dosing opinions please

[Nimo's mom]

I"m still waiting to hear back from the vet, but wanted to know what others think. I"m just anxious about getting my cat's numbers lowered.
How long does Lantus take before it starts lowering numbers?

I copied some info from from my intro post:
Nimo is 12.5 yo and about 13 pounds (he has a large frame but is still overweight)
He was diagnosed last week and started insulin 1 week ago. 3units of lantus 2x a day
I use the alpha track meter.
He was on c/d wet due to a previous blockage when he was 6, but I started switching him to evo wet last Saturday. Today he got just a little Cd and mostly evo
- for ketones

levels from 2/8 to 2/12 were randomly checked and were between 520 and 617
2/13
+1 628
+4 388
+8 318
pmps 301
+3 396

2/14
amps 529
+4 409
+8 401

I"m still trying to figure out how to connect a spread sheet. Thank you

 

[BJM]

Its good that ketones are negative.

What's his ideal weight?

Are you monitoring any of the other Secondary Monitoring Tools in my signature link? Those help assess some of the more nebulous signs of health.

How long has he been on the same dose and are you able to shoot every 12 hours most of the time?

Have you had to skip any shots because he was low?

We strongly encourage you to test before you shoot to ensure that it is safe to give the insulin. This is true for every insulin.
We also want you to get, whenever possible, mid-cycle readings near the anticipated lowest part of hte 12 hour cycle - around +6 give or take an hour.

Once a week, it is good to do a curve, where you test every 2 hours from morning pre-shot to evening pre-shot. This gives an overall picture of how much time his numbers are in a good range (its one of those algebra equations to calculate the area of a parabola!)

 

[Nimo's mom]

The ketone stick also measured glucose and it came back as the highest reading. He was started on 3u 2x a day, last Thursday morning.
His lowest reading was a short time before his second shot last night and it was 301.
Thank you,

 

[BJM]

If you read the stickies on using Lantus in the Lantus forums, I believe you may increase his dose, by 0.5 units because his nadirs so far are above 300.

Here is the sticky post on that!

 

[Denise & Honey]

Do you have a spreadsheet set up in Google docs/drive?

If so, you just need to go to the User Control Panel at the top of the page.
Go to the Profile tab
Go to the Edit Signature link on the left
Paste in the url within the url tags, eg.

[ url=http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=0Ah1V8RhXhWAzdDdMeFNSOVhaMG8wUEtvMklaU3F4SXc&output=html]Honey's SS[/url]

** remove the space before the 1st "url" and update the "Honey's SS" bit.

 

[Nimo's mom]

Thank you both. I'm still working on getting a spread sheet up.
And, thanks for pointing out the lantus stickies.
Vet wants me to up it to 4u, but I think I'm going to try 3.5 for a few days first.
This is so stressful!

Do you know how quickly ketones can develop? I'm wondering how often I should check

 

[BJM]

Checking for ketones daily should be sufficient. Also, if the breath ever smells like nail polish remover (acetone, a type of ketone), get to the vet asap. Not all cats will smell of it, but those that do, its a signal to get to the vet.

Follow the protocol; it is a safe, proven, strategy for managing Lantus in feline diabetics.

 

[Wendy&Tiggy(GA)]

Hello there

Welcome to the board! Great job on doing all the right things so far - testing, moving to a low carb canned food etc. As soon as you can get a spreadsheet set up the better though so we can see whats going on and get you over to the lantus tight regulation forum where the experienced dosing guys can take a look. Also so far I think you only have one day of data or so, i would measure for a good few days before you change the dose.

Let me know if you need help on the spreadsheet..

Wendy