Tabby tested at 427 at 6pm

Tabby tested high at 6pm could of been are car ride back home but she was home for about 2 hours before tests but I am sure car ride stress raised the numbers a tad. Gave her 2 units of prozinc

 

I hope you can get another test in a couple hours and before bed. It is impossible to know whether she needed two units or whether the number was inflated because she dipped low in the middle of the cycle. There is something called bouncing. Their body senses a lower level than is safe, or is what they are used to and it releases extra glucose, making them bounce up at the next pre shot. If your evening number is a bounce, the extra insulin can make her drop low overnight.

I would urge you to be cautious with your dosing until you get her body on the 12/12 schedule and until you can get some mid cycle numbers (5-7 hours after the shot) Since you are gone all day, it'd be wise to plan to get an in the door test as soon as you get home everyday and a test before bed every night. The more data you have, the better you can figure out what the insulin is really doing and what you need to do with the dosing.

 

I'm out at dinner now what tine should I test her again tonight

 

Time. .. dang spell check

 

I'd get a test when you get home, and then one before you go to bed. And let us know.

I sent you a message in the private conversation. Check it when you get home. I added the Test number and shot tonight. We'll get the spreadsheet so it works for you.

 

I'll check it when I get home

 

196 she is at now and it's 9pm

 

So that's 3 hours after the shot and a drop of more than 50%. She might stay in good ranges but she could drop low. I'd try to get a test in that 5-7 hour to see if she is too low.

 

So looks like I need to stick with 1.5 units

 

Should I get her to eat a little ?

 

I would stay at 1.25, Matt, unless you get a pre shot under 200. This needs to be a slow and steady process - there is no rushing it. It's always best to slowly increase rather than shoot too much and not be able to get it out.

You certainly could give her a little snack if she is hungry - maybe a tablespoon of her regular food. I don't think she is likely to drop low enough to be dangerous (But I could be wrong). It is just quite a drop early in the cycle, and likely to cause a bounce into higher numbers for the next shot. Better flatter than a fast drop.

 

Hmmmm that has me worried now.. so I have no idea what to do for tomorrow's morning shot

 

My syringes got every unit.. 1.25 is hard to read out. She's eatting right now gave her a table spoon of dry she has some wet food left over from dinner to. Fingers crossed here

 

I think I'd do one unit if she is 200-250. 1.25 for anything over that. If you'd get a test under 200, stall. Wait 20 minutes without feeding and retest. If she is sure rising and 200+, then give her a shot but maybe a little less than one unit. Pull up one unit and let two drops out. You can also leave out some regular food out For her during the day.

This is a steep learning curve and you are learning fast, Matt. And she is doing great! I think the 12/12 steady schedule will really help her. Your job is to test, keep her in safe ranges and let her body work with the insulin.

 

Well her next shot Nad test is at 6am.. should o set an alarm to test her at like 1am?

 

Well I know I have to leave my house at 630am for work so I hope she's in good level readings.. frustrating

 

A before bed test will be in a few hours, won't it? That should give you an idea of whether she is going to drop or flatten out.

Try not to feed dry. Even if she would drop too low, the gravy off high carb food is best. Fancy Feast gravy types are good low number foods - you can just give a tablespoon of gravy. Buy some and label them high carb so you don't feed them by mistake.

 

Well I'm actually about to head to bed here soon.i have to be up early so am curious of a good time to retest maybe at midnight. It's 930 here now

 

Midnight would be great if you can get up then.

It was a steep drop, Matt, but she is still in good ranges. I wouldn't worry too much. Leave out some regular low carb for her. (If they feel themselves dropping low, they eat to bring themselves up).

 

And if at midnight she dropped lower then what should I do

 

Amd she's hiding from me .. think it's been a stressful day fir her

 

Write this down somewhere. You may need it sometime.

If she is in the 50s, give her a tablespoon of regular food and retest in 20 minutes. If she starts back up, she should be okay but you might get another test in another half hour. If she continues to drop below 50, give her a tablespoon of gravy off the higher carb food. Retest in 20 minutes. If she'd continue to drop, add a teaspoon of honey to her food, retest in 20 minutes. Once she starts to rise, you need 3 tests going up before you relax.

She may be stressed because you are a little stressed. I'd go to sleep and plan to get up and check her.

