1/9 - Sami's AMPS - 238 - +4 256

Sami's AMPS was 238, after a PMPS of 442. I have been giving Sami 2 units at night and 1 unit in the morning, but after reading some repsones it has been recommended that I use the same dose in the morning and at night. Since I just converted Sami to wet food from dry I was thinking I should go back to 1 unit for both dose just to make sure she doesn't go too high.

But now 4 hours after her shot of 1 unit, she is rising. Should I leave it alone or should I go ahead and give her another unit? I just hate seeing her too high, but I aslo don't want to go up in dosage two quickly or make her drop too much.

Any help is very much appreciated.

Thanks.

 

DO NOT GIVE ANOTHER SHOT until PMPS time.

Yes, stick to one dose, have you read the stickies up above on Lantus? Please re-read when you can.

Just track the BG, maybe a +6 will shed some light.

 

Sorry to bold that, just wanna make sure u understood that nailbite_smile

By the way,

Welcome to Lantus Land!!

I was looking at your spreadsheet and your first thread in health, you had Sami on Vetsulin prior to Lantus right?
In your spreadsheet (SS for short) can u note Vetsulin use and when you began Lantus? Either by adding a cell just above the lantus start day or in ur comments.

Will you be around today to monitor?

Others will be around to guide you and offer support ok?

 

Yes, Sami was on vetsulin befor the Lantus, but I wasn't testing at home when she was on that. At that point I didn't even know I could test at home.

I will be home today to monitor her more than during the week, but we have dinner plans tonight so I won't be able to monitor her as much after her PM dose. If she goes up to 400+ I will be tempted to give her 2 units again tonight, but I know I should really let her adjust on the 1 unit for a few days. Although, when she first started on Lantus she was on one unit and she wasn't comming down, but now she is on wet food so I am hoping that will help. That is if my husband will stop leaving out dry food for the other cats.

Thanks for the help. This forum and the people on it are amazing and so helpful.

 

There are some basic differences between Lantus and other insulins. This is often the hardest thing for new Lantus users who have experience with other types of insulin to wrap their brains around.

Lantus is a long-acting insulin. Dosing is based on the nadir, not the pre-shot value. We get AMPS and PMPS to make sure that it is safe to give a shot but this is not the number that will guide the amount that is dosed. The lowest number of the cycle is the criterion. Because you need to establish a blood level (also called a depot or "shed"), rapidly changing doses as a means of trying to compensate for PS highs or lows does not have the desired effect as it might have with shorter acting insulin. I'm sure others have provided this link to the dosing protocol that we use.

So, what does all of this mean? Shoot the same amount at AM and PM. Do not try to use Lantus as a bolus insulin by giving a little extra during the cycle. (It won't have the desired effect. You only use a very short acting insulin for this purpose and, at present, this is not something that Sami appear's to need.) Get AMPS and PMPS tests and at least one other test per cycle. A before bed test is very helpful. Hold the dose for at least another few days. If you think the dose needs to be adjusted, ask for input. Right now, it's a little harder to sort out where the dose needs to be because of the 1.0 vs. 2.0 shots. Remember that increases and decreases are typically in 0.25 increments -- the back and forth with full units makes the numbers hard to interpret (at least for me).

If you have recently fully transitioned to wet food, IMHO, I would stick with the 1.0 unit x2/day. You need to get the shed filled at a consistent dose so you have a baseline for making dosing decisions.

 

I will do just that. I just took another test at +6 and she is still on the rise at 286, but I will stick with 1 unit tonight too. I plan to go out and try to find some syringes with half unit marks tomorrow so if by Monday or Tuesday we don't see some stability I can inrease.

I have a question though, if the syringe has marks at .5, how do you only increase .25 units?

Thanks for the advice.

 

welcome Tina and Sami!

I agree with the others, Lantus works best on a consistent dose and it does take time to build up in the system. Shooting extra Lantus at a high number won't work, and in fact since each shot affects the next few cycles it can create problems down the road. See these explanations of carryover and overlap and the insulin depot

Best to pick one dose and stay with it, morning and night, for at least 3-5 days until we can see what that dose is doing. Then you can make adjustments as needed (we'll help). I agree that 1 unit seems like a good idea for now. Back when you were doing consistent dosing with 1 unit, Sami got some blue, and with the food change 1 unit seems safer than 2 to start with.

Please read the stickies at the top of the forum, if you haven't already. Some of it won't make sense right away, but there is a lot of good information there.

Exactly when did you make the food change, and is Sami 100% switched now?

 

I have read all the stickies, but I am sure I will have to read them again, because there is a lot of information in there.

I switched Sami to wet food on Thursday night. So far she has transisioned rather well. All of my cats have always prefered wet food, and come running every time I open a can, even if they have just eaten. I am also attempting to transision the other 4 cats as well, however, I have a lot of dry food so I will still give that to the other cats but only when I can monitor to make sure that Sami doesn't have any. My husband put some dry food out for the other cats this morning and I found Sami eating it. I am sure I will give her a few morses of dry food every now and then if nothing else but for a treat or to help clean her teeth.

 

Hi again!

Just wanna let you know any questions and concerns you have for the day - you can post in ur original thread - ur condo - this one. All kitties get one condo per day, ok?

It's easier to follow all the kitties this way and stay neat cuz this forum as you see - is hopping with kitties! bcatrun_gif

 

can you please mark on your spreadsheet the day you switched to wet, and also mark this morning that you saw him eating dry? It will help the people who study your spreadsheet looking for trends. Thanks!

For crunchy treats, most of us use freeze dried meats, like Halo Liv-A-Littles (there are lots of brands). No carbs and most cats LOVE them. Dry food doesn't help the teeth, there is a lot of information on Dr. Lisa's website but if you want to prove it to yourself, feed him a kibble or two. Does he chew? Probably not much, most cats just gulp them down or maybe chomp once.

 

Hi Libby,

I just updated the spreadsheet to show these notes.

Yes, she does tend to chew which is how I can usually tell who is eatting the dry food, even if I am in the other room. Although I know what you mean about not chewing because I know at least one of my cats never chews his food.

 

peeked at your SS and saw a nice PMPS number and that you shot 1 unit again. Thank you for trusting us, I hope that will help level Sami's numbers out. :smile: Please post every day so we can help you!

AMPS 238
+4~256
+6~286
PMPS 349