New Here - Diabetic Littermates Jack & Jill

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Jack&Jill

Jack&Jill

Member Since 2022
Hello! I've been around on Facebook pages for a while and am finally getting around to posting here. I have a pair of 13 year old littermates who are now both diabetic. Jill was diagnosed in 2020 and was on Novolin for almost 2 years, but upon Jack's diagnosis and becoming more informed I switched her to glargine (the generic Semglee). Jack is more recently diagnosed and has had a rougher time. He started off with Novolin as well but fell gravely ill suddenly with pancreatits and was heading for DKA when I got him into an emergency vet. He wasn't responding well to the Novolin there and I really pushed for the switch to Lantus/Glargine. A lot of vets still seem really stuck on the Novolin for cats...

So far I think they're both seeing improvement and Jack especially seems to be feeling much better after his ordeal, but still working on getting dosing right.

Does anyone else have diabetic cats that are related? I wonder how much genetic factor there is with all of this. I was quite surprised when Jill's bro turned up diabetic too. When he started dropping weight and drinking a lot I thought kidney or thyroid problems but no. He's always been a rather svelte and lanky male cat. No history of obesity. Jill was a little chubby earlier in her life but she's got two years of diabetes on him.
 
Welcome to the board!!

It's great to see that you've got your kitties' spreadsheets up and running and you've set up your signature. Thank you!! I suspect the intro from the FB page also provided you with much of the basic but I'm going to err on the side of being thorough. This is a link to our post on helping us to help you. Much of it may be redundant but it also has all of the information in one spot. I'm also going to assume that you have both of your cats on a low carb, canned food diet. If not, let us know and we can pass along links to food charts.

When Jack was dealing with pancreatitis, did anyone link you to our Primer on Pancreatitis? If not, you now have the link. There are several members here who have had kitties with pancreatitis -- both one time episodes or more chronically.

Just so you have even more to look over, this is a link to the Lantus/Levemir/Biosimilar forum. I'd encourage you to look over the sticky notes at the top of the board. In particular, you may want to review the sticky note on dosing methods. You're also welcome to post on that board. There's a great deal of expertise on for Lantus forum and members are usually around 24/7.

In looking at your cats' spreadsheets, their numbers are looking pretty good. However, based on the dosing methods we use, you may be holding doses longer than necessary. Ideally, you're aiming either for regulation (more time in closer to normal numbers) or remission. We're happy to help you figure it out.

I'm not recalling if we currently have anyone who has littermates with FD. We certainly have in the past.
 
I thought that was the case when Bobo started drinking a lot of water earlier this year. I tested him and he was normal so I took him to the vet for blood work. It turns out he has CKD but they both did had IBD. So I do tend to think genetics plays a part, yes
 
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Welcome can you please go back to your signature and add what you are feeding them, also please look at the 2 dosing methods for lantus like Sienne suggested
Since I see that they still eat a small amount of the Young Again Dry you would need to follow SLGS dosing method, and add that to your signature and your spreadsheet up top
I see you have it listed where it says information when you tap on Jill&Jack and then profile page and then information

On Jill's spreadsheet where you have the orange line can you put Switched to Lantus in the Middle of that line I don't think members will see it where you noted it
Thank you :cat:

Dosing methods
https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/thr...-low-go-slow-slgs-tight-regulation-tr.210110/

Please read all the yellow stickys on the Lantus Board


your best bet if you need help with dosing is to start posting on the Lantus Board everyday
You would put the
Date Jill AMPS # and any other tests after that and can continue with the PMPS # and any tests after that and continue with her PMPS
A new post everyday and you would link your previous days post to the new one .
To add additional tests to your Title you would look to the right and tap on the word Thread Tools then tap on Edit Title and add the tests and tap Save

You would do the same thing for Jack
Date Jack AMPS etc

We do a new post everyday on the Lantus Board and we also link the previous post ( your post )to the new one ,
I'll try to explain how to do it

