Giving insulin without testing bg

after 1 week of monitoring my vet has given me insulin to give at home. He’s going to try 1 unit every 12 hours. She isn’t having me test his blood sugar levels at home and said just to make sure he eats before giving it to him. Is it common not to test at home or does it depend on the vet and/or cat?

 

There are a lot of vets that tell people it is not necessary to test at home, or worse, that it is not a good idea. If you do not learn anything else here, learn this - testing at home is the only way to keep your cat safe and to really know the impact an insulin dose is having. Would a doctor tell you to shoot insulin into yourself or your child without knowing your glucose level? No way. So, why is it ok to do that to a cat?

Please take a look at this very recent thread: http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/seizures.197312/ This person was told not to test at home but to bring the cat in to the clinic periodically to be tested. It is just one of so many examples I have seen here of people wishing they had not listened to their vet or the vet's staff about not testing.

Ignore the vet. Get a meter and start testing!

 

Sad to say, very many vets don't even comsider suggesting that owners test their cat's bg, let alone encourage or support it. You may have to be firm and say that you want to do this to keep your cat safe as you've heard of the dangers of hypo and don't want to risk it.

 

My vet did not encourage home testing. I went along with it for the first couple of weeks after Cleo's diagnosis. I was so overwhelmed by it all and testing seemed like a lot of work. Then Cleo had a hypo episode and I realised how important it was for me to test her.

 

I’m still a newbie but I would not give insulin without testing. Scary. I’ve talked to 2 local people (not here on board) that shoot without testing...yikes!

 

Lots of vets do that some times they think that if they ask the owner to test the owner will freak out and not give the treatment to the cat, or just think it's not necessary who knows, but the thing is no human doctor would allow a patient to get an insulin shoot with out testing because is dangerous ( one of the main reasons they invented the glucometers) , even if the patient doesn't want or is scared about it, that should also be true for cats.

Unfortunately is not always like that, on a normal cat his body would regulate the amount of insulin it produces based on his glucose levels on it's own but here you are giving him extra insulin and his body doesn't have a way to monitor it so you have to do it. This is one thing I think you should keep your grounds with the vet and insist you want to do it, you do not need a pet meter you can use a human meter that you can get at any pharmacy so you don't need your vet to give it to you if he insists on not testing at home.

He may say you are starting on a low dose but you do not know at this point how your cat will react with even the smallest amount of insulin, Babu for example is a micro dose cat so he nearly hypoed with his first shoot and it was 1 unit

 

He did not eat much last night so I did not give him his insulin. I have him 1 unit this morning. I bought a human glucometer today and will check his bg tonight before giving him his night dose. I know it’s not as accurate as a cat glucometer but I’d feel more comfortable knowing around where he is than just shooting blind. Thanks for the input.

 

I used both the AlphaTrak2 pet monitor and now use the Relion Confirm. Perhaps the pet meter is more accurate, but you are still going to get measurements using the human meter, and that's what is important. The numbers are going to tell you if the BG is too high or too low.

It's also important to able to afford strips, pet meter strips are about a $1 apiece, sometimes a little less, but you have to order them and wait for delivery. That might be a matter of a few, or many days. I can get Relion strips at a 24 hour Walmart if I need to, and afford them much more easily.

The most important thing is getting the BSL and knowing how the insulin is affecting your fur baby, keeping him/her safe. Insulin is going to help kitteh feel better, but you need to know how much is going to help and avoid a hypo. (Another reason to have lots of strips handy, just in case.) It is a lot to learn, I remember very well. But you will, because you care.

 

Don't worry too much about the diferences between human and pet meter the important thing is for you to remember that the take action number in a human meter is 40, I personally would start following him very closely when he hits 60 and since you are just starting if he's preshot number is 200 or less ask here what to do

What insulin will you be using?

 

I’ll be using lantus

 

It would be helpful to get your signature created and a spreadsheet going, so that other members can have as much information as possible to advise you. Here is a link to set up the signature:
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/editing-your-signature-profile-and-preferences.130340/
Here is a link that includes how to set up the spreadsheet and understanding the information:
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/forums/suggestions-tech-support-testing-area.6/

There is a forum dedicated to Lantus users and there is excellent information in the yellow tagged info and stickies sections at the top of the forum. You may wish to post there because the more experienced Lantus users scan that forum to be able to assist, advise and support more quickly.

 

Since you'll be using Lantus, this is the link to the lantus forum where you can find a lot of information regardin this insulin and people with a lot of experience using it:

http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/forums/lantus-glargine-levemir-detemir.9/

Here for Lantus we follow either one of two protocols Start Low Go Slow (SLGS - http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/lantus-levemir-start-low-go-slow-method-slgs.129446/) or Tight Regulation (TR - http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/lantus-levemir-tight-regulation-protocol-tr.1581/) I suggest you take a look at both of them and decide which one will suits you best

Sorry if it's too much information , is a little bit confusing at first but you'll get the hang of it in the mean time keep asking all you want/need

 

Common but not recommended. I didn't test the first month and once I started I wished I had right from the beginning.

 

I just tested him and it was 250 so I figured it would be at least 300 in cat world and gave him his 1 unit. I’ll check it again in the morning and try making a spreadsheet tomorrow. Thanks

 

I'm guessing this was your pre shoot test, if that's so is a very safe number, we do recommend to test two hours after his night shoot or before you go to sleep to see how he's doing and to be sure he isn't going too low since cats tend to have lower numbers at night than they do during the day