1/17 Tessie Lou AMPS 286: First Day on Lantus from ProZinc

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tessielou

tessielou

Member Since 2010
Hi everyone,
Tessie Lou was diagnosed on 11/26/10 and put on ProZinc by a vet who was inflexible and not up-to-date about feline diabetes.
Since then, we have:
found FDMB;
changed her diet;
hooked up with an experienced local FDMB member;
started home testing;
changed to a knowledgeable vet who believes in home testing;
had her tested and treated for a UTI with a course of antibiotics, and now...
started Tessie on Lantus, 1unit bid, as of this morning.

What a ride!

My question is, does anyone out there have any advice or suggestions about making the switch from ProZinc to Lantus?

For more background on Tessie's journey, here are links to earlier posts on this forum and the PZI forum (oldest post listed first).
viewtopic.php?f=24&t=32036
viewtopic.php?f=28&t=33529
viewtopic.php?f=24&t=33992
viewtopic.php?f=24&t=34067
viewtopic.php?f=24&t=34093
viewtopic.php?f=24&t=34146

I apologize for the length of this post, but I thought it would be helpful to have all Tessie's background in one place for anyone who wants to take the time to read it. I'm also going to post this on the Main Health Forum.
Thanks very much,
Sandy
 
Re: 1/17 Tessie Lou AMPS 286: First Day on Lantus from ProZi

Good Morning Sandy and Tessielou,

Welcome. What a cutie Tessielou is. I'm glad you found a vet willing to work with feline diabetes, and a local member of FDMB. You will find lots of help help. I'm still new too, but have found the advise and information here so helpful.

Have a great day cat_pet_icon .
 
Re: 1/17 Tessie Lou AMPS 286: First Day on Lantus from ProZi

Hi Sandy,
I am 8 days in from a pz to lev switch and all I will say is if at all possible do not do what I did which was get to success by kicking, screaming and yelling all the way there. I felt sure these kind folks were asking me to under dose my kitty, that they just did not understand what I understood about my kitty, I fought them every step of the way. They broke me. I drank the Kool Aid, and today I got my first evidence that they were right all along.
If you get nervous about the advice you recieve feel free to call on me hon, been there.
Lori
and tomtom
 
Re: 1/17 Tessie Lou AMPS 286: First Day on Lantus from ProZi

Thanks for the welcome, Cheryl, and Tessie says thanks for the compliment :smile: . Best wishes for Whiskers, too!
Sandy
 
Re: 1/17 Tessie Lou AMPS 286: First Day on Lantus from ProZi

Lori, thanks, I will try to take your advice. It is very, very hard to "sit on your hands," nailbite_smile but I'm going to do my best, with the help of my local member, my vet, and of course, this wonderful board. The journey begins today...

Good luck to you with TomTom! I'll be watching your progress, too.
Fellow newbie,
Sandy
 
Re: 1/17 Tessie Lou AMPS 286: First Day on Lantus from ProZi

Hi Sandy, welcome to LL!

My first suggestion is to get +3, +6 and +9 tests in addition to your PS tests. I just took a quick peek at Tessie Lou's SS, and it looks like you were getting some decent response from 1.0u of ProZinc. Sometimes when kitties switch from ProZinc, we see a response in the first few cycles, so you should be monitoring closely. We advise you do that anyway, whether you are new to insulin or switching, but with ProZinc, we have seen that fairly often.

I'll go back and read the other threads now....I just wanted to put that out there up front.
 
Re: 1/17 Tessie Lou AMPS 286: First Day on Lantus from ProZi

Welcome to Lantus Land!

I looked at Tessie Lou's SS and Laurie beat me to what I was going to say. Getting a mini-curve (i.e., testing every 3 hours during the AM cycle) and a couple of spot checks at night are important. You will be building your cat's Lantus shed (see the starred sticky notes at the top of the Board) and learning where Lantus onset and nadir and it's duration by collecting data.

