Vet Seems to have Rx'd too much insulin

It seems that everyone we talk to is telling us that Charlie is getting too much insulin (3 units twice a day). After reading the Caninsulin webpage on dosing, I agree that she is. She's been OK so far but I want to get her on a more realistic dose so she doesn't have any scary episodes of Hypoglycemia. She went to the vet on Thursday and her blood glucose reading there was 13.1 about 8 hours after her morning insulin. He thought that was good.

I had looked at the Caninsulin website after her first full day on insulin and saw that she was getting more than the recommended dose. I dropped her morning insulin to 2 units and her evening shot to 1 unit. That night she had symptoms of being too high, it even seemed like her neuropathy worsened; I thought that I shouldn't presume to know more than the vet does and went back to her prescribed dose. She seemed better.

I have glucose strips now and lancets and will try to check her blood glucose tonight before her shot, but I worry about adjusting the dosage by myself based on the chart on the website. Now I'm worried again.

 

Hi Cathy, don’t worry we will help you. Have tried to test her glucose before? Once you start doing that and record your numbers in our spreadsheet, we will know how she is responding to the insulin.

 

I haven't tried myself yet but watched the vet do it. I feel reasonably confident about glucose testing, my daughter has had Type 1 Diabetes since she was 3, she's 22 now. We have a lot of the supplies at home already.

 

Great! There are some good videos on you tube as well and @JanetNJ has a great one she made showing how she tests her cat. Let us know how it goes. In the meantime you can get the spreadsheet set up. It’s a great tool that will help you, your vet and us see what’s going on. If you need help setting it up, just ask and someone will do it for you.

 

Cathy were you able to get the BG test?

 

I got one done this morning before she was given breakfast. Her bg was 22.7. I gave her 1 unit of inuslin last night, I'm going to give her 1.5 units this morning, which is dosed according to the chart on the Caninsulin website.

 

I'll get the spreadsheet going today after I get my Christmas tree down.

 

That's a more reasonable dose. Try to get a reading 4 hours after the shot if possible

 

Her BG at noon was 5.4! I can't even imagine what it would have been on twice as much insulin. I think that is all the poking that I'm going to make her endure for today but I'm super happy I found this site. I don't think it would have been long before we found ourselves with a hypoglycemic kitty.

 

undoubtedly you would have. 5.4 is a good number for the lowest point. At this stage that's about as low as you want to aim for for the time being. good job being an advocate for your cat and doing your homework.