Back again

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AnnieTime

AnnieTime

Member Since 2013
Hi there,

after two month remission I´m back again with Horst.

I´m totally frustrated, because I can´t control Horsts bs and i don´t know what to do. At the moment he is getting antibiotic because of a cystitis and his bs won´t stay low; his apre ist as high as his mpre, although insulin seems to work, see here:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc ... sp=sharing
(Maybe you need to choose the tab "Sep" out of the tabs below)

I don´t know if the dose of insulin is too high or too low and at this point I am so overwhelmed with all. I really don´t know what to do anymore, there is nobody who can help me or answer my questions, because most people don`t have experience with diabtetic cats.

I´m thinking of restarting again, try to find the right dose by starting with a lower unit and measuring bs each hour. But this only works in the evening or at weekend, because during the day I´m at work.

Can you tell me at what dose I should start with caninsulin?

Greets, Annie
 
I have never used Canninsulin - very few people have or do. If he has an infection and is on antibiotics, that could be raising the numbers. I'd pick a dose - maybe .3 or .4 and get midcycle numbers whenever possible. His numbers are noy dangerously high and with the impact of an infection, I'd be conservative and patient.
 
I agree, the infection may be causing the BG to raise.

Canninsulin is a short acting insulin and works better in dogs than cats. Most cats respond better to longer acting insulins - Lantus, Levemir, PZI & Prozinc. Have you considered asking your vet to change insulins to a longer acting one?

If you do change, you want to start with a low dose of 1 unit and gradually increase it by 1/4 - 1/2 unit until you find your optimal dose. However, you need to wait at least one week between dose changes to give your cat's body time to adjust to the new dose.
 
Any time you're dealing with infection, glucose levels may rise in diabetics. Its a common reason for needing insulin again.

Start low (0.5 units or smaller if you can eyeball it) and be sure to get midcycle tests to make sure you don't go too low.

Also look for batch changes in any canned food being used. These shift formula ingredient ratios from time to time.
 
The infection could well be the cause. How long has he been on the antibiotics and when did the cystitis start do you know?

Wendy
 
Good morning and thanks for your help.

@lisa: I asked my vet for Lantus before, but she said in Germany it is required to use Caninsulin before using a human insulin. Only if Caninsulin doesn´t work, then a human insulin may an option. Strange, because I know most people with diabetic cats use Lantus.
On the other hand I think Caninsulin is better for Horst. As far as I know with Lantus you need to feed several small portions of food. During the day I´m at work, no chance feeding him in between times. And leaving food , so he can eat whenever he wants, is not possible. I´ve got 4 cats and he would eat the other cats food for guarantee. He´s too fat anyway (8.8 kg)

@wendy:
On August,28 bs began to raise, day for day. A few days later somebody told me to check his urine for cystitis (Combur teststicks were all positive). September, 5 I went to the vet where he got an injection with a 4-day-antibiotic. Tomorrow I will carry on with antibiotic pills, altogether he will get antibiotic for 12 days.

How long may it take before bs begins to decrease?
 
AnnieTime said:
@lisa: I asked my vet for Lantus before, but she said in Germany it is required to use Caninsulin before using a human insulin. Only if Caninsulin doesn´t work, then a human insulin may an option. Strange, because I know most people with diabetic cats use Lantus.
On the other hand I think Caninsulin is better for Horst. As far as I know with Lantus you need to feed several small portions of food. During the day I´m at work, no chance feeding him in between times. And leaving food , so he can eat whenever he wants, is not possible. I´ve got 4 cats and he would eat the other cats food for guarantee. He´s too fat anyway (8.8 )
Click to expand...

With Lantus, you can feed your cats twice a day. I have several cats and feed them all canned food. If they did not finish their meals, I would leave it out during the day for them to finish it. I would just make sure that my diabetic cats ate before I would give them insulin. I never had any issues with this routine and have had 4 diabetic cats, 3 of which were on Lantus. All of these cats lived with several non-diabetic cats.

Canisulin is a short acting insulin. Because of this, cats usually have a steep drop in BG levels and then it spikes again. With the longer acting insulins, the decrease & increases are more gradual and the BG levels stay lower longer. If your vet will not prescribe a human insulin, both ProZinc and PZI are animal insulins. I am not sure if PZI is available in Germany, but BCP makes PZI insulin http://www.bcpvetpharm.com/products_bovine.htm and ProZinc is made by Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica, Inc which according their website, is a German company. Here is the link to the ProZinc website http://www.prozinc.us/. I have used PZI and it works as well as Lantus. There may be other users on this site that can share their experience with ProZinc.
 
Some folks here freeze part of the canned food so it may be nibbled as it thaws, too.

Or, can you find a timed feeder? That's another solution to leaving food out all the time.
 
Thanks for that info.
Let´s see how Caninsulin works-just bought a new bottle :roll: If it won´t help I will ask the vet for Lantus again.
 
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