UK - Mootle Question on Insulin Dose

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montyislay2

montyislay2

Member Since 2012
Hello all. Its been a couple of weeks since we've been online and Mootle is doing well on his caninsulin. He has been on 3.5 units at 12 hour intervals. We did a full blood glucose curve on Friday and he started at 18, went down to about 5.6 and ended up at about 14. That night we gave him his usual insulin dose but using brand new insulin that we got from the vet. Saturday morning he was at 7!! So we didn't inject him. By 2pm he'd gone back up to 20 so we gave him 1 unit and by 8pm he was back down to 11. As we didn't want to risk him going too low, we gave him the 1 unit overnight, and lo and behold this morning he was still at 11. A lunchtime test saw him at 8.

I emailed the vet with these numbers and the advice was to continue giving him the full dose (i.e 3.5 units each time). I'm a bit reluctant to do this as firstly the one unit seems to be keeping him in reasonable numbers at the moment, and I don't want him to go too low.

Any ideas anyone? I'm wondering whether up until now we've been using some out of date insulin (he was sent home with it upon diagnosis) as the new stuff seems to have a much more potent effect?

Any thoughts gratefully received.

Thanks in advance.

Catherine, Shaun, Mootle, Islay & Henny.
x
 
I would give him 1.5 or 1.6 units units and the see if does should be increased or decreased.
Yes, sometime insulin becomes less effective with time.
 
Hi Catherine,

I think you've reached that difficult point that most of us here have had to pass through, and that is - when the vet's advice seems to be contradicted by our own experience...

Given your experience it seems clear that the 3.5 units is unnecessary. And giving a cat more insulin than they need is dangerous.

That one unit you gave Mootle last night seemed to do a pretty good job! You could stick with that and see how that goes for a few days. Maybe the one unit will be enough, and maybe it won't.

What dose did you give Mootle this morning? (When he was 11 but then went down to 8 at lunchtime.) And how many hours were there between the shot and the lunchtime reading?

And yes. Insulin can spark out. Though in my experience it doesn't happen often. It may be that Mootle's body is learning how to utilise the insulin better....?
 
Thank you! Elizabeth - today's figures were based on just the one unit this morning. We have just tested him again (insulin +10) and he is at 13. Will test again before his jab at 8.

Its difficult to know what to do. I feel like I could use a chart with the numbers and a corresponding insulin dose! If he's still around this level I guess we will give him either 1 or 1.5 tonight and see what that does.

Pleased though that he is doing well, for a couple of weeks now he's been posting much better numbers. We're about 4 weeks since diagnosis.
 
Hi Catherine, good to see your update. You seem to be doing a very good job and yes, as others have said, an opened bottle of insulin can appear to be less effective after a while and a new unopened bottle can seem to be more potent. It's good to be aware of these things!

I know exactly what you mean about wanting to have a chart to help you see how much insulin to give at what dose, and there is no reason why you shouldn't have such a thing to work to. It's called a sliding scale. I would be hesitant to give too much technical advice myself as my own experience was different to the norm, so I'd suggest that you start a new thread called something like 'Help with sliding scale please' and see what responses you get.

Best of luck
Diana
 
Hi Catherine,

These are really promising results. And especially so given that Mootle was only dx 4 weeks ago!

Some of us do use 'sliding scale' dosage. I have a sort of mini sliding scale where Bertie gets anything between half a unit and a 'fat' one and a half units (although he mostly needs 1.25 units). It took us a little while to work it out and he used to get much bigger doses than he does now.

Mootle might turn out to be one of those lucky cats that goes into remission after a short period on insulin (still diabetic but diet-controlled). Will keep my fingers crossed for you!
 
Catherine, yes I agree with Diana.

Maybe a new post including 'Caninsulin sliding scale?' in the title.. You could also try posting on the Caninsulin forum but I'm not sure that it gets a lot of traffic. And there aren't a lot of Caninsulin users here, I don't think. But PZI folks use sliding scales quite a lot and will be familiar with the principles (although Caninsulin and PZI behave a little differently).
 
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