going on based on the information on your spreadsheet. I posted in your thread on Health and apologies in advance if you find this condescending. That's not the spirit in which the post was intended. I'm just doing what I can, based on information I don't understand, to help you.
Sienne & Gabby said:
It would help a lot if you could clarify what the entries on your spreadsheet mean. I can't really figure out when you've been testing on a given day. You may need to get your meter to give you the times when you were testing so you can plug them back into your spreadsheet.

It may be a little easier for you to understand what we're talking about if you look at someone else's spreadsheet. If you open Gabby's SS, on the line for today, you'll see her AMPS was 216 and I gave her a dose of 0.75u (Actually it was a Fat dose but ignore that for now.). An hour later, her BG was 189, 2 hours after her shot her BG was 102, 3 hours = 65, etc.
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Without your spreadsheet in a format that makes sense, there's no way to know if you need to adjust your cat's dose or if he has a late nadir or any number of other possibilities.
 
Thanks guys. I am sorry I got upset, but today has just been one of THOSE days. My 12mo old son is sick, my fiance is sick, AND on top of that, today was my step daughter's birthday party. I am TIRED.

Lil Dude's BG has continued to climb all day. His last reading was 260. I will check again around 9pm & give him his last meal for the night. I will give him just 1 unit this time if his BG is still climbing and see how it looks in the AM. I will also try to work on, and finish, his SS so that you can understand it better. Hopefully tomorrow is a better day, tho today has not been that bad for Lil Dude considering how high his numbers have been. Unfortunately Lil Dude has suffered low blood sugar before--when he was just a kitten. He had several seizures and the vet told us it was most likely due to hypoglycemia, so I was forced to take him off his kitten formula & put him on canned food since he was just getting his teeth. It was very scary when he was such a small guy to go through that, so I most certainly don't want to go through that now that he is older & sick.
 
did he have diabetes then? i thought i understood that a cat couldn't get hypoglycemic if they weren't having insulin shot into them, but i certainly could have misunderstood.

i posted on the main health thread but will ask here too - can you tell us about his history? he was on Humulin before, for how long and at what dose?

is he completely transitioned to low carb canned food?

sometimes the best thing about a day is that it's over! sounds like today is one of those kind for you. i hope tomorrow is better.
 
Well, once he was eating real cat food (as a kitten) he never had any more seizures & has done fine until these past few months. He was on Humulin N for a short time (a month or month and a half maybe).

And yes, he is eating nothing but his canned food (low carb/high protein). He no longer spends hours by the water bowl, and he is actually walking better!! He really seems to be feeling better.

Lil Dude was found as a small kitten (maybe 2 weeks old), and I hand raised him. He is now about 10 years old. The only health issues he has had was the crystals in his bladder & being pretty fat. At one point he weighed nearly 18 lbs.

Otherwise there isn't much else to say about his health. He has been neutered, too, for most of his life.
 
Hi Robin, welcome to Lantus Land! We have been here for a while but I still remember how overwhelming everything was. And still is sometimes. You are going a great job! At least you don't have the queasiness with BG testing and shots that most of us have at first. :smile: I don't think Lildude looks so little any more. What a handsome fellow! Of course, we are a little partial to black cats.
Liz
 
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