 

If you're not able to test mid-day, can you occasionally try testing in the middle of the night to see how low she might be going? It works best for most folks to make it a multiple of 45 minutes, the approximate length of the normal sleep cycle, as waking up at the end of a sleep cycle is much easier than waking in the middle of one. Thus, you might set an alarm for 4.5 hours, 5.25 hours or 6 hours after going to bed - whatever is going to come closest to the probable nadir period of +5 to +7 hours post-shot.

 

I'm going to get up at midnight to test her again to see if she is falling lower which I hope not

 

If she is, then you give intervene as needed to slow the drop or to bring the numbers up.
How to Handle a Hypo

 

What's intervene?

 

Take action to prevent or correct a situation, ie prevent low numbers or correct low numbers.

 

Just tested her she is at 150 now

 

Ok she is falling still

 

At + what? Need the context to evaluate the number.

Maybe give a tablespoon of regular food.

 

It's 10:15 here now

 

But how many hours (+#) since the shot, that is the context I mean.
ie if +3 was 196
what column is this most recent number.

 

Just checking to make sure you understand how we use the spreadsheet.

The colored headings at the top are the ranges of glucose values. They are color-coded to clue you in as to meaning.

Each day is 1 row. Each column stores different data for the day.

From left to right, you enter
the Date in the first column
the AMPS (morning, pre-shot, test) in the 2nd column
the Units given (turquoise column)

Then, there are 11 columns labeled +1 through +11
If you test at +5 (5 hours after the shot), you enter the test number in the +5 column
If you test at +7 (7 hours after the shot), you enter the test number in the +7 column
and so on.

Halfway across the page is the column for PMPS (evening, pre-shot, test)
To the right is another turquoise column for Units given at the evening shot.

There is second set of columns labeled +1 through +11
If you snag a before bed test at +3, you enter the test number in the +3 column.

We separate day and night numbers like that because many cats go lower at night.

The nadir is the lowest glucose between shots. There is a general period when it will happen which is specific to the insulin being used and testing then helps make sure your cat doesn't go too low.

It is merely a grid for storing the info; no math required.

 

Sorry I'm to new at this stuff sue has been helping my charts 196 read was at 9pm for me

 

Her shot was at 6pm of 2 units

 

Could you just list the test like this:
PMPS = The glucose level before the shot
If a test was 3 hours after the shot, it was a test at +3

If a test was 5 hour after the shot, it was a test at +5

 

So +4

 

Definitely feed a tablespoon of food. Here's why:
427 ~ PMPS
196 ~ +3
150 ~ +4 a drop of 277 in 4 hours, a drop rate of 69 mg/dL per hour
If she continues to drop at this rate, in another hour it will be below 100. And we don't know when she usually hits her lowest glucose between shots.

 

She just ate a little I'm gonna test her again her in an hour

 

Now I'm Def concerned

 

She may nadir early and start back up by +5. Its OK to snag a nap for 45 minutes.
And she is still in safe numbers (above 50 mg/dL on a human meter).

 

She's just tested at 235.. that's +6.... 6 hours after her pm shot

 

That's good, Matt. She's headed back up. Go to sleep. She may be high in the (a sharp drop can cause a bounce or numbers lower than she's used to) but please, only give her 1.25 tomorrow. You did good and kept her safe, and got a real taste of why you increase low and slow

 

Tabby tested at 6am 450 after last night's slight scare.. I'm going with 1.25 sue and hope that will work ok. Gonna try to come back here on my lunch break to check up on her

 

HI Matt! Sorry I wasn't around at all yesterday...we've been having some problems at home.

I think 1.25 is good. I know it's a high number, but that is more thank likely a bounce (meaning she got low numbers last night...her body was concerned and released extra...glycogen?...I think...and therefore, her numbers are much higher). BJ explains it best. I think of it like a defense system. Like when you get something in your eye that hurts, your eye tears up a lot to try to get it out...but it's overkill. Same thing here...the body sees low numbers and wants to pull them up...but it goes too high because of that. Anyway, it's common, and not a concern. The thing is, you don't want to shoot a higher number into a bounce...you want to let it clear. The 1.25 should be good to keep her safe.

As a side note, we don't really talk in times here (unless we're asking someone to be around at a specific time! I sometimes try to get times from folks for early morning since I am usually the early one on this board). Since we're all in different time zones, discussing a specific time of day is difficult. If you talk in AMPS (morning preshot test), PMPS (evening preshot test) and + number (the number of hours since the last shot of insulin), we can communicate better. We have to know number of hours since the last shot to give any real advice about lower numbers since we know roughly when numbers should start to go up...and roughly when the lower numbers are a concern or warrant further testing.

