Starting Home Testing and have questions.

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TimS

Member Since 2013
Hello. I am a newbie. My 12 year old cat Abbey was diagnosed with diabetes about 6 weeks ago. I had been taking her to the vet every two weeks for a BG reading. Her first reading was 331. The vet started her at 2 units of insulin twice a day. The following visit which was 2 weeks later she tested at 400 something. The vet told me to increase the insulin to 4 units twice a day so I did. Two weeks later her reading was 551 so the vet told me to increase her insulin to 5 units twice a day. This past Wednesday I took her in again and the BG reading was "HIGH" which I'm assuming is not good. During this 6 week period Abbey has been drinking a lot of water and urinating heavily. Her litter box is saturated with urine. It was a real mess. She had been eating all her Hill's m/d dry food that the vet told me to give her.
So I decided to by a BG monitor this weekend so I could keep track of her BG on a daily basis. I have also switched her food to FANCY FEAST CLASSICS which this website promoted as a good food source for diabetic cats. When I tested her yesterday she was at 153 so I was relieved. I assumed this was due to the new food. I gave her 5 units of insulin again last night after the reading. This morning I gave her another 5 units then went to work. When I got home I tested her again and she was at 49. I fed her and tested her about 45 minutes later and she was at 50.I tested her again 3 hours later and she was at 63. I did not give her any more insulin this evening because I believe the insulin will bring down her BG reading below 60 again. I am planning on testing her again in the morning. Hopefully the BG reading will be between 100 and 300.

If her reading is below 100 tomorrow morning what should I do?? Any insulin?? If it is normal should I continue to give her the 5 units or should I cut back to 4? Any advice would be helpful. Again I am new at this and I want the best for my cat. Thank you.
 
First off what insulin are you using?

Second with a diet change and just starting to home test I would not give any insulin if she is under 200, and even if she is over 200 I would drop her dose back to 1u and basically start over and raise her slowly. Your vet was raising her dose far too fast and in too big of chunks at a time. It is very likely the only thing that has kept her alive was the dry food as it is very high in carbs for a diabetic cat.

Mel, Maxwell, Autumn & The Fur Gang
 
That's so great you are doing the right things, a change of food and home testing are critical as you just discovered. However I agree with momma of muse, I wouldn't shoot if she is under 200, not until you have tracked her trends for a while to know how she will behave. You might want to set up a spreadsheet.. http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=18207

Secondly, that seems like a lot of insulin to give, let's us know what type you are using.

Wendy
 
TimS said:
If her reading is below 100 tomorrow morning what should I do?? Any insulin??
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Do nothing, no insulin! Feed her the low carb wet breakfast and you and Abbey both go about your day. That's a great number.

TimS said:
If it is normal should I continue to give her the 5 units or should I cut back to 4?
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No and No. If you shoot that much insulin now, you can easily kill her. Your vet precribed that dosage for a high starting BS, increasing BS with no progress, and with Abbey on all that crap dry "diabetic" food he wants to sell you. It's obvious many vets don't realize how dramatically a change to a low carb diet influences a cat's insulin needs. You already had her down to 49 which is lower than you want her to be, especially if you aren't around.

Do what the experienced here recommend:

No shot at all if under 200. Wait and retest her at next shot time and see where she's at. She may drift back up or hopefully, she'll maintain or be even lower.

If she's over 200, give her no more than 1 unit.
You can always build up to more, but if you give her too much and you're not there to monitor her, she may not survive a hypoglycemic event.

What insulin are you using? There are different strategies for different insulins esp at the lower preshot numbers because they act differently and have different spans.

I'm a newbie too and had a very scary experience.

My cat Louie is on Novolin N/Humulin N - but she has not been over 230 on any of her preshots since I changed her diet to low carb wet. Today, for example, her AMPS and PMPS numbers were 94 and 115. In the last week, I've only dosed her twice (@230 and 221) based on her lowering preshot numbers. I am happy but hope to get her on a better insulin (Lantus or ?) at my next vet appointment.

My rules right now:
*I dont give her any insulin *at all* if she is under 180.
*180-230 I only give her a scant 1/2 unit. She then goes down to the low 80s and 70s which I'm comfortable with.

I had her BS go down to 40 on just 1 unit so that was too much.

My vet originally prescribed 2 units which would kill her if I gave it to her now with the new diet.

TimS said:
Any advice would be helpful. Again I am new at this and I want the best for my cat. Thank you.
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You are doing great by changing her diet and testing and her litterbox issues should resolve themselves once you get a good week of sub200 numbers. Let the people here know aht insulin you're using and they can help you with the optimal strategy for either getting Abbey in remission or get her regulated on just small amounts of insulin.
 
OK. Thank you to all who replied to my post. The insulin that I use is Lantus. I tried to test Abbey this morning which was extremely difficult. She doesn't like to be held. I had to prick her 5 or 6 times to get blood. I finally was able to get a reading on the monitor that read "HI". This could have been because she was so stressed. I ended up giving her 4 units of insulin thinking that this would bring the reading down. I know this seems a lot but I have been giving her 5 units per the vet. I also gave her a can of FANSY FEAST CLASSIS cat food which she quickly ate.

Can anyone please put me on the right path to getting Abbey back on track? After reading the posts this morning I realize that I probably should not have given her that much insulin but I panicked when I saw the "HI" reading on the monitor. Thank you very much.
 
I am at work today and won't be able to test her again until 5:30CST. What should be the first thing I should do when I get home from work?? Fed her, Test her??
 
Hello again. Could you please tell me what AMPS means and also where the control panel is? I am new at this. Thank you.
 
Tim

You can not get the insulin out once you put it in. The User Control Panel is right under the Board Index at the top left of the page, you can adjust your personal settings there.
First of all we need to get you straightened out on the insulin dosage or you will probably hypo your cat. Please follow Momma of Muse advice and cut her insulin back to 1 Unit and start over. Lantus is also dosed same dose every 12 hours, if you give 1 unit in the morning you give 1 unit 12 hours later. You then hold that dose for at least 3 days to see how the cat will respond, thats what we call a cycle. AMPS means AM pre shot as AM in the morning. PMPS means PM in the evening pre shot number.

Terri
 
What should be the first thing I should do when I get home from work?? Fed her, Test her??
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Pet her.
Then test her. :smile:
 
What you are seeing now though is the impact of feeding a low carb food - it can bring their blood glucose down significantly.. I am so glad you are home testing!

Definately drop the dose to 1unit and see how that does. We can help you get set up on a spreadsheet if you like? We have a format that helps you see what they are doing and allows us to view and advise. Let me me know.

Also I would spend time stroking her ears and giving her treats after - even when not poking. Lets get her used to that. With my Tiggy I wait till he is relaxed and snoozing on the sofa and then I go up and start stroking his ears and favourite bits and then poky poky! But if that doesnt work you could try a burrito.. here are some tips to help you get some blood: https://docs.google.com/document/d/13c_CPZVKz27fD_6aVbsguadJKvjSrSAkD7flgPPhEag/pub

Wendy
 
Hi Tim, and Welcome! :YMHUG: Just wanted to check in on you and see how things are going with the testing and the switch to wet food.
 
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