12/28 Chanel AMPS 348 Thank you for Lev advice

Laura & Chanel

Laura & Chanel

Member Since 2019
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/12-27-chanel-amps-335-levemir-advice.223462/

I would like to thank for the wonderful advice about Lev. I actually look forward to it. Chanel still does not feel like herself, the bad days are more often than the good ones. I am a little confused about the curve day. The previous one was all pink except one yellow value.
Now we close in the second BG curve and she got back to pink. I am confused about that.
I wish everybody to get down today, including my baby :)
 
How long before you can increase on SLGS?

Would you consider switching to a human meter? Those pinks would probably be yellows.

This does take time...a whole lotta time...and a great deal of patience...someone has probably already mentioned to you that this is a marathon - the really long long one...not a sprint. Nothing with this happens quickly except for a rare few kitties who've been caught really early in the game...
 
Sue and Luci said:
How long before you can increase on SLGS?

Would you consider switching to a human meter? Those pinks would probably be yellows.

This does take time...a whole lotta time...and a great deal of patience...someone has probably already mentioned to you that this is a marathon - the really long long one...not a sprint. Nothing with this happens quickly except for a rare few kitties who've been caught really early in the game...
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It is not only about the values, it is her behavior as well. She seems withdrawn, absent, hiding and biting if you try to give her medication or even to pet her.
I know, this is a long process and I am not expecting her to get better overnight. I just want her not to get worse.
 
Bellasmom said:
I would personally leave lantis for at least 6 months, it doesn’t happen over nite, as @Sue and Luci says it’s a long marathon
Have a great day
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Leaving Lantus for 6 months when she is skin twitching and growing more and more uncomfortable does not seem a viable solution to me. My goal is to make sure the treatment is stress free as much as possible, especially because it is supposed to be long-term and sometimes for the rest of their life.
 
Are you going to ask your vet about Lev? I think Chanel is a bouncy kitty which makes it hard when you do a curve once every 7 days and curve day is a bounce day. I have that problem with Furball sometimes. I hope she comes down today.
 
It looks to me that you're seeing a bounce from blue numbers into pinks. Bounces are a normal part of your cat adjusting to spending time in lower numbers and are truly annoying for us. Bounces can take 3 days/6 cycles to clear. This is where we all begin to appreciate that managing a cat's diabetes takes patience. We all want our kitties to feel better NOW. It takes time.

Laura - I suspect you'll have to keep reminding people why you're planning on switching to Lev. In most situations, we urge people to stick with an insulin for more than a couple of months. I think you're reasoning is good it's just that people aren't necessarily aware or aren't going back to when you discussed this. Be patient with us!
 
carfurby said:
Are you going to ask your vet about Lev? I think Chanel is a bouncy kitty which makes it hard when you do a curve once every 7 days and curve day is a bounce day. I have that problem with Furball sometimes. I hope she comes down today.
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I already did ask the vet for Levemir, more than a week ago. No answer yet, maybe she is in vacation. Although, I have a feeling there will be no answer anyway so thank God for FDMB :)
 
Sienne and Gabby (GA) said:
It looks to me that you're seeing a bounce from blue numbers into pinks. Bounces are a normal part of your cat adjusting to spending time in lower numbers and are truly annoying for us. Bounces can take 3 days/6 cycles to clear. This is where we all begin to appreciate that managing a cat's diabetes takes patience. We all want our kitties to feel better NOW. It takes time.

Laura - I suspect you'll have to keep reminding people why you're planning on switching to Lev. In most situations, we urge people to stick with an insulin for more than a couple of months. I think you're reasoning is good it's just that people aren't necessarily aware or aren't going back to when you discussed this. Be patient with us!
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If I sound too harsh lately is because staying at home these days I came to realize that Chanel is actually doing worse than she did after the dental cleaning. That hit me pretty hard because I was hoping not to ever see that again and actually now I am seeing worse. I am just withdrawn and upset with myself.
I am thankful to everybody here offering advice based on their previous experiences. I am not upset with people asking me about my sudden change of mind for Levemir. I also understand the idea of giving a chance to Lantus to do something. The main concern is that lately Chanel has more bad days than good ones and her trying to get away from us at the brushing time or just simply bolting if we want to touch her is sad. So, for the past days I kept a journal of everything she does and what we did, pretty much the same way we did when we realized she was not feeling well and identified the cause as the pate (although the vet said it was impossible just because most cats eat pate as diabetics; I guess Chanel does not like being part of statistics, even if they are good ones).
People are wonderful here and they have all the good intentions of helping us get Chanel better. I know that, only a blind person would not see that her BG numbers are more stable that they were before. I was just down and a little depressed these days seeing her all day long not moving and hidden in the closet. It took me almost two weeks to hypothesize that maybe her issues were because of the Young Again dry food, insulin type, gingivitis, and my trying to get her off the dry food in a rather too quick way for her.
The decision to change from Lantus to Levemir did not come easy. I am not the type of person to change medication just because I think the next one is the Holy Grail. I still think Lantus is maybe the leader in remissions but if I can get Chanel's stress level down one or two notches by switching to Levemir and see her more comfortable at the injection time or during brushing, then that would be a good solution.
The Dr. Elsey's dry food is still available, took away for good the Young Again, especially that Paula's statement about how her cats felt after eating YA was so similar to Chanel's symptoms. I tried to take the dry food away from her a few times now, every time we deal, same these days, with diarrhea and loss of appetite.
Like you said, it is a long journey that requires a lot of patience. My goal is to make the journey as comfortable as I can for Chanel and sincerely, until now I seem to do more harm than good. I hope to learn from my mistakes and my observations and keep an open mind about Chanel being an individual that sometimes, like any other cat, defies any expectations.
 