The best that I can explain how to do it is to look up top where that picture is of that cat on the left hand side , above it will be this post in that long line where it says https://feline diabetes.com/FDMB/threads/new- here
This is your thread you would link to tomorrow's post if you decide to post on the Lantus Board tomorrow
You copy it and then paste it on your new post tomorrow where you would begin to write something
Also write it's your first time posting on the Lantus Board
You would have to do 2 separate posts for each kitty

When you read the yellow stickys on the lantus boards you will see we adjust the dose by 0.25 units , we increase or decrease by how low our cats BG is dropping not by how high or low the Pre Shots are. We use U-100 syringes with half unit markings
 
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Jack&Jill said:
Does anyone else have diabetic cats that are related? I wonder how much genetic factor there is with all of this. I was quite surprised when Jill's bro turned up diabetic too. When he started dropping weight and drinking a lot I thought kidney or thyroid problems but no. He's always been a rather svelte and lanky male cat. No history of obesity. Jill was a little chubby earlier in her life but she's got two years of diabetes on him.
Click to expand...
I can tag
@Jodey&Eddie&Blue
Her two cats are diabetic and are brothers
 
Diane Tyler's Mom said:
I can tag
@Jodey&Eddie&Blue
Her two cats are diabetic and are brothers
Click to expand...
@Jack&Jill Hello and Welcome to the board where you'll find a lot of support.

I do, indeed, have siblings, Eddie and Blue, both of whom have DM. I should say, however, that the DM is concurrent with (or it was prior to) the diagnosis of acromegaly (you can see from my signature what we're dealing with). Eddie, the black cat, was more recently diagnosed whereas Blue was diagnosed with DM in late 2017, so he's a veteran of testing and insulin and more. Eddie was not diagnosed until late in 2020 (even though I had been pointing out to the vet I was concerned he seemed underweight. it was finally all the water-drinking and excessing peeing that got his attention and then with acromegaly the next month. Both kitties have had hypophysectomy (removal of the pituitary along with the tumour which is benign) and Blue has gone into remission a couple of times. He's more recently back on insulin, although at a much lower dose than Eddie (3.5u as compared with 16u). Blue is on Lantus and Eddie is on Levemir, to which we've recently changed because Lantus stings some high-dose kitties and he's doing much better with that.

I'm currently challenged with keeping Eddie's BG down. There will be more to say about this, but in the meantime, we go.on.

Again, welcome to this place. It's a relief to have so much support.
 
Hi and welcome. With a recent history of DKA (8/9/22):
  • Jack needs to be getting plenty to eat. ..up to 1 and a half times as many calories as normal. I would suggest giving snacks during the am and pm cycles as well as the 2 main meals. A comment in the remarks column of the SS about the food/snacks would be helpful please.
  • Don’t skip any doses of insulin. If the BG is lower than normal…stall, dont feed, and test again in 20 minutes.post and ask for help.
  • Encourage extra fluids. You might like to put a teaspoon of warm water in all the snacks and meals
  • Test for ketones daily at the moment. Once they have been negative for a couple of weeks, you can swap to alternate days and gradually down to weekly. If you couple put the results of the ketones tests in the remarks column of the Ss that would be helpful.

I can see he is bouncing at the moment from the 77 yesterday.
 
Thanks everyone. I tried to add food to the signature but may need to tweak it for length. I switched the whole household (4 cats) to low carb food when Jack was diagnosed so we're trying a few options right now due to that and picky eaters. I will try to note food and snacks on the SS. I'm working full time but fortunate to live close enough I can stop home at lunch for a test and food most days. I'm doing what I can :) If they both weren't very tolerant of testing I have no idea how I would manage.

Regarding ketones I bought strips but I can NEVER catch this little guy peeing for some reason so I bought a meter that does blood ketone. I was doing 1x week but I can try more for him. The one or two pee sticks I've seen have been negative and it's been low so far. I added a column to the SS for ketones. I do like that the Weruva BFF play pate is super moist and seems like it will be good for getting extra fluids. I'm watchful of that because a past cat of mine had urinary crystal issues.
 
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