Help with Insulin Dosing/Schedule

Hello All,

I am fairly new to the diabetic kitty world - I had the great pleasure of talking with Dr. Lisa Pierson who gave me some invaluable advice and direction on treating my kitty Bailey. Turns out my vet was giving him too high of a dosage on insulin! He is on Lantus, twice a day.

Dr. Pierson helped with his dosage and numbers, etc. If his BG is above 200, give him 1 unit. If his BG is between 150 and 200, give him 1/2 unit. If his BG is under 150, do not give him a shot.

I am on the schedule now of checking his BG and giving his two shots at 6:30am and 6:30pm. My question is - if his BG is under 150 and I do not give him his shot, do I not give him his next shot until his next scheduled time? I am asking because his BG will go up after I feed him, etc., and if I don't give him his shot because it's under 150, but continues to climb throughout the day, do I just wait to give him his unit until his next scheduled time? Or do I give him a unit if his BG gets higher throughout the day? Obviously it would completely throw the schedule off, etc., if I am constantly changing his shot time according to what his BG does after I skip a shot, etc.

Does this make ANY sense? Sorry if not...I just want to make sure I am doing the right thing. I know I am not to give a shot if his BG is under 150 - but what if it is over 150 an hour later? Do I give it to him then? Or do I wait until his next "scheduled" shot so I can keep it on consistent times? I live alone and work, so trying to do this is challenging if I am not there all day, etc.

 

It makes sense and what usually happens, because humans must maintain a schedule due to our own life obligations, is that we skip the shot totally until the next scheduled injection. We test and determine if things are safe and then begin the schedule again. It may be the bg remains elevated until the "shed" fills up again, so for a day or so, the numbers could be wonky. It can be like starting over.

If you choose to shoot early because the numbers are going up, you can get back to your routine by shooting earlier or later by 30 minutes at a time, assuming you have safe pre-shot numbers.

Keep in mind that even low carb food causes the bg to rise and it hangs around about 2-3 hours.

Have you read the stickies on the lantus forum under Insulin Support Groups? Those will be very helpful in understand how lantus works and when to shoot and when not to shoot etc...

 

Clarification to anyone who is reading this and is confused....

I am not suggesting a typical sliding scale for Lantus. The recommendation above was only for the morning after our consultation. Far too much to type...but *in general* we don't dose Lantus on a sliding scale like we do with PZI.

 

Thank you for the advice - I will go read the Lantus Sticky Notes. I started to read them, but haven't gotten to this particular subject.

And Dr. Lisa - I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make a negligent quote there using your name. My apologies.

 

Absolutely no apology needed!

I try to cover so much in such a short consulting time....regarding such a complex disease.... but I should have pointed out to you that the sliding scale issue was just temporary. There is no reason that you should have known otherwise so....no mistake on *your* part, whatsoever.