low bg 56 at +5 Spicey

hello Everyone I am just concerned here is the stats

1-12-10
Pmps 521 - 1 unit pzi vet 9pm
+ 4 - 317

1-13-10
Amps 298- 1 unit pzi vet 8 am
+10 - 198
Pmps 229 - .5 unit pzi vet 8:30 pm
+2 - 399
+4 342

1-14-10
Amps 486 - 1 unit pzi vet 8:30 am

Pmps 417 - 1 unit pzi vet 8 pm
+2 - 216
+5 - 56 got her to eat the wet hills m/d sprinkled with a little dry food she ate 6 grams

I am just concerned I think I should test her in 30 mins. Had the jelly ready.

David

 

She is eating dry cat food right now. Drank water and went back to the dry food.

 

She ate dry food again. I just looked at a chart and it said 56 was normal to retest in 2 hours. I can't do the test in 2 hours but i can in15 -20 mins. Just a little nervous after the hypo I am sorry. nailbite_smile

she ate the wet food agin.

 

Hi David...

Well ...you are well versed in this now, a gentle turn around with some food, perhaps a little gravy from a higher carb canned?

1 unit is simply proving to be too much on an ongoing basis and I know you are concerned about the highs you had.
A high flat day of blood glucose levels is not uncommon following the kind of rollercoaster you have been on this week.

My suggestion now, is to gently offer a tablespoon of food, every 30 minutes or so, test and keep the levels from dropping much further. Once you are past about +7 and have those increased rising levels, you can breathe much easier.

This is not as scary as the long duration under 40 you had the other evening, it just needs monitoring.

I would keep this in mind as you make dosing desicions and encourage you to consider riding out some high numbers as the pendulum caused by rebound settles, and you see real, uninflated numbers once more.
Does that make sense?

For now, I will be around for a bit to keep you company

 

I think it makes sense. She is eating again. That is good.

When considering the doses might need to lower a little bit and have higher bg results. Is that right?

I am more concerned with the lows more right now. I know the highs aren't good either. I know it takes time.

 

No reason to be sorry, and every reason to be nervous, especially given the recent hypos. And Spicey is likely to be hypersenitive to insulin given the recent problems.

Anyway: 56 may in normal range, but PZI usually is at it's maximum effect at about +6-7, so it's good that you caught this now. It's great that she's eating dry food; that should help bring up her blood sugar. But -- can you get another BG reading?


Depending on how low the hypo is, and whether we expect the blood sugar to keep dropping, treatment usually consists of two parts:

(1) application of Karo, syrup, honey or something similar (jam), to bring up the BG levels quickly. Unfortunately, bringing them up quickly usually means that it's short-acting as well, so
(2) getting them to eat a high-carb food (like dry). This takes longer to take effect, but also lasts longer.

So, it's great that she's eating the high-carb, I'm just wondering what her current BG level is and whether there should be a sidgeon of jam or cat-food-gravy or something else as well.

 

You got it...I anticipate the higher levels will come down in a couple of days, they become falsely inflated due to the hormones released to protect the body from hypo levels. it often takes a couple, even 3-4 days for that to settle, so dosing decision need to made a bit cautiously.

You know now 1 unit is too much, I am not sure personally about that 0.5 being too little as I believe those numbers were high and flat due to rebound. However I could be wrong.

Perhaps a hair more than 0.5 in the future?

Now, you are good for the moment.
Will look forward to a test and knowing Spicey is staying in a good place.

 

I feel for you, David. Riding this particular roller coaster is SCARY. I would encourage you to get some of those u100 syringes with half-unit markings that we discussed earlier. That will make it easier to "tweak" Spice's dose. It appears that 1 unit might be too much and 1/2 unit not quite enough, so we need to find a fit somewhere between the two and the u100 syringes with 1/2 unit markings are a GREAT help in doing that.

.6 units *might* be just about right for her seeing how low she drops on 1 unit, and because the .5 was just not quite enough.

You are doing everything right at the moment in protecting her from a potential hypo, and that is AWESOME!!

~M

 

current bg 51 and have jelly ready.

She is eating dry food again.

 

It takes about 20 minutes for a food spike to begin and the dry kibble, (that's the Friskies Special Diet dry, yes?), will carry her over for several hours because it is over 30% in carbs.

btw, Spice is a very pretty girl! I only have one girl - and 5 boys.

~M

 

Great getting that test, I bet you are an old pro at it now.

This is still not too worrisome. That is basically the same as the last number and the food will begin to kick in now the next test will be the really telling one, whether Spice will go down further or whether it will level off and come back up.

You are doing great.
Spice seems as usual?
Remember to not let Spice eat too much at once now, if it takes a while to bring levels up to a more comfortable place, you want Spice to want to eat.
I would check again in about 20, as the food should be doing its thingthen, and see where you are at? Is that good with you?

A quick note to add ketone testing......an important piece of all this while finding the dose that works.
We all become litterbox lurkers at one point or another.

 

spice is laying in her bed at the moment and yes i can chek in 20 that will be the +6 reading

and yes to the dry food question.

 

Hi David

agreeing with Kimmee that that dose needs to be lowered and that you may need to sit on that for several days to let it show it's true colours.

You're probably getting pretty close to peak now, so I'd hold off on giving any more high carb food for now unless she's dropping again on the next test.

 

spicey is in her bed sleeping at the moment but it looks normal to me.

I didn't know about the ketone testing i did see some on the link here but don't know which brand would be the best one to test and i would have to order it.

I can't wait for a day where i can go to bed at a decent hour. :lol:

 

That day will come sleep is underated anyway...
Ketodiastix is a good brand. Your local pharmacy should carry them as diabetic people regularly need to test for these.

