? STALLING - please help

I could use some dosage advice right now. I havent had a low PMPS like this in quite some time. Half dose? Full dose? Skip dose? @Deb & Wink?

 

Did you stall? And take another BG test?

 

Just made a decision. Retested and he is rising. So I gave .75 unit so a bit smaller than normal dosage. I will monitor him tonight but think he should be fine.

 

Ok. Sounds like a good decision. And good idea to monitor. If you have any problems during the cycle please post and ask for help.
I’d get a +1 and 2 to start with.

 

Thank you for your help!

 

Glad Bron and Sheba (GA) were able to help you.
I'm not on later at night.

Please do try to get that before bed test every PM cycle. Without it, you don't know if Oliver may be dropping low in the PM cycle.

 

@Deb & Wink - I hope this isnt a dumb question, but what number range would a +2 need to be at to show me that it may be a night where he is going to drop quite low?

 

No such thing as dumb question here. Except the ones you don't ask.

More than a number range, think of the percentage of the drop at +2, that may tell you if your cat is going to drop much lower. Think of that +2 as being an indicator of what direction the BG levels may be headed.
With Prozinc, if you see a 40%, 50% or greater drop, between the pre-shot and that +2, that's a serious heads up warning.
If you see a 20-25%, 30% drop, not quite so worrisome. But still be cautious.

Your cat drops 2 color ranges between pre-shot and the +2, pull out your hypo kit and plan on staying up to test.
Your cat drops 2 color ranges between pre-shot and the nadir, that is to be expected. But you don't want the drop to be much more than 50% between pre-shot and nadir with Prozinc.
Cats tend to bounce high if the drop is 50% or more from pre-shot to nadir.
So you steer those mid-cycles with food, to slow down the steep drop and stop the bounces from being too high.

It's a balancing act.

The +2 is like an "early warning" for most cats!
If the +2 is about the same as the PS, it's usually a pretty normal cycle...dropping down to nadir and then rising back up again. (About the same means taking meter variance, that 15% variance that hand held glucometers are allowed to have into account)
If the +2 is higher than the PS, that usually signals a bounce, and those are the cycles when you can usually take a break from testing.
If the +2 is lower than the PS, that's your "Early warning" that kitty might be going much lower later in the cycle so it's important to plan on getting another test or two (or 6) in.

It doesn’t work every time or with every cat. But it does hold true most of the time, so keep this in mind for next time.

It also kind of depends on what BG pre-shot your cat started out the cycle with. Lower than normal, keep a closer eye on the cycle. Lower than you are used to shooting, a number you may not have given insulin before, keep a closer eye on the cycle. Stalled and number rose some, but you did a reduced shot, maybe another test or 2 to see how much the number is rising.

It makes a big difference if your cat starts the cycle in the pink 300-399 mg/dL range (16.6 - 22.16 mmol/L) then if they are in the blue 150 mg/dL range ( 8.3 mmol/L).

p.s. Food notes in the Remarks column can be very useful. Helps to interpret what is happening in the cycle. Notes are done on AM and PM cycle basis and notations need to be with the + time format.

 

Wonderful! So much great information. I will definitely do a BG test before bed every preshot moving forward.

 

Deb, just hadda say it - WOW - this was an EXCELLENT post.

As a Prozinc user that usually gets +2's it perfectly explained everything I knew but didn't know I was looking at!

 

Well, good @SheKit & JessKat
Someone should copy and paste it somewhere. I'll probably never be able to recreate that depth of information again. At least not in the same words.

I see you do not have a spreadsheet link in your signature. Do you keep a spreadsheet to record the doses and the units and other "stuff?"

 

Boy, that looks awfully familiar.....LOL

 

Yes, Chris, that is yours. But I kind of expanded it, and included some other information, like the "meter variance" part.

What you had said about the +2 tests in other threads before was so good, I copied it to a word document and cut and paste it into threads. The +2 tests holds for insulins other than lantus and levimir.

Only "plagiarize" from the best!

 

I was just giving you a hard time.

Excellent idea to copy it to a document. Every time I typed that whole thing out, I told myself "you really should just copy and save this somewhere" and then didn't do it.

 

I'll done that "copy and paste" trick, with a lot of things.

It really helps, not having to write something out again, and again, and again................