Lamanda
Member Since 2024
Hi all,
I'm Amanda and my cat is Zach. He's 10 years old, about 12 pounds. Zach was diagnosed with diabetes December 2023. At the time he was eating dry food only and was not overweight. I had adopted him when he was 8 and I had no previous experience with owning cats, so I didn't know how important wet food was.
As per the vet's instructions, Zach was transferred to Purina DM wet food and started on Lantus 0.5 units twice a day. We went back to the vet for a glucose curve every week and Zach was responding well, sugars were coming down but slowly but surely. We settled on 2 units twice a day and there he stayed for 1 month. At the 1 month check, his sugars were way back up in the high 20s range. Vet increased him to 3u twice a day, then 4u, then 5u. It was around this point that I switched Zach to frisks pate, as I can't afford Purina dm long term. All of these increases happened about 1 week apart, and showed little to no improvement in Zach's glucose levels. At this point, I was not home testing. I had asked my vet multiple times whether they thought that I should have been doing home testing and they essentially advised me I didn't need to. Naively, I trusted that. I was planning to eventually get a glucometer and begin the home testing but I felt comfortable at that time trusting the vet that it wasn't necessary right now (big mistake!).
After 5u didn't seem to be having any effect on Zach's levels, they bumped him again to 6u, twice a day. After 1 week, back we went to the vet for another glucose curve. First reading 16mmol, next one 19. At this point, zach and I are frustrated but my vet said that now we can try keeping him on this dose for 1 month.
On March 21st (11 days after his last vet visit), I rushed Zach to the emergency for hypoglycemia in the middle of the night. He had 2 seizures when he arrived there, and his sugars were so low that they couldn't even get a reading. Zach stayed there for around 18 hours while they worked to get him stabilized, before I could bring hime home. Needless to say, this was traumatizing for me and for Zach. I was filled with tremendous guilt for not home testing, but also anger toward my vet for not advising me how important it was to do so.
Since that incident, I have obviously learned to home test. I test before every insulin shot. His numbers were high, so I started by giving 2 units (emergency vet instructed me to do 3 units but I wanted to tread even lighter given what happened), unless I had a glucose reading of 10mmol or lower, then I did not give insulin. His numbers were very random. High high to lower than 10. I spoke to my vet, who suggested I try dropping back to 1 unit.
So currently Zach is on 1 unit of Lantus, twice a day with testing before each shot. But his numbers aren't budging. He remains in the 18 to 23mmol range. I don't know what to do. I feel stuck between a rock and a hard place. Should I seek a second opinion from another vet? Does anyone have similar experience with difficulty regulating? Any words of wisdom? Thank you everyone!
I'm Amanda and my cat is Zach. He's 10 years old, about 12 pounds. Zach was diagnosed with diabetes December 2023. At the time he was eating dry food only and was not overweight. I had adopted him when he was 8 and I had no previous experience with owning cats, so I didn't know how important wet food was.
As per the vet's instructions, Zach was transferred to Purina DM wet food and started on Lantus 0.5 units twice a day. We went back to the vet for a glucose curve every week and Zach was responding well, sugars were coming down but slowly but surely. We settled on 2 units twice a day and there he stayed for 1 month. At the 1 month check, his sugars were way back up in the high 20s range. Vet increased him to 3u twice a day, then 4u, then 5u. It was around this point that I switched Zach to frisks pate, as I can't afford Purina dm long term. All of these increases happened about 1 week apart, and showed little to no improvement in Zach's glucose levels. At this point, I was not home testing. I had asked my vet multiple times whether they thought that I should have been doing home testing and they essentially advised me I didn't need to. Naively, I trusted that. I was planning to eventually get a glucometer and begin the home testing but I felt comfortable at that time trusting the vet that it wasn't necessary right now (big mistake!).
After 5u didn't seem to be having any effect on Zach's levels, they bumped him again to 6u, twice a day. After 1 week, back we went to the vet for another glucose curve. First reading 16mmol, next one 19. At this point, zach and I are frustrated but my vet said that now we can try keeping him on this dose for 1 month.
On March 21st (11 days after his last vet visit), I rushed Zach to the emergency for hypoglycemia in the middle of the night. He had 2 seizures when he arrived there, and his sugars were so low that they couldn't even get a reading. Zach stayed there for around 18 hours while they worked to get him stabilized, before I could bring hime home. Needless to say, this was traumatizing for me and for Zach. I was filled with tremendous guilt for not home testing, but also anger toward my vet for not advising me how important it was to do so.
Since that incident, I have obviously learned to home test. I test before every insulin shot. His numbers were high, so I started by giving 2 units (emergency vet instructed me to do 3 units but I wanted to tread even lighter given what happened), unless I had a glucose reading of 10mmol or lower, then I did not give insulin. His numbers were very random. High high to lower than 10. I spoke to my vet, who suggested I try dropping back to 1 unit.
So currently Zach is on 1 unit of Lantus, twice a day with testing before each shot. But his numbers aren't budging. He remains in the 18 to 23mmol range. I don't know what to do. I feel stuck between a rock and a hard place. Should I seek a second opinion from another vet? Does anyone have similar experience with difficulty regulating? Any words of wisdom? Thank you everyone!
