3/20/12 Max AMPS 497 +2 465 If Sitter Can't Test?

Hello, everyone, I hope your kitties and droolers are doing well today.
Max is maintaining, and that's about it.

After all the fun yesterday, we reduced his dose to 1.25u, but Max's BG levels are back up. Crossing my fingers that the antibiotics will help.

Here is my post on Lantus (Relaxed): http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=66736

max&emmasmommie said:

Hello, everyone, I hope your kitties and droolers are doing well today.
Max is maintaining, and that's about it.

After all the fun yesterday, we reduced his dose to 1.25u, but Max's BG levels are back up. Crossing my fingers that the antibiotics will help.

Here is my post on Lantus (Relaxed): http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=66736

Click to expand...

You're on 1.75 units now, is that correct? Good luck with the new dose. Max is bouncing today, and lots of cats do that when they go into lower numbers than they are used to. You'll just have to wait it out and be patient. It could take up to 3 days to clear, which would make it possibly Thursday night, but hopefully before. We'll probably want to wait a few days of data gathering before we make a suggestion about the petsitter's dose. I hope you can be successful in teaching her to test. Fingers Crossed and all that.

Housekeeping: I think you shot yesterday AM shot and that is missing on your spreadsheet. Also, as Sienne said you can make the Comments column a lot wider which will shorted the heighth of the rows and make it more readable for us.
Oh and, your link in the Relaxed forum to this post isn't working because of the smiley before the [\url]. Move the smiley past the [\url] and it will work fine. :razz:

What a nice day yesterday :mrgreen: .
Hopefully Max will clear this bounce soon ;-)

Yesterday was a great day for you Max! Lots of kitties (and beans) would be doing cartwheels if they could surf green like that everyday! Nice job! :thumbup

I wish you lots of luck in teaching your petsitter to test. I wonder if any of the techs at your vet clinic would be willing to learn and check on him???

Hopefully the bounce will clear before you leave, so you can formulate a solid plan with the dose.

Enjoy your day!

PS- for some 'not so light' reading, there are a lot of 'stickies' in this forum with tons of information on lantus. If you have not already, I highly recommend reading through some of them when you have a chance. I would probably start with this one:
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=18139

Dale --

How long will you be gone and when are you leaving?

FWIW, Gabby will not allow anyone except me to test her. What I end up doing is reducing her dose to a safe level even though her numbers may run higher while I'm away. As long as Max hasn't had issues with DKA, this shouldn't be a problem. What we often suggest is to ask about dose roughly 24 hours before you are traveling.

I'd also suggest setting up a sample syringe for your petsitter. If you use a colored liquid it will be easier for your petsitter to see exactly where to draw up the insulin.

Have you thought about asking at your vet's office if there's a vet tech who can petsit?

Re: 3/20/12 Max PMPS 409 +2 452 If Sitter Can't Test?

Hey Everybody,

Oops! Yes, Dyana, I meant 1.75 not 1.25u. We reduced by only .25u.

We leave Friday night, the 23rd, and we'll be back on April 2, a Monday: 10 days. It will be excruciating, I'm sure. The pet sitter was here to go over his medications. I showed her how to test him, and then she did it, and got blood the first time! She said she's not comfortable with it, but he tolerated it so well maybe she'll do it. She clearly doesn't want to, and she's very nervous about something happening to him while I'm gone. I hope she doesn't cost me an unnecessary vet visit, but that's the risk I have to take. I'd rather Max be ok.

He's was still negative for ketones at +9.25. Thank goodness. He ate all his antibiotic both times today in a small amount of food as if it wasn't there. His gums looked better after only one dose of antibiotics!

I haven't given him the Lactulose yet, and I got some Miralax. Besides, I wanted to wait until I was sure they had not injured him with the enema. He was growling while they were putting the tube in, but when it was almost in place he jumped and cried out. That scared me. The side effects of Lactulose are cramping and bloating. I would hate to wonder if he had a bowel injury or if it was just the Lactulose. So, I put the Mirlax on his food at +2(PM).

Excellent ideas, Sienne. I thought about pre-loading all the syringes, but I'm afraid there will not be enough in them to adequately mix the suspension up before the shot. I'm not sure I trust my vets' techs at this point, just because I don't trust my vets, but I'm still looking for someone to pinch hit. I had the sitter inject him with subQ fluids at 1.75 units on the syringe before I gave him his shot, and I showed her again when I gave the shot.

He didn't go into the Black today! I consider that progress.

Hope you all have a good night.

Dale

Lantus isn't a suspension insulin but you still can't preload your syringes in advance like that. I can't tell you why just that you shouldn't do it, maybe someone else will come along that knows the reason for it :smile:

Maybe the cat sitter will get braver to do the tests if you point out this should make her less nervous about something happening to Max, because she will know whether it is safe to shoot. Might be a good idea to leave her the FDMB details in case she needs to post for help too.

Serryn is correct --- you shouldn't pre-load a syringe with Lantus. There's a link in the sticky on Lantus storage and handling that discusses pre-loading syringes. After a few hours, the insulin begins to degrade. (Lantus is a solution, not a suspension. This is why you don't shake or roll the container.)

Please put a note in your subject line on Thursday. We'll help you figure out a dose for your petsitter. Generally, even if a petsitter is there and can get a pre-shot test, most petsitters aren't testing at any other time the way you would. As a result, we recommend lowering the dose so it's at a safe level and you don't have to worry about the numbers dropping too low. We also try to decide on a dose where the amount falls on a line on the syringe so it's easier for a petsitter to measure.