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Hello- Our kitty Bananas was diagnosed with diabetes at the end of Feb. 2015, after bringing her to the vet with UTI symptoms. Her first BG at vet was 514 and fructosamine was 671. She was put on Lantus 1 unit 2 x daily and needed to change her diet. Since then, her diet has been changed to Fancy Feast classics and no more dry. After her second dose she showed signs of hypo with trembling and wobbling and we took her back to vets. By the time we got there giving her Caro, she was at 369. She has had a curve at vet every week (except for the last visit, that was a 2 week break) and her numbers have lowered ( high 100's - 300's), but are not stable. We started on the 1 unit 2x daily, then went to 2 units 2 x daily, then 2 units AM and 1 unit PM. The last visit 4/1/15, her numbers were very low ( 40 -160). She gets super stressed going to the vet and generally refuses to eat there so these very low numbers were surprising. The vet requested no insulin for the PM or next AM and had her come in the next evening. She trembled from fright all the way to the office and her number was 334. Vet put her back on 1 unit 2x daily, so we are back to where we started. We went against vet and bought a relion micro and started home testing this AM. We were told not to use a human meter and to wait to do home testing until she was stable, but I'm too afraid to dose without testing after last weeks numbers. You would never give a human insulin without testing why would you do this to a cat? This AM her pre shot number was 384 which is high, but she had an off weekend missing a dose on Sat due to refusal to eat and another dose yesterday due to finding a new very good hiding spot that we couldn't find until it was way past her normal dosing time. She is back to eating and had her insulin this AM although she is very mad with me right now. She is scheduled for another curve this Wed. At this point we are quite frustrated. With no real answers or plan from the vet, but will continue to do our best. This forum has been very informative and a relief to see we are not alone!

 

Welcome. Goo d that you are home testing and changed her diet.
All most all of use here use a human BG meter to test our cats and do not do curves at the vet since vet stress can rain BG by 100 points or higher.
I would test before each shot and then do a curve yourself. Based on your experience of going low I would likely reduce dose to 1/2 unit twice daily. They do make syringes with 1/2 unit markings. I would also create a spreadsheet with your data and post it so others here can view it. For how to do that see:
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/...te-a-ss-and-link-it-in-your-signature.130337/

 

Thank you for the welcome! I will try to figure out the spreadsheet and get it posted. We have the u100 syringes now, but I will look for the 1/2 unit ones. Do you need a perscription for these? If so, I'm sure our vet would not do it since she didn't even want us to home test yet. Thanks again! I've learned so much just from reading the other threads and this next vet visit I will be more prepared with questions.

 

A few states require a prescription for syringes. In NYC you can get 10 syringes without a script.

 

All of WalMart's 3/10 mL (aka 3/10 cc) U-100 syringes have half unit markings.

Instructions are here.

Understanding the spreadsheet/grid:

The colored headings at the top are the ranges of glucose values. They are color-coded to clue you in as to meaning.

Each day is 1 row. Each column stores different data for the day.

From left to right, you enter
the Date in the first column
the AMPS (morning pre-shot test) in the 2nd column
the Units given (turquoise column)

Then, there are 11 columns labeled +1 through +11
If you test at +5 (5 hours after the shot), you enter the test number in the +5 column
If you test at +7 (7 hours after the shot), you enter the test number in the +7 column
and so on.

Halfway across the page is the column for PMPS (evening pre-shot)
To the right is another turquoise column for Units given at the evening shot.

There is second set of columns labeled +1 through +11
If you snag a before bed test at +3, you enter the test number in the +3 column.

We separate day and night numbers like that because many cats go lower at night.

It is merely a grid for storing the info; no math required.

 

I set up the spreadsheet. Hopefully it is right. Last night her BG was 108 before insulin, so I did not shoot since it was under 200 and due to the fact she has dipped low and has gone mild hypo before. Today I'm going to do a curve on my own to compare with the vets tomorrow. I was able to get a U100 syringe from another person with the 1/2 units and only gave her 1/2 this AM. We will see if it lowers her a little slower and maybe will keep her more steady instead of bouncing high and then low and all over.
The syringes we have came from Costco's the are BD Ultra Fine U100 3/10 ml and they do not have the 1/2 unit marks just whole units. I will call Walmart today and see what they have to say. I have a new script for more U100 syringes, but have not filled it yet, we still have some left to use. If they do have the 1/2 units, I will go there instead. We went to Costco originally because they were the only place that would sell us one Lantus pen and after the $$ we had spent already on vet costs, one pen was all we could do at the time. Walmart wanted a little over $400.00 for pens (they wouldn't sell individually) and over $250.00 for the bottle. We got one pen for $81.00 at Costco.

Thanks again!

 

Your were right in reducing this AMs does to 1/2 unit. Bananas' BGs are looking good.

 

Just tested her again at +2 and she is down to 202. She is more alert today and cleaning herself.