New Member - Utterly clueless and probably screwing up

Hi everyone,

I’ve been lurking on the forum since my little guy, Sangha, was diagnosed three months ago. I’ve started a couple introductory posts, but always got distracted or stressed out, or realized I’d written a novel and scrapped it.

Sangha has been on Vetsulin for about 7 weeks after being on Novalin for about 6 weeks. No matter what he’s on or what the dosage is, his pre-shot numbers are always really high, especially in the morning. If it’s under 450, it’s a relative win. But the Vetsulin seems to be effective between the shots (see spreadsheet). My vet was pretty confident that 2 units was going to be the “sweet spot”, so when I reported back after he’d been at that level for about 10 days with little-to-no pre-shot improvement, she told me to stay at 2 units for another week. It’s been a little over that now, but I haven’t been able to get through to the office, so this morning I decided to try 2.5 units, figuring that was most likely the vet’s next step anyway. He’s pretty much been fine all day, but had two bouts of vomiting, once about 3-4 hours post-shot and again about 7 hours post-shot. After the second time, I checked his blood and he was at 59 – by far the lowest he’s ever gone. I panicked and rubbed some syrup on his lips, then gave him a bit of wet food. He also had some dry food when he was done, so I know he has something in him. I checked him after an hour and it was 66.

1. Is vomiting a symptom of hypoglycemia? I feel like it’s a symptom of pretty much anything that can be wrong with you, but I didn’t actually see it in my quick and panicky Google search.

2. I know there are a million variables, but generally speaking, what numbers are too high and too low? Absent any symptoms, was I wrong to freak out over 59? I’ve roughly based my gauge of good vs bad on the (very nice!) color coding on the spreadsheet. Can you give me an example of what a good curve would look like? (We’re using ReliOn Prime.)

3. I'll test him again before giving him his PM shot, but what do you recommend I do, depending on the reading? If it's not above a certain number, should I skip it entirely? Cut it down to maybe 1 unit?

I know it was really irresponsible of me to increase the dose without consulting my vet first and even worse that I didn't test him regularly after I did it. Now I'm scared to let him out of my sight, and he's looking at me like I'm a crazy stalker. So I appreciate any guidance you can give me. Even without posting, this forum has been a lifeline.

 

H

Hi! welcome! I am happy to give advice.

first of all you are still pretty new to this. It won’t get fixed overnight. My cat was 7 weeks into insulin before I even saw a number under 300. Let me go through your questions.

first your insulin. It’s better than novolin, but still a short acting insulin. While some cats do good on it (my cat did ok on it for a while), many find it doesn’t last Long enough. It tends to hit hard then wear off which is exactly what you’re seeing. When it’s time to get a new vial, consider switching to prozinc or Lantus.

vetsulin is dosed based on the nadir (lowest point), not the preshot. 2.5 was too much. 2 is a safer dose. Now you are using a human meter. Normal in a human meter is 50-120. So your cat a was in normal range. You don't want him lower than that. With vetsulin it's safer to aim for 85-120, but 59 was not dangerous. In the case of approaching 50 but still over, a little of his regular food probably would have been fine.
Now to your questions
1. Yes, vomiting can be a sign of hypo. While your cat want actually hypo, the drastic seeing into lower than normal numbers may have thrown him off. Here's our info on hypoglycemia https://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/how-to-treat-hypos-they-can-kill-print-this-out.15887/

2. I covered this above. For a human meter normal is 50-120

3. 2 units seems ok. If the number is under 200 don't shoot. If it's under try stalling without feeding for up to an hour and see if the number goes up.

Of you have any other questions just ask. Also wonderful that you are testing. Your cat is lucky to have you.