4/23 Hawx AMPS 349, +2 462 first day on Lantus after Vetsulin

[LisaAF]

Good morning,

Just touching base as it is our first day giving Hawx Lantus after 2 months on Vetsulin. Our vet had us start at 1unit. I was very nervous making the switch. I appreciate your info and expertise.

 

[Hercule's mum]

HI Lisa,

Welcome to Lantus gang! One unit seem a safe dose for Hawx given where he was with vetinsulin. Have you had a chance to look through the stickies at the top of the lantus forum? It might be worth looking through the dosing methods one, and the one that explains how lantus is different from vetinsulin, as a depot insulin. It works a bit different and it takes a couple of reads to get your head around it
Once you have read the dosage protocols, people will be asking which method you will be using, if you would like help with dosage. So is also a good idea to take a few days to read it and re-read it and ask lots of questions. People here love to help, but they are keen on data and protocol!
Also, what are you feeding Hawx? Food is a big part of the response many cats here see it. Sometimes just changing to low carb can lead some kitties into remission.
We switched to Lantus from Prozinc and it was a very good result. Hope it works well for Hawx also!

 

[LisaAF]

Thank you for the quick response. I have read everything, multiple times LOL. Still nervous. Hawx is on a straight low carb wet food diet… Mostly Friskies with some fancy feast. He is one of 6 so that definitely is worth mentioning.

In your opinion, what are the pros and cons regarding SLGS versus TR? Currently, I am following the advice of our vet. Always open to suggestions.

 

[JaxBenji]

Hi! Welcome to LBL land So glad you were able to switch to Lantus as it's much better for kitties than Vetsulin. As Karen mentioned, a ton of info at the top of the board (the "yellow stickies") - so work your way through them when you have the time.

Is your Friskies wet? You may want to add this to your signature (see mine for an example). There's a food chart here if you haven't seen it (low carb is <10% and most of us go for <5%). You'll also want to have Medium Carb (11-15%) on hand and High Carb (>15%). I used FF Gravy Lovers Turkey or Chicken as my medium carb (they are both 15%) and I used FF Gravy Lovers Beef as my high carb (20%).

What kind of syringes are you using? You may know to switch to U-100 ones for lantus - there's some info here on syringes and insulin care. We usually increase by 0.25 or 0.5 increments (depending on nadir) - so syringes with half unit markings make this easier (not easy lol - syringes don't come with quarter unit markings).

pros and cons regarding SLGS versus TR

This is very caregiver-specific - if kitty is on only wet food, the choice is yours (if there is any dry food in the picture, you need to follow SLGS); On TR, you must get at least one test each cycle (in addition to pre-shot values) and be willing to monitor additionally as needed (e.g., if kitty heads to lower numbers). On TR, you increase faster than SLGS so the chance of getting to regulated numbers quicker is higher. Also, note that if you choose a dosing method and then change your mind, you can switch (it's just not advised to "mix" dosing methods for safety reasons).

What do your other kitties eat? are they all on low-carb wet too? It's something to consider if Hawx sneaks their food or not

Just linking your original intro post (here) for anyone that wants to read background.

I'm sure others will be by - ask questions it's all so overwhelming, especially at the beginning.

 

[LisaAF]

Sorry, I thought I had all that information in my signature, but I think it’s in my profile LOL. All six cats are on a low-carb, wet, fancy feast/Friskies diet. (I carry the food chart around like a Bible, I wish it was updated. I have tried to reach out to some of the companies for more updated information, but never heard back.)

I’ve been doing SLGS thus far, I will probably stick with that for now as I am just getting acclimated with Lantus.

I have switched syringes to the U 100 with the change of insulin. I still need to buy syringes with half units, I grabbed what I was able to find to get started.

 

[tiffmaxee]

Welcome. We usually take the dose of the previous insulin into consideration when switching so would have started with 1.5 so don’t be surprised if you need to increase with your first curve in 7 days. Since you plan to start following SLGS please add that to your signature. You might want to skip a few rows on your ss and write switched to Lantus so the reduction in dose is clear should anyone look quickly. Keep asking questions as you read. There’s a big learning curve with fd.

 

[Hercule's mum]

Hawx is a cutie! He seems young from the picture. How old is he?

I agree with everything Susanne said. Just wanted to add that one reason some people follow TR, is that it has a higher probability of leading kitty into remission. Notice, higher probability... nothing is guaranteed, and as you will hear very often: Every cat is different (ECID)! Younger cats also have higher probability to go into remission.

I think most of us did start on SLGS, and many transfer over to TR as they feel more confortable and their life routine allows. Some change to TR for a while (while they are home more often) and change back after if they are going to be away a lot. TR does require closer monitoring, especially if you have a cat like hercules that like to throw surprises all the time....

Another suggestion I have for you is to look at other people's spreadsheets. Many of us (not me!) keep great notes, so you can learn a lot about management by looking at those notes, and also to get an idea of how other kitties progress, or not.

 

[LisaAF]

Hawx is a cutie! He seems young from the picture. How old is he?

I agree with everything Susanne said. Just wanted to add that one reason some people follow TR, is that it has a higher probability of leading kitty into remission. Notice, higher probability... nothing is guaranteed, and as you will hear very often: Every cat is different (ECID)! Younger cats also have higher probability to go into remission.

I think most of us did start on SLGS, and many transfer over to TR as they feel more confortable and their life routine allows. Some change to TR for a while (while they are home more often) and change back after if they are going to be away a lot. TR does require closer monitoring, especially if you have a cat like hercules that like to throw surprises all the time....

Another suggestion I have for you is to look at other people's spreadsheets. Many of us (not me!) keep great notes, so you can learn a lot about management by looking at those notes, and also to get an idea of how other kitties progress, or not.

Thank you. I appreciate the advice and information. I will probably switch to TR when I get more comfortable with the Lantus.

Hawx is 11. He has lost some weight from the diabetes. He’s a sweetheart but getting a little ornery with his furry housemates lately.

 

[JaxBenji]

more updated information,

Yeah it's hard to get Some companies do post nutrition info publicly - Wellness and Weruva are two I know for sure that do this; a lot of us have had luck checking the Chewy Q&A (or asking on the Chewy Q&A if you don't see the answer). For calculating carb %, you're looking for the % of total calories that are carbohydrates. This post explains how to do the calculation - you just need "as fed" or "dry matter basis" (DMB) values. If you ever want help doing the calc, feel free to tag me and I will help (I love numbers lol ). To tag someone, you write the "@" symbol and then the person's screen name.

Good job on your signature It's the first place everyone looks for info like dosing method and for the SS

 

[Wendy&Neko]

Hello and welcome, I'm happy to hear you are switching from Vetsulin to Lantus. My Neko was on Caninsulin (Vetsulin is a US rebrand of the same thing) before switching to Lantus. Lantus was a much better insulin for her. I made the HUGE mistake of starting back at 1 unit as per the vet's suggestion. It took me forever, and that was even starting with TR, to get back to where she'd been on the Caninsulin dose, which was 5 units. If you had posted here before starting, we would have suggested starting at 2 unit of Lantus, maybe 1.75 units if you wanted to be conservative.