https://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB...-98-100-3-5-4-116-127-4-5-5-118-120-5.235431/ Henri had good numbers all night although it took some food and shooting my first 97! Exciting, scary and exhausting! I'm starting this thread under the assumption that I will have to shoot low again in a couple hours and it will be here if I do need some help. Hopefully having just been through it i'll be able to handle it better I do have 2 questions though. 1. If I keep shooting low, will her body get used to the low numbers and will she eventually end up handling them better...like she'll be able to regulate herself better and keep herself from getting too low...bc right now I am using food to keep her from getting to low so I'm not sure if that makes a difference in the answer. and 2. If I wasn't going to be around to test her and keep a super close eye on her, what would I have done when it cane to shooting that low number? Would I have used food to get her up and then shoot a lower dose (in that order...or in reverse lol) I'm just worried bc my husband will only be able to do a quick check in tomorrow evening from 1-pm-5pm. Before that I will be home to monitor. He gets out of work at 5 so even though he won't know what to do, he will keep in touch with me via text and I can instruct him. I'll be back by 6:30 to take back over. I know it's only 4 hours but a lot can happen in 4 hours it seems lol
The mantra 'shoot low to stay low' is used often around here. And yes, keeping her in lower numbers for longer periods of time allows for her pancreas to heal. The more healing time she has the better she'll be able to make her own insulin - just like healthy people and animals who are not diabetics. Those were some great numbers last night and everyone here would love to have them! Often we feed our kitties low carb food throughout the day and night too - to help keep their BG from going too low - human diabetics do the same thing - eat small meals frequently to help keep their blood glucose regulated. I'm sure you've heard of someone who needed to eat a bit of hard candy to get their BG up when it gets too low - because they feel awful - sometimes fainting - when blood glucose gets too low. So yes, if you have an auto-feeder that will help a great deal by providing food at intervals all day and night. I have to go take care of Luci now...I'll come back to answer your 2nd question.
You can feed some higher carb food two hours before pre-shot, then take the food up. Since you cannot feed within the two hour window of getting that pre-shot number - you don't want that number to be food influenced. If you get a number that's really low - you should NOT feed, and test again in 20 minutes to see which direction the numbers are going in. If falling, perhaps you'd want to do a token dose, skip if you cannot be home to monitor. This is where you'll need to weigh YOUR options - what's going on that day? Can you change your plans? I've had to cancel/change plans more times than I care to remember due to lower than expected numbers! You can give the insulin, feed and leave higher carb food in your auto-feeder... Best thing to do when you encounter lower than expected numbers is to STALL/Don't Feed/Test again. Post to the forum with a '?' in front of your regular title 'date' 'name' AMPS ### and something like STALLING - HELP WITH DOSE... so right now you're talking about 'what if's' but it's good that you're planning. I found my best plan of action was getting an auto-feeder and a nice variety of gravy style foods - both medium and high carb - to have on hand for when I just couldn't be home (like when I had surgery, etc) I hope this is helpful.
Thank you for explaining it to me! I just want to know like you said...to prepare in case i have work or something lol I do have an automatic feeder eith ice packs to keep the food from going bad but we are currently having a fly problem. I only saw 1 yesterday do hopefa few more nights of putting the stuff in our drains and we should be good i think
Good to know! Im so glad! Thank you forbtaking the time to answer my questions! I hope luci is doing well!
Sometimes when we're worried about giving insulin when numbers are kinda borderline, and we can't monitor as closely as we'd like...it's some of the dose that the kitty is getting. It can be as little as a quarter of the regular dose or half as much...kinda depends on what's going on at the time. Many say it's better than nothing...or skipping completely ... as the kitty has 'some' insulin on board rather than none at all... When you have time and the occasion arises, you can follow along with someone who's discussing whether to dose or not and see if they talk about using a token dose...I personally haven't ever had to give a token dose, but with Luci being new to Tresiba, maybe I'll get a chance...
