Allergic to Lantus???

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Terri & Tananda

Member Since 2010
I am asking this for a friend who's cat is currently on Lantus.

My friends cat Shakota has developed a rash around his eyes that appears to be very itchy and leaves him constantly pawing at his face. Her vet is insisting it is a food allergy, but from what she tells me she is feeding him that just doesn't sound right. The pharmacy information she received with the insulin says in humans a rare side effect could be a facial rash around the eyes. It sounds reasonable to me that the insulin is causing it, but I have no experience with lantus so I can't answer this question for her. I think his insulin needs to be changed, but she is hesitant to challenge her vet. Any information anyone has on this side effect that I could help arm her with would be very helpful. Has anyone ever seen this in a cat?

Terri
 
in rare instances, i have heard of itchiness at the injection site with lantus or levemir. haven't heard anything about a rash or itchiness around the eyes, but i suppose anything is possible. i'd be more inclined to think of flea/mite bites... or as the vet said, food allergies.

sorry, not much help...
 
I am not much help either, but if your friend suspect the Lantus as a problem, why not just talk to the vet about switching to Levemir? I think it may just be simpler to change the food, but it's hard to say without knowing what foods and treats are now being fed, what was fed before, and when the reaction started. How long has that cat been on Lantus and also this particular container of Lantus?
Lots of variables, and I don't think I would jump to the rare one first when you can just try something simple like some food trials.
 
What food or foods is she feeding? I have a civie here that gets a rash like that around his eyes if he gets anything with grain or chicken in it. This includes even the low carb canned foods...At least for him rice is fine, but all other grains and especially chicken will have him tearing his face around his eyes apart. So around here it is Friskies Turkey and Giblets or a fishy flavor for variety, or I have a very itchy civie. Also interestingly enough the food allergy in him didn't surface until he was 15 years old...before that he ate dry grain and chicken laden foods his entire life and was fine. So it could be with your friend's cat something that is very recent allergy.

My drooler will do the same thing if his food contains artificial coloring, even hard boiled dyed Easter eggs can send him into a scratching and chewing nightmare where he will chew and lick huge holes in his fur. So like the others I would suspect like her vet that it is more prone to be a food allergy rather than the Lantus.

Mel, Maxwell, Autumn & The Fur Gang
 
Shakota was on Lantus for 2 months, but as to the food, all I know for certain is the she is feeding him grain free Blue Buffalo. She does have 8 other cats and it is entirely possible that he has gotten into their food (he is fed separately, and in a different room). She did speak to the vet again about the rash being caused to the insulin, her vet did some research and decided that it is a good possibility that the rash is related. Shakota is currently off insulin for a few days while he completes a steroid series then he is being switched to PZI. Hopefully that does the trick and allows the rash to clear up.

I saw a picture of the cat and the poor baby looks like he just went 10 rounds with Mike Tyson.

Thanks,
Terri
 
Is the cat an indoor cat only? If not, there may be something in the yard that he rubs against that is causing the allergy. Just a thought.
 
I had a similar thing happen to Buca, very slight though... one of his eyes would always look slightly swollen... I took him off fancy feast and put him on Whiskas pates and it got better for a little while, but now and then I wondered if it was starting to come back again ... he is off lantus now and hasn't had any issues.... so, could be! It was very very slight swelling, not at all as bad as what you had described, so I figured it was some kind of food allergy.

Both foods he was on were gluten free low carb high protein, he is an indoor cat only, and we live so far north we don't have ticks or fleas.
 
We've had similar problems as other people on this old topic, with some rapid breathing, vomiting and diarrhea, plus stubborn BG numbers. In fact, when we've temporarily reduced the dose, Sammy, our 14yo male, numbers improved temporarily.

It's been a relentless quest to improve his BG numbers over the past 18 months, and we stuck with Lantus, believing any vomiting etc, was due to some GI issues, and so treated him with Pepcid, Cerenia etc. It seems we might have been mistaken...

We have just requested a prescription of PZI/Ventsulin from our vet, and I'll let you know how it goes. Meanwhile, it might be worth your while to read this academic article on this 2016 Glargine hypersensitivity.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5362920/
 

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