What do I do now?Afraid to give any more insulin.

[JoyceOlive]

Hello , Well yesterday Whitey' s number in the AM was rather low...169 after he had eaten,so I gave him aprox. .5 a unit( about half his usual dose) He dropped down to 52 by +4 ( which has always been his lowest part of the day) and by PM he was only up to 111, so I skipped his shot. This AM he was only 151 after eating, so I skipped his shot again.I waited and fed him some more an hour and a half later and retested and he only was up to 159.I did not want to give him a shot.Should I be micro dosing him,shooting the low numbers or what? Someone just mentioned that to me on another post this morning.I was told that I should post on the tight regulation forum for their advise on helping Whitey to get in remission.He really seems to be doing great,checked his urine,no trouble there either. he is eating well,not too thirsty,grooming,playing etc.But I need to know what do I do know?

 

[Sue and Oliver (GA)]

I replied to that thread on Health. That member is using Lantus, a depot insulin, which has a shallower curve. The tight regulation forum is for Lantus users and those techniques are not used with Prozinc, which is not a depot insulin.

You really have three choices, Joyce. You can keep doing what you are doing - skipping when he is in the 150 range. It is possible that he will jump up by the next pre shot and you will end up shooting once daily. Not ideal because it would be best if you could keep him in lower ranges overall. But sometimes the only way people who work can do it. It might take longer but most likely he will continue to drop gradually lower.

Second choice is to shoot a tiny dose at 150, AS LONG AS YOU ARE SURE HE IS RISING, NOT FALLING. You probably need to use U100 needles for this and the conversion chart. So you might shoot .1 and then monitor. If he drops but not too much, then that would be a good dose for a while, until he starts going lower.

Third choice is to chase the number. This only works if you are home. So, if you get 150, feed him and wait a couple hours. Test again. Once he is in the range you feel comfortable shooting (say 170-180) then give him the shot. After 12 hours, test. If he is too low to shoot, again chase the number until it is in the range you want. This means you will be testing more often and probably shooting off 12/12.

You might go up in the remission thread and check out the spreadsheets of cats there and see how they did it. There are all 3 methods represented.

BTW, Congrats! His numbers look great!

 

[JoyceOlive]

Thanks Sue,I kind of thought that about the " tight regulation " thing only applying to Lantus users.Anyway,I am quite the " homebody" and am only gone one day a week to work and home by afternoon,so I could do the " chasing" thing that you mentioned.Like this morning his AMPS number was 151 , so I waited for an hour and a half and he was still only 159. So I decided not to shoot.Im hoping his little pancreas is trying to function on its own.I called the vet and his nurse told me that Whitey will never be off insulin and I told her that is just not true.If I see his numbers rising high enough then I will act on it then..I still have to buy some 100 unit syringes if this is the best way to micro dose.I will be out tomorrow and get some.....update- just retested,his reading was134 down from 159 three hours ago.