Re: 6/8 & 6/9 with a dose increase He did not make it past +
Our vet wants to switch Ebby to Lantus, so we will be doing so in a few days. I can let you know how that goes for us. I do expect she will still show similar bounces, but he just wants to try and see if we can flatten out the cycle some. It does feel like we're backtracking a little by switching, but figure it's worth a try.
In general, if the dose of Lantus is "right", you'd see flatter cycles than you would with Prozinc.
The really important difference between the two insulin types is this:
With Lantus, the primary number you evaluate is the nadir number (rather than the preshot number). It is the nadir that indicates how well the dose is working, and that number determines if a dose increase or decrease is advisable. From "watching" several cats in the past two years switch from a "P" to an "L" insulin, that major difference seems to be the one thing that people switching to Lantus or Levemir need to "grasp".
As the diabetes improves, Lantus users also need to "get" that shots are still recommended when the preshot test numbers are "low". and people often will give shots on a BG value that is within the "normal" BG range. For instance, it is not rare to see a Lantus cat get a full normal dose of insulin when the preshot test gives you a 100 on the meter.
But that only comes with plenty of data on your spreadsheet that shows you that it would be okay to give insulin on a number that low. Nobody suggests you do so without that data to base their advice upon. By contrast, you would be hard pressed to find someone well versed with Prozinc telling you to shoot on a preshot BG of 100. And that goes back to my first statement - in general, if the dose is right, as the condition improves, you would expect flatter 12 hour curves on Lantus.
But all cats bounce, on every type of insulin. Until they don't.
