Amps 226 - shoot or no?

good morning everyone - Mr. Kitty and I are new here and I feel like his BG has been all over the place. AMPS was 226 before food, and I didn’t realize I should have stalled his food and retest, so I didn’t shoot. I retested BG +1 (no shot) and it’s 299. I haven’t given him insulin yet, should I?

 

You haven't given insulin on that low aPS before. I suggest you try 2.5 u and get a +2 test to see where he might be heading. Have you gone to the Vetsulin forum and read the yellow info sticky for your insulin. Lots of good stuff in it.

 

Hello and thank you for responding! I will lower the dose and closely monitor. I’ve read the sticky note everyda but keep second guessing myself on everything!

 

Shot 2.5U at 10am and BG was 277 +2 and now 87 +4. He’s never been this low will test every hour or so and monitor.

 

90 +4.5, 81 +6 (gave him some dry morsels), 130 +7

 

My goodness! Too exciting! Try 2 u tonight if he's in yellow at PS.

 

He was in the red tonight

 

That's a huge rebound from those green numbers. Try 2 u today. It's the low numbers that hold most of the weight in assessing a dose. The pre shot numbers tell you if it's safe to give insulin.

 

Here's something I wrote a while ago to explain this rebound phenomenon:

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.

 

Thank you! His AMPS is 182 this morning and I’m not sure what I’ll do. We have a doctors appointment on Friday and I am going to recommend a smaller dose and maybe even a different insulin...I’ve read Vetsulin drops them so low and then they go high really fast and that has me concerned.

 

Great information - thank you for sharing with me! My vet shrugged off home testing and honestly, if it weren’t for my friend at the humane society who’s pet sitting for us next week while on vacation asking what kind of monitor we use to test for Hypo I would have never known about home testing...or searched the internet and found this site! I’ve learned so much!

 

Yes, Vetsulin can do that. It can also have less than 12 hour duration in many kitties. Some kitties do well on it but in general a depot insulin like Lantus is helpful in avoiding BG extremes.