Once you get to safe place with levels tonight, I will link some info for you about them

 

As far as the dose goes it looks like.5 units isn't enough and 1 is too much.
So therfore maybe .75 units
I use the u40 syringes so on the next dose how will i tell if i need to give her that on the syringe. I will be ordering the u100 syringes suggested.

 

I was thinking the same thing as Mary. We have a sticky in the PZI forum that details using U-100 syringes with PZI [a U-40 insulin].

Also H did a 56 at +5 the other night [his normal nadir used to be +7] and that ended up being his nadir. 56 is OK but you just want to make sure they do not go too much lower than this. So keep testing until you have a couple rises as you did before.

 

I have seen it and bookmarked it.

I will do a reading in about 5 mins.

 

I know what you mean about the sleep part - I feel for you!

You can get them (Ketostix), at any pharmacy, and they are not very expensive. Walgreen's has them for $15 for a bottle of 50 of them. http://www.walgreens.com/store/catalog/ ... =sku304851 Just make sure that you are getting the ones to test urine ONLY. The other kind is pricey.

And the easiest way to use them, at least for me, was to make Stormy Blue a small litter pan with a thin of layer aquarium gravel in it. That way, nothing got absorbed. I'd lock him in my bathroom with water - and that pan - AFTER he had finished eating so he'd be a little bit thirsty. I'd check in about an hour afterward and he had almost always peed by then and I could dip the stick in and, voila, keto check done .

The gravel is washable so that you can use it over, and over again.

~M

 

Since there are no 1/2 unit markings on the u40 syringe, you will have to eyeball it. You draw just a hair beyond what appears to be the half-way point of the 1 unit mark - try to get as close to 3/4 of that 1 unit as you can. Better to shoot a bit less than .75, rather than more.

OR you can go to the pharmacy and purchase a single pack of 10 of the u100 syringes with half-unit markings to hold you over until you make an order to Hocks.com. A 10 pack is 5 days worth.

~M

 

> So therfore maybe .75 units
> I use the u40 syringes so on the next dose how will i tell
> if i need to give her that on the syringe.

Given how sensitive she is to insulin right now (you had a 200-point drop in two hours), I'd go with the .5 units until you can get in some u100 syringes and do more accurate dosing.

 

her bg +6.5 48

have the jam ready. should i get the glucose powder from walmart? for these occasions?

 

I agree with JJ and Gwyn.

You have a kitty that is giving you strong reactions, a gentle approach until you can measure more precisely is a cautious approach in my humble opnion.

 

ok on the .5 dose

should i give her some jelly.

 

I find that honey works just as good as glucose powder - and it is something that you can eat, too!

~M

 

Hey David,

56 is something to keep a sharp eye on. Below 40 is when you start to take action. I'm hoping the liver will help protect you maybe a little tonight. I just read about the 48. I' defiantly be on top of this with feeding regular food and testing. But you only went from 56 to 48 in one hour and a half which seem like she might be bottoming out.

The thing most recommended here is Karo corn syrup [that most Wal-Marts with even small food sections have]

If she does not come up above 100 at +12 [some may say even higher like 150 or even 200] you may not want to shoot. But I do not want to get in the middle of any dosing help other are giving you. But a "no-shoot level" is something you might want to ask about.

 

Well the food is keeping the level steady, these are all pretty much the same level, so coasting is what you have.
If you want to get some sleep, I would offer a little higher carb wet food and some crunchies and push it a little harder, but I would hold off the jelly and/or honey just yet.

s next drill....food, wait about 20 minutes and then test once more.

Spice's behaviour still normal?

 

i also have molassas but should i wait or give her a little.
thanks for reminding me on that gator and i will consider that. thanx

 

I agree with Sweetgrass

 

It may be too soon to tell if .5 units is enough. Because of this roller coaster your cat has been on, it will take a few days to adjust to a new dose. I suggest that you stick with the .5 units for several days even if the BG readings seem high. Within a week, her readings should begin to become stable.

 

she seems normal but she isn't eating right now. she drank water

 

i will test in 5 mins that will give me a +8 reading.

She is acting normal.

 

She may just not be hungry- however, a little enticement may be in order.

I imagine you are almost at peak, but sometimes this can happen later after coasting like this.

Try to add some tuna water to a little dry to get interested. It doesn't take much higher carb once the insulin starts to slow down.

Absolutely agree with a "do not shoot under" number.
The faqs give 200 as that level and honestly, with the way Spice is responding, this would be a guideline I would agree. 180-200 as you are comfortable

 

Test Results +7 64

Yeah I feel much better. I think she will be ok for the rest of the nite. She is Tired and so am I.

 

BTW David, a DNS number of 200 is pretty cautious but at your stage this is probably warranted. And it will probably help you give that 0.5 a bunch of times without too much worry. Whatever you do, do not shoot below 100 [for now].

Once we get things a little more leveled out and you get your spreadsheet going then we can assess shooting at lower numbers.

Good news. Get some sleep you two!

 

thank you good nite.

Thanx you guys much calmer about tonite than i was mon nite. got to get some shut eye so i can do her amps on time.

 

Great to see, and as you haven't given any sugar, you know that it is the food is doing what it needed to and it should not drop further.
I would love it if you could hang in for one more test, but totally understand if you can not.

Perhaps leave out a sampling of lower carb food now so Spice can nibble need be and you can sleep?

Give Spice some scritches from me and tell her that the rollercoaster is really no fun at all.
great catch tonight.

 

I personally would stay at the .5 dose twice a day and let her body get use to it.

Sounds like we may have a sputtering pancreas that may decide to work on its own. :RAHCAT

 

I just did spiceys amps 135 no insulin.