Question about low glucose readings

KiKi's Mommy

KiKi's Mommy

Member Since 2026
My cat KiKi has been reading low on my home glucose meter for a couple weeks. She originally had unregulated numbers (and went into DKA and was in hospital for two days) but after her follow up ultrasound, her clostridium flare up is back to normal (with the help of metronidazole) My vet did a fructosamine test and her average was 294. When I checked her glucose the other day after eating but before her shot, she was 79. I called the vet and asked if I should decrease her insulin (she is currently on 4 units twice daily), she said no. I tested her again tonight after eating but before pm shot and she was 79. I didn't want to give her 4 units so I gave her 3.5. Am I doing something wrong?
 
Here's your previous post for some people to get the backstory: Newbie

It's great that you've got her on a low carb diet now. I suspect that may mean 4 units is now too much insulin. Moving to a low carb diet from a higher one can make a big difference in the amount of insulin needed. What was her old food?

Could you tell me what type of insulin you are using? 79 was definitely too low to shoot 4 units at this point in time, so good instincts. Can you tell me what brand of glucose meter (we also call it BG for blood glucose) you are using?

We'll be able to give you some more detailed help if we can can get answers to the above questions plus able to see some more of the blood sugar data you have been collecting, even if only for the last couple weeks. You'll notice that most of us have spreadsheets in our signature where we document the blood sugars. They are incredibly useful tools to help give us a picture of what is happening. Details on how to do that are in this post. New? How You Can Help Us Help You! Let us know if you need help setting it up.
 
Wendy&Neko said:
Here's your previous post for some people to get the backstory: Newbie

It's great that you've got her on a low carb diet now. I suspect that may mean 4 units is now too much insulin. Moving to a low carb diet from a higher one can make a big difference in the amount of insulin needed. What was her old food?

Could you tell me what type of insulin you are using? 79 was definitely too low to shoot 4 units at this point in time, so good instincts. Can you tell me what brand of glucose meter (we also call it BG for blood glucose) you are using?

We'll be able to give you some more detailed help if we can can get answers to the above questions plus able to see some more of the blood sugar data you have been collecting, even if only for the last couple weeks. You'll notice that most of us have spreadsheets in our signature where we document the blood sugars. They are incredibly useful tools to help give us a picture of what is happening. Details on how to do that are in this post. New? How You Can Help Us Help You! Let us know if you need help setting it up.
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Her old food was Blue Buffalo. I got a glucose only kit off Amazon, can't remember the name, but I just ordered another one that was listed on your website. Abbott glucose and ketone blood checker. I don't have a graph but I might have some old screenshots of her numbers. I tried the libre sensor six different times but she kept removing them. She is not the ideal patient at all. I'll check out the spreadsheet. Thanks for your response.
 
KiKi's Mommy said:
Her old food was Blue Buffalo. I got a glucose only kit off Amazon, can't remember the name, but I just ordered another one that was listed on your website. Abbott glucose and ketone blood checker. I don't have a graph but I might have some old screenshots of her numbers. I tried the libre sensor six different times but she kept removing them. She is not the ideal patient at all. I'll check out the spreadsheet. Thanks for your response.
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Sorry, I'm using Vetsulin.
 
With Vetsulin, you definitely do not want to shoot 4 units again. We don't want cats on Vetsulin to go below 90 at any time. If they do, we reduce the dose. So you did the right thing.

The fructosamine count is in the normal, non diabetic cat level. And a little low for a cat on insulin. I'm glad you reduced the dose. The fructosamine levels are not measuring the same units as the blood glucose.

It would be helpful if you could get the name of the glucose checker, more importantly whether it was one labeled a pet meter or one for humans. The human one works well for cats and the test strips are much cheaper so that's what most of us use. The pet meter can read a bit higher, so 79 on a pet meter means something different to me than from a human meter.
 
LinkSun is the name of the glucose monitor I have now. Everything came with it. And it is labeled as a pet glucose monitor kit. Before her shot tonight, she was at 145. I texted the vet and she said since her numbers have been consistently good, to decrease her from 4 to 3 so I'm glad I went with my instinct last night.
 
KiKi's Mommy said:
LinkSun is the name of the glucose monitor I have now. Everything came with it. And it is labeled as a pet glucose monitor kit. Before her shot tonight, she was at 145. I texted the vet and she said since her numbers have been consistently good, to decrease her from 4 to 3 so I'm glad I went with my instinct last night.
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Sorry for the late response. We just got our power back on. Ugh!
 
I've never heard of the LinkSun meter before. A lot of people here go to Walmart and get their Relion models. Test strips are $9 so considerably cheaper.

Good luck with the 3 unit dose.
 
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