It looks like your kittie has GI problems with FF. Have you found the non-gluten varieties (e.g., Classic Chicken, Classic Turkey and a few others)? If gluten is the culprit, you may need to look for grain-free foods. You may also need to be careful of what you feed when you need high carb. Many cats are sensitive to gluten.

The good news is that you weren't using ProZinc all that long so hopefully, how you think about dose isn't too ingrained. Dosing strategy is very different with Lantus than with ProZinc.
 
Re: 1/17 Tessie Lou AMPS 286: First Day on Lantus from ProZi

Sandy...a warm LL welcome to you and the beautiful Miss Tessie. So she is now the youngest member of LL having beaten my Gracie (4) by a few months. Gracie has also had a history of chronic interstitial cystitis....I hope Tessie's are resolved. We've had had some great luck with Gracie's. You will get tons of wonderful advice from incredible people here. Welcome to our family.

BTW, I use one touch ultra mini as well....love it. I get my strips on ebay..much cheaper. I only buy them from the best dealers with 100% approval.
 
Re: 1/17 Tessie Lou AMPS 286: First Day on Lantus from ProZi

Welcome Sandy and Tessie Lou,
Lantus is a really good insulin and I hope it will make a difference for Tessie Lou. Congrats on all the progress you've made (leaving the uninformed vet, testing, setting up a spreadsheet, getting help here, etc.). You will certainly be able to find no gluten, low carb foods that taste better (and have much better ingredients) than Purina DM. When Stu(GA) was diagnosed he was started on Purina DM and hated it. I learned gradually what he liked and I have been feeding Rusty some of the same foods Stu liked, and Rusty likes them, too. Mostly I feed Wellness Turkey and By Nature 95% Turkey and Turkey Liver. I will add others when Rusty has been with us longer and I can see how he reacts. I hope you find a food that will do well in Tessie Lou's GI tract! I just checked out the food lists that some of our members put together (found the links in your earliest posts). There is great info. there. I've bookmarked them.

Again, welcome to Lantus Land!

Ella & Rusty
 
Re: 1/17 Tessie Lou AMPS 286: First Day on Lantus from ProZi

Another Tess! Welcome to LantusLand! You've gotten a lot of good advice already and how great that you have someone in your area to help you! Great that you got a good vet on board early on, it saves a whole lot of frustration.

Welcome again! :YMHUG:
 
Re: 1/17 Tessie Lou AMPS 286: First Day on Lantus from ProZi

WELCOME!!!

you'll like it here!

why is it that the Tess kitties are both so cute??

celi & binks
 
Re: 1/17 Tessie Lou AMPS 286: First Day on Lantus from ProZi

I am such an idiot! I just wrote a long post, in reply to each person's post to me, and when I hit Preview, I tried to edit it, and something happened and POOF, gone.

So, can I just say "thank you" to everybody, and that I appreciate all the info very much? I will plan to get +3, +6 and +9s tomorrow. I know the data is really important for when the numbers start going low. nailbite_smile I'll revisit those food links, and get some ideas to replace the FF (it was the classic style). I also have several cans of Purina DM that I want to use up, so I'll keep putting the broth on, which she likes. She also loves baked chicken.

Marjorie, I think our girls have a lot in common! What do you give Gracie for her interstitial cystitis? Tessie's culture came back negative, so vet thinks she may very well have IC. She says we'll deal with that after we get the diabetes under control. She mentioned something called Cosequin, I think?

Ok, I'm going to do another spot check at +8 today, and tomorrow I'll get the 3, 6, 9.

Thanks again everyone! Hope I can get this posted this time! :lol:
Sandy
 
Re: 1/17 Tessie Lou AMPS 286: First Day on Lantus from ProZi

Cosequin is a non-prescription med that is a combination of glucosamine and chondroiten. It's most frequently used for kitties with arthritis since it helps to reduce inflammation and improve joint health. From what I've read, the Cosequin (or similar products) helps to restore the protective layer of the bladder. I'm sure Marjorie has much more information on this topic.
 
