Will 2 U be too much for a reading of 141

Have had Rusty on low carb canned food for a few weeks and his weekly numbers have been reading 400's, 500's then 220,258 after 5 hours of the am shot. Today I tested for curiosity after 8 hours and it was 141. This was after his morning 3 oz breakfast and then another 1 1/2 oz at midday, then 1 1/2 oz a few hours later. Will his pm shot of 2 U be too much? Should it be lowered to 1.5 or less? You might ask why I was testing weekly, not daily -- vet said so! After reading many posts on here, I do believe I'll start to test more frequently for my benefit as well as his. :idea:

As for those who answered a previous post on food for me, I'm trying the Sheba too. He inhaled that this afternoon so I guess it will be on the rotation of FF, Friskies and now Sheba. It's currently on sale at Petsmart.

 

Hello and welcome,

The general advice to those new to feline diabetes is that no shot is given if the blood glucose is below 200 immediately prior to the shot.

May I ask, which insulin are you using?

Eliz

 

I would not give 2 or even 1 1/2 units. Maybe one unit but it depends upon the PM PS BG. Also you would have to test him periodically if you give insulin so you can take action if getting too low.

 

He is on the Novolin N U-100 since Aug 13 when he was diagnosed. He was increased to 2 U after about 2 weeks. He has been on low carb food ( FF, Friskies) the last 2 weeks as well. Hill's w/d after initial diagnosis. That is too expensive and made him drink too much water. I was hoping for regulation and then a honeymoon but after reading thru the insulin pages, I find that might not happen on this insulin. I'll still hope for honeymoon but will be happy at regulated for now. At the last curve at the vet's office the bgs were in the 250's - 280's. Can the food change and going off antibiotics cause this large a drop? Last Sat it was 258 5 hrs after shot and eating.

I'll retest before feeding tonight and if still lower, not shoot til am. Will that work?

 

BG take at the vet can be raised by 100 points do to vet stress. That is one reason why it is better to take BGs at home.
Also. even canned W?D is high carb and should tend to raise BG compared to Friskies.
Further, the antibiotics may have resolved the problem since frequently infections rain BG/increase insulin needs.

I would be hesitant to even give 1 unit of N this evening if BG is not that high. If like 150 I would not give any insulin this evening. Maybe with more experience you can later.

 

Just retested and his BG is 309 one hour after eating. Therefore, I gave him the full 2U. I will continue to monitor thru the next few days. Just how much should a dose bring down BG?

Thanks so much for the hand holding! nailbite_smile

 

The amount of drop from a particular dose of insulin is cat dependant, ie, not a hard fast number.

Changing food to low carb has resulted in 100 mg/dL for some cats and a drop in insulin dose of 1-2 units lower.