Blood levels - new to all this

Hello,

My cat (Tewksbury) was just diagnosed with diabetes. He's thirteen next month..indoor kitty. My vet told me to start him on 3U's twice a day. Tewks weighs 10 lbs (never obese) and his insulin is Glargine (vet prescription- in Canada)

First day yesterday- gave him 2U's because he didn't eat much this morning. Blood levels every two hours;

8am- 21.0 before eating- gave him his food and insulin
10am- 16.0
12pm- 8.7
2pm- 8.1
4pm- 5.7
6pm- 4.6 ( getting anxious cause of the drastic drop so I gave him 3 Treats and dried salmon)
8pm- 6.1

I opted not to give him insulin last night because his sugar levels were still pretty low. My nerves were high.. Blood testing my boy every two hours.. His ears must be sensitive( putting pure Aloe Vera on his ears after the shots to help with any sensitivity).

I'm on the fence on whether I made the right choice but because of his results- I don't need Tewks going into a hypoglycaemic crisis.

Day 2- Tewks was back up to 21 this morning.

Gave him one unit this morning instead of 2 and he's currently sitting at 8.8.. If it's anything like yesterday he'll go lower before coming up. I know we are supposed to give insulin twice daily but if his levels remain where they are or lower (at 12 hrs since his last dose)I really don't want to give him anymore.

He's not drinking a lot anymore and only peed once today and he's back to grooming himself.

I work full time and want to know whether it's ok to leave a bit of kibble out while I'm gone to work. He's on wet food (low carb-weruva) but obviously not leaving that out for him.

Thanks for your feedback, I appreciate it.

Am & Tewks

 

Welcome! Congratulations on getting the home testing under way. Good call yesterday to give 2 u and not 3 u. The typical starting dose is 1 u twice a day. Those numbers are lovely but the late nadir suggests the 2 u dose is bit too high. It's very early days so it's hard to be certain. He responded really well to the Lantus though. You were wise to skip last night because it was your first day and have no experience dosing on low numbers. You'll get there ...

That was a good call too. When in hours since the AM dose did you get the 8.8 reading? It's a nice number for this reduced dose. Post here just before the evening meal/shot is due to get advice on what to do.

There are very few low carb kibbles available and none in Canada unless you try some freeze dried raw like Primal that you can find in specialty pet stores - the "health food" or "holistic" type of store. If you have only one kitty you can certainly leave out wet food. A timed feeder can be very useful and people here will freeze chunks of wet food to put in the later timed sections of the feeder. It might be fresh out of the can in the early slots, a chunk with an ice cube on top in the middle slots and frozen in the latest slots.

Your best bet for lots of guidance and support using Lantus (glargine) is the Lantus/Levemir forum. I recommend going over there to introduce yourself and to have a look at the yellow info stickies at the top of the forum's page.

Here's a handout I made for new members:
______________________________________________________________________________________________

It would help us if you set up your signature (light grey text under a post). Here's how:

• click on your name in the upper right corner of this page
• click on "signature" in the men that drops down
• type the following in the box that opens: kitty's name/age/date of diabetes diagnosis/insulin you're using /glucose meter you're using/what he eats/any other meds or health issues he has.

Another thing that will help us help you now that you've started BG testing at home is to set up a spreadsheet like the one we use here. We can all see it and look at it before offering advice: http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/fdmb-spreadsheet-instructions.130337/

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Here's the basic testing routine we recommend:

1. test every day AM and PM before feeding and injecting (no food at least 2 hours before) to see if the planned dose is safe
2. test at least once near mid cycle or at bedtime daily to see how low the BG goes
3. do extra tests on days off to fill in the response picture
4. if indicated by consistently high numbers on your spreadsheet, increase the dose by no more than 0.25 u at a time so you don't accidentally go right past a good dose
5. post here for advice whenever you're confused or unsure of what to do.

This is useful: http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/hometesting-links-and-tips.287/

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Here's an explanation of what we call "bouncing". It explains why a kitty's BG can go from low to sky high:

1. BG goes low OR lower than usual OR drops too quickly.
2. Kitty's body panics and thinks there's danger (OMG! My BG is too low!).
3. Complex physiologic processes take glycogen stored in the liver (I think of it as "bounce fuel"), convert it to glucose and dump it into the bloodstream to counteract the perceived dangerously low BG.
4. These processes go into overdrive in kitties who are bounce prone and keep the BG propped up varying lengths of time (AKA bouncing).
5. Bounce prone kitty repeats this until his body learns that healthy low numbers are safe. Some kitties are slow learners.
6. 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. That's why we worry so much about kitties that have had too high a starting dose prescribed by the vet and the owner isn't home testing.

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Here are some tips on how to do urine ketone testing (VERY important if BG is high and kitty isn't eating well!):

• put the end of the test strip right in his urine stream as he's peeing
• slip a shallow, long handled spoon under his backside to catch a little pee - you don't need much
• put a double layer of plastic wrap over his favourite part of the litter box and poke some depressions in it too catch pee.

Most test strips have to be dipped and allowed to develop for 15 seconds before viewing the colour change in very good light.

 

FYI: Lantus is available OTC in Canda. The best value is the 5 pack of cartridges. Each is 3 mL (300 units of insulin) and the 5 pack gives you a total of 1500 units that will last almost a year. Unopened cartridges are good until the pack's expiry date if stored properly in the fridge. That date is usually 2 years down the line. Cost of a 5 pack is $100-$125 in Canada.

 

Welcome!!

And seriously Congratulations on getting the testing !!! Its wonderful that you were able to get all those tests.

With Gargline (Lantus ) is best if you dose the same amount every 12 hours, the thing is you need to find a dose you can give in the morning and in the night that won't put him at risk, there are very experienced people here that can help you with this just keep asking, this is the link for the gargline (Lantus ) forum http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/...the-basics-new-to-the-group-start-here.18139/


I don't want to overwhelm you with tons of information but since you are using lantus it may help you if start doing some reading, here http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/...the-basics-new-to-the-group-start-here.18139/

 

Thank you all very much for your feedback.

 

Tewksbury has been sitting at 7.0 since 2:30 ish. I'm supposed to feed him just after 8. Should I give him any shot if he remains at 7.0 or goes lower?

 

I gave you some info on the Lantus forum post.