Re: 1/17 Tessie Lou AMPS 286: First Day on Lantus from ProZi

Sandy: for a long time, I gave Gracie cosequin and duralactin; cosequin for the reasons Sienne mentioned and duralactin for the inflammation. What got us here was that after over three years of trying everything under the sun, we finally gave her steroids. They worked for a bit and then didn't. There's alot I'm leaving out but that's a good enough summary. Gracie's urine never had bacteria or crystals either....vet thought it was stress induced since she always did it whenever I had to go out of town, when we had workmen here, etc. I finally heard about a vet who did nutrition response testing and took Gracie there. She found that Gracie had extremely high levels of aluminum in her system which were affecting her bladder. Most likely culprit was overvaccination of the mother and Gracie got the aluminum in utero since (1) we don't vaccinate and (2) she started this as a kitten. Dr. B started Gracie's detox last May and (KNOCK ON WOOD, ANTI-JINX) she has not had an outbreak since; this from a cat that was having these symptoms every 2-3 weeks and the entire months of May and November. We were really sweating out last November and...no outbreak. Even with all this FD stress, she's still doing really well. She does have to stay on her supplements but it's minor and she likes them. There are not alot of vets out there who do NRT but you can google it; also, you can find out about human doctors who do it and ask if they are familiar with a vet who does NRT.

Forgot to add that in some reading I had recently done about human diabetes, they feel one cause is chronic inflammation of any type.....
 
Re: 1/17 Tessie Lou AMPS 286: First Day on Lantus from ProZi

Marjorie and Sienne, that is really interesting about Gracie! Who knew it could be caused by the mother's being overvacc'd? Bizarre. Well, this is bizarre too--I have IC myself. Was diagnosed 6 years ago, and went through lots of procedures and drugs before landing on Tramadol. It saved my life (well, that's an overstatement, but if you've ever known anyone who has this, it is a miserable, chronic, always uncomfortable and sometimes downright painful affliction. It runs your life.) So anyway, the Tramadol turned it all around and I've taken it twice daily for at least 5 years. I asked the vet if Tessie could have it and she said she would want to try the Cosequin first. I can believe that the chronic inflammation could bring on the diabetes, though. That totally makes sense to me. Poor Tessie, I hope we can get this all under control soon. She's been through so much in her short life, it doesn't seem fair. If only they could talk to us and tell us how they feel. :YMSIGH:

Going to bed, it's been a long day. This is the first day I've poked her ear so many times and I do hate doing it. Her little ears look terrible and I think they're sore, the way she folds them down when I start messing with them. Anyone use the pain cream or found anything that helps?
 
Re: 1/17 Tessie Lou AMPS 286: First Day on Lantus from ProZi

Before bed, I sometimes put a little neosporin with pain relief on Johnny's ear. It seems to help a little with healing (can't speak for soreness, but probably). Be careful not to put too much on or wipe her ear the next morning before the ear prick, because the greasy aspect can make affect the ability to get a nice little blood drop for the testing strip.
 
Re: 1/17 Tessie Lou AMPS 286: First Day on Lantus from ProZi

Sandy....from watching Gracie, I can only imagine how painful and uncomfortable IC can be. I did use tramadol with Gracie...believe me, we tried everything. Before the NRT, we had her on buprenex whenever she had an outbreak, cosequin, duralactin, rescue remedy. We could usually get her through an episode in a couple of days.

When we are done poking for the cycle, we put neosporin for pain on Gracie's ears. But you have to be sure and get it cleaned off before you start poking again the next cycle or the blood streaks instead of making a little dot.
 
Re: 1/17 Tessie Lou AMPS 286: First Day on Lantus from ProZi

Marjorie, I googled nutritional response treatment and found a couple vet clinics in the omaha area that mention it on their websites. I will check them out--thanks.
Now I'm really going to bed...
Sandy
 
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