? 10/20 Dexter, AMPS 412

Rena

Rena

Member Since 2021
Hello. I am a new member of this site and the Lantus discussion. My cat Dexter has been diabetic for over 5 years. I had been listening to the vets advice and feeding him the dry "prescription" food and testing his blood sugar every 12 hours. Per vet's orders, I had been administering lantus depending on what his blood sugar level was. Recently, his fructosamine level was too high, so I am converting to low carb high protein wet can food diet. His vet prescribed three units every 12 hours, but upon discussion on this website, I've been doing 1.5 units. Please see Dexter's spreadsheet. As you can see, he had some low values but lately has been quite high. I am worried due to fructosamine level and glucose in his urine that I am not doing enough to regulate him. I just switched from the Lantus vile to pen today. Any advice would be very appreciated. I have so much to learn and I want to do what's best for my handsome little guy.
 
Hello and welcome to you and sweet Dexter. I'm including a link to your first post on Feline Health, so people can see what happened previously.

Can you tell me what brand/make of food you are feeding now? And how often? Was it a 100% transition or gradual. Sorry for the million questions. If you put a note in the Remarks section on the day you made a food change, plus any other significant changes that could impact the blood sugar, like meds, it'll help us help you.

Dexter just had those lows three days ago which caused a bounce, a skipped dose, and a change in dose there too. All those changes can interrupt the Lantus depot and mess with his numbers. One of our sayings is that Lantus will teach you patience. :) The analogy is turning a cruise ship instead of a speed boat. It takes a while to see impacts of changes. We learn to sit on our hands a lot.

Are you testing his urine regularly for glucose? If so, are you also checking for ketones? If not, you probably should be when he's in high numbers.

One last thing, with your schedule, when do you think you'll be able to get some BG test data during the day?
 
Thank you for your reply! I tried to gradually transition him starting 10/15 from dry to canned food, but he immediately took to the canned food. I am still leaving the dry out for now. But not refilling it nearly as much. I will probably take away all dry food within the next week.

Unfortunately, I work a full-time job, but I am off work this Friday and do not work weekends, so I could do some curves or more intense blood glucose testing starting Friday.

I have never tested his urine. The vet did so at his appointment last week, so that is the only way I know he had glucose in his urine. Should I try to upload his full lab results?

I do have a ketone blood tester. I tested him about a week and a half ago and he did not have ketones. There were also none detected at his vet appointment last week.
 
Wendy&Neko said:
Hello and welcome to you and sweet Dexter. I'm including a link to your first post on Feline Health, so people can see what happened previously.

Can you tell me what brand/make of food you are feeding now? And how often? Was it a 100% transition or gradual. Sorry for the million questions. If you put a note in the Remarks section on the day you made a food change, plus any other significant changes that could impact the blood sugar, like meds, it'll help us help you.

Dexter just had those lows three days ago which caused a bounce, a skipped dose, and a change in dose there too. All those changes can interrupt the Lantus depot and mess with his numbers. One of our sayings is that Lantus will teach you patience. :) The analogy is turning a cruise ship instead of a speed boat. It takes a while to see impacts of changes. We learn to sit on our hands a lot.

Are you testing his urine regularly for glucose? If so, are you also checking for ketones? If not, you probably should be when he's in high numbers.

One last thing, with your schedule, when do you think you'll be able to get some BG test data during the day?
Click to expand...
Rena said:
Thank you for your reply! I tried to gradually transition him starting 10/15 from dry to canned food, but he immediately took to the canned food. I am still leaving the dry out for now. But not refilling it nearly as much. I will probably take away all dry food within the next week.

Unfortunately, I work a full-time job, but I am off work this Friday and do not work weekends, so I could do some curves or more intense blood glucose testing starting Friday.

I have never tested his urine. The vet did so at his appointment last week, so that is the only way I know he had glucose in his urine. Should I try to upload his full lab results?

I do have a ketone blood tester. I tested him about a week and a half ago and he did not have ketones. There were also none detected at his vet appointment last week.
Click to expand...



I am sorry I forgot to tell you what food I am giving him. I am transitioning him from the dry "diabetic management" to Friskies pates that are low carb.
 
I am trying to link a Google doc with his blood and urine results from the vet appointment on Oct 14. The first page is mostly blank, but please scroll down. I hope this link works!
 
OK, sounds like he still has some access to dry food. Funny though, how often they say "what took you so long!!" when you finally switch them to wet food. :p Are you leaving food out for him to graze on, or when in the cycle does he get the wet food? The bit of dry food could still be impacting his numbers somewhat, and perhaps the decrease in dose was too much of a drop. Usually we do smaller reductions than you did.

If you aren't doing urine testing, you might want to test him for ketones while he's in those high numbers a bit more frequently. I can see the blood/urine results, and nothing leaps out as concerning. He just needs to get a bit better regulated. We do have a Labs page on the spreadsheet where you can enter the lab values and also reference ranges used by the lab. I found it a handy tool to track trends over time. I even use it for my non diabetic cats now.

A curve on Friday sounds like a good plan. Assuming you gave 1.5 units this AM (spreadsheet entry is blank for units), that will be enough time on the dose for us to get an idea how he's doing on it.
 
He seems hungrier since starting the canned food. I have been splitting 2 cans of Friskies pates among 3 cats daily. I feed them right before I give him his shot every 12 hours. Should I increase to feeding them three times a day?
 
I might feed 4 times a day. At both preshot times, then a few hours after. Smaller meals is easier on a healing (we hope) pancreas.
 
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