New member introduction - Just diagnosed 17.75 year old cat with CKD - Cainie

K

Knitsafghans

Member Since 2026
Our almost 18 year old Cainie (arthritis, Stage 2/3 kidney disease, stable for last few years) had a UTI in December; on retest in January her Urine showed very high glucose. This was confirmed with a fructosamine test - projecting her in the 400's range. The vet started us on 1 unit twice a day - Lantus pen - with a FreeStyle Libre to monitor. Vet expects us to have to up the dose in a week since Cainie weighs 15+ lbs.

Of course the Libre showed off the chart when put on. Yesterday AM I gave her the 1st Lantus unit. Over the twelve hours she came down to just under 100! Steep curve! Came back up to around 150ish in time for 2nd dose. It was a scary night for me because I was worried we'd go hypo given that first precipitous drop. Didn't happen. She didn't drop below 100.

Weirdly today has been a gradual upward trend. She's back at 341 with about 4.5 hours to go before next dose.

Is this a bounce back to the steep drop? Is this sort of fluctuation normal to start?

Thanks in advance for advice and I'm really impressed with this community!
Kim
 
Hi Kim,

Welcome to the forum! Sorry you have to be here, but it's a great place for information and support.

It sounds like you've already gotten everything set up for home testing, and your vet has prescribed Lantus, which is a preferred insulin for kitties. AND she's had quite a reaction to the insulin already.

Your assumption that she is bouncing is likely accurate. Here is a definition of bouncing:
"Bouncing is simply a natural reaction to what the cat's system perceives as a BG value that is "too low". "Too low" is relative. If a cat is used to BGs in the 200's, 300's, or higher for a long time, then even a BG that drops to 150 can trigger a "bounce". Bouncing can also be triggered if the blood glucose drops too low and/or too fast.The pancreas, then the liver, release glucogon, glycogen and counter-regulatory hormones. The end result is a dumping of "sugar" into the bloodstream to save the cat from going hypoglycemic from a perceived low. The action is often referred to as "liver panic" or "panicky liver". *Usually*, a bounce will clear kitty's system within 3 days (6 cycles)."

Many kitties fluctuate as they begin insulin treatment. You can take a look at any of our spreadsheets on the Lantus forum and see for yourself. Once they begin to grow accustomed to lower numbers, many cats will settle into them.

If you plan on sticking around the board, we do ask a couple of things from you that help us help you. One is to complete your signature; the other is to complete a spreadsheet, if you haven't already done so. The instructions for both the signature and spreadsheet are found here: Sticky - New? How You Can Help Us Help You!.

I also recommend reading the Lantus information that is posted at the top of the Lantus board so you'll get an idea how this insulin works.

Once you get the spreadsheet up and begin populating it with numbers, we can see how she is doing and can offer guidance, if necessary.

We're here to answer questions whenever you have them.
 
Mary & Jude said:
That's a good question, and one that I do not know the answer to because I'm not a Libre user. Let me tag a couple Libre users for you to see if they can answer your question: @Staci & Ivy @Lauren & Esse
Click to expand...
Hi Kim,
I am a longtime Libre user. But I manually fill in each cell on the spreadsheet.
(You can fill in as much as you like).

If there is a way to have it automatically done, I’m not aware (but that doesn’t mean it’s not possible).

I will link a document we have prepared for new Libre users.
Getting Started With Continuous Glucose Monitors (CGMs) for Diabetic Cats
If you have more questions, please let me or any of us know.
Wishing you lots of good luck with your kitty 🥰
 
It would be tricky to automatically import as the every-5-minute 'saved' values do not necessarily correlate with the :00 values on the clock. It may be :58, :03 or :59, :04. So when you enter manually you can choose which value from each hour on the Libre that you want to save on the FDMB formatted sheet. I usually enter data 3-4 times a day and just swipe my finger on the graph to get the numbers from the last couple hours.

One thing that may help you if you have a backlog of data to add is to go to LibreView and download their spreadsheet of all of your Libre data. Then you can just scroll side by side to manually enter.
 
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