Thoughts on raising dosage to 2 units

[Shell]

Hello! Just trying to educate myself because I have a huge fear of hypoglycemia and therefore, anxious always about injecting insulin. So far there has been no incident.

The doctor said she would like to see him out of the 300s if possible, so suggested that we go up to 2 units and re-curve again in 2 weeks. Or stay the same and recurve in a month.

I am horrified that I could give him too much and concerned that this might cause me to hesitate. But, if I could learn and understand how this insulin works, I could be more confident about raising the dose. So while I am also discussing the same thoughts with the doctor, I know there is hugely valuable knowledge here and I can find very good help.

In your opinion, would raising the dose .25 to 2 units be a good idea in Pumpkins case?

 

[Wendy&Neko]

Since you are following SLGS for dosing, you want him to get to a dose where he's seeing nadirs in the 90-149 range. Which you currently are. That means no change in dose.

Do you think it'd be possible to get any night time checks? Even a test before you go to bed, if it's 2-3 hours after shot time, will give us a lot of information about what is happening at night. Many cats go lower at night, hence the need to get an idea what is happening then. We adjust doses based on how low the dose is taking the cat, so it's good to try and catch any night time lows.

 

[Shell]

Since you are following SLGS for dosing, you want him to get to a dose where he's seeing nadirs in the 90-149 range. Which you currently are. That means no change in dose.

Do you think it'd be possible to get any night time checks? Even a test before you go to bed, if it's 2-3 hours after shot time, will give us a lot of information about what is happening at night. Many cats go lower at night, hence the need to get an idea what is happening then. We adjust doses based on how low the dose is taking the cat, so it's good to try and catch any night time lows.

Yes, I could check before bed. My concern is that I will not go to sleep when I see that it starts to get naturally lower. I believe he does most of his eating at night because that is when the other cats aren't really as active. It's just the way he is.

 

[Wendy&Neko]

If his numbers are starting to drop a lot when you go to bed, you can always make sure he has extra food out to keep him safe. And not testing at night doesn't mean he won't drop anyway. Testing gives you the chance to make sure he's safe. He could be eating more at night because that is when he's lower.

 

[Shell]

Since you are following SLGS for dosing, you want him to get to a dose where he's seeing nadirs in the 90-149 range. Which you currently are. That means no change in dose.

Do you think it'd be possible to get any night time checks? Even a test before you go to bed, if it's 2-3 hours after shot time, will give us a lot of information about what is happening at night. Many cats go lower at night, hence the need to get an idea what is happening then. We adjust doses based on how low the dose is taking the cat, so it's good to try and catch any night time lows.

The curve I did yesterday, was close to the range of 149. So I suppose I will increase as the Dr suggests, but I am nervous because couldn't 2 units be problematic if he happens to be having one of his 182 AMPS days?

 

[Shell]

If his numbers are starting to drop a lot when you go to bed, you can always make sure he has extra food out to keep him safe. And not testing at night doesn't mean he won't drop anyway. Testing gives you the chance to make sure he's safe. He could be eating more at night because that is when he's lower.

OH!!! This brought up another question that I am in the dark about. So, if his numbers drop, will he naturally eat or get hungry in order to raise the numbers?

 

[Wendy&Neko]

The curve I did yesterday, was close to the range of 149.

You don't look at just the curve when evaluating a dose. Try to answer the question, how low has this dose taken my cat? Pumpkin has also seen 90 and 92 on this dose. So very close to saying his dose needs to be reduced.

So, if his numbers drop, will he naturally eat or get hungry in order to raise the numbers?

This depends on the cat, but most will. Mine was a hoover, not a grazer, so I couldn't leave food out for her as she'd eat it right away. But she often let me know she was going low by either standing beside the fridge or going to our testing spot.

 

[Shell]

You don't look at just the curve when evaluating a dose. Try to answer the question, how low has this dose taken my cat? Pumpkin has also seen 90 and 92 on this dose. So very close to saying his dose needs to be reduced.


This depends on the cat, but most will. Mine was a hoover, not a grazer, so I couldn't leave food out for her as she'd eat it right away. But she often let me know she was going low by either standing beside the fridge or going to our testing spot.

I am pretty sure Pumpkin grazes, it is a little hard to know his eating habits. So, there's dry there all the time. I hope he eats if he needs to at such a point. Going to the testing spot is intelligent!

 

[Sienne and Gabby (GA)]

Just to ask (and you may have answered this in the past), you do know that Science Diet dry food is crazy high in carbohydrates? Most dry food is. There are only a handful of brands that have a low carb dry food.

 

[Shell]

Just to ask (and you may have answered this in the past), you do know that Science Diet dry food is crazy high in carbohydrates? Most dry food is. There are only a handful of brands that have a low carb dry food.

Yes. Unfortunately he's picky. Which makes me wonder how he got heavy and diabetic to begin with. Unless he did that as he was aging and now that he is senior, his eating habits may have slowed down.