Susie, Diabetic Cat
Index & Contents 

Susie's Insulin Graphs, 2001

• In some of the graphs there are periods where it looks as though her dosage was constantly cycling by 1/4 unit.  This is simply where I decided to change her daily dosage by 1/4 unit, so that her morning and evening injections were slightly different.

• Variable (whenever I got a sample) - sometimes more than 1 per day, or could be several days between samples.

• If the urine glucose reading fell between 2 of the colours I simply took an average.  If the colour on the stick reached the highest point, I took this as 2% if it took the full 30 seconds.  If it reached 2% more quickly I estimated a higher figure (e.g. I assumed 2.5% if it only took 25 seconds).  Whilst this was only a rough approximation, it illustrated more effectively where Susie's urine glucose was clearly high.

• During January, Susie's insulin dosage was increased weekly in order to bring her diabetes back in close control.

• By the end of January, Susie had been re-stabilised and afterwards her urine glucose figures were low enough to allow her insulin dosage to be gradually reduced.

• From late March, Susie's urine glucose figures began to creep up again requiring gradual increases in her insulin dosage throughout April.  Other indicators of her condition (her water to dry matter ratio) suggested that her diabetes remained in control, so my interpretation is that these changes can be regarded as simply maintaining close control of her condition.

• By the end of April the increases in Susie's insulin dosage had brought her urine glucose back down to levels generally below 1% and I was able to bring down her dosage steadily in several steps throughout May.

• The relatively long period of good stability came to an end during July, with several increases needed in Susie's insulin dosage to combat rising urine glucose levels.  Throughout most of September I was able to keep her insulin dosage constant at 4 units b.i.d.

• The changes illustrated on the graph are all minor and are indicative of fine tuning to maintain close control of Susie's diabetes.  If her diabetes was running out of control, I would expect her urine glucose figures to be permanently above 2% and her water intake to increase dramatically.

• By the end of October, I was giving Susie 4.5 units twice daily.  Previously I had only given her such a high dosage when stabilising or re-stabilising her.  This was the first time that she had needed a dosage this high during normal control of her diabetes.

• The single reduced dosage on 1st December was because I had to give two injections only 8 hours apart, so I felt that it was safer to do this.  Later in the month, there were several changes over just a few days.  This period was when I was adjusting Susie's dosage in response to a reduced appetite when she was off colour for a few days after her annual booster vaccination.  Afterwards I settled on giving her 4 units.