QUESTION: 8/21 Bear a.m. +5 183 PMPS 81

[Luke B]

Hi all, so we switched over from the main board to the Lantus board to ask our questions. As of yesterday we started to switch the cats over to wet food. The transition has not been all that smooth but we're working on it and they have started to eat a little of the wet we are putting with the dry. So last night since the cats didn't eat much we decided to skip Bears evening dose and as expected Bears number were a little higher. So we fed them this morning and gave Bear his shot. At +5 he was 183 and tonight before his shot he was 81. The last time he was this low he was 82 and we decided not to shoot that night. The next morning he was 494. This however was when we still had him on Purina DM. Bear has a real taste for good meat. We've mixed the new wet food with tuna and chicken to get him to eat it. That's what he ate tonight after we took hid BS. His regular dose is 1.5 units but tonight I was thinking of shooting a half unit jut to keep his reserve up and his BS under control until tomorrow morning. Would this be the route to take considering what he's eating tonight or should ewe skip the dose again to get an idea of what this new diet is going to do to his numbers come morning?

 

[Sienne and Gabby (GA)]

Re: 8/21 Bear a.m. +5 183 PMPS 81

Generally, it's better to shoot something than to skip. However, you do not have a lot of data to support shooting this low. Whenever someone is contemplating shooting low there are a couple of necessary (absolutely necessary) elements to be considered.

• Do you have a hypo kit? In other words, high carb, gravy based food and/or Karo/honey, etc?
• Are you stocked up on strips?
• Are you going to be home?
• Can you test early in the cycle and throughout the cycle, if necessary?

From your spreadsheet, it doesn't look like you're testing that much, especially with respect to getting spot checks. It's very important to get spot checks with Lantus since dose changes are based on the nadir, not on the pre-shot numbers.

If you're going to shoot a reduced dose, you need to be willing to test, have strips, and HC food to steer the cycle should this be needed.

 

[Ann & Tess GA]

Re: 8/21 Bear a.m. +5 183 PMPS 81

Hi,
I have no answer for you but please put "question" in your subject header and click on the ? icon to draw attention. If it were me, I wouldn't shoot a full dose at that number. Some one with more knowledge should be by shortly. :mrgreen: John

 

[Luke B]

Re: 8/21 Bear a.m. +5 183 PMPS 81

Ok, we have the kit, have the strips, and we are going to be home. However I have to be up at 4:30 and my wife at five so staying up late is not a really something we can do tonight. I know we don't have a lot of testing info and we're trying to get more in there. Bear always tends to rebound with higher numbers in the morning after being lower. I'm not sure what to do here, last time we didn't shoot. All these numbers are so new like you said we really don't have a good pattern yet. I'll make it a point to get more numbers from Bear. Lindsay and I are still trying to learn and we both seem to have different ideas on what should work. Thanks for the help.

 

[Sienne and Gabby (GA)]

The bouncing is normal. When a cat is in lower numbers or drops fast, the liver "panics" -- it acts in a protective manner by dumping a stored form of glucose along with counterregulatory hormones into the bloodstream. This causes the numbers to spike upward.