Laura, here's my experience with Lantus and Lev hoping it will help you. First, I have to say that Ti-Mousse was acting like a dog with me since the first day I got him: always following me everywhere and sleeping with me all the time. I was calling him and he was coming!

I started with Lantus on December 22 last year! I was told it was the best one for remission, so I went with it! Unfortunately my Ti-Mousse did not agree! He started being afraid of me, hiding when I was getting close to him, didn't want me to pet him anymore! He was a completely different cat; I couldn't understand what was wrong! When I was getting ready for the injection, he was hiding under the couch, I had to drag him... I felt so bad and he was so stressed! While shooting, he was growling as if it was hurting or stinging, something he never did before! I also noticed he had muscle twitching! So I started to suspect he was reacting to the insulin and after researching I decided to go with Lev. I was told to wait and give it a chance, one month was not enough and that it was very uncommon to have bad reactions on a low dose! I could not wait any longer seeing how bad my little minou was, so I switched to Lev on January 31. What a good move, the best one!:) My little Ti-Mousse is back like he used to be, happy, purring, sleeping with me and running after me to play with him! No more growling during injections and no more twitchings! Since on Lev, he's got flat curves so a lot more predictable and easier to dose! I'm glad for him I didn't wait any longer to switch.

Good luck if you go with Lev ! I'm sure you'll get your happy Chanel back! :)
 
Ti-Mousse said:
Laura, here's my experience with Lantus and Lev hoping it will help you. First, I have to say that Ti-Mousse was acting like a dog with me since the first day I got him: always following me everywhere and sleeping with me all the time. I was calling him and he was coming!

I started with Lantus on December 22 last year! I was told it was the best one for remission, so I went with it! Unfortunately my Ti-Mousse did not agree! He started being afraid of me, hiding when I was getting close to him, didn't want me to pet him anymore! He was a completely different cat; I couldn't understand what was wrong! When I was getting ready for the injection, he was hiding under the couch, I had to drag him... I felt so bad and he was so stressed! While shooting, he was growling as if it was hurting or stinging, something he never did before! I also noticed he had muscle twitching! So I started to suspect he was reacting to the insulin and after researching I decided to go with Lev. I was told to wait and give it a chance, one month was not enough and that it was very uncommon to have bad reactions on a low dose! I could not wait any longer seeing how bad my little minou was, so I switched to Lev on January 31. What a good move, the best one!:) My little Ti-Mousse is back like he used to be, happy, purring, sleeping with me and running after me to play with him! No more growling during injections and no more twitchings! Since on Lev, he's got flat curves so a lot more predictable and easier to dose! I'm glad for him I didn't wait any longer to switch.

Good luck if you go with Lev ! I'm sure you'll get your happy Chanel back! :)
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Lyane, thank you so much for the insight. Reading your words is like seeing Chanel doing it. She has the exact same reactions and I cannot wait to get my baby switched to Levemir, hoping to get her cheerfulness back or at least part of it. Thank you again for giving me a 'bump' of hope in taking the Levemir path.
It is difficult to get everything OK from the first try, all we can do is hope to be lucky enough to see and understand. I decided that I will treat Chanel as a individual, meaning that I will take all the advice I can get, observe my baby closely and make the decisions based on her behavior and when benefit outweighs the risk (meaning that she still does not like me trying to brush her teeth, but she needs to put up with it, although I think I need to talk to the vet since her gums are red and swollen just 2 months after the dental cleaning).
 
Treating diabetes is not easy: we're learning as we go and when we know our kitty like you do, it helps a lot! Of course, being patient is a PLUS, but not always easy to achieve !!! ;)
Laura & Chanel said:
meaning that she still does not like me trying to brush her teeth, but she needs to put up with it
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Maybe you can try just rubbing her teeth with a piece of wet warm gauze instead of a toothbrush at the beginning; that's what I do for Ti-Mousse who hated the toothbrush but the gauze he doesn't mind and it cleans!

Don't worry you'll get there with your beautiful Chanel!:bighug:
 
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