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Jadi & Tiffany

Jadi & Tiffany

Member Since 2017
My cat Tiffany (11 years old) was diagnosed a few weeks ago after being in the hospital for a bad kidney infection. Her ultrasound showed that her kidneys were in bad shape. Not sure if she will fully recover, but as a result has diabetes. Lantus was the first insulin...my vet kept increasing the units and then switched her to Levemir. She is on 4 units twice a day. She has had some lower readings but is still not stable. Some of her readings are in the 400s, but did have a 175 last week. She is following the 12-hour feeding schedule with the high protein low carb diet. Her vet is allowing a small amount of DM dry snack to get her through her 12-hour feeding. She has always loved food.
I feel really bad about having to test her blood. Last week....she hid in the closet from me. We have spent over 6k on two hospital stays...and vet bills. I admire everyone here who is dedicated to their pets...we adore our cat, but this is a HUGE undertaking...totally overwhelming.

Jadi
 
Hi Jadi,
I'm at work on my lunch so I can't stay on the board too long, but noticed that you hadn't gotten a response yet so wanted to welcome you and just ask a few questions. I didn't want your post to get buried, so this will bump it back up to the top where more people can see it and reply.
Although I can't really stay on the board right now, hopefully, if you can answer some of these initial questions... others will jump on and be able to help. I'll check back later.

1) When was your cat first diagnosed?
2) Since it sounds like you are home testing, can you post the most recent tests with numbers for the past few days?
3) How long were you on Lantus before the vet switched to Levimir? How many units of Lantus did you start at?
4) What prompted the switch to Levimir? That seems like a pretty high dose depending on how long your cat has been on insulin.

It would be helpful if you set up a spreadsheet so that people can better help you. If you need help, just holler and someone here can help you do that. Also, if you can create a signature with some basic info (check other people's signatures to get ideas) that would help as well. :bighug:
 
She was diagnosed last week of Feb.
They started her on .5 units of Lantus at Mission VCA San Diego
My vet increased over the next two weeks with just testing at the vet. Increased up to 5 units..then switched to Levemir 2 weeks ago. Started at 4...switched to 5..then saw a 175 and 322 4 hours later and switched back to 4 units.
Yesterday tested at 470 3:40 pm. We are home testing but I feel sick doing it...she obviously hates it.

She is still drinking tons of water and urinating in her litter box...needs changing constantly.
She is not feeling great...hiding today.
She may have kidney issues...I can not keep taking her back to the hospital and paying thousands. I feel very sad and distraught.
One positive, She does still have an appetite.
 
Jadi Faul said:
She is following the 12-hour feeding schedule with the high protein low carb diet
Click to expand...

Most members either feed small scheduled meals throughout the day/night or free feed. For Jones, he did way better once he had food available all day to snack on.

If Tiffany has kidney issues, I would try to drop the dry food.
 
Welcome to FDMB.
The best place you never knew you would want to be. Everyone here has been where you are, worried, and overwhelmed.
FD is a steep learning curve which is why you can get so much help here from us. We like to pay it forward.

First...
testing... there are lots of tips here.... ask questions... read the sticky's that are at the top of the forum..... they are full of information.
Are you giving a treat with the test?
That is very important and will gain her cooperation....
it's not really painful for them, but many cats don't like their ears fiddled with so they learn that they get rewarded for cooperation....
some cats even come willingly and want to be tested.
You will want something freeze dried, or cooked chicken bites, or little shrimps ( mine loved raw and got it daily so I could give the shot)
basically pure protein, no carbs so no grocery store treats like pounce. Those are high carb.

Second, What are you feeding?
We have a list of foods ... you will want to choose below 10% carbs.... and probably will want to find the lower phosphorus foods....
I will find the chart for you and post it if someone doesn't beat me to it.
here it is 2017 food chart


Third, We ( the collective) would love a spreadsheet....
It helps us to advise you on dose and see what's going on.....
here's the guide to set up a spreadsheet
click on the blue words.


Fourth, I'm concerned that the vet went up in dose way too fast....
but we need to see a spreadsheet to help determine that and to help you to keep Tiffany safe.



