Too much insulin or not enough?

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Ginny & Alex

Ginny & Alex

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I'm starting a new post, but you'll see Alex's numbers are bouncing around a lot, and mostly > 350.

I originally started with 1 unit twice a day and then the vet had me jump up to 2.0 and then 2.5. After talking with members here and then talking to my vet, we decided to drop the dose to 1.5. I decided to go back down to 1.25 since that was skipped when we were increasing.

Should I keep him at 1.25 units for a few more days, or should we go back up to 1.50?
 
I actually see a little progress there, your last 2 PS's were pink instead of red and not a bad nadir. I might wait another day to see if it continues to improve.

See what others think.
 
I can't get my mind around it for the moment, sorry. If it were me I would probably experiment a little more around this level so if you do decide you need more insulin you can raise with confidence. It looked like a nice drop early in the cycle but then it disappeared. I'm not sure what to make of that. Early ProZinc nadir = too little insulin? One possibility, but I'm not feeling clear on it as the answer since your #s seemed worse on the higher doses.
 
I couldn't bring myself to poke Alex again last night after the evening shot.
This morning, he's back up to 403. And to top if off, my husband said Alex was so squrimy this morning, he's not sure if it was a fur shot or not. I'm inclined to stay at this dose through the remainder of the weekend before increasing to 1.5 units.

Thoughts?
 
I agree that your preshots are looking a lot better at these lower doses, but Joanna is right with the early nadir = too little insulin. An increase to 1.5u is small and I think would be warranted if you want to take it. I think he needs just a little bit more right now.
 
To help avoid fur shots when you tent the skin insert the needle at a 45 degree angle down into the tent to avoid going straight through.
 
The problem this morning was that the tent was wiggling!
I've watched various videos over and over demonstrating how to give the shots. I watch the cats sit perfectly still and hardly blink an eye. Alex doesn't behave that way. He's a fesity boy and he didn't want those shots. I'm hoping over time, when we all agree they are helping him, that he will settle down.
 
We always gave Oliver his shot while his head was deep into his breakfast or dinner and he never noticed. We would test, feed and shoot while he was eating.....
 
Agreed, wrestling with a wiggling tent is challenging @-) .

Giving yummy treats at test/shot times can convince some kitties that the test-treat, shot-treat isn't so bad after all.
 
we tried giving his shot while eating, but since his bowls are on the floor, that didn't work out too well. Then he starts getting hissy and growly. We'll keep working on it.

He's typically a little mellower AFTER he's eaten. Is it OK to shoot immediately after the mea?
 
Next question: I'm going to do a test at +6 here in a little less than hour. If his # is real high and since hubby thinks he gave a fur shot, do I do anything now or just wait until the PM shot?
 
Let's see what the number is. I think that doing anything now would throw off your schedule and not knowing how much insulin got in would be a little scary to do anything. They say if you think you had a fur shot you would wait until your next PS.
 
I would wait til your next PS to shoot anything.

I found the shorter needles way easier to work with - you don't even have to really tent, just pull up the skin a little, and it's so easy and they don't even notice. Not sure which ones you are using, but once I went to the short needles (I think they are thinner too) I would never want to go back.
 
I'm using u-40 needles-29 gauge, 1/2 inch needle, 3/10 cc. I have googled a number of times, and see different gauges and different cc capacity, but don't see different lengths. I also bought some u-100's the other day hoping the higher gauge might help, but they're still almost 1/2 inch long and the marks on there represent 2/100s. So, if I'm giving 1.25 units of u-40 insulin, I'd need to give 3.125 on the u-100's and I can't see how to do that with any kind of precision.
 
I checked out the needles. I don't see any u-40 needles with a length of less than 1/2 inch.

The PMPS # is 393. I will try to get another number before bedtime (if Alex is cooperative), but I'd like to hear suggestions if I should hold at 1.25 for a while longer or whether I should try 1.50 units tomorrow.

Have you figured out that patience is not one of my virtues? :lol:
 
The short needles are with the U100 syringes. It sounds like the ones you have though may not be right. Did you get the ones with 1/2 unit markings? Do you have the conversion chart? If you go that route, it's easiest to keep the dose in 0.2 increments, so 1.2, 1.4, etc.
 
I checked ketones before going to bed last night, and they were negative --yay!!

His AMPS # was 338--so seems to be moving in the right direction--yay again!!

I'm still uncertain about when and if I should consider a dosage increase.
I'll keep monitoring and keep posting the results.

And again, thanks to everyone for their input.
 
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