Sam has been on insulin a week now

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sueandsamwise

sueandsamwise

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Sam has been on the PZI for a week now and I still see no big improvement in his numbers. Today +3 after eating a bunch it was 369. At least that's down from the 500 where he's been sitting all week. I wish they would come down but am I jumping the gun? He has gotten a bit more vocal for days I didn't hear a peep out of him which is not like him he's always talked a bit.

We are still having trouble with testing. I want to do it before every shot, the husband wants to stop testing, says it's stressing out Sam. He also told me that maybe we should do what the vet says. Well, we are, they just don't believe in home testing. I don't think it stresses him, I think it stresses the husband. He hits the ear vein but it just won't bleed. :YMSIGH: We warm, we poke, nothing. It usually takes 4 or 5 tries. He's eating right now in fact and it's 1.5 hr before his scheduled shot. At least he is gaining a bit of weight. He was 5.40 last Sunday at the vets office. I wish I had a better scale than what we have right now. I weighed Sam on our postal scale and he is at 5.74lbs. So, he's gained a couple of ounces.
 
Hi Sue,
I'm sorry the board has been so slow for answering you.
first things first...never a good idea to test right after sam has just eatten a bunch.
your begging for a higher # if you do that. for mid cycle tests wait until an hour or so after sam has eatten.
next, have you watched the u-tube video on testing? if not i can link you up to it.
i could even walk you thru on the phone if you want.
things will get easier i promise.
and tell hubby the act of shooting without testing might end up costing him a bundle if you need to go to the ER after sam hypos. that might help :lol: and it's not a lie!
 
sue, you may not be able to get a spread sheet up right away but we sure would like to see your #'s and dosing.
tell me if this makes sense to you k? the numbers are hypothetical.

amps 490 2U
+4 295
+8 240
pmps 410 2U

the am and pm refer to morning and evening. the ps stands for pre-shot.. the test before you shoot and ideally before same has eatten. the +'s are the number of hours since his last shot.
 
It used to take me 4 or 5 pokes routinely when I was starting out too. Sometimes it still takes me 2 or 3 :oops: even though I've been testing for over 1 1/2 yrs now. Usually I wait a few seconds after poking if the blood doesn't pop up, and sometimes it will start coming up after that. If not, I'll milk his ear a little & see if that does it (usually does).

Most cats don't get a great response in the first week. From what I have seen, a month is more realistic as a timeframe, though of course it varies widely. A lot depends on the dose. Kitties that are going to do well on 1u may get a good response within a few days, kitties that are going to need something like 3u are going to take a few weeks til you get there, most likely.

What dose are you on? Can you share the #s you have so far?

Bix loves being tested. It was stressful at first, just because I was a total freak-out about it all. Once I calmed down, so did he, and now it's quality time. I'd say the majority of people here have a similar tale. There are a few cats who never come around to liking it, but they seem to be the exception. It took me about a month to get from testing being a difficult thing, to it being a piece of cake.

Hehe, just thought of a funny - maybe we need a DH forum where the skeptical hubbies can chill out with a beer while the rest of us test, LOL. Seems like a recurring theme "hubby thinks I should stop testing". Maybe some of the success stories on that front will chime in with tips for you.
 
I'll see if I can get him to start that forum. Hee, hee. Right now he's watching football. Go Broncos! I don't care much for football.

Here's the numbers I have so far. He was started Sunday 9/5 on PZI. They started him on 1u in the morning but the only number I got out of them was 122. So, when we picked him up on Tuesday, he is on .5 u in the morning and 1u at night. He's on the 12/12. I can't get the spreadsheet up cuz I am to stupid to figure it out. I need to get on tech support and get help.

Okay here goes with what I have: 9/7 PMPS: 213 He had eaten before the shot.
9\8 5:am ate AMPS: 72 7:50am no shot and he ate through out the day. At 10:10am his BG was 152 and my husband gave him the shot though I told him not to. -2 296. PMPS 346 9:10 shot 1u.

9/9 ate at 6 am. AMPS 446 .5u +5 316 PMPS 542 1U 7:40 shot at 8:pm

9/10 ate at 6am and though out day.He did get his shot around 8am. No test. PMPS 543 shot 1u. This is where I rebel and say we should test before each shot at least!!!

9/11 no test shot at 8:01 .5u +3-369 PMPS 452 1u

9/12 no test I'm getting tired of this. Sam growls at shot..5u. He has been eating quite well today. We will do the PMPS because I have no idea where he's sitting right now.

I hate the no tests, I guess I'll have to learn to do it myself but it usually takes both of us. Sometimes we can get his ear to bleed really well, others no. It's very frustrating. nailbite_smile
 
lori and tom said:
Hi Sue,
I'm sorry the board has been so slow for answering you.
first things first...never a good idea to test right after sam has just eatten a bunch.
your begging for a higher # if you do that. for mid cycle tests wait until an hour or so after sam has eatten.
next, have you watched the u-tube video on testing? if not i can link you up to it.
i could even walk you thru on the phone if you want.
things will get easier i promise.
and tell hubby the act of shooting without testing might end up costing him a bundle if you need to go to the ER after sam hypos. that might help :lol: and it's not a lie!
Click to expand...
HI lori: I did the post then went to bed so no worries there. We already spent 850 bucks for 3 days of vet care so he knows about that! Hopefully we'll not have to do that again. Sam seems to be tolerating this insulin better then the Vetsulin he was on the first time he was DX's in 09. He went off the juice a month later when he was showing very good numbers in the low and under 100's and we quit shooting.
 
Hi and welcome! Are you in Colorado? DH and I used to tag team Klinger to test and now we can both test him on our own. We had to when we started to test preshot - I'm the early riser and once I started to do it on my own DH felt confident that he could too. DH still grumbles about all of the spot checks that I do, but it's the only way to get the data to figure out Klinger's correct dose.
Just wanted to say hi.
Marcy
 
Thanks Marcy, no I am in Casper Wyoming. I need to try it myself, DH pokes the ears and I give the shots. I told him that I read in several cat diabetes places that it was a good idea to test pre-shot so he finally believed me. We will be doing that from now on. Takes a while to pound something through their heads at times. LOL :lol:
 
lets see if we can get one of the 'smarties' to get your spread sheet up...i'm not that smart and someone put mine up. it will be so much easier to follow what your doing. i'll hunt around.
 
sue i found someone who is prepared to give you a walk thru on the phone to set up you spread sheet. Sue and Oliver. do you know how to send or recieve your pm's (private message) upper left hand corner of the screen..says 'new messages'
 
I would even out the dose between AM & PM. Although some cats do need a different dose AM vs. PM, I don't think you have enough data to conclude that (sadly, I have lost faith in most vets getting it right!).

I would try 0.75 for both shots.

The 1u looks too high, at least on a lower PS (9/7 PMPS 213, 9/8 AMPS 72). You want a shootable # every 12 hours to keep the best balance of insulin in their systems. 72 = not shootable = definitive evidence that testing before each shot is essential!!! Yowza if you had shot blind on that one!

0.5u looks a little sparse (9/9 AMPS 446 .5u +5 316 PMPS 542). You want a drop more in the zone of 50 - 70% from PS to nadir to get good results.

So that's where I'm thinking maybe try 0.75 for both AM & PM and see if you get #s that are a bit more consistent, that will make the data easier to interpret and hopefully help you get things under control better.

Good news is you are seeing some good #s in there on a pretty low dose, so YAY, good chance to get him regulated pretty fast I would say.
 
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