Marie & Kevin
Member Since 2022
Hello everyone,
I want to first introduce myself as I am new to the group. My 12.5 yo male cat was diagnosed with diabetes August 2022 after I found him in DKA. Since then it has been a wild ride trying to get him under control leading to my current vet referring us to a internal medicine specialist as he was >500 all day on 2U BID of Lantus. He had a freestyle libre placed and in 2 weeks we went from 2U to 9U BID per the IM vet. About 4 weeks later once the freestyle was off, he was having morning vomiting after insulin and I checked a BG which was 80 so we have had another freestyle libre placed. His curves are very erratic where one morning he will be 130 but in evenings he is 350. The vet has me decrease his AM dose based upon the AMPS but then titrate back up that night.
On 12/23, I made the decision to drop to 8U BID and stay at that dose as my monitor ends on 12/27 and I need a truly stable dose to actually start to see how he responds to the insulin. I know he did okay on the 9U from 11/22 - 12/11 when he started vomiting potentially from a lower BG and this is why I chose 8U BID.
A couple of things I want to mention. I am looking for a third vet for a new opinion as once the freestyle is off, I cannot check a BG curve in my cat (he bites and attacks so much the vet office couldn’t even do them which is why he has the monitor). I am trying my best to start glucose checks on him but he even attacks me when I give the insulin despite treats (he is super sweet otherwise). I know he is still not well controlled and hope I can find another vet soon as the erratic dosing changes before confused me a lot. The other thing is the current specialist charges $450 for each FreeStyle placement which is adding up.
This group has made me aware of how high the carbs are in his diet and once I get a new freestyle placed, I plan to place him on the wet purina pro DM as Dr. Pierson listed this as containing 6% carbs. I chose this diet bc he does have a h/o urinary crystals and it will offer him protection. Kevin has never liked wet food but I am going to try my best.
Not sure if the group can see my spreadsheet and sorry for the long post but I am having two main problems with his insulin/glucose curves. First, some days like 12/24, he will have a pretty decent curve overall but then today (12/25) he becomes very uncontrolled all day and never hits a decent nadir. I do not know why this happens. Yesterday I was cooking/cleaning a lot which can upset him. I also got scared of the lower glucose and did feel him a little more kibble than usual. Second, when he does reach a nadir as he did on 12/14, 12/15, 12/17, 12/18, 12/24 he seems to reach it at the time of the next AM dose which always really scares me. He dose fast overnight bc he has eaten all his dry kibble for the day and this might contribute. I know Lantus is dosed more on nadir and it does start acting right away but it also confuses me why we then check a pre shot level and stall. Any help on this point will be much appreciated surrounding when to stall, etc
I want to first introduce myself as I am new to the group. My 12.5 yo male cat was diagnosed with diabetes August 2022 after I found him in DKA. Since then it has been a wild ride trying to get him under control leading to my current vet referring us to a internal medicine specialist as he was >500 all day on 2U BID of Lantus. He had a freestyle libre placed and in 2 weeks we went from 2U to 9U BID per the IM vet. About 4 weeks later once the freestyle was off, he was having morning vomiting after insulin and I checked a BG which was 80 so we have had another freestyle libre placed. His curves are very erratic where one morning he will be 130 but in evenings he is 350. The vet has me decrease his AM dose based upon the AMPS but then titrate back up that night.
On 12/23, I made the decision to drop to 8U BID and stay at that dose as my monitor ends on 12/27 and I need a truly stable dose to actually start to see how he responds to the insulin. I know he did okay on the 9U from 11/22 - 12/11 when he started vomiting potentially from a lower BG and this is why I chose 8U BID.
A couple of things I want to mention. I am looking for a third vet for a new opinion as once the freestyle is off, I cannot check a BG curve in my cat (he bites and attacks so much the vet office couldn’t even do them which is why he has the monitor). I am trying my best to start glucose checks on him but he even attacks me when I give the insulin despite treats (he is super sweet otherwise). I know he is still not well controlled and hope I can find another vet soon as the erratic dosing changes before confused me a lot. The other thing is the current specialist charges $450 for each FreeStyle placement which is adding up.
This group has made me aware of how high the carbs are in his diet and once I get a new freestyle placed, I plan to place him on the wet purina pro DM as Dr. Pierson listed this as containing 6% carbs. I chose this diet bc he does have a h/o urinary crystals and it will offer him protection. Kevin has never liked wet food but I am going to try my best.
Not sure if the group can see my spreadsheet and sorry for the long post but I am having two main problems with his insulin/glucose curves. First, some days like 12/24, he will have a pretty decent curve overall but then today (12/25) he becomes very uncontrolled all day and never hits a decent nadir. I do not know why this happens. Yesterday I was cooking/cleaning a lot which can upset him. I also got scared of the lower glucose and did feel him a little more kibble than usual. Second, when he does reach a nadir as he did on 12/14, 12/15, 12/17, 12/18, 12/24 he seems to reach it at the time of the next AM dose which always really scares me. He dose fast overnight bc he has eaten all his dry kibble for the day and this might contribute. I know Lantus is dosed more on nadir and it does start acting right away but it also confuses me why we then check a pre shot level and stall. Any help on this point will be much appreciated surrounding when to stall, etc
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