? Roxi - finally managed to test. Dosing question.

So we finally managed to get not one, but 2 tests from Roxi today. The first one was a 215 and the second one was a 166. Bear in mind that she has had no insulin now for about a month after she tested at 165 at the vet at +3 and they weren't happy at the idea of me giving insulin without being able to test.

Clearly based on today's tests, although she actually isn't in dreadful numbers, she does need a little bit of support to get all the way into the normal range. So I'm looking for a little help on dosing as it feels to me like starting her on a full 1.25u may be a little too much for her. I'm thinking maybe 0.5u or 0.75u, but would appreciate some input from others on this.

 

imho, i would be conservative until i feel really confident that I'd be able to test when I needed to. I would also block
the deep parts of under the bed ( I had to do that) , giving just the edge where she thinks she's hiding but you can reach her.
I'd start with the 0.5 and quickly increase if needed....and numbers warranted.....
I hope you have found a special treat that really keeps her happy with her poking....

 

Hi there

Is Roxi eating strictly low carb wet food ?
Will you be following the Tight Regulation protocol or the SLGS (start low go slow) approach ?
What is her weight?

 

She doesn't go under the bed fortunately - she's avoided the bedroom altogether since we let her out of there...she was shut in there for the first week she was here. Rosa has claimed the under the bed space and doesn't tolerate any of the others trying to steal it back from her!

Oddly, all she seems to want as a testing treat is attention which is at least easy to give her.

She is strictly on low carb food and my preference is for TR, but when she was first here and we couldn't test, she dropped too low for comfort on the starting dose for her weight of 1.25u (she's 12.1 lb which gives a dose of 1.375 - I rounded that down to 1.25) which is why I'm thinking of doing a lower starting dose but being ready to increase quickly if it's needed.

 

hope she keeps cooperating....
good thing she likes those cuddles....

 

Until you can reliably test her a little better, I think I'd stick with no more than .5

You can always go up if it doesn't prove to bring her down enough, but as you well know, once it's in, you can't take it back out again.

Her numbers aren't awful, so maybe the small dose will be just enough to bring her down a little without risking another hypo

 

Thank you all. While I'd love to do the higher dose and go for remission with her as her numbers aren't that bad, I just don't think it's safe right now...but at least I can get some insulin into her which is a good start - or at least way better than the last few weeks have been. I was really very happy to see her under renal threshold with 2 tests about 3 hours apart - at least I know now that she hasn't been insanely high all the time we haven't been able to test her which is a huge relief.

 

While TR is a weight based formula for initial dose, my assumption is that it was set up that way so you didn't end up overdosing your kitty. You can start at anything below the 1.25u dose. If necessary, you can always fast-track the dose up once Rosa is more comfortable with testing.
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I agree with starting with the conservative dose of 0.50, and wish you the best of luck in getting her to accept the testing.