? Huge BG decrease...

Hey folks,

I was gone for a week and my roommate was taking care of Chunk. She wasn't testing his BAG, but she was giving shots as per usual. Last night when I got home,his PMPS was 400, and then I fell asleep so I didn't check afterwards. This morning, his AMPS was 74, which is really low, so I checked again, and it's 89. At the last visit to the vet they checked my glucometor and it's only off by about 30 points, so not much. I'll be checking again on the hour. Is this normal for the levels to drop so dramatically? Chunky isn't acting any different than normal.

 

Have you already shot?

 

No, I didn't want to give insulin with his levels so low.

 

I'll be calling the vet after the 0800 BG test to talk to them, too.

 

Good. Keep stalling-- don't feed if you haven't yet (we don't want a food spike in BG to make us think it's safe to shoot if it isn't).

Looking at the spreadsheet, it looks like there was starting to be some movement in the numbers just before you left (maybe even before-- looks like Chunk has a fairly late onset with the Vetsulin, and you don't have a lot of data beyond +3 earlier). Wonder if he made a big move while you were gone? The 400 you saw last night could easily have been a bounce from lower numbers during the day.

 

I suspect you'll be skipping this morning, unless he rockets up very soon, and probably trying a reduced dose in the future. Let's see what the vet recommends!

 

I already fed; usually he's more cooperative after eating. Morning routine: feed, test, then shoot. We'll see at 0800 what the food did...

 

OK-- like I said, I think it's unlikely that you are going to end up shooting this morning, so I'm not particularly worried about the food influence on that number! (unless, as I said, he's really zoomed to the moon, then you might want to consider a reduced dose to try to bring him back down so he doesn't spend all day in the bad numbers)

As much of a shock as it was to see that low number this morning, it's very good news that he is spending some time down in the good, pancreas-healing zone!

 

I want to do the happy dance, but I don't, because I'm still in shock lol!

 

If it's possible for you to do, it's better to test, feed, then shoot, in that order. That way you guarantee your test results are not food-influenced and it's safe to shoot.

Great that Chunk's bg numbers are coming down!

 

I think I will try to start doing that. Hopefully he'll get used to shooting first then eating.

 

No, he'll still get the meal before you shoot (test, feed, shoot). You just want to make sure that you get the pre-shot test in before the meal, and then, if you get a number you aren't sure about, stall on the feeding some more until you get more (non-food influenced) numbers to see where he's going. Basically, just hold off on feeding until you've definitely decided that you are going to shoot and don't need any more pre-shot data.

You definitely always want to have a meal "on board" when you shoot Vetsulin-- it acts pretty quickly, so you don't want it to hit on an empty stomach.

 

Yes, test before feeding. Kitty should eat about 20-30 minutes before Vetsulin.