Help with dosing

Hi
Chloe my diabetic kitty is on Prozinc and I’m trying to figure out the proper dosage for her. I posted on the main forum yesterday http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/need-help-with-chloe.209192/ and got advice to up her dose to 2.25 units which I did this morning and to post here on the Prozinc forum.

This evening when I tested her before food and insulin her levels were 184 which is unusually low. I fed her after the test not realizing I should of waited 20 minutes and tested again. It’s been about an hour now and she’s only gone up to 266. Her normally dosing time is 6pm EST, what dose should I give her if any? Should I wait and see if she goes higher? Sorry to ask so many questions I’m just figuring everything out.

 

Are you going to be able to monitor this evening, Laura?

 

Yes, I’m available all night long so I’m going to be keeping an eye on her and testing her regularly.

 

It doesn't look like @Kris & Teasel , @Djamila or @Rachel are on right now. Since the hour of play time you have will be up within the next few minutes, you may be stuck with just me. I think that I would want to give her something based on her history, but at the same time, I would be concerned about giving too much since this is an unexpectedly low pre-shot number for her. So, I would probably give 1 unit and monitor her. Maybe test at +3 to see if things are moving yet.

If she ends up going a little low, you will be able to see it happening and intervene with food. I don't think that will happen, but you have to be ready, just in case. If she ends up staying too high, it will be a valuable learning opportunity for you to gather some data. Then, you will know better next time what to do when a situation like this comes up.

 

Thanks for all your help, I just tested her now and she’s gone up to 16(288). I’m gonna give her the 1 unit and check her levels again in 3 hours. I have some dry food if she goes lower stashed away for the strays outside I can give her if needed.

 

I'm here! Just catching up...Laura, did you shoot anything yet?

 

Not yet, I was just getting it ready

 

Ha, sorry, I was trying to catch up on all the info. I think 1 unit is a fine dose...explanation coming in another post soon. Want to post this now so you can shoot.

 

So basically, I agree with FBM that 1 unit is a good dose. The reasoning is Chloe's been high in the past and now that she has eaten (which is fine...it happens), that number you're getting is inflated. So you want to be cautious when giving the dose since you don't know if she would have gone up on her own without food. Without much data, you can't be sure what will happen with the dose, so it's best to be safe this time around. Do get some tests in if you can so we can have that data for another day to help if this happens again!

 

Laura, just a tip... you will want to put the test result you got right before giving the shot in the PMPS spot.. it was 16, correct?

 

Will do, thanks

I just tested Chloe now which would be +3 and she was 19.8(356)

 

Thanks for your help the other day. Chloe’s numbers are off again today before shooting. I’m waiting the 20 minutes to see if she’ll go up. Normally she’s mid 300’s and she’s at 275 now. I was late giving her the injection this morning by an hour and a bit (I gave at 7 instead of 5:45) was holding out giving it tonight until I got off work and home 7:30 and was going to push it back a little bit at a time over the next few days.

 

Where's she at now?

 

I'd probably stick with your 2.25 unless she's gone significantly down. 275 is fairly close to the 340s you've shot on recently, and this might help push her just a little lower, which would be nice.

 

She’s 16.2 (292). She refused to come out from under my bed until right now to be retested.

 

I just gave her the 2.25 units and will have to push her shoot time back over the next few days to her regular time.

 

Thank you for your help. I guess I’m being paranoid with giving her the 2.25 units that’s she’ll go hypo and with it being lower than her normal slightly freaked out. It’s nothing like the low from the other day though. I’m off tomorrow though so I’m gonna get more middle of the day numbers and see how she’s doing.

 

Sounds good! Yeah, it's always a little nerve wracking when it's lower, but it's still in nice, safe preshot numbers. Since you'll be off tomorrow, some more mid cycles will be great! Just try to grab a +2 or +3 tonight and see where she's going and that will keep you both comfortable knowing that you know where she's headed.

 

I just tested her now and she’s 6.2(112). I haven’t fed her and am going to wait and see if she goes up.

 

She's not likely to get near 200 in 30 minutes so you need to think about Plan B. Maybe try only 1 u tonight

 

Thanks for the help,
I just tested her again and she went down to 5.3(95). She hasn’t eaten yet and hasn’t had insulin in 12 hours now. Should I feed her now and not give any insulin?

 

Wow...that's pretty crazy! If you can't stay up to monitor tonight (and we get that...we have to sleep so we can work!) I'd probably skip.

 

Yeah I don’t get why it went down, is this something that could happen often? I just fed her now and am going to test her again in half an hour. I don’t feel comfortable giving her insulin tonight as I have to sleep and I work at 6am tomorrow. I’ll see what she tests at in the morning and then restart the insulin.

 

Okay. That'll give you good data too to see what happens. If she is super high in the morning (and she might be so don't worry if she is) that tells you maybe you could have given a reduced dose like Kris suggested. You have to do what makes you most comfortable and with her not rising any, it makes sense.

As for why it went down...who knows? Could be anything really. Let's see what happens in the next few days to determine if it was just a random low or if she really is having some sort of good stuff going on.