Sammie 8/21 hypo

Sarah & Sammie

Sarah & Sammie

Member Since 2017
Sammie’s glucose was 35 when checked at 12:00. Gave karo and food. She is eating and now at 49. Do i take her to ER??
 
Test again in 20 minutes

As long as you can keep testing and have plenty of supplies, you may be able to handle this.

Which insulin and how much?

We really need you to do your signature and start our spreadsheet when things calm down.
 
Chris & China (GA) said:
Test again in 20 minutes

As long as you can keep testing and have plenty of supplies, you may be able to handle this.

Which insulin and how much?

We really need you to do your signature and start our spreadsheet when things calm down.
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Thank you for replying so quickly. Lantus, 1.5 units given around 8:30 tonight. After her low BGL last week I reduced her dose down from 3 units.

I have 11 test strips. She is on Z/D and that is the only food I have for her.
 
SammieCat said:
Lantus, 1.5 units given around 8:30 tonight.
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We're all over the world here....we refer to times in "+" times.....How many hours has it been since the 8:30 shot?

10:30 would be +2, 12:30 would be +4, etc.

If she's dropping that low on 1.5 and eating Z/D, I strongly encourage you to start over at .5....If you can get her off that higher carb food, she may not even need insulin
 
Here is the chart I keep at home.
 

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SammieCat said:
Here is the chart I keep at home.
Click to expand...

It's good you have it written down, but we're really used to our spreadsheet so when things calm down, let's get you a spreadsheet and you can put the numbers you have onto it.

If you haven't already done it, I'd also give her a teaspoon or two of food (but we don't want to fill her up in case this is a long night and you continue to need her to eat)
 
Chris & China (GA) said:
We're all over the world here....we refer to times in "+" times.....How many hours has it been since the 8:30 shot?

10:30 would be +2, 12:30 would be +4, etc.

If she's dropping that low on 1.5 and eating Z/D, I strongly encourage you to start over at .5....If you can get her off that higher carb food, she may not even need insulin
Click to expand...

I just uploaded her recent dosages and levels.

It has now been +4.
 
If you haven't already done it, I'd also give her a teaspoon or two of food (but we don't want to fill her up in case this is a long night and you continue to need her to eat)
 
I just rechecked, (+4) she's at 79 now.
She just ate 1/4 c of food. She is a very finicky eater and it usually takes her awhile to eat her food, but she ate quickly just now
 
That's not unusual....just like humans crave food when their glucose is low, so do most of our sugarcats

I'd test again in 30 minutes.

You can remove the 911 now that she's in a safer number.....put it back up if you need to.
 
SammieCat said:
I created a spreadsheet for her. The link is in my signature.
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Great job!!

I'm so glad you tested tonight and caught that drop!! That's why we say to always test before each shot and at least get a "before bed" test in!!

I'd really suggest dropping her back tomorrow.....she may be really high, but that could be a bounce from the low tonight....it doesn't mean she needs more insulin.

Hold .5 for at least 6 cycles (unless she drops too low again) and let's see what's really going on. If at all possible, get a test somewhere between +5 and +7 on the AM cycle too.

Why is she on the Z/D? Is it the canned or the dry? I know it's supposed to be for food sensitivities but do you know what she's sensitive to?
 
Chris & China (GA) said:
Great job!!

I'm so glad you tested tonight and caught that drop!! That's why we say to always test before each shot and at least get a "before bed" test in!!

I'd really suggest dropping her back tomorrow.....she may be really high, but that could be a bounce from the low tonight....it doesn't mean she needs more insulin.

Hold .5 for at least 6 cycles (unless she drops too low again) and let's see what's really going on. If at all possible, get a test somewhere between +5 and +7 on the AM cycle too.

Why is she on the Z/D? Is it the canned or the dry? I know it's supposed to be for food sensitivities but do you know what she's sensitive to?
Click to expand...

She and one of my other kitties both have IBD confirmed by ultrasound this past winter. They are on the dry z/d. We've tried other limited ingredient and prescription diets with little success in regulating the IBD symptoms.
 
Good job tonight!!

I think you could just leave some food down for her and call it a night.

SammieCat said:
Not sure about budesonide.
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You might want to ask about it. It's a steroid that a lot of diabetic cats use because it doesn't usually affect the blood glucose like the other ones do.
 
SammieCat said:
I will try .5 for the next several days and post an update before moving her to 1 unit.
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Do you have syringes with half unit markings? We usually recommend only doing dose increases in .25 unit measurements. There are no syringes with .25 unit lines, but you can eyeball in between the .5 and 1.0 unit lines pretty easily with a little practice.
 
Also, if someone could advise me.

Sammie is a picky, slow eater. She eats a little, moves to a different part of the room and waits for me to take her dish to her. Repeat. It could take her hours to eat her full meal. What do I do when it comes to her shot? Usually I reduce the dose if she hasn’t eaten at half of her meal by the time I have to go to work. Last night’s dip was caused by me being careless and not waiting until she ate enough to shoot. My other cat had dental surgery yesterday and I was distracted by caring for him.
 
Actually, with Lantus, they don't need to eat a certain amount before giving the shot....Usually the shot doesn't start to "kick in" for 2-3 hours so they can take their time if they prefer to eat slower.

Older, harsher insulins it was important to make sure they had a big meal on board first so that when it hit hard and fast, there was something to work against the insulin.

You Test to make sure she's high enough for insulin at all, Feed to make sure she's at least willing to eat (not sick and refusing to eat completely) and shoot.....all within 5-10 minutes..

Would an auto-feeder work for you that you could program to open during the day while you're at work? Or one of those feeders that only opens for a certain cat (the one with the microchip or special tag on a collar)?
 
Chris & China (GA) said:
Actually, with Lantus, they don't need to eat a certain amount before giving the shot....Usually the shot doesn't start to "kick in" for 2-3 hours so they can take their time if they prefer to eat slower.
Click to expand...

Thank you for this info!

I used to have an auto feeder but it didn’t work out. I have three cats. Rupert who is obese, Kitten who will push the other two out of the way to eat their food, and Sammie who can’t be bothered to eat much at all.

Usually I leave her bowl on my bed and the other two leave it alone at least for awhile.
 
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