Changed food, dropped insulin (Curly Sue)

Hey guys. So I've transitioned my Curly Sue off of her royal canin pv food and onto a weruva chicken frick a zee. Her sugars were about 200-220 (I tested same drop of blood on 2 different strips) as of her PM test last night. They were 240 the night before. I have given her NO insulin the last 2 days. I'm just curious as to whether or not I should worry about her going hypo while maintaining this diet or if her sugars would start leveling out once they got to an exceptional level? I'm sorry I don't have a spreadsheet, couldn't quite figure out what numbers to put where. When she was curved at about 180 at the vet's office and they told me to maintain the 3u of vetsulin, I took her care into my own hands. Her sugars spiked to about 300 or so and I began switching her food out.

 

To clarify, you have not given insulin at all since changing the diet? And, it has been just 2 days? You could give it a couple of more days, if you want, before resuming insulin to see if there is any further reduction from the food change. If she stays in the mid 200s, I would want to start back giving insulin but at a very small dose (on a human meter, the target range is something like 50 to 120), and while monitoring regularly. I have no personal experience with Vetsulin, so I will not suggest a dose, but perhaps someone else can help you with that.

 

Hi, congratulations on the testing and changing him to a low carb diet.

If your cat has NOT had insulin you do not need to worry about him going hypo, his body will regulate that, but if you are giving insulin, please do monitor him closely because of the diet change.

Is there a reason why you haven't given insulin?

Hopefully you can set up the spreadsheet soon so that everyone can take a look at how his numbers are really acting, because with numbers around 240 it would appear she still needs insulin

 

As of 2 days ago when I completed the switch to her new food, I haven't been giving her insulin, correct. When I was still giving her her old high carb food, I was still giving her insulin. It appears her bg is progressively going down with the diet change. 240 to about 210 within a day.
I haven't been giving insulin because I wanted to see if the new diet helped lower her bg naturally and, because I'm using vetsulin, didn't want to cause her to go hypo on accident.

 

I can understand your concerns with adjusting the diet and using insulin. You have Curly Sue's best interests at heart.

The spreadsheet is going to help us help you, however. If you will set it up, or allow someone to set it up for you, then you can plug in the testing numbers you get. AMPS (AM pre-shot) is the test you get before the morning insulin injection (or when you would normally inject) PMPS (PM pre-shot) is the test before the evening injection. The +1, +2 etc are the hours after the injection (or normal injection time). Since members are spread all across the world, this is our reference to knowing at what "relative time" any test was taken. I used to test Idjit at 6 AM my time, so that was my AMPS, then if I tested him again at noon my time, that would be +6. Or at 10 AM my time that would be a +4 (4 hours after the morning pre-shot test time).

Just reading the test numbers you are getting now with the diet change does indicate that they are decreasing, but she may still need small insulin doses until her pancreas can heal and produce enough insulin on its own. The BG range goal is 50 to 120 using a human meter. So, she still has a way to go and anyone who is going to be able to advise you on a safe dose for Sue is going to need to see the data.

http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/understanding-the-spreadsheet-grid.156606/

http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/fdmb-spreadsheet-instructions.130337/