advice about dosing

Hi - now I have managed to get a spreadsheet and fingers crossed it will have sam's numbers in.

I suppose it is early days for him, he has been on ProZinc since the start of July and before that briefly on Caninsulin. ATM our vets advice is 2 units in the morning and 2.5 at night. This advice was on the 13th July and I will phone him again this week. Since then Sam's BG has come down, to the extent that I am not confident on giving him the increased dose. Then his BG seem to be higher in the morning anyway, so I'm not sure what to do. I'm wary of increasing his dose too high in the morning as I'm out at work all day and worry about it going too low.

Any advice very much appreciated.

Tess and Sam

 

Hi Tess! It looks like 2u is a safe dose, even on some of the lower yellow numbers you have. It's not uncommon for kitties to have different numbers in the AM and PM cycles. My cat would run lower in the morning for few weeks, and then he would run lower in the evening for a few weeks (their responses can change over time). So maybe try 2u for both cycles for a few days and see how it goes? It looks like you've moved the dose around a fair bit in the past few days. Is that from worry that he'll go too low?

PS I love your signature comment about AT2. It's so true. Those strips are crazy expensive. You can switch to a human meter, and then just use the AT2 to run an occasional curve for the vet.

 

Yes think we will have to change from alphatrak - feel like we know what we are doing with it, but test strips are too expensive.

Yep I am scared of giving him too much. Maybe that makes me err on the side of caution too much. Will speak to vet too and see what he thinks.

Thanks for your help

 

I like the idea of trying 2.0U consistently for AM and PM dose. If that still makes him have a lower PMPS, you could think about trying 1.75U twice a day . Still wondering why your SS on world tab has no lines . @Marje and Gracie can you take a look at Tess's SS for Sam? I also noticed when I was going to make one for someone recently the template didn't have the lines either and US sheet was just filled with REF# errors. Wondering if someone could have messed with the template? You are way better with the spreadsheets than I am

 

I will try to aim for more consistency, think I feel a bit scared when I see the lower BG - even though I know that's the aim..

 

It is the aim, but it takes some time to get used to the idea! The first time you ever get a low number it's freaky...

 

The first time it was under 10 - think it was 8.5 - I called vet. On call vet - on a Sunday. Got an amused - yep that's brilliant, that's what we want it to do - from her

 

Thank you and I'll check the templates. No one should be able to mess with them, the way I have it set up but I will double check.

@Sam-cat Sam's SS needs some serious work because it's lost a lot of formatting. I can fix this quicky for you and will send you a private message so I can get editing rights. Sound good?

 

That's fab thank you.
Hope I didn't break it

 

Any further advice would be good. Had a bit of time when we lost consistency with dosing. Then I kept to the 2 units when I shouldn't have done and he went too low

Feels like we are getting a bit of consistency back.

Vet has been really helpful and has asked to see his spreadsheet. Hope they are impressed after all the great help i had to set it up☺

 

Good news, you now know Sam-cat prefers consistency and if any wonkiness occurs you can check how consistent things have been! Are you still using the AT2 meter? Do your syringes have half unit markings? So if you wanted to try a decrease you could move to 1.75U or a skinny 2.0 (can explain later )

 

Consistency definitely helps. But I do struggle to be consistent when his BG can vary. Tonight pre shot he was only 7.6. He should have got 2 units and I only gave him 1. Not sure what I should have done, but I worry about him going too low? O guess we are learning what works.

We have syringes with half measures. Still using the alphatrak and I want to that in that I feel like we know what we are doing and it is in my comfort zone. In reality it is so expensive for test strips.

Thanks for your advice☺

 

Have you tried stalling without feeding and retesting? For many cats, if the initial BG reading is too low, if you can make them wait 20 minutes and re-test, it will have risen to a level that you can more comfortably shoot. You can stall up to an hour on Prozinc, so if 20 minutes doesn't do it, you can try again at 40 minutes. Of course, most kitties are getting pretty grumpy by then since they know it's past breakfast/dinner time, but it usually allows you to keep consistency.

 

I haven't tried that - I have read about it, but I think I've been so much trying to keep to exactly 12 hours apart I've maybe got stuck in that?

I can see the sense in it. Sam will be fuming - patience and food Not really his strong point, but I will try it. Overall the consistency in dosing has really helped him so be good to maintain that if we can.

Is it ok for his morning dose to be at its usual time if the evening on has been stalled?

Thanks for your advice☺

 

Djamila - have just noticed you have a cat called Sam too☺

 

Depends on how much the stall is and what his number is. Generally, if you stall say 20 min, you're probably good to give him the food and shot at the normal time in the AM. But if you stall for an hour, I might try to do the next shot a bit later...say 30 min late? And that all does depend on what the preshot number is and how out of the norm it is...

 

I think there are three of us now! Technically mine is Samir, but I only call him that when he's in trouble. Which means I call him that a lot.

Yes to what Rachel said about the next shot after stalling. It really comes down to what the number is at the next shot time. If he's already up to a normal shootable number, then you can keep your regular schedule, but if that one ends up being low too, then you have to nudge it back a bit and then work your way back to regular schedule. That usually only happens when the cat is getting into lower numbers more often.