? Purrfect's plummetted to 155 pre-shot - shall I stall or lower dose?

Hello, everyone on this forum, and Rachel, Djamila and Kris,

After days of flat high readings, I've just tested Purrfect PM pre-shot and pre-meal and he's plummetted to 155 now (human meter) from 251 6+ hours. This is usually the time for his meal and shot. I've seen elsewhere on the forum that you should stall when lower than 200 without food but he's hungry and wants feeding - what on earth shall I do?? Give a reduced dose?

Although not dangerously low, this is the lowest I've seen for Purrfect. Please - any advice would be appreciated!

Astra and Purrfect.
P.S. I gave him a few small segments of a treat stick to reward him for his test - I hope this won't make him go up too much and give a false idea about his BG reading when I retest in half an hour.

 

The general advice would be to stall for 20 minutes without feeding and retest to see if he's rising. If he is, you can give the usual dose or reduce it by a small fraction like 0.25 u. You can repeat the stall for three times up to 60 minutes total (to see if he gets to 200) without interfering with your dosing schedule. I have no idea whether the treat will affect his BG. Is it carb free?

 

Thank you so much for your reply, Kris. In reponse, the treat stick is made from dried meat products only, no cereal, no sugar. I've just tested him again after 30 mins and he's only at 165 (approx. 230-239 on a pet meter). I mention the pet conversion because the last time he was near that figure was in June, AM pre-shot 237 on a pet meter. At that time, we fed him well and gave him his usual dose then of 2.75 units.

Perhaps to be really safe, we could take down his dose to that level?

 

OK, I've tested again a whole hour later and he's at 200 now. But I really want to play safe, Kris - what do you think? I could give him a half dose, say 2 units. I just going to feed him now, he's a very hungry boy!

 

I see you gave 2 units...I think that was fine. Don't be surprised if he's high in the morning...I think that the reduced dose might do that.

That is an interesting preshot you got. Next time, you might try giving just a tiny bit of a reduction in the dose if you can monitor...see what happens.

 

Hello, Rachel!

Thanks very much for your advice. As you forecast, he was pretty high this morning at 357. Perhaps 2 units was too safe! As you and Kris have said, less of a reduction might have been in order. But as this was the first time he'd been that low PMPS and I couldn't realistically test him throughout the night, 2 it was. Could this preshot indicate that a continual bounce was broken? It reminds me of what Kris wrote about bouncing: "Bounce prone kitty repeats this until his body learns that healthy low numbers are safe. Some kitties are slow learners." Too high a dose of insulin can keep them bouncing over and over until the " bounce fuel" runs out and they crash - ie., have a hypo episode." Obviously, it wasn't a hypo but so much lower than usual.

This morning, we decided on a moderate dose of 3.5u which he was at three weeks ago. I'll do a +6 test and another one PMPS and see what gives. I wonder whether we'll have to keep raising the dose again and breaking the bounce over and over.

All this is fairly nerve-wracking, I must admit, so, thanks again to you all and Kris and Rachel for your help last night (well, it was night-time over here!)

Astra and Purrfect.