Trying to come up with a schedule (food and shot) help plz

[Bellas_mom_2020]

Good evening everyone so we are almost at the end of week one and Bella is doing pretty good. She had one really good day where her BG was 118. She’s been so good letting me test her BG especially now that I got the freeze dried salmon treats .

I do need some help/advice on figuring out a schedule and to see if I’m doing things right. During the week for work I need to be out the house a little before 8:00 am. I try to keep Bella on a schedule as best as I can but sometimes she doesn’t eat much at first, some days she finishes her food within 20 mins and then there’s days where she takes almost an hour. I still get nervous with the insulin and her going low. I have diabetes and have gone low way too many times and it’s scary so I can’t imagine how scary it would be for her.

My first question is how long do I have after she eats to give her insulin? Sometimes she eats most of it within 20 mins and then there’s times she doesn’t.

During the week we’re up around 6:45 so we’ve been testing her, feeding her between 6:50-7:00, and giving her insulin by 7:45. It all depends on how she eats because in the beginning she was not eating much and taking a lot of time to finish.

Also what does everyone do if they need to go out at night or want to make plans and won’t be home at the 12 hr mark? We do have my mom close if we’re out and not back by that time but my mom isn’t that comfortable driving at night alone so we’re just trying to see what our options are. I don’t ever want to come off selfish because I would do anything for Bella but we also are going to want to go out for dinner or hang out with friends.

Also, can someone explain some of the terms to me, some of it confuses me such as bouncing, finding what the curve it-how do I do that?
I attached her SS, please let me know if I’m doing things right. If I need to add anything to the SS.


https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1yLIqy1uFfJh0cZztMuSJESzpDTH7oICgabommZsztqk/edit

 

[squeem3]

As long as the cat eats within an hour after insulin, she'll be fine. Can you set up a timed feeder to provide meals throughout the day? Canned food is fine to leave in a feeder all day.

Ask the vet techs at the vet office. Many do pet sitting on the side and could help you out if you want to go out for dinner and movie or whatever.

Have you checked out the Lantus forum? The info stickies at the top has all the info you need: https://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/forums/lantus-levemir-biosimilars.9/

Lantus Land has their own slang words. The dictionary is here: https://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/lantus-levemir-biosimilars-isg-slang-dictionary.1903/

A curve is basically taking bg levels every 2 hours from the morning injection time to the evening injection time. When you plot these out on a graph (bg level on the Y axis and time point on the X axis), the line shows you where the lowest bg level of the day is. The lowest bg is usually around 6 hours after insulin but it can vary among cats. An ideal curve looks kind of like a U. A flat-ish line can happen and typically means the dose isn't quite working but it could also be from a fur shot or maybe the cat got into some higher carb food.

 

[Bellas_mom_2020]

I’ll check out those forum articles. I never thought about asking the vet techs-I’ll check that out too. Thank you

 

[CORKY]

I’ll check out those forum articles. I never thought about asking the vet techs-I’ll check that out too. Thank you

I am very happy for you and Bella that she's better

 

[Sienne and Gabby (GA)]

One of the big differences with Lantus compared to other insulin, is that it takes about 2 hours for it to start working. One advantage is that it allows you to test, feed and shoot all within a few minutes.

Looking at Bella's spreadsheet, I'd encourage you to get a minimum of one test every night. Testing before you go to bed is important since many cats experience lower numbers at night. You don't want to miss a dose reduction and you don't want your cat to be sitting in low numbers overnight.

Also, did you give Bella a shot last night? There's no dose filled in.

I had to giggle. For as long and as much as I tested Gabby, I never plotted her numbers the way squeem3 suggested and I was managing Gabby's diabetes for 6.5 years. I always just eyeballed her spreadsheet! (The color coding helps.) She's also correct. Having a petsitter can help enormously if you are going to be out for a long evening or if you're on vacation/traveling. There were times that if I was out with friends, I'd swing by my home, get a test, and go back out. Depending on where you live, there may be FDMB members in your area and you may be able to swap cat sitting since everyone would like a night out!

 

[Bellas_mom_2020]

One of the big differences with Lantus compared to other insulin, is that it takes about 2 hours for it to start working. One advantage is that it allows you to test, feed and shoot all within a few minutes.

Looking at Bella's spreadsheet, I'd encourage you to get a minimum of one test every night. Testing before you go to bed is important since many cats experience lower numbers at night. You don't want to miss a dose reduction and you don't want your cat to be sitting in low numbers overnight.

Also, did you give Bella a shot last night? There's no dose filled in.

I had to giggle. For as long and as much as I tested Gabby, I never plotted her numbers the way squeem3 suggested and I was managing Gabby's diabetes for 6.5 years. I always just eyeballed her spreadsheet! (The color coding helps.) She's also correct. Having a petsitter can help enormously if you are going to be out for a long evening or if you're on vacation/traveling. There were times that if I was out with friends, I'd swing by my home, get a test, and go back out. Depending on where you live, there may be FDMB members in your area and you may be able to swap cat sitting since everyone would like a night out!

For when we travel overnight my mom has always watched her for us, so we are grateful for that. Now with the new change she has to learn how to check her BG and give insulin but once we show her she’ll be able to do it.

I do test at night. We’ve been giving her the shot around 7:30/7:45 and then testing before we go to bed so around 10:00/10:30 we test her. Yes we did give her one - I forgot to put it.