? 214, give or not give insulin?

Skittles BG is at 214. Should I give him 1 unit?
Waiting for answers before I do anything so please help

 

Looking at his SS it looks like you got blues on a 1/2 unit with 273 BG level on 1/21 pm cycle.
If it were me I would stick with the 1/2 unit. I would get a +3 and +6 if you could too.

 

Sorry no one answered you right away. Feel free to "tag" me if you need help late at night. I'm usually up late every other week so if I'm up I will respond.

 

Sorry Sherri! I was fast asleep. Looks like you gave .5?

 

It's great that you can be a night time helper sometimes, Steph. I'm usually MIA by 11 PM (EST) and don't reappear until around 8 AM - doing all my own cat duties before then.

 

The 05. u dose seems to have been a safe one.

 

Hi everyone
Yes , last night I gave him .5 U. I got in a -2 & -6 BG level ( on SS)
Here are his BG today
AMPS-179 No insulin
PMPS-224 gave .5 U

He had been holding good BG Numbers after getting insulin for it two days, but I gave him .5 U last night and then had to do the same tonight. This is starting to concern me. What are your thoughts ?

 

It's he eating more during the day?
What was his +6 reading last night? It's not showing on his SS.

 

No, he has actually been eating a little less today, his - BG last night was 118. I meant to get a -4 but I fell asleep

 

1/23
AMPS- 169 ( no shot )
PMPS-214 ( .5 unit )
-2 = 162
-6= 118

1/24
AMPS- 179 ( no shot )
PMPS-224 ( .5 unit )

 

Wondering if I should be doing 1 unit? Plz see his SS
Before his tooth infection popped up he was running in the 90s BG most of the time and I haven't been able to get it back that low since. He has a few days left on his medication for his tooth and I am now questioning the Friskies I had him on prior to him falling out of remission. But feeding two cats on 3 ounce cans of fancy feast is just getting a little too hard on me financially. His new vet did say that he wanted him to have at least 3 to 4 pieces of dry food a week to help control the tartar on his teeth. So I was thinking about going with the very expensive low carb dry diet that I have seen mention here. Of course his vet told me to put him on a dry DM ( the young again food is what I was thinking about, only feeding a few pieces once or twice a week should make the bag last a long time )

 

Dry DM will be worse than friskies pate.

I don't think 1 unit is a good idea. If you go up at all it would have to be on a day you could monitor closely. The increase would have to be very small to prevent hypo.
You could try splitting the half unit up. Try .25 in am and .25 in pm. But you have to be home to monitor very closely if you wanted to try it. Would be best to start the .25 unit on a shootable number then see if his next preshot is shootable. If you're getting one cycle that you can't shoot then then next you can it could be with trying to split the dose.
I suggest waiting til a pro could check in on this idea.
+6 118 was good. It's hard to tell if he went lower after that. If you could get a +8 or +9 it would show if he's going lower or surfing.

It's worth noting that there is a 20% variable on the readings.
I don't think you should change dose or try my suggestions until a pro checks in...
I have experience but not nearly as much as the pros here.

 

OK I will wait on the dosage information that you gave me. I always thought that Friskies was pretty safe as far as the low carbs and he did get on it for over a year. But now I realize that fancy feast is a lot lower in carbs, but the cans are so much smaller. The size of the cans is what made me only use the Friskies .
And I also buy different flavors, and I'm wondering if I should just stick with one until they get tired of it. And of course with my luck the fancy feast that has zero carbs they don't like it . Once I start working again then this food will not be a problem but until then unfortunately it is a problem. And my baby is very involved in school activities and sports and that cost so much . The prom is in April and now I have to buy everything that is involved in that. So as I had mentioned a couple of times already, financially I am in a very bad state. Not to even mention the price I was quoted of $600 for a dental for skittles. And I haven't mentioned it to anybody but something is going on with his brother
( feisty ) and my daughter is so Attached to feisty . She is so attached that when she spends the night with her friend she has to face time me just so I can show her her cat. I don't know how she's going to handle not seeing him every single day when she goes off to college in two years. And I don't even want to think about the cost of that because she is going into medical school she's going to be a surgeon. Actually she has already started college, she goes to college in the morning and then goes to high school in the afternoon.
PS
I am using my microphone right now and I really hope everything makes sense

 

Some cats react different to each food. My boy can't eat friskies without spiking high. He has to have under 5% carbs because even carb free chicken increases his numbers.
I understand the financial hardship. I'm permanently disabled from failed back surgery and chronic pain. Money gets tight quick. If I didn't have Care credit Chuck probably wouldn't be with us anymore.
As long as you stick with the pates friskies is OK. Once you get into the gravy type is when they go high carb.
Your daughter sounds very smart and compassionate towards animals. Wonderful mix of characteristics!

