1 week on Lantus

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NancyJac

NancyJac

Member Since 2013
So Hairy has now been on Lantus for a week. Right off the bat after the first dose he started bouncing. Then his BG was relatively stable (high but stable). This morning his AMPS was very high but I think that was a combination of stress and possible fur shot last night. Symptomatically he is better His coat is glossier and not as matted, his appetite, thirst, and urination is more normal (not as excessive), his boniness along his spine is not as pronounced.

He continues to be very hard to handle, especially for BG testing. I rescued him 3 years ago from an abusive situation and he was frightened of people. He still doesn't like being picked up, carried, or held.

I don't want to be too quick to raise his dose, so unless the vet advises me differently, I plan to continue at the same dose for another week to see if things stay about the same.
 
The one thing I can say in looking at your spreadsheet is that you haven't gotten any PMPS tests in or any tests at night. there just isn't enough data to know just how well the dose is working for him.

Are you able and willing to get PM tests?
 
To supplement the blood testing, check out my signature link Secondary Monitoring Tools for additional, less intrusive, assessments you may be able to make to monitor his health.
 
I've had to make a judgement call weighing more frequent testing against the stress that testing causes him. I don't want to start WW3 again or get beat up again about my decision to only test him once a day for now. I know my cat and I don't have any compelling need right now to put him through testing 4X/day just to get a BG number. I do monitor him very closely for any symptoms of hypoglycemia and to note any change in his diabetic symptoms. I have multiple cats so monitoring his water intake is not going to be accurate but I do track his food intake and urination output (he has a preferred litterbox and his usage habits are a bit different from the others so I can identify which clumps are his.) I've also been monitoring his behavior for grooming, activity, interaction, etc. If I were to test him more often at this point, his behavior would be only a reflection of being poked and not either hyper or hypo glycemia. This cat was abused for a good part of the first 12 years of his life, and frequent testing/shots just feels like he is back in an abusive situation again and I'm not going to make the last years of his life as miserable as his previous years were.
 
You're doing great getting in some tests with such a difficult fella! Poor little guy, going through so much trauma in his previous life! cat_pet_icon You're both lucky to have each other. :YMHUG:

Not sure if you're already trying this, but what you can do is take him to his testing spot when you would like to get a test in but don't test him! Just play with his ears and/or feet (if he lets you) and feed him treats/catnip/scritches for as long as you can get him to stay. The more you do this, the more he'll associate the test spot with pleasantness and then eventually, when you can get him to sit still long enough, go in for another test. Basically, warm him up to the process first before you do any actual testing. That'll help relieve your stress (which kitties pick up on really well) because you know you're not going to have to force him to be still for an ear poke and it will relieve his stress because all he's getting is goodness for the majority of the time when you're not actually performing a test. Don't try to fight him when you're doing these "trial runs," so let him go if he's not in the mood.
 
Unfortunately, that gambit is a non-starter for Hairy because for him, being taken to any spot is already unpleasurable for him. It took well over a year to get Hairy to be reasonably comfortable in our house, with my husband and me and our other cats. In the 3 years we have had him, he has not become and never will be a lap cat. He doesn't like to be picked up or held or carried for any reason. He has finally found some contentment in his life exactly because we haven't tried to make him into a lap cat but have let him stay in his own comfort zone. For Hairy, goodness is being left alone and not being picked up, carried, or held. I wish that if I had to have a diabetic cat, it would be any of my cats other than him. This is very hard for a cat that has been abused most of his life. The best I can hope for is to balance necessary treatment with the lowest level of abuse (from Hairy's viewpoint) I can manage. Bottom line is if I wait for him to sit still long enough to be tested, he and I will both die of old age before that happens.

I really do appreciate all of your help and suggestions for making Hairy more "cooperative", but he is not your typical house cat and those types of things just won't work with him. He is in some ways like a feral cat except that with a feral cat they are motivated by fight or flight as a necessary survival skill. For an abused cat it is a similarly necessary skill set except that Hairy's response is more one of cowardice and fear of facing the inevitable. He will never be fine with this. I am trying to make this tolerable for him and that means balancing both medical and behavioral quality of life issues.
 
Nancy...since Hairy has "his own box", you might want to seriously consider using the Keto Diastix (or something similar)..They aren't terribly accurate at measuring his glucose levels, but they'll let you know if he's going over the renal threshold of about 240 and the extra glucose is spilling into his urine...as well as checking for ketones (anything more than a trace is an emergency)

You'll need to catch him within 30 minutes of peeing, but any extra data you can get will be useful..for both the vet and you!!..and it's a lot less stressful for poor Hairy!!
 
Hello Nancy,
I am new here and I too have a hard a handle cat. When the vet told me she was diabetic my first thoughts were "oh ****...sh'e not going to let me give her shots..ha!" I immediately starting thinking of how I could best let her last months with me be lived out but was going to try with her anyway. After a few days of chasing her around the house, scruffing her, holding her down, bites and scratches someone suggested to give shots to her while she is eating (This was before I found this board). Taffy was still leary at first but after about a week she quit flinching and now pays me no mind. Her BGs were really high at the vets and they suspected were because she was so stressed out. For weeks they were asking me if I thought I could home test her and I looked at them liked they were crazy - I would prefer not to lose my fingers and be shredded to pieces. When Taffy gets cornered or anything else happens that freaks her out she attacks and doesn't back down. She is not a lap cat. She likes to be left alone. She will come lay next to me on the couch and let me pet her on the head and back only. I've had this cat for 8 years and shes always been this way. Her shelter nick names were Devil and Queen of Mean. She ended up with me b/c 1)she wasn't nice to people on adoption day at petsmart and 2)none of the other volunteers liked her. I kindof liked her attitude and was successful in taming down some other difficult cats so I thought I would make her my lifetime project. She lived in that petsmart cage for 6 months before I was able to bring her home. Fast forward to today...
Six weeks and 6 vet visits later they are still asking me to test her at home..that's when I found this board and read and watched videos until I thought my head would explode. I established a "testing spot" lured the cat up there with some venison jerky treats and stayed still until she would relex. We went thru this for about a week. Slowly I introduced the testing equiptment without actually testing her...that took another few days. When I thought she was ready it was me that kept messing up. But after one try (successful or not) I would give her a treat and walk away. The first time I got her she took her treat walked away and came back and bit me on the ankle. This week, the treats were not keeping her distracted long enough and she started growling, biting and scratching at me again. So we have changed to a little food smashed down in bowl. Who knows what kind of challenge whe will bring for me next week. Moral of the story is never say never. It may not happen quickly, it still may not happen at all. But over time maybe it will.
KPassa has a pretty good document on difficult cats...it takes patience, a lot of time, and consistancy..maybe someone else who knows how to share docs will post it on here for you.
I wish you and Hairy a lot of luck and want you to know you are not alone. Frankly I get a little (no..A LOT) jealous of other peoples nice cats. Mine will never be that but I love her anyway.
Scarlett & Taffycat
 
This is the Kpassa article about testing challenging cats that was mentioned. She wrote it up after her experiences with her feral kitten Michaelangelo. It's part of the ear testing top 20+ tips but gets lost in the shuffle.

Ear Testing Psychology

Remember Nancy, take this one day at a time. Do what you can for that one day. Remember to take care of yourself too. We know you have lots of responsibilities in life.
 
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