HELP with bottoming out

I have a new diabetic kitty. Only a week diagnosed. We has a stupid Dr. Give her too high a dose of insulin. 4 units twice a day (40UI). She bottomed out and we took her to the emergency vet comatose. That was the Sunday before last. Now we got a new vet and we are on one unit (40 UI) and still had an episode where she got to 44 on her glucose scan yesterday around 2. We have her Karo and got it back up. After research we decided to only give her .5 unit A last night.

I just started testing before she eats.... she was just at 286. I am scared as I have to work all day today. Would you all reccomend me give her half a unit or none at all?
More background, she was testing 550 when we took her in the Sunday before yesterday. She is about 8lbs. Eats about 1/4 of a can of Dietic Managment twice a day about 10 min. Before we give her insulin.
Thanks

 

Oh my, that is horrible! I'm so glad your kitty pulled through.

It's not at all unusual for cats to be more insulin-sensitive after a serious hypoglycemic event like that, so you are right to be very cautious. It can be harder to figure out the correct dose in this situation, but the fact that you are home-testing really really helps.

What kind of insulin are you using? Is it Vetsulin or ProZinc?

 

Vetsulin. 1 unit, 40UI

 

OK, tagging @Kris & Teasel , who is good at Vetsulin dosage. Couple more questions:

1) no history of ketones or DKA (diabetic ketoacidosis), correct?
2) when you go to work, is there anyone who can keep an eye on her while you are gone (even if they can't do the BG testing)?

How long until you need to leave the house?

 

I haven't used Vetsulin so I usually hesitate to give specific advice on dosage, but the boards are a bit light this morning and I don't want your questions to go unanswered, so:

If there is no history of ketones, I think you would be OK to skip the shot today while you are at work. 0.5U would also most likely be safe, and if she has ever had ketones, then it would be better to give that (skipping shots in a ketone-prone cat can trigger their development).

One final question if you can: when you take blood glucose readings at home, are you using a pet-specific meter, or one used for humans?

 

I posted a lot of info on the Vetsulin forum.

 

Oh, good! Thanks, Kris!

 

Sorry, I had to go to work. I ended up skipping the dose since it would be 9 hours before I would be back home. I am finishing out the week and then switching Insulin to the one more designed for cats. No Ketones yet that I know of.
I will check her glucose when I get home. I use the Relion Micro, however I am looking at getting pet specific. Meter soon. It has only been a week so still new. I appreciate your information.

 

Thanks for the update!

Human meters are fine (in fact, that's what most of us around here use, due to the high cost of test strips for the pet meters). I just wanted to know because the interpretation of numbers is a bit different.

 

A human meter is fine. The test strips for a pet meter are very hard on your wallet. Are you thinking of switching her to ProZinc?

 

At the risk of causing more confusion, stepping in to say that I think I was the only one to bring up ProZinc. I asked because the OP was referring to "40UI" insulin, and I figured it had to be either that or vetsulin, but wanted to be sure.

 

Note there was another hypo from BLE373's kitteh on Monday 11pm - in the
other thread here

But I didn't hear back on how the hypo recovery went.

 

Oh, no.... Hope everything went OK.