Domino and Puff
Member
I have read the boards for several months, but this is my first post. I need advice on the dosage of Lantus for my two diabetic cats. Both cats were started on Lantus on December 24, 2009. They are free-fed low carb fancy feast and friskies. I am home testing, but am gone for approximately 11 hours each day for work so I cannot get many spot tests. I would appreciate advice on getting my babies at lower numbers.
Domino is 13 years old and was diagnosed as diabetic about 2 1/2 years ago. His vet at the time put him on a human insulin (I'm not sure now what type that was) and he never was regulated on this insulin -- in fact the vet almost let him die basically telling me to take him home and do the best I could with him because they had no one to monitor him over the weekend. At this time his weight had fallen from about 18 lbs down to 8lbs -- he was skin and bones and could not even hold his head up. I took him to an emergency vet instead and found a wonderful new vet to work with us. This vet was not sure if he could be saved, but after a week of hospitalization he turned the corner. His insulin was switched to Vetsulin in June 2008 and he stayed on this until December, when I decided to switch him to Lantus. During this time he gained most of his weight back (he's now about 17 lbs). He is a big cat, not overly fat. On the Vetsulin he would have preshots in the 400's and 500's but then drop down to between 80 and 150 for a nadir. I was not comfortable with the high numbers and wanted to see if Lantus would help to keep him at a lower number. After much discussion with my vet (who has never used Lantus before) he told me that he had never had anyone willing to test their cats at home but since I was he would write me a prescription for the Lantus. On the Lantus his blood glucose has gradually come down, but I have not been able to get a consistant number. Also, this cat is highly allergic (we have had allergy testing done and he is allergic to approximately 25 different things) especially to beef and eggs. He pulls his hair out and scratches sores when these flare up -- this weekend he started this again after seeming to get better and now he has a Rodent's Ulcer coming up on his lower lip. He has had rodent's ulcers in the past and our first vet treated him with injected and oral steroids (this is probably what made him diabetic, but I did not know this at the time). My new vet has advised that we treat this with a topical steroid rather than injected steroids to try and avoid any further complications with the diabetes. Any ideas if this is the way I should be looking to treat this?
Puff is 11 years old and began losing weight rapidly in May 2009. I suspected diabetes because of what I had already seen from Domino, and my vet confirmed this. He was started on Vetsulin but never was even remotely regulated (his numbers ranged from HI to 400's). My vet then switched him to PZI Vet, and I made a diet change to all low carb wet, and his numbers came down to the 200-400 range. I suspect the diet change caused most of the difference. I started him on Lantus in December and gradually upped the dose to 4.5 units BID, but was getting no better numbers than on a lower dose, so I decided to start over with 1 unit. We still can not get the numbers to fall below 200. My vet has made the comment that this cat may be insulin resistant because no matter what amount of insulin we give him it doesn't seem to cause his blood glucose to come down very far.
Any ideas on how I should adjust the Lantus for my two babies would be appreciated.
Domino is 13 years old and was diagnosed as diabetic about 2 1/2 years ago. His vet at the time put him on a human insulin (I'm not sure now what type that was) and he never was regulated on this insulin -- in fact the vet almost let him die basically telling me to take him home and do the best I could with him because they had no one to monitor him over the weekend. At this time his weight had fallen from about 18 lbs down to 8lbs -- he was skin and bones and could not even hold his head up. I took him to an emergency vet instead and found a wonderful new vet to work with us. This vet was not sure if he could be saved, but after a week of hospitalization he turned the corner. His insulin was switched to Vetsulin in June 2008 and he stayed on this until December, when I decided to switch him to Lantus. During this time he gained most of his weight back (he's now about 17 lbs). He is a big cat, not overly fat. On the Vetsulin he would have preshots in the 400's and 500's but then drop down to between 80 and 150 for a nadir. I was not comfortable with the high numbers and wanted to see if Lantus would help to keep him at a lower number. After much discussion with my vet (who has never used Lantus before) he told me that he had never had anyone willing to test their cats at home but since I was he would write me a prescription for the Lantus. On the Lantus his blood glucose has gradually come down, but I have not been able to get a consistant number. Also, this cat is highly allergic (we have had allergy testing done and he is allergic to approximately 25 different things) especially to beef and eggs. He pulls his hair out and scratches sores when these flare up -- this weekend he started this again after seeming to get better and now he has a Rodent's Ulcer coming up on his lower lip. He has had rodent's ulcers in the past and our first vet treated him with injected and oral steroids (this is probably what made him diabetic, but I did not know this at the time). My new vet has advised that we treat this with a topical steroid rather than injected steroids to try and avoid any further complications with the diabetes. Any ideas if this is the way I should be looking to treat this?
Puff is 11 years old and began losing weight rapidly in May 2009. I suspected diabetes because of what I had already seen from Domino, and my vet confirmed this. He was started on Vetsulin but never was even remotely regulated (his numbers ranged from HI to 400's). My vet then switched him to PZI Vet, and I made a diet change to all low carb wet, and his numbers came down to the 200-400 range. I suspect the diet change caused most of the difference. I started him on Lantus in December and gradually upped the dose to 4.5 units BID, but was getting no better numbers than on a lower dose, so I decided to start over with 1 unit. We still can not get the numbers to fall below 200. My vet has made the comment that this cat may be insulin resistant because no matter what amount of insulin we give him it doesn't seem to cause his blood glucose to come down very far.
Any ideas on how I should adjust the Lantus for my two babies would be appreciated.
) it would be easiest for us if you created a spreadsheet with any numbers you have from homestesting (1 for each cat) that way we can see what numbers you had on what doses. Do you keep track at home on your computer or in a notebook? If you enter this into the spreadsheet that we can look at we may be able to better help you work out finding a dose that will bring you some better results. It is difficult when you can't test midays, but there are 2 cycles in a day (each 12 hours) so if you are home evenings you can fill in some of the data in the middle, then on weekends/holidays doing some curves etc.
