yet another question about beeber!!!!

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lucybooz

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i last tested her at 11:30 this morning - registered 475 - gave 1unit of insulin. she's been eating more than usual and drinking more than usual today. just tested her again (10:30 p.m.) and she's registering t 584!!!!! gave 1 unit of insulin. she is not acting ill but i'm wondering is this how she might act if she needs more than just 1 unit every 12 hours. is 1 unit particularily a very low dose? i know you are not doctors but can anyone give me any other reason for these high (especially the last one) numbers????? with the holiday tomorrow, is there any reason i can't wait until tuesday to call my vet's office? is this cause for alarm, even if she if acting like she is well? is there anything i need to watch out for???? again i'm a nervous wreck. keto test was negative (abut 3 hours ago).

also, with this high # should i offer her more food tonight?

again.....help!!!!!
 
On the surface, it does seem like more insulin is needed. The problem is we have no midcycle numbers. If she is going low at midcycle and bouncing back up, more insulin will make that worse. If she is flat through the cycle, yes, increasing the insulin is best. But you need more numbers. Just the preshot numbers don't tell you how the insulin is working. They are only half the picture.

Your choice. You can increase. If she were mine, I would get some tests in tonight. Take one now. Get one before you go to bed. When you wake up at night, get a test. Once you know what the insulin is doing between the shot times, then you know whether to increase or not.
 
Her numbers are higher than you want them to be. The other day, when you had to bring her into the vet....she read in the 60's or 70's there, right? And that was on a 2u dose that morning?
The negative indication on the ketones is a good thing. You will want to keep testing for them.
As far as food goes tonight....does she normally eat overnight? You don't want to withhold food if it is her normal routine. But you don't need to give her anymore if she doesn't normally eat overnight either. Basically, you want to stay with her meal/feeding routine unless you get really low numbers, in which case you can use food to make her numbers come up.

If you keep checking for ketones tonight and tomorrow, and keep getting "none" or "trace", then you can wait until Tuesday morning to call the vet.
ANY tests you can get between her shots are going to help you and us figure out what the insulin is doing. You don't want to increase her dose tonight unless you are able to get tests afterwards, like 2, 3 or 4 hours after the shot. If possible, you could stick with the same dose, and set your alarm to check her BG six hours later. That's when she should be at or near the lowest BG she will see from the shot. Knowing how low she goes is the best way to tell how effective her current dose is.

Carl
 
when i returned to the vet with her on friday, the vet "assumed" she was acting like she was because her # may have been as low as 60. when she checked her she registered 72 i think, and attributed that to the fact that she was excited, etc.

i'm trying to remember but i think she may have had 2 units on friday morning before they released her to go home. i'm thinking that after her level dropped down like that, i'm assuming that is why they told me to drop the dose to 1 unit. on friday evening i checked her # (the very 1st time i did it and i'm assuming i did it right) and it read 172 (10:30 p.m.). i did NOT give her insulin that night and i swore the vet told me to check her AFTER feeding her. i read on here to check her BEFORE feeding to get a more accurate # and since i've been checking BEFORE feeding, these #'s have been so very high.

i'm going to check her again at about 11:30 to see if anything is different. will post then.
 
When I first started out, Grayson was dropping over 350 points at a cycle. Had I shot w/o testing, I feel like I would've killed him, particularly when he started running long cycles and would be 138 or 125 at +12.

I was advised to test at +5 and +7 to see which was a lower number (+5 was lower). The next day I tested at +4 and +6 and we determined approx when he was his lowest. That also provided us a number to see what his "range" was.

I wouldn't be inclined to increase the dose unless/until I had at least a weeks worth of mid-cycle readings, as you have no idea if he's going to 380 or 63 at nadir. Until you know that, I'd be very conservative. And WHEN you do eventually increase, it should be in .2 or .25 unit increases that you then hold for at least 6 cycles. This is a "do as I say, not as I did" story, as WITH our ketone scare, we raced to raise the dosage.

I know it's tempting, but you want to be safe. You're still relatively new at this, and the kitty is still adjusting to the insulin. Most likely he/she was running high like this prior to diagnosis, so a short while with too little insulin is safer than one cycle with too much.
 
BTW - the 911 icon is for life/death situations. I know the high numbers seem critical, but typically the 911 is used for someone who needs immediate help to save the kitty's life.
 
i'm really new at this and the #'s you mention sound like greek to me. i'm so hoping i can catch on quickly, for beeber's sake.

thanks for replying.
 
You'll pick up on the lingo in no time, it's confusing at first. The "+" numbers Lu mentioned....
We time everything around the time you give the shot. So for example, when you gave the shot tonight, we would call that "PMPS" for "PM Pre Shot". The morning one would be "AMPS". That's the time you took the reading just before you gave the shot. In between shots, there are 12 hours. So rather than use regular "time" to tell everyone when we are doing something, we use "+1" to mean "one hour after the preshot test, +6 means six hours after the preshot test.

SO what you would have so far would be
PMPS 584
+1 488.

We have members in probably every time zone in the world. Using this system lets everyone think in terms of what happens over a 12 hour "cycle", from one shot to the next. That way we don't have to figure out how many hours on a clock we are from you. And you'll notice that the Spreadsheet is laid out that way too. AMPS, PMPS, and from +1 to +11 in between them.

So, your kitty dropped about 100 points in an hour, which is pretty fast, but okay. If you are going to be up a while, you could test again in an hour or two to see how much more his BG comes down. Every test you get makes it easier to understand how the insulin is working, because it works differently for every cat.

Carl
 
didn't test her thru the night but at 8:00 a.m. - read in at 514. i guess that reading would have been +10 (roughly) - correct?

will be testing again at 10:30 a.m. and will post results.

she is still acting very much herself and has a good appetite. haven't seen her at the water bowl yet, but there is a wet spot in the litter box she's using. i must also be vigilant and try to get another keto strip under her.

i'm trying!!!!!
 
Look at your spreadsheet. I updated it with yesterday's numbers. I left some blanks above so you can put in previous numbers if you want. Does it make sense?

She is definitely high. Two choices - both require monitoring carefully today. One, give her one unit and get a test around 4 hours after the shot and then 6 hours after the shot. See if she goes down low in the middle of the cycle. If so, we wouldn't increase next dose. Two, guess that she isn't going low and increase the dose to 1.5 This may or may not be a good idea. If she is bouncing from low numbers, this may make that worse. You need to monitor more carefully with this choice. Get a number 2 hours after the shot, maybe 4-6 hours after. Watch carefully her behavior.

We are just guessing here because we don't have those midcycle (4-6 hours after the shot) numbers. We know you are trying and the data you have gotten is good. It just doesn't tell us enough. We want to keep Beeber safe and are in a quandry about how best to do that. Up the dose and hope she isn't dropping low or keep the dose the same and get data but worry about high numbers and ketones.

You hold the syringe. You decide. We will keep a watch out for you today.
 
i'm going to start the chart. tested her at 10:40 a.m. (12 hours after the 584# last night) and she registered 493. her appetite is good and she is acting fine. she doesn't seem to be at the water bowl as much as yesterday.

must go to work at 3 this afternoon. my husband has no patience, so i will do testing every 2 hrs until then and post them. usually get home around 8-9 so will test again when i get home and then at 10:30 for the 12 hr test.

she seems to be getting more comfortable with this, and once i get #'s that aren't a bit scarey, i'll be more comfortable as well.

i wish there was an EASY way to check this urine tho - i'm getting tired following her around and getting nowhere :lol:
 
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