advise needed - new

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omglolcats

Member Since 2018
i've been furiously reading the fdmb boards since my cat was diagnosed 3 weeks ago to get up to speed.

could use some advice because i was thrown a curve ball i wasn't expecting haven't yet read any other posts with similar experiences yet - (i'm sure there are but nervous and searching while nervous isnt helpful)

cats levels were tested one the first visit by blood and urine: 367 (blood) +3(1000) for urine; and just blood on the second visit: 375

cat was and is on a wet food diet and from reviewing the food charts - one of the low carb ones.
had switched cat to dry food for about 1 month right before symptoms started showing because of a work/family emergency apocalypse and thought (stupidly) it was better to have some dry food out since i was away from house for 18 hours at a time. the symptoms were excessive thirst and peeing all the time.

just started insulin yesterday - (1 unit of glargine) to be given twice daily - 12 hours apart. did not have a glucometer, but ordered the alphatrak 2 thing online. arrived last night after the second dose of insulin. (was not expecting it to arrive as quickly as it did - online said 7-10 business days - otherwise i would have waited to start insulin). was instructed by vet to start the insulin and begin monitoring the BG levels whenever the glucometer arrived.

so yesterday was the first day giving insulin and her doses were given as close to exactly 12 hours apart as you can probably get at 9:45 am and 9:46 pm.

cat was not super interested in food this morning but had a bite or two while i set up the glucometer - which is somewhat unusual. tested BG at 9:35 this morning - it was 180. called vet who said to hold dose and test again when i get home from work to let her know the results and also mentioned some cats only need to be dosed once a day on glargine.

is this normal? anyone experienced something similar or can point me in the direction of some similar posts i can read up on?
 
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omglolcats said:
dry food
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Is your kitty still on the dry food or just the low carb wet food again? If just the wet food, how long has she been on it?
The reason I ask, is sometimes the switch can rapidly decrease the BG levels and reduce the required insulin.

omglolcats said:
(1 unit of glargine) to be given twice daily
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That is not a bad starting dose. We suggest .25 or .50 depending if they are on dry food.

omglolcats said:
it was 180
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That is a safe number. Still higher than normal but probably lower than she has been.


omglolcats said:
but had a bite or two
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When the BG's are going up and down, that can make them a little off the food. Normal.
omglolcats said:
need to be dosed once a day on glargine.
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Lantus works best on the same dose twice a day. If you want to go to .50u twice day that would work way better. This can be done by using a half mark syringe and drawing from the pen if that is what you have.
 
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It can last longer than 12 hours.
It takes about 4 hours to really kick in and start working. So the overlap is what helps keep the BG from going up too high before the next dose kicks in. In most cases.
I would test him when you get home and see where he is. If he's still under 200 I would think about reducing the dose of you can't monitor to see how low the 1 unit takes him. There are other lantus users with much more experience than I have so let's see what they have to say.
 
Thank you so much for the fast responses....

Cat was switched back to wet food (even before I knew she had become diabetic). she was only given dry food for about a month because of a work/life apocalypse and i thought she was starving with me being away from the house for so long during each day (18-20 hours). As soon as things normalized, she was put back on her regular diet but symptoms had already begun. I made the vet appointment because she was drinking and peeing so much plus sleeping by the water bowl.

Is it normal that her BG level was 180 12 hours after her last dose after the first day of insulin? I guess my understanding was it should be back up to or closer to the original high level by this time.

I'm fine giving half doses. The syringes that were available at the pharmacy were 1 unit marked, but perhaps I can exchange or just get new ones. If the vet suggests once a day, should I push for smaller doses 2 times daily? That is, what would be more likely to bring about remission?
 
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omglolcats said:
should I push for smaller doses 2 times daily?
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I would, it would keep her system more level. Which will make her feel better overall, allow her system time to heal both morning and night. The issue really is how low is the Lantus taking her. If you keep to 1U once a day , it will most likely drop her too low then she will bounce and it will look like she is really high. Keep things on a even keel is the name of the game. Then as she levels out, goes lower, you will keep dropping the dose until it looks like she is in a normal range on a very low dose. Then you do a 14 day OTJ trail - go off the juice and see if her pancreas can do the work all on its own.

I have a feeling that one month of carb loading, was just too much for her system especially as she wasn't used to. Which is ok, because she can come straight back to normal with the right support for the pancreas to heal.


omglolcats said:
perhaps I can exchange or just get new ones
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Worth a try. I just use the half unit marked ones every time.

omglolcats said:
That is, what would be more likely to bring about remission?
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Remission is always possible.
 
Her BG tonight is 128...

So even lower. It's been 24 hours (just shy) since her last insulin dose. Is this normal?
 
omglolcats said:
Her BG tonight is 128...

So even lower. It's been 24 hours (just shy) since her last insulin dose. Is this normal?
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That is pretty good for no insulin. You could skip tonight and get some spot tests in to see how her body is handling the food by itself.
You could give insulin but I would try 0.25 units only if you can monitor and steer if she goes too low.
If it was my cat, I would try skipping again and get a couple tests to see what's going on. Her body is definitely working at it. So it could be even lower tomorrow. Without insulin they can run as low as 30-40. My non Diabetic runs about 50.
I'll see what a few others have to say. @Kris & Teasel @Rachel @Djamila @Chris & China
 
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I'm using the alphatrak 2 and I know from reading the boards many use the human glocometer. Do you mind me asking what you are using?

Also, p.s. the vet recommended skipping tonight as well and testing again tomorrow before breakfast. If it's under 200 then too, they said no dose for now.
 
One big difference between the vet numbers from your initial diagnosis and what you're seeing now is stress. Cats run high at the vet's office because they are scared. At home, their numbers are usually lower.

In addition, the longer she's off the high carb food, the more time she has to heal, so it may be that her little pancreas is kicking back in.

Keep an eye on the numbers, and keep posting if you're in doubt about shooting or skipping. Fingers crossed her numbers keep heading this direction!

And by the way, great job getting started on home testing, and kudos to your vet for telling you to do it! So so so many vets don't even mention it or even discourage it. And so many owners are afraid to try it. You're doing a great job taking care of your cat!
 
Thank you, I was terrified about hurting her but reading this board, I realized I could be hurting her more if I didn't test. My vet was ready to give me a speech about using the glucometer at the follow up appointment and was thrown off when I said, I'll do it. She gave me a demonstration immediately and had me practice giving insulin with a water solution. She also talked about what values would be helpful to track and why and even printed off a bunch of reading material for me. It made it so much easier the first time (even tho I pricked myself with needle full of insulin haha)

Fingers crossed it continues, but I'm ready to go if she needs insulin, testing, whatever it takes.
 
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