New here! Need advise

Hello y'all! I have a wonderful 3 year old orange boy, diagnosed about 8 months ago. A few weeks ago he went into DKA, and spent 6 days in the hospital. He survived, and is doing fantastic. His vet up'd his lantus to 2units, twice a day. His numbers have been skating around 80/100, but these pass 3 days its been under 50 at some points during the day. ( we test frequently and we make sure we bring it back up asap ) His +11 we just did was 47. His vet wants to keep him on 2 units, and continue the shots. We are afraid of shooting at such low numbers, but our vet saved his life. He is acting completely normal other then the low readings. I so confused on what I should do ......thanks yall in advance!

 

Hi and welcome to the FDMB!

Unfortunately, your vet is wrong. Any time they drop below 50 (on a human meter) or 68 (on a pet meter) they need to be reduced.

I'd reduce his dose immediately to 1.75.

The sad truth is that vets get very little education on diabetes in school. Vet schools only have 4 years to teach everything, so they only have time to teach a little bit about everything. Once they're in practice, they just don't have time to stay up to date on the latest treatments for every disease in every animal they see. The people here do nothing but deal with feline diabetes and the complications that tend to come with it so there's lots of 24/7/365 experience here!

When you have a few minutes, this post on "Helping us to help you" has a lot of information that will help us to help you! (duhhh....lol)

 

At first, we don't suggest shooting any insulin if they're below 200 at shot time. As you gain more experience and testing data, you gradually learn to shoot lower and lower numbers, but only the most experienced of us who have years of data on our cats would shoot under 50.

 

I agree. Reduce to 1.75. If he still goes below 50 them reduce to 1.5

 

https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/thr...ASLkouNEilweUQUwFtBAtRryAfP3fBwSb-LKwTe3-h6QI

 

https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/fdmb-spreadsheet-instructions.130337/

Her are the instructions for the spreadsheet we use to enter our cars BG numbers on.
You can take a look at mine , it's at the end of my post, Tyler's spreadsheet.

You can also look at other members SS

 

https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/understanding-the-spreadsheet-grid.156606/

This will explain how the spreadsheet works


If you have trouble setting it up just ask
we have 2 wonderful members that will help you

 

In case you don't have syringes with half unit markings, it would be a good idea
to pick some up. We increase by 0.25 units at a time , makes it much easier

 

Thanks for this information! On time as always. I often find information on this forum that I really need! Thank you all for this! It is very cool!

 

Thank yall very much. We are apart of a few other groups, and we already have a spreadsheet with all his numbers. I will ask my wife how we can add it to here. We followed instructions on a Facebook group, and when he was in the mid 300s for months,, the group told us not to increase his dose, and sadly that's why he went DKA. I agree with reducing when shooting 2 units at such a low number. I will discuss this with my wife, and see our next plan, and keep all informed. Thanks again yall!!

 

It's easy to add. On google sheets go to share and copy the link, then here click on your name at the top right, choose signature, and paste in the link. Then hit save.

 

Out of all the groups I myself say this forum is tops.
The members here are so knowledgeable and have much more experience than
most vets do. As Chris said the members here deal with diabetes 24/7 365
experience here.
My Tyler wouldn't be doing so amazing if it weren't for the advice I have
received .

 

I think I'd be wary of the information you're getting from that group then. There are several groups on Facebook that deal with Feline Diabetes, but the only one that's connected with this board is the Feline Diabetes group.

I know the other group you're in (that gave you the advice that ended up causing a DKA) so I'm concerned that their knowledge and understanding may not be as up to date as ours here is.