? Vet´s BG test and dose reccs almost killed my cat. Need help to figure out safe dose tonight.

Kitty Anderson

Kitty Anderson

Member
Kraken was diagnosed in late Jan, started off at 5 units, brought down to 1 unit when she dropped rapidly.
More information in this post: http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/...to-over-33s-close-to-600.211353/#post-2343616

She has been on 3.5 units for about 2 weeks, maybe a couple of days more. We were told to not test her BG levels following her dose being raised. We still did test them before her AM shot every few days, just in case. Her vet has NEVER done a proper curve. Her "curve" which she only wanted to be done for a few days was an AMPS reading, a +8 hr reading, a +10hr reading, and a PMPS reading. Meaning her nadir was never measured most likely.

For the last week, we thought she was dying in front of us. She has never looked so sick and weak.

Decided to do a full curve today and urine ketos test. Checked BG this morning and it was 11.5 (207) and I decided to cut her dose from 3.5 to 1 unit. It was too much and she dropped down to 2.5 (45). HC food and a little honey and she stabilized out of the danger zone. If I has followed vet reccs then she would have received 3.5 units this morning and no BG testing today... and well.. yeah.. that could have killed my Princess Kraken.

We have never been trained in how to calculate dosages.. She went from 1 unit to 3.5 units over the course of 4 weeks. She has not stabilized. From my readings on this forum and advice and info from @Bron and Sheba (who I am so thankful for being there while I was internally freaking out! THANK YOU!!) I highly suspect she was dropping way to low in BG and has been bouncing all over the place.

One recc on the thread posted above suggests 0.75 units. I feel like that is likely to be a good idea. If she bounces up to high pinks or reds I was considering 1 unit. The only issue there is her syringes don´t have half unit marks, only full unit marks. I´m not sure how accurate I can be with 1/4 of a unit measurement.

I´ll continue with a curve for today and tomorrow. We have a vet appointment on Monday at noon.
 
I bought more syringes at www.adwdiabetes.com when I ran out of the "complimentary" ones from the vet. They have them with half unit markings. I am not sure if they are the exact diameter as the ones the vet sent home with me that only had whole unit marks, but I have realized on my syringe that the width of the plunger seems to equal .25 units. So if you need .75 push the plunger until the back end touches the line. If you need .25 just pull it out until the liquid thickness matches plunger thickness. I don't count the dome of the plunger, just the ring that touches. Does that help? It definitely helps to get some with half units to make it easier.
 
BBelshan said:
I bought more syringes at www.adwdiabetes.com when I ran out of the "complimentary" ones from the vet. They have them with half unit markings. I am not sure if they are the exact diameter as the ones the vet sent home with me that only had whole unit marks, but I have realized on my syringe that the width of the plunger seems to equal .25 units. So if you need .75 push the plunger until the back end touches the line. If you need .25 just pull it out until the liquid thickness matches plunger thickness. I don't count the dome of the plunger, just the ring that touches. Does that help? It definitely helps to get some with half units to make it easier.
Click to expand...

I checked and played around with the plunger a bit and it does look like the plunger is 0.25. Thanks!

I can´t order from that site as we live in Iceland and they only do US shipping. We have 0.5ml U100 syringes with 1 unit markings. They were the only syringes available in the country, there have been various medication and medical supply shortages in the country recently. More should be arriving to the country next week and I´ll try to get ones with half unit lines.
 
Ah dang sorry I didn't look at your signature closer, but glad the plunger thickness will help you get better dosing!
 
I am new to this myself, but it looks like so far .75 is doing pretty good. I have found my cat needed less and less each week since diagnosis. Hopefully you will have similar luck. My vet wanted to start off at 3, but luckily he was on it only for a day before going down to one, not sure why they seem to all start high, maybe used to dogs? I found this site pretty quick after diagnosis and they have all been super helpful. Testing has been hit or miss but more hits now than misses.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top