Rascal Finally Making Progress Note to Sue & Donna Also

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Hi Everyone!

Well week number four since diagnosis (or is it 5) has started off great. After continuing to stay in the high 3 hundreds. 391 last week, plus a urinary tract infection. Rascal is finally responding. He was at 248 today. I was thrilled. He lost quite a bit of weight and has gained back a pound. I was giving him one and a half units BID. He does not see the vet again for two weeks. We are increasing the dose just a drop to one and three quarters or as close as I can get to it since there is not a half or three quarters on the syringe. Other info, he was given his shot at 7:30 am and tested 248 at 1:30 pm. I know when you are testing and tracking the time means something. Can you explain? I was so excited I forgot to ask my vet.

Since he has gotten older, I noticed his appetite has changed so I kind of hand feed him sometimes in between meals to make sure he gets some extra food in him.

Now that he is making progress I will slowly start to try testing again. Just curious, does anybody know anyone on this site who does not test and has never had a hypo problem?
A friend I know from work had a diabetic cat for 8 years. She said he had one episode because of the type of insulin he was on. Once they switched his insulin, she said they never had a problem with him going hypo.

Not trying to weasel out of testing. Just curious.

Note to Sue and Donna:

Thank you both so much for your continued support. Sorry I am just reponding, I just don't seem to get the time to get on the site as much as I would like to.

Donna,

Sorry I just saw your e-mail and that you would be in the area this week. Mondays and Tuesdays are the best days for me, I work the rest of the week. But seems those days book up quickly for me. Doctors appointments for me, or my 92 year old mother, errands and of course vet appointments.

I will try to get on line more often and hopefully next time you are in the area you can stop over, possibly at a time where at least I can pay it forward by at least taking you to lunch or dinner. I am not sure what kind of pen you said you used. Should I buy the same one? Or doesn't it matter? When you know you are going to be in the area again let me know. I can at least try to re arrange my schedule if I have something on my calandar.

Just an FYI, the next few weeks will not work for me. My daughter is having major surgery on the 21rst of February. She will be staying with us while recovering.

Will keep you posted. In the meantime I will try to update you if I get the courage up to try to test on my own this week.

June
 
So the 248 was 6 hours after the morning shot, right? If so, that would probably be near his nadir or the lowest point of the cycle. We use the preshot numbers and the nadir to help us figure out the dose.

The problem is that you can't count on that number being a true number, as it was at the vet. Most cats get at least a little stressed there, with the strange smells, noises, animals and people. Stress raises bg levels. A lot in some cats. Some members here report taking a test as soon as they get home from the vet and it is 100 points lower.

That is one of the reasons we like home testing. If the cat is stressed, and the number is higher at the vet, and the dose is based on that number, the dose can be too much when the cat gets home and relaxes.

We have so few people here who do not hometest so I can't answer your question unless I start at the other end. We have seen multiple hypos from people who are not hometesting. They come on and say their cat is glassy eyed and stumbling around. We ask what his numbers are and they don't know - they aren't testing. I love the analogy that the vet who posts on this site uses. She says giving insulin without testing is like driving down the highway with a bag over your head.

If you can't get with Donna this week, I think you should try again on your own. Tell us what was hard the first time and we will bombard you with hints that might help.

To see the value of hometesting, read Dragonfly's and Grayson's threads. They are new and started on pretty high doses. They started testing and have been rapidly reducing the dose. If they had continued on the higher dose, they certainly could have hypoed.

We can try to help over the internet with the testing. But if there is even a 30 minute time frame that you and Donna can work out, it would be that fast to get it in person.
 
Hi Sue,

So at 6 hours, that is when their BG will be the lowest and then start to rise again. Or please correct me if I am wrong, as his BG begins to level out he would get in trouble because his BG would continue to drop.

Do they flutuate in the beginning? Also how do I recognize if Rascal does go hypo. Even with testing it can sometimes happen correct? The reason I ask is he doesn't walk around much. He is old, has only three legs, and only one eye. So he gets up to eat, drink and use the litter box. But doesn't walk around much and sleeps alot. If he was to have a hypo episode is there a certain time of day I would see this happen? Also even with testing could this still happen? I guess my concern is what happens if you are not home. Can they come out of it themselves at some point? That is probably what scares me the most. Sorry for all the questions, but what is considered a low dose of insulin? I know you said we would adjust according to what his BG is before is shot. Is one and three quarters alot? Also does they amount of urine also give you a sign of high or low BG.

He is a very loud purrer and responses to me when I call him by purring very loudly, maybe look for a sign like that. Thats how I knew he wasn't feeling well last week.
 
Here is the hypo thread. It has symptoms etc.

http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=15887

Yes, people who are testing can have cats with hypos. The difference is that they can see when their numbers are going down and intervene in time to keep them safe. We do have hypos with PZI. Lisa and Jax had one today. If you read her thread, though, Jax never really showed symptoms even at 30. If they hadn't been testing, he might have gotten symptoms in the 20s and by then, it could have been too late to get him to the ER. We see symptomless hypos all the time.

There is no way to know when his bg levels might suddenly go down. It can be that he adapts to the diet, or has extra excercise or the insulin starts to work differently with his pancreas. They are not predictable. That is what makes feline diabetes so hard. And that's why we home test.

When you leave for the day, leave out some food. That is some protection. They seem to know when they are going low and they want to eat.
 
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