Elliot Recently Diagnosed

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MykAmron&Elliot

MykAmron&Elliot

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Our cat Elliot has recently been diagnosed as diabetic. His sudden loss of weight, 8.5kg to 7.9kg plus a lot of drinking and peeing got us into the vet. Blood levels for glucose and high liver numbers indicated and the urine sample confirmed. The bright side is he has not seemed all that sick even considering he had a "raging" bladder infection (currently on anti-biotics).

He is eating canned DM but not enough for my liking. While he would normally destroy his own bowl of FF salmon on wet food nights (Giselle and George love the fact the every meal is wet food now!), Elliot is not as in to the DM... this worries me because I would like to get a full can into him before his shot. He is on 2 units of Lantus BID. Good natured guy that he is, he does not fight the injection although he seems a little startled when we push the plunger. Reading through the posts here and some of the tips and tricks got me thinking it was the cold of the insulin so we trying to warm it by rolling the syringe between our fingers.

I gotta say I am absolutely terrified by the thought of him going hypo; I am worried that the sudden switch from a mostly kibble diet to all wet food and insulin will have an adverse effect. This morning he was a little drowsy after breakfast and a shot and I worried all day. I bought a glucometer today (actually I bot 100 test strips and they threw in the meter) but have not used it yet as the vet said they would cover that in the next appointment about 10 days from now.

I am finding the whole thing pretty overwhelming, especially waiting until he gets enough food in to give the shot. I suppose I will get used to it in time but I wanted to send a thanks out to all the folks on the board for posting such useful information.
 
Hi and Welcome to FDMB
You are in the best place to be to get help for Elliot
Where are you located? Not USA I would guess by the kg reference. We have members
around the world.
When you say Elliot was recently diagnosed, when was that? How old is he?
Was his starting dose at 2u or did you start at 1u?
What was his BG # at the vets?
You do not or should not roll Lantus. I would hold the syringe in my fingers where te Lantus was and that would make it "warm" enough for them.

Are you hometesting? This is very important when using Lantus. At a minimum, we test before the morning shot, evening shot and try to get in checks in between.
When you do not test before a shot, it is "shooting blind" and could be dangerous if you are not around to monitor. Most vets do not agree with hometesting. Mine did not and my Max is now off isnulin.
I agree with your concerns about giving him insulin, not knowing what his numbers and swtiching his food.
Since you have the meter, I would urge you to start testing himself.
Have you gone over to the Lantus section of the board? If not, please do so and read the "stickies" at the top of the section so you can understand how this works.
Have you checked out the food list? FF is very fine to use, the ones that are not grilled or with gravy. Most members do not use the prescription food and it is no wonder that Elliot does not like it.
http://binkyspage.tripod.com/canfood.html The FF info is found in the section old canned info
Our cats are kept very safe here.
I am sure others will be by asking a lot more questions.
 
He doesn't need the DM...feed him the FF but try and stay aways from using too much fish. Also, no need to wait for vet to test.....learn it now and it will help you to elivate worrying about a hypo happening. Also, removing all dry suddenly and going to canned can change the bg numbers so please....learn that meter and start testing.
 
Like the others have said, it is really important that you learn to test his blood sugar at home. I wouldn't wait to see the vet in ten days.

An infection will raise the blood glucose levels. As the infection clears his insulin needs may decrease. All the more reason to learn how to hometest.

Most cats do not care for the Purina DM besides the ingredients are not all that great. Here is what Dr. Lisa has to say about the ingredients:

http://www.catinfo.org/felinediabetes.h ... r_All_Cats

You and your kitty will be fine. Keep asking questions.
 
Hi,

Thanks for the responses. We are located in Toronto Canada. Elliot was diagnosed on Monday of this week, he is 5 years old. He was started at 2units twice a day. Not sure what his BG was at the vets ~ will ask. Thanks for the tip about not rolling the Lantus syringe ~ any reason why?

We will branch out to other foods (e.g. the Wellness chicken, FF non-fish) but to be clear when I say he does not like the DM, part of that is that he does not eat an entire can at a sitting. But this could also be a function of how he used to be fed, which was kibble laid down 2 per day in such a way where it never ran out and he could eat at leisure. Having to uptight two-legs hanging around saying, "you going to eat? how about a little more?" might be throwing him off.

On testing, we will be testing at home, and I did pick up a meter yesterday. I need to figure out when to test and how to evaluate the numbers.

Thanks again
 
Turned up his nose at the DM again this morning so I broke out the Wellness chicken. Sure, he was interested when he heard the can open but not so much afterwards when it was in the bowl. The good news is that after my wife woke up, he was happy to eat the DM. Other signs are good, he is purring more and his tail is up in the air.

Answered my own question on why not to roll syringe to warm ~ too akin to shaking and might break down the molecules.
 
Please let us know what his readings were at the vet.
We normally start Lantus at 1u and work up from there.
We want to be sure that the "perfect dose" is missed.

Here are some links to get you started so that you can come and nmove over to the Lantus
Insulin Support group.

Serring up a spreadsheet.viewtopic.php?f=6&t=16
Setting up a profile:http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=531

At a minimum we test before each shot and try and get checks in between the cylces.
Lantus dosing is based on the nadir which is the lowest point in the 12 hour cycle and not on the preshot number. We test BG before giving a shot to make sure it is safe to give the insulin.
I hope to see you set up in the Lantus form.
 
Here is a link with home testing links and information. This should help you get started.

Home Testing Links

Where in Toronto are you? We have several Toronto folks and one of them may be able to meet you and help teach you how to home test. Nothing like an in-person lesson....
 
Randi & Max said:
Please let us know what his readings were at the vet.
We normally start Lantus at 1u and work up from there.
We want to be sure that the "perfect dose" is missed.
Click to expand...

Randi is right in that the dosage is 'usually' started at 1 unit BID, but I would be careful decreasing his insulin until this infection is cleared. All the more reason to learn to hometest.

Test right before giving shot in the AM - get any mid-cycle tests you can - and test again before PM shot.

For a normal, non-diabetic cat the blood glucose ranges anywhere from around 60 to 120.
 
Hi,

Quick update on Elliot. We did end up waiting for the vet to do the blood curve. His numbers were very low... so low that the immediate advise was to cut his dose down to 1 unit BID. However, when we did the test at the end of the day (about the 12 hour mark) the number was so low again they advised we start testing am and pm levels and only give a shot if he tipped over 12.

I know the folks here like data so here we go: At diagnosis, April 19 his reading was 22.

His curve was taken on Apr 29 and the numbers were:
8:40 am 3.2 (+2 hrs after breakfast and shot)
11:10 am 4.3
2:40 pm 5.4
4:40 pm 4.8
6:45 pm 4.9

Since then, no insulin and the daily numbers are:

April 30 am: 4.8 pm 6.7 (last dose of antibiotic for urinary tract infection)
May 1 am 7.3 pm 7.3
May 2 am 7.1 pm 6.3
May 3 am 5.5 pm 5.3
May 4 am 5.8

So he seems to be in some kind of remission, we will continue to monitor his levels but for the time being switching to high protein seems to have done the trick for now. I hope we can stop testing twice daily as he really is not digging the ear pricking. They are, so far, not too sensitive but he never really liked having ears touched before, and he likes it even less now.
 
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