Understanding Low BG Results for a 12 Hour Period

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MGinelli

MGinelli

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Hi everyone! First off--please forgive the state of my FDMB spreadsheet tracking my cat Samantha's BG levels. I'm trying to test every 3 days or so to hopefully determine the correct Prozinc dosage, but there have been so many variables that it's been difficult. In addition, my vet seems to believe that a BG at 150 or lower is an "EMERGENCY" situation, but I know from enough forum reading that getting below 150 can be and is a very good thing! With that said, my kitty Samantha was diabetic in the past and went into remission. Previously she was on Vetsulin and I got her into remission in about 3 months. However, on top of diabetes, she has been diagnosed with IBD. I thought I had everything under control with a raw food diet but suddenly she developed an allergy/reaction to her raw food -- so back to the drawing board.

Long story not-so-short, Samantha ended up in an emergency situation (vomiting and persistent diarrhea, dehydration, etc.) One $800 ultrasound appointment later told me that her bowels were inflamed and that we should get her on Prednisolone to ease the inflammation. She was 5 mg pred for 2 weeks, and I slowly decreased her dosage every two weeks. She is now on 2.5 mg every 3 days and has one week left before I stop completely. Along with the Prednisolone, I changed her diet (a couple of times) as we had been trying to find a good diet for her before the emergency situation since she was not responding well to her RadCat raw food. At this time, she is eating Young Again food. I know the reviews and feelings are mixed regarding this food, but it's not easy to find a LID food that is truly low carb that Samantha will eat. I really do have a picky princess here. I really don't want to be reamed about my current food choice. YA is a good option in my opinion and is a hydrolyzed protein, and Samantha seems to be responding well to it and not experiencing any BG spikes after eating.

My struggle and reason for my post today is that I can't seem to find a good starting dose of Prozinc for Samantha. I have a link to her BG curves or AMPS/PMPS values in my signature for anyone to look at. I feel like 1.5 units is a good AM dose, and nadir is low but not too low. The issue is, the BG is staying low all the way up to her PMPS reading resulting in a no-shoot for the evening. Then I see her BG slowly creep up again and I get all lost on what to dose for her AM shot. So pretty much, things have been all over the place.

I think I have two options, but I really need some help here to make sure I'm not missing something. Maybe I'm going about this all wrong! I'm trying to follow the Prozinc protocol and at least wait for a full 3-cycles before making changes. I would prefer not to have to test her BG daily, but try to find a dose to keep her regulated and spot check monthly.

Gosh, that was so much. Thanks for whoever has the patience to read through all of this and help me out! Again, a link to her BG curves and AMPS/PMPS values is in my signature.
 
Hi there! Okay, first off, I promise that no one on this forum is going to ream you about food choices. I'm so sorry if someone has done that! Sure wet food is best, but if YA is what she'll eat and what is working...well that works for me! When you've got a picky eater who has health issues, you gotta find out what works best for you and her. If YA helps keep her IBD under control, then okay! It would be great if you'd add that info to your signature when you have a sec...both about the IBD and about the YA being fed. That way, we won't keep asking you (we have terrible memories here). Personally I've never used YA, but from what I understand, it's one of the better dry choices for a diabetic.

Hmmm...as far as dose. It's hard to know for sure what to do, but I see what you're talking about. 1.5 does bring her down nicely...but then she stays down for too long and gets a no shot at night, making her BG soar up in the AM...etc. How about trying 1 unit? Here's what I'd suggest. Try 1 unit and keep it consistent for AT LEAST 3 full days...unless it still gives you numbers that are too low. If it does, we can drop the dose down further. But 1 unit might be good as it could still drop her numbers, but hopefully not so much that you have a no shot the next cycle. Keeping a consistent dose for a few days will give you a chance to see what it does for Samantha, and the dose can definitely be adjusted up or down from there as needed. As I said, though, if it still gives you too low of a BG next cycle, let us know and probably drop to 0.5.

Now as for the testing...well...it's going to be hard to keep her regulated without daily testing. Mainly just because their needs can change fairly frequently. Are you willing to do the daily BG checks at least for now while we work on figuring out a good dose that will bring her numbers down and keep her safe? And we can talk about it from there?

Also, WELCOME to the Prozinc forum! We're glad to have you here...please feel free to ask ANY questions you have. Trust me, we've all asked them in the past and we're happy to pass on what we've learned!
 
Thank you @Rachel for the quick response! I can definitely update my signature - no problem at all.

Now that I know Samantha’s nadir (+5) I plan to move forward with doing the AMPS BG, +5, and PMPS BG until I have a good starting dose and get her regulated. From there I will also do full curves every month.

I was also thinking going down to 1 unit may be a good idea. But I can’t lie, I did kinda like the idea of only 1 shot every 24 hours (assuming she has a slow rise leading to the AM shot again. But, for now I’ll go down to 1 unit and my vet will yell at me for not consulting her first. LOL.
 
Sounds like a plan! 1 shot per day would be ideal...I get that! I wish we could get it to work that way!

Post here as much as you like. We'll be checking in to see how 1 unit works!
 
For the home testing I really recommend testing daily, multiple times per day. You just can’t see what’s really going until you do this. You’re doing good getting some testing but not there yet.
You got some recommendations to lower the dose so if we’re thinking it’s too high you need daily testing to fill in the gaps. When my cat was getting too much he was on a steady up-down cycle every other day. High bounce cycles can last longer and you could miss the low one if you don’t test all the time. My vet only caught the high cycle and wanted to increase the dose. I saw the low and was able to actually reduce the dose.
 
Hi MGinelli and welcome! Rachel has given you some great advice, so I just wanted to stop by and welcome you to the group. :) This is not an insulin group that reams anyone. We will always give you our best advice and help answer your questions, but we respect the choices you make with that information. So welcome! Looking forward to getting to know you and Samantha!
 
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