Charlie's BG remains high...lower dosage again?

Hello everyone,

Charlie's blood sugar continues to remain mostly in the 400s (going over 500 once) since lowering his dose of ProZinc from 2.0 to 1.75 . Should I lower the dose by .25 again, or wait a little longer? He continues to be negative for ketones. Also, sometimes his personality/behavior is normal; other times, he seems to not feel well---it fluctuates throughout the day. His appetite is normal, and he looks forward to his food as always (especially the raw meat). As far as his food, I've been feeding him below 10% carbs, however, yesterday I lowered it to below 5% in the hopes that doing so will help his body better regulate his blood sugar.

Other Notes:

• As of yesterday, Charlie has been on ProZinc for one week.
• He lost another 2 ounces this week; so, we are slowly bringing his weight down.
• His water intake and urine output have neither increased nor decreased.
• His vet is still on vacation; she will return next week.

I know I need to have patience and give his body a chance to heal itself, but I'm really concerned about the damage that is being done as his blood sugar continues to remain high. Please let me know if there is anything that I'm not doing that I can do to help him. Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks,
Rebecca and Charlie

P.S. What constitutes a "cycle"?

 

I'm sorry you haven't received an answer yet on dosing. I am unable to help in that way, hopefully someone will be along that can help soon. Wishing you well.

 

Hi Lou, thank you and no worries.

Wishing you and Idjit well too.

 

Hi Rebecca,

You’ve done a great job testing and logging Charlie’s numbers. I suggest you try 2 u again. Those low numbers at the start might have been an early erratic response to first getting insulin. Get a few tests between +4 and +7 to see how he’s doing. Try not to worry about the high numbers. He’s still very new to insulin.

 

A cycle is 12 hours. So there are two cycles each day: AM and PM

I agree with Kris about the increase, despite the 68 last night. We see this a lot with AT2's and other pet specific meters - that there are really erratic numbers occasionally. I would recommend when you get a number like that, to test again and make sure the test strip was reading accurately. Or try a human meter - they seem to read more consistently, even if not precisely calibrated for feline blood.

I share your worry about the high numbers, and wanting to get those down. Unfortunately, you can't really speed up the process. It takes them a long time to become diabetic, and once discovered, it takes awhile to start to heal. Hang in there!

 

I have not found that to be the case with alphatrak meters. In two years using it I don't think I ever got a wonky reading where if I test a second time the number changes significantly. I'm sure it happens if a sample is too small, but it's not common in my experience.

 

Yes, if you look at one individual spreadsheet, you might not see it, but if you look over a large number of spreadsheets, some trends begin to emerge, and that's one of them. I don't at all doubt that there are individual cats/owners/meters that are quite consistent, but there are many others that are not. It could be that this cat really does have random dives like that -- or it could be something about the combination of cat/owner/meter that fits into that trend of occasionally inconsistent test results. When looking at large sample sizes of data, outliers happen.

 

Anytime there's an unexpected number just take a second reading to be sure.

 

Hi Kris,

Just gave Charlie his evening dose. I took it back up to 2 u. I will follow your suggestion and get some tests between +4 and +7 this evening. Thank you for your help.

 

Hi Djamila,

Thank you for bringing this to my attention. At 10+ today I got 58, so I retested right away with the same meter but different ear prick and I got 465. When I tested again 2 hours later at PMPS I got 464. Now I don't know if any of the other low(er) readings I got were accurate. I will get a human meter next week. Should I stop using the cat-specific one altogether? Or, continue using and then confirm each time with the human meter? Also, regarding your second post. I wonder if I am doing something that is creating inconsistency in the test results. For example, should I clean his ear prior to using the lancet? Here's how I test. I get everything ready including placing the strip in the meter. I massage his ear for a few seconds to warm it up (he actually enjoys when I do this, and I've done this as long as we've been together). I use the pen with lancet to prick his ear and then I place the strip next to the blood drop and let the strip "sip" it up. The meter counts down 5 seconds and then I get the reading. Also, sometimes after a test I put a little calendula on his ear in case it hurts from all the testing. Could this skew the test? (I think the calendula absorbs easily because I can't feel it on his ear when I test the next time---which is at least 2 hours later. And, I switch between ears). I'm open to any suggestions or advice you have regarding getting consistent readings. If I'm not getting accurate readings then I'm not really helping him to get better.

 

Hi Janet,

I wonder if the problem is that my sample is too small. But then I don't understand why the meter would start counting down and display a result if the sample is too small. Maybe I'm just not very good at this yet.

 

Fair point. But, how can I really know which is correct?

 

If the second reading makes more sense then that's the one that is probably right. If course you could do a 3rd test.

 

Hi Janet,
That makes sense! I just watched your video on home testing. I think I could be rushing because I place the strip fully in the meter before pricking Charlie's ear, and then I'm in a hurry to get the sample before the meter shuts off. I'll try the way you do it and see if that helps. Thank you for your help and support!

 

I wouldn't recommend testing with both meters as a regular habit. I would say if you want to switch, to just use the human meter, and then pull out the pet meter if you need to communicate with your vet, or if you have a concern about something. Doing two tests each time will drive both you and Charlie crazy.

The human meters run lower, so the "take action" number on a human meter is 50 instead of 68. Just something to keep in mind since your spreadsheet will still code lime green below the 68. When you switch, the new numbers will instantly make it look like Charlie is doing much better, which might be easier on your heart as well (even if it's not precisely accurate)

I agree with Janet that if the second reading is more in line with his data patterns, you usually won't need to run a 3rd test, but of course you can if you're concerned.

It's not that human meters don't ever give false numbers, they just seem to be more forgiving in general than the pet meters. I don't think you're likely doing anything wrong, I just think the pet meters are super picky. My human meter will give me an error message if it doesn't like the amount of blood. The pet meters are supposed to, but they seem to err on the side of a false reading more often than an error message. Plus, the test strips on a human meter are only about 20-25cents, so if you need to redo a test a couple of times, it isn't as expensive.

 

After reading the posts here, I definitely think the low numbers are inaccurate. I've never once had an error message on the meter---not even when the sample seems too small. So, I'll get the human meter Monday---everything is closed on Sundays in Germany. And, you're right that it will do my heart good !