Day 2 Lantus Question

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Julie and Eleanor (GA)

Julie and Eleanor (GA)

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Started Eleanor on Lantus yesterday at .5 unit because I was scared to start on 1 unit.
Yesterday: AM PS 251
+3 218
+5 213
PM PS 281
Did not test in the night.
Today AM PS 284
+5 259
I was practicing testing Eleanor for a couple days prior to starting the insulin and my question is, why are her numbers today higher than they have been? Is this normal?
Should I go ahead and move her dose up to the 1 unit that I guess I should have started her on in the first place?
Sorry I haven't yet figured out the spreadsheet!
 
Eleanor and Julie said:
my question is, why are her numbers today higher than they have been? Is this normal?
Should I go ahead and move her dose up to the 1 unit that I guess I should have started her on in the first place?
Sorry I haven't yet figured out the spreadsheet!
Click to expand...

It's normal for bgs to fluctuate, especially for a new diabetic :smile: Food, stress, etc can have some effect on bgs.

Stick with 0.5 units for at least a week. It takes at least that long for the dose to "settle" and for you to see any noticable effect on bgs. There's also something called "shed" that needs time to build up in a cat's body. Here's info about that: http://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=150

Have you read the stickies over on the Lantus board? There's good info there for you to learn about how Lantus works in cats :smile: http://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewforum.php?f=9

The spreadsheet templates and instructions are here: http://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=50130
 
Hey Julie!
Sorry I didn't see you earlier....DH not having a good afternoon so haven't been online.

Remember us telling you yesterday that it will take a few days for Lantus to begin affecting Eleanor's BG numbers. Lantus doesn't work by immediately dumping insulin into the blood like Humulin. A small amount will release immediately but the majority of it will be stored. When Lantus is injected, it creates sort of a..well, think of it like a hard candy that slowly dissolves when water gets to it. It's referred to as the 'shed' or 'depot' in many documents. Right now it's building that shed. Hope that makes sense - I have NO medical background, should have heard me asking for insulin and all KT's supplies. I was gritting my teeth so badly trying to say I needed to buy syringes.

These are truly not bad numbers - we celebrate when KT has those! Let the .5u work and see what it does -

...Patience Grasshopper...

HUGS!!! Gotta get back to DH's side.
 
hi julie - a main benefit of lantus is its slower action - for a cat that is ideal. it makes it much less likely that you will ever see a symptomatic hypoglycemia. so a lot of what we do is wait and gather data from tests.

it's also very common for a cat to have slightly higher numbers for a couple of days after we increase a dose. we even have a name for it - New Dose Wonkiness. you're not seeing that yet, but just be aware that whenever a dose is changed it's common to have some weird numbers. experienced lantus users will help you understand what is happening. just keep posting and asking questions and it will soon be less strange.

for the moment, you're doing everything right. it was fine to start with .5unit, although 1unit is a very normal starting dose for a newly diagnosed cat. it would've been fine also.

for now, stick with your .5u for several days - like a week. yay for squeem getting a spreadsheet going for you - she's an angel! it's much easier for us to help you with dosing when we can see the big picture that forms when you use a spreadsheet.
 
just read your post from yesterday - just for a little perspective, a non-diabetic cat has BG's from low 40's to 120. you are nowhere near in low numbers. so absolutely no worries.

punkin started out following the Tight Reg protocol, which has had great success at getting cats into remission. the way it works is by trying to keep the cat in normal BG numbers as much of the time as possible so that the cat's pancreas can heal and kick back on again.

you're seeing high numbers - this isn't unusual, but after reading your post yesterday i thought i would just make sure you knew what a low number really is.

if you see a number less than 50 that's what we consider low numbers. if that happens, pop open a can of high carb food, give about a teaspoon of the gravy from the can (that's where most of the carbs are), give it to eleanor and then post here immediately for more help. it's not a crisis - we use the 40's as a "safety zone" but that's the process. knowing in advance will hopefully help you be a little more at ease. you're doing fine for now. no worries!
 
Thank you for the answers, I really appreciate it. I'm sorry I didn't get back on sooner, having some health issues myself.
Eleanor is so upset with the testing, I try to make it "fun",treats, playing with her, singing to her, etc etc. She really attacked me last night. Fortunately she has no teeth.
Her AM PS was 310. She's back to guzzling water today.
She isn't eating when I want her to, I was almost an hour late with her shot because she wouldn't eat. I finally got a few bites of several different flavors into her, she seems completely off the Fancy Feast. How much food should she have in her? She has never eaten much at a time.
 
one difference with lantus is that it doesn't onset until about 2 or so hours after the shot. we do feed with the shot, but it' not like some insulins in that you don't have to feed them in order to shoot.

i had to burrito-wrap punkin tightly in a beach towel for about 2 weeks when we first started testing. it sucked - but when he accepted that it was going to happen no matter what, he stopped fighting me and then it became very easy. at the beginning i was pulling him out from under furniture by one arm praying that i didn't dislocate his shoulder or something! people kept telling me that their cat would just come to the testing spot when they shook the test strips, or called the cat, or something else equally non-dramatic, and i'm thinking my cat will NEVER get to that point. but he did. i can still hardly believe it, but his internal clock knows when it's time and he comes to the testing spot and meows for us. for him it's all around getting the food.

hang in there - continue to give a yummy treat - a very small pinch of canned tuna, a bit of boiled chicken or rotisserie chicken, whatever seems low carb and a treat for eleanor. i would think as long as she's eating at all you don't have to worry. Read at catinfo.org for ideas on making canned food enticing to her.

don't worry about the 310 or the guzzling water for the moment. there's nothing you can do to hurry up this process but it is worth it to go through.

keep posting! we'll keep watching for you! hugs!
 
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