Newbe and scared to death

My 12 year old cat was diagnosed with diabetes the 1st of December. The vet has put her on a diet of Purina DM wet and Hills WD dry. She has always been a dry food eater. She just licks the juice on the canned food. She is on insulin, Lantus. Started out with a level of 385 with 1 unit of insulin every 12 hours. Then 280 and dosage changed too 2 units of insulin. This morning she was tested and was 42. Her dosage was lowered to 1 1/2 units every 12 hours. She was checked at the vet every couple of days as we live in the country. She is due for her insulin doseage shortly but I am very reluctant to give it. Also I did get a monitor and will be testing her on my own. Do you test before she eats or two hours after she has had her insulin? Sorry I'm so confusing, hope it will get better.

 

You need to test before you give insulin, ideally you need to take food up 2 hours before you test, take food up for 2 hrs before test, give shot, then feed, then if possible since you are new to this and do not know your cats response to the insulin you need to check her blood sugar in 2-3 hours, you do not need to take her food up before you test then, only on the preshots. If this were my cat and I was just starting her on insulin I would test at least every 2-3 hours if she will let you for the first few days. 42 was very low, I would not give her a shot until I had tested and then unless she is over 170 I still would not give a shot.

 

Please message me back after you have tested and before you give the shot, that 42 at the vets really concerns me.

 

I'm with Nancy on this. 42 is very low. Are you using a human or pet meter for testing? If that 42 was at the vet's, then chances are good, her BG levels are actually lower than the readings on which the vet is determining dosage. Most cats have elevated readings at the vet's office due to stress. Please do NOT give the 1.5u until you get another reading and post here for some advice from some very experienced folks.

 

She has had food within the last 2 hours. Had signs of moderate hypoglycemia this afternoon. Using a Freestyle Presion Neo with 140 mg/dl just a few min ago.

 

What dose of insulin did you give this morning? Is her shot due now? If so we generally suggest that you do not shoot under a reading of 200 however no insulin is not always the right decision either. Has your cat had any other health issues related to the diabetes? Any ketones? DKA?

 

She had 2 units this morning at 7:00 am. Her shot was due 40 miuntes ago. No other health issues related to the diabetes.

 

Stall 30 minutes without feeding and re-test.

We have guidelines on using Lantus and Levemir optimally here and here.

We have guidelines on using ProZinc and PZI optimally here.

 

Ok so the best idea is to test her again about 30 minutes after her last test and see if she is rising. Please post the reading so we can help you figure out what to do tonight. I'm so glad you posted because all too often our kitties BG appears much higher at the vet than it is at home and doses have to be adjusted accordingly.

 

@BJM :

 

Thank you for all of your help. This diabetes thing is totally a new thing for this family. I will retest her again! The vet was having me give her insulin and then testing her two hours later.

 

That doesn't surprise any of us. While it's certainly not a bad idea to test two hours post shot, it's vital to test before giving insulin to ensure you are giving insulin at a safe reading. No human would give themselves insulin without checking their glucose first so it boggles the mind when vets seem to think pre shot tests are not necessary.

You are handling this well so relax and take a deep breath. We've all been where you are and I guarantee you will feel much more comfortable with all of this very soon. It will all become routine and of course we are all here to help you out with any questions or concerns.

 

We test before each shot, to make sure it is safe to give insulin.

 

No food for 30 min+ a reading of 207 @8:11

 

Ok. I am not an expert at dosing advice myself but my gut feeling is that I would not give more than 1u tonight given that low number earlier to day and I would only give that if I could test again up to 3 hours into the cycle to see where kitty is heading. If you need to go to bed and cannot test again tonight, then I'd probably err on the side of caution and only give 0.5u. I am going to see if Jill is still online as she has far more experience than me.

@Jill & Alex (GA) Can you provide some advice here please? Thanks.

 

I am really sorry I work from home most of the time and got busy and could not get back before now but I agree on no more that .5 to 1 unit tonight and i would check to see if blood sugar is coming up before I even gave that.

 

Sorry I just saw your post of 207, thats still pretty low and with the hypo today I would still not go over 1 unit.

 

@nancy and scotty thanks for chiming in! Two heads are always better than one!
@Jeannie If you haven't shot yet, get another reading to make sure kitty (what is your kitty's name?) is still rising and then decide what you are comfortable with.

 

@nancy and scotty thanks for chiming in! Two heads are always better than one!
@Jeannie If you haven't shot yet, get another reading to make sure kitty (what is your kitty's name?) is still rising and then decide what you are comfortable with.

 

When I retest in the morning what would be some good guidelines for insulin dosage depending on the reading?

 

Her name is Rebel, she is a manx-black and white. A tall cat but her heavest weight has been 5.7 pounds.

 

I really can't believe this vet, I always hesitate to give advice since Scotty is a high dose cat and I don't really know how insulin acts in "normal diabetics" but I know if I had taken him to the vet and his blood sugar was 42 my vet would have said to skip his pm shot.

 

@Jeannie It's hard to say until you see what the morning number is given that reading of 42 today and what dose you give Rebel (cute name!) tonight and where that takes her. I would suggest you test Rebel in the morning and post in the Lantus forum while she is having breakfast and put a link to this post in your morning post so folks have some history to help them help you make that decision. Given that low number this morning, Rebel's pancreas might be kicking out some insulin so right now I think this is going to be a daily decision until you get more data with daily readings to see exactly how she is reacting to the insulin.

@nancy and scotty I'm with you on that one as I too have a high dose cat so "normal" reactions are somewhat foreign to me too but there is no way my vet would be telling me to give her insulin with a reading of 42.