Question on how low is too low.

C

Cathy & Mini

Member
Mini is 68 at +4 I just fed her again. Is there anything else I should do? I gave her 1 unit at 6 pm (307) but skipped her last two shots. Saturday morning she got 1 unit (271) and threw up some of her food an hour later, (203) last night she was 260 and I didn’t give the shot because no one would be awake to watch her. This morning she was 233 so I figured she went down from last night on her own so I didn’t give her a shot. I guess I have never had an over 200 drop before and it’s just kinda freaking me out a bit.
 
Mini is still safe and you were right to feed her. You don't want her dropping any lower though. Test her now (assuming 30 minutes after feeding is about now) to see if her BG is up and post her BG here. I'll watch for your update.
 
Thanks for the reply! I just tested her and she is @ 77 now. So guess she is going up again? I didn’t use vetsulin with my other cat so this is kinda new to me. From what I understand, vetsulin has a lower number at the plus 3-5 range? I did give her some temptation treats too. (She only ate 3)
 
Good to know she had some up some but that may just be a food bump. Mini may or may not be at her nadir (lowest point in this cycle)yet. With Vetsulin nadir can be anywhere between about 3.5 and 6 hours post shot. You've given her a bit of higher carb with the Temptations. What other food did she eat? I'd suggest that you test her again in 30 minutes to ensure she is still rising and then leave some food out for her tonight if it's approaching bedtime for you and get a before bedtime test just to ensure she is staying up and not dropping again.
I would also suggest that you should reduce her dose by at least 0.25u if you are using syringes or 0.5u if you are using the pen. With Vetsulin, you really don't want kitty to be going below about 80.
 
Mini is eating the fancy feast pate (poultry and beef collection) and the 68 reading was my before bed test lol. I am using the U40 syringes I got from the vet and there is no half unit markings. When I give .5 I am eyeballing it which isn’t the best but I haven’t bought anymore yet. She still has food left from when I fed her at 10:15 cst. We are now at about +5.5 and she is still at 77. I put fresh food out and she just smelled it and walked away. I will do another test at plus 6 (15 min or so).
 
Sounds like a good plan. Do you have any higher carb food you might be able to entice her with other than Temptations? Having had the high carb Temptations earlier, I sort of expected she might have risen a little more by now.
Definitely worth getting some syringes with half unit markings. Not sure what the syringe laws are in ND but you can use U100 syringes with a conversion chart which would give you even more fine dosing capabilities if you can buy them OTC. The vet would likely refuse to provide a Script for them if its needed although it never hurts to ask.
Let me know what the +6 BG is.
 
Ok her +6 is 87. I do have 80 U-100 syringes left that I used on Kitty. I haven’t looked at the conversion chart yet but I will have to check it out tomorrow after work. The only other food we have is the dry fancy feast she was on before. I could put some of that out tonight.
 
It looks like Mini is rising now so I think leaving out some of her low carb FF should be fine. Definitely lower the dose tomorrow though especially if you will be at work and unable to monitor through the day.
I'm off to bed as are you so Sweet Dreams and scritches for Mini! :)
 
I am going to bed too thanks for the help tonight! It is very much appreciated! I will leave out some dry food and probably not give the shot in the morning. We will all be gone until the pm shot. I have Tuesday off maybe I will try another curve just to see what it looks like. Thanks again :)
 
Bare in mind that Mini will probably bounce from that quick drop to low numbers tonight and it may take a few cycles before the bounce clears. The higher carb food will also take a day or so to clear her system rendering your BG readings a little influenced. Not sure a curve on Tuesday will give you a "clear" vision of what's going on with Mini right now.
 
This morning she was 222. She did not eat the dry food. If she did it was a piece or two. I did not give her a shot this morning. And took the dry food away. We will see what tonight brings.
 
Given that lower AMPS this morning after that run in the green last night, definitely suggests the 1u dose is too high. I expected Mini would bounce and likely be higher than that this morning. Nice surprise. Interesting she didn't eat much if any of the dry food. I'll be looking forward to seeing how she is doing this evening. :)
 
Her pm shot is not due for about an hour but my daughter tested her after school and she was 321. So +20.5 from the last shot she was 321. She hardly ate anything last night, but was asking for food this afternoon. The funny thing with the temptations treats and the dry food, I gave it to her and she looked at it then looked at me like, what is this? Then would walk away. It’s like she knows she shouldn’t have it.
 
Consider yourself lucky. It took me over two years to get my sugar girl to even TRY wet food. Mini's BG would come down some if you stop all the dry food and the Temptation treats. You could try some freeze dried chicken treats like PureBites as a replacement for the Temptations. Orijen also makes some freeze dried protein treats that would be appropriate for Mini.
All things considered, 321, while high, is not bad given Mini has not had insulin for +20 hours. If you get a chance to look at the conversion chart, I think reducing her dose to 0.75u would be ideal. If that is not possible, then I would still drop it to 0.5u as you don't want Mini dropping too low when you are not there to monitor her or sleeping and the 1u despite going 24 hours without insulin brought her BG down a little too low for comfort.
 
Ok so pmps is 271. And she is eating again. The dry food and treats last night were only to try to get her numbers up. She has not had any for about two weeks. When we got Mini at about 6 months old I had big kitty and they were only fed wet food. She was not taken care of very well and wasn’t fed regularly so she would eat all the food as fast as she could. When big kitty passed we switched to about 1/2 cup dry a day because she was overweight. The wet food was the “treat”. So she is just happy as a clam eating wet again! Lol Usually not a problem to get her to eat the wet. Do you think I should try a half unit now? Because she has come down a little on her own?
 
Yes, I would try the 0.5u dose and test again at +2 to see if she is starting to drop. If she is dropping fast, then give her some food (low carb wet is fine) to slow her down and then test again before you turn in for the night. Getting those nighttime tests can give you a lot of info on how kitty is doing and many cats go lower at night than they do on the day cycles so let's see how Mini fares with the reduced dose. :)
 
So I gave her .4 at 630 and tested again...256 (that one is not on the spreadsheet) so she went down on her own again. I will test again at +2 from the shot. She ate at 6:00 when she was 271.
 
+2 = 232. So I will check at plus 4 and see where we are. Hopefully she continues with the slower drops, and not the over 200 like last night!

+4 = 204 I think it is safe to go to bed. Thanks again for all your help!
 
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