First blue # (yay!) but at +11 so what now?

EDIT - Panic over, fed and tested half an hour later, reading was through the roof so +11 was probably a false reading.

I just tested Alfie at +11 hrs from his AM shot and he's got his first blue number, which is great, but he's due his shot in an hour so I'm not sure what I should do.

Obviously I'll test him again before he gets fed ar shot time but if it's still that low, should I leave it the same, reduce or not shoot?

 

BUMMER ... Lol

 

Darn those wonky test strips . Forgive my memory, do you work from home Jen? I'm thinking the next day you are around to monitor like lately, you may want to try 2.75U

 

Hi Yong, sorry I've only just seen your reply.

I don't work from home unfortunately, I have had a couple of days off in recent weeks so have been able to test a lot!

I use a vetpen so can only increase 0.5 units at a time. Every dose increase seems to be bringing his numbers down further but by pre shot they're just as high again, so he's just having bigger swings! I'm sure our vet will suggest increasing his dose to 3 units once we've done 2.5 units for a week but it just doesn't seem to be lasting very long. I know I have to be patient and it's still early days but poor Alfie is so miserable. I want my old lovely boy back!

The vet has said that if Caninsulin doesn't work for him we can try PZI. I just don't know how long to keep persevering with Caninsulin before we make the switch. I don't want him to keep suffering any longer than he has to.

 

No worries. It does not seem to last the entire cycle for Alfie. I think if you hit month 1 (23 June) and are still seeing short duration like this you might want to try switching. Let's see if you get another opinion besides mine though

 

I think that you're restricted to 0.5 u increments with the vet pen, correct? It's quite likely that changing the dose in smaller fractions will be helpful. PZI drawn from a vial with syringes that have half unit marks would allow this. You'd have to eyeball between half unit marks but it's not that hard to do. It's also a gentler insulin - slower in onset - so it might calm your kitty's responses.

 

Yes, the vet pen can only adjust by whole half units.

Since his last dose increase to 2.5, he seems to be coming down faster, hitting nadir earlier and bouncing up higher! His PMPS levels have been really high.

The vet wants a full curve done this evening but was talking about one more week at an increased dose of 3 units. I'm not sure if I should push to just switch to PZI now rather than waiting a week. Especially as I'm not at work next week so can keep a close eye on him.

What do you guys think?

 

The dramatic drop from high to low is typical of Caninsulin and increasing the dose to 3 u is likely to increase this drama. A gentler insulin will drop him more slowly and that can help to keep him flatter in his responses. Also, we generally recommend increases of only 0.25 u, especially at your low dose level. Half a unit at a dose of 2.5 u is a 20% increase - that's significant.

 

I'd push to do the switch for the week you will be home to monitor him on new insulin. PZI is gentler so you shouldn't see dramatic drops as often; can't guarantee you'll never see them on any insulin . Hopefully Vet will have you start with 1.0U of PZI and if you'd like we could help you with dosing. I had 1 dosing recommendation from a Vet in the beginning with Maury. The rest has been with the help of other veteran Prozinc members and what I've learned on my own