Should I change Bubbles insulin dosage?

[Lettie]

I am wondering if I should change Bubbles insulin dose. He is eating 75% Fancy feast classic pate and 25% pro plan with gravy. He is eating four cans a day. He has been so hungry.Tomorrow he will be on all fancy feast.
He gets 1 unit of Prozinc 2 x daily.
Yesterday we did his curve. I have learned so much and still learning about this site and all of the wonderful people who help.

 

[FrostD]

Good job getting a curve!

A good rule of thumb with diabetes is to only change one thing at a time. I'm not sure what specific Pro Plan you're feeding, but since it has gravy in the name I'm going to guess it's medium to high carb. So I'd expect numbers to to hopefully be a bit lower tomorrow.

That said, he's still pretty high. Have you been advised to test for ketones yet?

I would not limit his food right now...if he's hungry, let him eat. Diabetic cats do not process food the same way, and often need to eat more to maintain weight.

Have you read this sticky yet? It covers the two PZ dosing methods the forum uses. The method you choose determines how the doses get adjusted. While the recommendation is to do SLGS for the first month, in Bubbles case of high BGs, the Modified Method would allow you to more aggressively change the dose and hopefully get him into better numbers more quickly.

The choice is really yours, just know he has to be completely low carb to do the Modified Method, and the Modified Method also requires more testing.

 

[Lettie]

Thank you so much for this information! I think we are going to go with the SLGS method. My experience with my son when he was diagnosed at 7, he was started with the modified method. I learned quickly this didn't work for him. We still did testing 4 times daily and he did much better keeping his sugars higher. The reactions from low sugars are far worse for the body than running the numbers a little higher.
When Bubbles urine test was done on Jan. 26 it was negative for ketones and we plan to continue testing.

 

[FrostD]

Just keep in mind cats aren't quite the same as humans. The green range allows the pancreas time to heal (we call it "healing greens"), and the hope is it eventually kicks back up enough to start lowering doses and in some cases remission. But you are absolutely right, hypos are very dangerous.

The renal threshold in cats is around 230-280...above this range the you start to risk damage to the kidneys, and the polyuria/polydipsia. Additionally, the high numbers can lead to neuropathy. So just from my perspective, the more quickly you can get him under those numbers, the better. Nothing stopping you from being a bit more aggressive until he's in the low 200s, then switching to the slower method. But again, totally up to you!

 

[Lettie]

Bubbles is today eating just fancy feast pates. His first day after switching over from pro plan. As soon as it is safe, I would like to get him in the low 200's and could use advice on how much insulin and when to start? And then I'd like to switch to the slow method as you mentioned.
And thank you so much for caring!

 

[FrostD]

Bubbles is today eating just fancy feast pates. His first day after switching over from pro plan. As soon as it is safe, I would like to get him in the low 200's and could use advice on how much insulin and when to start? And then I'd like to switch to the slow method as you mentioned.
And thank you so much for caring!

No problem!

Let's see how he does on just the FF for another day or so. Any mid cycle tests you can grab would be very helpful, +3 to +6 (roughly nadir time) being the priority.