vet visit

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sugarsquishy

sugarsquishy

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hello everyone. still trying to get use to this website. Squishy and i had a visit to the vet this morning, and i explained to her what i started doing as far as changing his diet to wet food only, and taking away his dry food. they did not do a curve on him because i told them we were home testing. they did do a spot check while we were there and his bg was 406 with 1.5u. and that was only at =+2. i explained the feeding to them and she told me that i should try going 2u tonight. i am a little nervous to do this because i am so worried about him going hypo. i dont think he will because when i tested his bg at +5 it was at 296, so it did go down. any suggestion would be great. my vet was very happy that i started with the home testing and couldn't believe that we were doing it. they also agreed with the wet food diet, but kept suggesting that if it wasn't working on the wet food to try a dry prescription diet. as far as i am concerned i don't want to do any kind of dry food. and from what i get from this website dry food no matter what kind it is. is a no no. I would also like to start a spread sheet, but i am not sure how to that. so any help on that would be greatly appreciated.
 
ok, I've cross posted in the PZI forum for you and to get you some feedback, others with PZI knowledge will be along, check back often ok?
 
Hey there! It sounds like you're off to a good start. If you have a chance, even if you can't get your SS up and running right away, post some #'s on here so we can see the curve. We need more data before we can really give you any educated advice on where his dosing lies, but you're starting the home testing and the food switch and that is huge. Also remember that you may see some fluctuation after the dry high carb food gets processed out of his system.

Some people here feed the grain free dry foods, but especially in the beginning, the extra water in the wet foods is very helpful to helping your sugar kitty recover and get into a regulated state. The two most important things are that 1) the cat will eat it and 2) LOW carb HIGH protein. Janet and Binky's list is the best reference for this.

If you come over to the PZI board, the stickies at the top can give you help for any info and especially PZI specifics that you might wonder about. For most cats, PZI doesn't kick in for about an hour and a half to 2 hours, so that +2 was probably higher than your PS reading and that's normal. +5 is in the beginning of the nadir range and although ECID, that almost 300 # would make me believe that the move to 2 units is a safe one. I would still try and get some spot tests in and make sure he has food readily available.

There's a whole bunch over here that are more than ready and willing to help with whatever questions you may have. We're a small group, but we're very enthusiastic in our cheering and helping. The best thing to do is to go over and make a new post with the date and your cat's name and that will get you started. Then each day, make a new thread with the date and name, so people can see quickly if anything new is going on and no one has to weed through old posts.

Hope to see you soon!
 
the 'correct' time to do bg tests are when your shooting. so in the am and in the pm... we refer to this as the amps and pmps (am pre shot #)
as for your curve...in a day or 2 you can do a curve and test every 2 hours after shooting.
it will look like this:
amps 390 1.5U
+2 275
+4 180
+6 120
+8 190

that's usually enough.
I dissagree with rainsing the dose to 2U...FWIW you need to give this insulin and new diet time to settle.
 
ok. i think i will stick with the 1 unit just to be safe. i am really not ready to have a hypo kitty. is there a way to give him 1.5 units. my needles do not have half marks on them. is this possible or no?
 
You'll always want to test before administering insulin; that'll let you know that it's safe to inject. You'll want to catch a couple spot tests around +5 to +7; those tests don't have to be all on the same day, could be +5 one day, +7 the next. The idea with those is to find out how low Squishy goes on the insulin, and when that occurs (how many hours after the injection). Please re-read Melissa's post in the Health Links forum on recognising and treating a hypo, as well as Jojo's post (same forum) on stocking a hypo toolkit. If you think you might have a hypo, feel free to post here on the Health forum with a 911 icon.

A BG curve is when you do a test prior to injecting insulin, then test every two hours until it's time for the next injection. Some folks will do hourly tests around their cat's nadir (the point where the effect of the insulin is at it's peak and the blood sugar levels are at their lowever (nadir)); for example, if Squishy had a nadir of +7, they might test hourly from +6 to +8, just to get a better idea of what was happening then.


Please know that you'll be doing a fair amount of testing in these early days, more than you're likely to later on. That's for two reasons. The first is that Squishy's body is learning to respond to the insulin, so his numbers are more likely to be erratic now than later on. The second is that you're starting to gather the data you'll need to make informed decisions later on. So, yes, you'll be testing a lot initially, but that'll slow down as Squishy becomes regulated and as you get a better idea of how he reacts to insulin.


The BG test at the vet's could be elevated due to vet stress, so I wouldn't put too much faith in that number. How long have you been on your current dose? I don't think I'd increase the insulin right now; I'd be inclined to gather more data first ...
 
> ok. i think i will stick with the 1 unit just to be safe. i am really not ready to have a hypo kitty. is there
> a way to give him 1.5 units. my needles do not have half marks on them. is this possible or no?

Just draw up halfway between the marks.

What type of PZI are you on -- a u40 or a u100? If you're using a u40 insulin, it's possible to use u100 syringes to accurately administer small doses of insulin, but you'd need to convert the number of units you draw up in the syringe -- see the chart here
 
well we have just started the wet food only diet. and i followed instruction on here to just do 1 u. we were on 3u., but that was when i was allowing him to free feed on dry cat food. his first dose of 1 u. on the wet food diet was thursday morning at 8am. my husband was able to test a few times through out the day, but i guess i made the mistake of not testing before i gave him his insulin. how soon should i do a curve? maybe wait till sunday? should i post some of the numbers on here that my husband got on thursday?
 
> i am using the u-40 insulin.

When you run out of syringes (or when you want to be able to accurately microdose Bobo), you can pick up some u100 syringes from a pharmacy. You'll be interested in ones with half-unit markings. Overall, you'll find that u100 syringes are easier to find, come in a wider arrange of sizes for your pet's comfort, and are also cheaper. You just have to remember to do the conversion when drawing up insulin: to get one unit of u40 insulin in a u100 syringe, draw to the 2.5 unit mark, etc.
 
Actually, to get 1.5 u of u40 on a u100 syringe, it would be 3.75 u. Math always is the nemesis for me. Finally got this one figured out, I think:)

Claudia
 
Claudia's right: you multiply by the number of units you want to give (1.5) by 2.5; the answer is how much insulin to draw up in your u100 syringe.
 
Not a bad PS! If you are comfortable with 1u I think that is what you should give. I wouldn't be worried about hypo, and as long as ketones have never been an issue, you have some room to experiment. The #s may come down some more over the weekend, from the food change. He may well need more than 1u, but it's a good starting point while you gather a little more data.

If you get 100u syringes, be sure to get the ones with 1/2 unit markings. There is a conversion chart you can print out that makes it easy to know how much to measure. I don't trust myself to figure out the math, so I have the chart posted on my fridge and I look at that literally before every shot, at least when I am not shooting the same amount every shot. The sticky on the PZI forum has links to the right kind of syringes (from Hocks I think), as well as the conversion chart, etc., and if you need more info just ask!!! It can be confusing at first, so always best to double check you are doing things right, if you do go that route. No real reason to for now, but if you get to needing fine-tuned doses they make it WAY easier.
 
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