Let me know if anything I said makes no sense. I've not had much sleep in the last 2 days and I'm following my cats around like a maniac to check on them...so I may be speaking gibberish!

 

It's ok. Thanks for the concern. Yes it's all gibberish to me still. Still to new at this. And lack of sleep from everything and stress. I do apologize

 

You are doing great Matt! Just keep asking questions when you don't understand something. That's how we learn.

 

Haha I get that...lack of sleep is my friend right now!

To simplify...a bounce means the cat had a higher preshot number, went pretty low during the cycle...and "bounced" back up to a higher number. The whys of that can wait...but we see it all the time. It's nothing to be concerned about.

 

I stilled freaked out tho that's my worst fear if all of this is her going low when I'm not home or something.

 

I bought the fancy fests classics.. is this one low carb.. tabby is not a big fan of friskys pate

 

Im not sure about that one. I buy Fancy Feast Kitten Turkey Feast 1 % carbs, for my kitties. Someone else might know the answer to that

 

Hiya Matt!
What a night, huh? We're all sleep deprived around here, especially in the beginning. Sue is the one who helped me through too!! Listen to EVERY word she says. Lol

The Fancy Feast Classics, pates are what I buy. Yes, they are the low carb ones. Different flavors have different values. But the classics/pates are LOW CARB, and all of them under 8%. What you need!!

You are doing great Matt. Sorry for you about last night, but Sue is right: lesson learned. And Tabby is SAFE.

Here's the food chart, scroll to the FancyFeastClassics and make your shopping list!
http://www.catinfo.org

Some of our household favs are TURKEY and GIBLETS , Chopped Grill, and Tender Beef and Liver.
Read your labels, be sure you're not getting gravy lovers for everyday feeding.

 

I'm posting this in here and on prozinc side. I'm using my phone so I can't look at my spreadsheet. Tabby tested 6 hours after her morning shot of 1.25 unit of prozinc at 300 that was at noon today when I came home from lunch. Just test now at 6pm which would be 12 hours after her shot this morning and she is testing at 293.. I have no idea what to dose because of last night's slight scare I had. Help would be great...

 

Ok I went with my gut and did 1 unit..

 

Matt I am sure that someone experienced with dosing will jump in soon. Until then, just monitor to make sure Tabby is safe.

 

Matt, I think you made a good call. One unit sounds good for that number. I think anything more may have set you up for another bounce like you experienced on 8/23. I would make sure to test her before you go to bed. Tabby may be getting early nadirs (lowest drop) possibly so I would suggest a +3 test.

 

I'm not sure what a nadirs is. Sorry. Is this good or bad? I'm walking in the dark over here all I have is you guys because my vet seem useless with help on this stuff

 

A 12 hour cycle is going to look like a smile if you chart it on a graph or your spreadsheet. The blood glucose (BG) numbers are high at pre-shot time (AMPS and PMPS). Then you shoot your insulin and you can expect that somewhere between the +5, +6 or +7 will be at your lowest number hence a smile. Then after your "nadir" your BG numbers are going to start going up for your next pre-shot time. You are trying to capture your lowest (nadir) number within a 12 hour cycle. That is why it is so important to get tests around that "nadir" time to know if your dose is hitting that lower goal of 50-120 (of course you are trying to get into the green as much as possible).

 

so that time should be around 6 hours right?

 

Yep but you can test earlier so you don't have to stay up or set an alarm. If you get a +2 or +3 test, you may be able to see if Tabby is going to go too low for the nadir (+5-+7). We really don't know yet when her nadir is but as you get more tests, you will be able to figure if she goes short or long. So either at 8pm or 9pm (your time), get a test. If she drops around 50%, you may have to get additional tests to ensure that she doesn't get too low.

 

Ok 9pm here now I got a 245 out of her so that's +3 ?

 

Yes. So did the spreadsheet let you add info?

That's a nice safe drop. I think you'll get to sleep tonight!

 

Yep - I think you are good to go to bed. She probably isn't going to get too low tonight. Great job in testing.

 

No sue I can't add anything says I need permission .. I sent the permission request. Did it show on ur end... also what dosage should I shot at tom morning around what numbers

 

Until you can be there during the day, I think I'd stick with one unit, Matt.

 

Yea that's what I was thinking too.. even 1.25 makes me iffy. L