Try to breathe.....
You are in the best place you could be... given the circumstances.....
 
Please don't drop the dry food unless you are testing more and have a spreadsheet set up that we can look at. The higher carb dry food may or may not be what is keeping her from going hypo. Ultimately you do want to remove dry food from the picture as it's hard on the kidneys. To set up a spreadsheet, here are the instructions. If you have problems setting up the spreadsheet, let us know, there are people who can help.

Your vet has increased the insulin dose far too fast. I can't believe you've gone from 0.5 to 5 units of Lantus and switched insulins, all in less than a month. Both Lantus and Levemir are good insulins, but they are depot insulins and it takes time for the depot to build. We increase by either 0.25 or 0.5 amounts at once so as to not miss a good dose. Are you using the 1/2 unit marked syringes for giving the insulin?

Here is a post on Hometesting tips. It is really essential that you test for Tiffany's safety. Are you giving treats or special loving after every test? After a while kitties learn to associate good things with tests and run to you when you get out the test kit. A little Neosporin with pain relief on the ear afterwards can help heal it.

And hello and welcome. :bighug: I know it's all rather overwhelming at first, but we've all been there and are willing to help you get to the place where it's all easier. There is lots of information in the Sticky Notes on top of the forum. And keep asking questions.
 
Jadi Faul said:
My vet increased over the next two weeks with just testing at the vet.
Click to expand...
Welcome Jadi! Most kitties get stressed from a vet trip which will increase the blood glucose# at the office. This is another reason home testing is so important to see where Tiffany #s are at when she's home. It does seem the vet increased too fast.
 
Good catch on that point Paul. My non diabetic cat once tested over 220 at the vet and 53 at home the next day. Good thing we didn't put him on insulin!
 
Okay...my spread sheet is uploaded and I will do my best to test. The tips you are giving me are great. Treat after testing...neosporin pain relief...I will keep her on a small amount of the dry DM because that is what my be keeping her from going Hypo....and I also am very nervous about my vet and her Diabetic Specialist advisor changing insulins and increasing the dosing so fast. But I am not a vet, so I have trusted their advice. I really appreciate the support and help you all are giving!!!
 
Thanks for working on the spreadsheet. You still need to enter the dose given in the U (units) cell. It's good you are getting some spot checks in between the shots. We figure out how to dose Levemir (and Lantus) by how low it takes kitty. For Levemir, it's often around 8 hours after the shot, though my Neko liked to do it later than that. Because Levemir has later nadirs (low points of the cycle), you will often find yourself faced with a lower number at shot time. If you ever see a number below 150, do not feed, and post here for help as to what to do next.

We also find that Levemir is better when you do consistent dosing, ie. the same dose all the time. Otherwise it's hard to figure out how the dose is doing. The depot needs time to settle in. And we don't change doses based on the preshot number, unless it happens to be a really low number.

I've heard vets get less than one day in school on diabetes, and that is mostly on canine diabetes. My vet started us on Caninsulin - great insulin for dogs. :rolleyes: A lot of times people will have their kitty PTS if they hear diabetes, so they don't often have a lot of diabetic cats at the clinis. At one point I thought about switching vets and interviewed another "knowledgeable" vet. She had had a diabetic kitty herself. But she didn't home test and kitty died from a hypo while she was at work on day. So I stuck with my currect vet. Anyhow, I trust her for almost everything else and learned what I needed about diabetes here.
 
Did you give insulin last night? I don't see anything in the units column there. We typically give the same dose in the AM and PM. It would be good to hold the 4 unit dose for a while and see how it's doing before deciding where to go next with the dose. Unless Tiffany goes too low on this dose, in which case we'd reduce it. The more bits of data you have, in addition to getting preshot tests, the more the picture will come clear. We liken it to a jig saw puzzle where you want to get data here and there to see how kitty does on a dose. That includes the night time. A test just before bed is usually a good one cause many kitties go lower at night.
 
Tonight I would test just before you give insulin and feed her, and again before you go to bed. During the day, any spot checks you can get will help fill in the details. Given that Levemir nadirs tend to be in the last part of the cycle, try to get some around 6-10 hours after the shot if you can.
 
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