First week of Lantus - is it time to increase?

[paultxrn]

Jake has been on Lantus 2 units every 12 hours for 1 week. As you can see from his SS, he's not doing very well. We have made some food changes this week. He had been on RC Glycobalance and after trying numerous types of wet and dry (including YAZ), we finally got him to start eating Dr. Elsey's a few days ago. I hope this will make a difference since it is much lower in carbs than Glycobalance. Do you think it's time to go up on Lantus, and if so would you suggest 2.5? Or should we wait a few days and see if the food brings him down?

 

[Sean & Rufus]

I would hold the dose for at least a week after changing food, and then do a curve to see what is happening. When would you be able to do a curve?

 

[Bobbie And Bubba]

With a lower carb food change, you will see some downward movement and I tend to agree with Sean on holding the dose for now. When exactly was the food change?

While Jake is in these higher numbers it would be wise to check for ketones.

How is he doing otherwise? All 5 P's in place? Playing, preening, peeing, pooping and purring? Weight good? Eating good?


ETA: And try to get at least a before you go to bed test at night as a lot of kitties go lower during the night and some of the black numbers you are seeing in the AM could be due to bouncing from going lower than he is use to and /or a fast drop in numbers.

 

[Wendy&Neko]

Hello and welcome. Take a read of the Sticky Notes on this forum. We have two dosing methods we use here, one called Tight Regulation, the other is Start Low Go Slow. Decide which suits you and put TR or SLGS in your signature so we can help you help Jake. With TR, increases would be by 0.5 units at this point, but you would need to get some night time tests in to make sure he's not going lower at night.. Many cats go lower at night. SLGS would have you do a curve at this point, and if you don't see anything below 150, increase by 0.25 units.

I recommend a couple days where you get night time tests before changing the dose. He's in really high numbers, so I wouldn't hold his dose long. You should see changes in food making a difference in the numbers within 3 days of the change. It'll also help us if you list the food change in the Remarks column, so we can see when it happened.

I would also be testing daily for ketones with these types of numbers.