need advice asap: to give evening shot of insulin or no?

Hi there, Stewie has been on insulin since June 2nd, when he was diagnosed. I'm doing his blood curve at home, and these are the readings for the first day, today. I changed his diet to just canned low carb food when he was diagnosed. From what I have read so far, I would not give him his night shot of 1 unit of prozinc, but I want to check here in case I should. It's making me nervous to skip one, but his readings all day have been good, right? Thank you!!

Stewie's BG readings
Sunday June 18
6:45 am before feeding and before 1 unit prozinc insulin - 5.9
Fed at 7 am and given 1 unit
Reading at 10 am - 3.0, then fed him small amount of food after
Reading at 1 pm - 3.2
Fed tiny amount at 2 pm
Reading at 4 pm - 5.5
Reading at 7 pm 7.5
fed him dinner

 

All I can say is that you dodged a bullet! You're using an AlphaTrak meter according to your SS and you've had some VERY low numbers today.

• First, your AMPS was only 5.9 (106 in US units). That should have been a "no shot". You have very little data on your SS (and it's incorrectly entered on the US sheet instead of the world sheet) to go by. At this point in your FD journey, we'd recommend not shooting anything under 11 (200).
• Your readings at 10 AM and 1 PM were almost dangerously low. Giving him that bit of food might have saved the day.
• His PMPS is higher and that's good but it's still too low to give insulin.

Please do your best to update your SS with any/all data you have. You should be entering your Canadian BG numbers on the "World" sheet so they get properly colour coded. You accidentally put them on the US sheet so they're all coming up lime green. Check the tabs at the bottom of the SS to get to the correct version.

Until you have a lot more data, I suggest you post here AND on the ProZinc forum for advice about dosing. Also, there are excellent yellow info stickies on the ProZinc forum that I recommend you read to learn more about this insulin.

 

I apologize if my reply above comes across as bossy or abrupt. I was immediately concerned for Stewie when I read your thread.

 

Anita, please post to let us know what you did. We really want to help.

 

Thanks so much, I did not give him the night dose. I will update the correct spreadsheet, I didn't know there is a Canadian one. Thanks SO much, I didn't think you were bossy or abrupt, but anxious to tell me what to do. I'm new as you know, so your reply is so important, thank you!

 

I'm glad I was able to help. There's a lot to learn about this FD thing! Ask anything anytime.

Re the two spreadsheets: we measure BG in mmol/L here in Canada and much of the rest of the world, hence the "world" sheet. They use mg/dL in the US so their BG numbers are in the double digits and 100s.

 

Thank you so much, I'll update the SS soon, this evening!

 

I updated the sheet with today's readings, but I copied and pasted from the USA to World and it took the colours with it. I tried to delete what I pasted and the colours still come up green. Today's readings are showing the right colours. I have to read if the colours mean anything. I need to learn what the readings should be to dose him and not to dose him, and what about once a day dosing, or cutting his dose in half? It's a bit overwhelming. I didn't think he'd respond so quickly and have such low numbers, so I feel unprepared for what to do, in spite of all of the reading I've been doing.

Today I read this on the Q&A link, and I thought that with his readings at 3 this afternoon, he was doing well? But he was too low. Or is it because Stewie's low readings this afternoon were brought on by an insulin dose this morning, that this question below does not apply, which has to do with a cat who had been off insulin?
Q4.7. My cat has been off of insulin for several days, and I'm getting glucose readings in the 40s and 50s (2.2-3.3 mmol/L). Should I treat him for hypoglycemia?

A4.7. Congratulations! As long as you're sure your meter readings are based on full test strips, then it looks like your cat is on a honeymoon. Although lab printouts indicate that 70-120 mg/dL (4-7 mmol/L) is normal, we have observed that non-diabetic cats can typically have lower values on our meters. As long as your cat is not showing any symptoms of hypoglycemia or signs of distress, all is well. You might want to monitor his blood glucose values for the next week or so; after that, occasionally monitor his blood and urine for glucose. Also, you need to keep a close eye on his drinking habits and general health, because it's always possible that this is temporary. In the meantime, enjoy!

 

I'm reading the Prozinc forum, ....and learning about the alphatrak....etc, I hope my brain will hold out!! A lot to remember. Thanks again Kris and Teasel.

 

The numbers for today are showing correctly on the World and US sheets. The earlier numbers aren't but let's not worry about those right now.

Note the bar at the top of the SS that shows how the colour coding relates to BG level - eg. blue is a BG range between 5.6 and 11.1. This way, at a glance, the array of colours on SS shows how well a kitty is doing. A lot of blues and dark greens are your goal. The lime green represents the danger zone because it's a colour that stands out a lot.

The lime green numbers today are a warning that he was too low. That tells you that 1 unit is too much insulin for him. His dose has to come down.

Yes, he responded very well - too well - to a 1 unit dose. That doesn't mean he needs no insulin. It can mean he needs a fraction of a unit. This is a good sign so early after diagnosis but you need more test results at a lower dose.

Correct. This doesn't apply to Stewie at this point in time.

For tomorrow AM:

• post your AMPS here and the ProZinc forum and ask for dosing advice. People will see on your SS what happened today
• be prepared for his dose to come down - how much will depend on what his BG is tomorrow AM after today's events
• it's possible his BG will be higher because of no shot this evening or an overreaction to the lows today (called bouncing)
• he'll likely be extra sensitive to insulin after bottoming out today and that will have to be factored in to the dosing decision tomorrow - you'll need advice from experienced people here and the ProZinc forum.

 

Thank you! I will post his AMPS tomorrow am around 6:45, here and on the prozinc forum. The syringes I have aren't marked with half units, they are U-40. I will have to eyeball it if it's suggested to go to half a dose, which is such a tiny amount. I imagine I won't sleep so well, it's hard not to stress at first, with this being new and my best buddy being sick....and me not knowing everything I should know yet.