 

I to have chronic pain and a very bad back I have been trying to get disability for the last couple of years and actually got a call from my attorney and it seems like I might have finally gotten a permanent answer. But I'm not going to really say anything about it until I find out 100% for sure

 

I know the struggle to get approved. I have a B.S. in Criminal Justice Administration... They saw that as a reason I could find work even though more than 20 minutes of standing, waking, or sitting can cause me to break down in tears. Having to sit through a 45 minute appeal hearing showed them how bad my back is... I'm currently trying to get the Neurostimulator implant in my spine. 1/3 of the way through the process.
I hurt my back 6 months before college graduation which was actually 1 year into my career as a Corrections Officer... A year later I stopped working and 3 years after that I settled with my workers comp company.
Life sure hasn't been fair... But we have to keep our chin up and show life who's boss!!

 

Wow! It sounds like your daughter is very smart! I know you're proud.

What's going on with Feisty?

I'm sorry to hear about the pain you both experience. Life sure isn't fair. I really hope things get better soon!

 

Just reading this now. Steph and Sherri - you two have been through the wringer! Kudos to you both for carrying on. Sherri, I like Steph's idea of splitting the dose to see if twice a day insulin gives better control of Skittles BG. Instead of increasing the current dose to 1 u, why not try that for a few cycles?

As for the Friskies pates, they're definitely more affordable than FF. I'd try them again. With Skittles' tooth issue it's almost impossible to know if his BG is being affected by food.

 

He didn't need any insulin this AM. His BG was 179 and I overslept and didn't get his food up 2 hours before testing. I usually pull his food at 10 AM but I have been staying up for the last 2 nights to watch him and to get BG levels and I guess everything finally caught up to me and I have been sick with some kind of headcold thingy ( The weather is absolutely crazy it is 70° today and it was in the teens two days ago )

AMPS-179

 

He is just acting different and has a slight limp. He also woke from a deep sleep to jumping up hissing , then he went right back to sleep. Maybe a dream? He is kinda weird ( don't tell me daughter I said that LOL) he will be walking and duck his head suddenly like he walked into or rubbed against something even though nothing is there. He's been doing this for a very long time.
I guess I'm always over protective of skittles and feisty because number 1. skittles got diabetes , #2 my daughter is extremely attached to the feisty and if anything were to happen to him it would devastate her and lastly skittles and feisty are a litter of 4 ( all males ) A friend of mine took 2 and I took 2 and not too long ago her and husband went out to eat for a few hours and when they came home one of them had died. They said that he was absolutely fine when they left and they have no idea why he died.

 

Wow that is odd. Well hopefully Feisty is just showing more signs of his weirdness. Maybe something to keep an eye on and if he doesn't seem to get better, a vet visit? I understand about the overprotectiveness...it's gotten so I follow my cats when they go to the litter box so I can see if they had a normal amount! And they're not diabetic...just tend to be ill and I get super stressed and worried about them. I think that's pretty normal for those of us who've had sugar cats.

 

It hard to relax once something goes wrong

 

@sherrib both preshots under 200 today without insulin! looking good! *Anti-jinx*

 

. I had stopped feeding Friskies because I was concerned about whether or not the one I feed has had a carb change your not so I switched over to fancy feast, but the 3 ounce cans are just too small to feed two cats. So his PMPS check , I gave him some Friskies and 30 minutes later I did another test and level was 138.... isn't that weird?

AMPS-174 ( no insulin)
+7-143
PMPS-168
Feed , waited 30 mins and BG was 138

 

It's not really that far from your PMPS, so it's basically the same number. But also, if a kitty goes down after food, that's usually a sign the pancreas are helping out!

 

Looks promising. Maybe his tooth is feeling better and infection is gone?