Hard to control BG with Lantus

G

Gux

Member Since 2026
My 14 yr old cat is newly diagnosed. He went into DKA more than two weeks ago as we had no idea. About 1.5 weeks ago he was discharged with an etube and Lantus one unit a day.

It’s been very difficult to get his BG down to normal range. It’s been mostly high since. a few days ago we messed up our dose and intake due to high BG and gave him 40 ML of food and one unit, his BG went down pretty low then we pump him with high carbs immediately.

If we give him 0.5 units it barely does anything.

We’re not too sure how to handle this and move forward. These days he’s sleeping a lot. He showed interest in food but gags when smelling it and leaves.
 
Hi! I’m so sorry you didn’t receive a response yesterday. Do you think you could use the dropdown menu to note “?” and put something like “dosing advice” or “need eyes” on the title? That way someone experienced can prioritize this thread for a response.

It sounds like you’ve been testing his blood glucose which is great. Would you be able to share that with us in this spreadsheet?

There is some good information here and there is also a link with instructions to make the spreadsheet. If you have trouble with this, someone here can help you make it as well.

Sticky - New? How You Can Help Us Help You!

With this information I’m sure someone experienced will be able to weigh in on the dosing, which is based on the lowest number a given dose takes a cat in a cycle.

And then last thing - it sounds like your kitty may be nauseous if he shows interest in food but gags or doesn’t eat. Is he on ondansetron? Cerenia is good for vomiting, and ondansetron for general nausea.
 
Hi and welcome to the forum.
If you could get a spreadsheet and signature set up it would be very helpful for us as we need to see data before we can help with any dosing advice. Connie has given you the link on how to set these up.

I am going to give you a list of things below you need to be doing to help your kitty recover from the DKA fully.

Have you been testing for ketones in the urine? It is very important you do so every day at the moment. You can do this by buying a bottle of Ketostix from a pharmacy or Walmart and testing your Kitty’s urine.

How often are you feeding your kitty and what type of food are you feeding? Is he still having all his food via the etube?
How is his appetite? Will he eat anything by himself yet.?
Are you going him any antinausea medication such as ondansetron or cerenia?

Here is the list of things you need to be doing.
  • you need to give one and a half times as many calories as he normally eats. Offer snacks every couple of hours during the day and evening as well as the 2 main meals. Food is like a medicine and helps keep ketones away. If your kitty won’t eat the low carb food, feed him whatever he will eat as eating any food is better than not eating,
  • Don’t skip any doses of insulin as insulin helps keep ketones away. If the BG is not high enough to give the dose…stall, dont feed and test again in 20 minutes and post and ask for help.
  • Test daily for ketones. Put the results of the tests into the remarks column of the SS so we can see. Please report any trace ketones at all.
  • Give antinausea medication if needed
  • Give appetite stimulant if needed after the antinausea medication
  • Give extra fluids. If kitty will tolerate warm water in the food, put a teaspoon into each snack..
  • Ask the vet about subQ fluids
  • Set up a spreadsheet and test the BG frequently
  • Post daily with updates and ask for help as often as needed.
Once we can see the blood glucose data in your spreadsheet we can help you with dosing of insulin.
 
In addition to Bron's note I'm not sure if anyone provided you with information on getting settled in -- in other words, how to create a spreadsheet and signature. The information is in this post on helping us to help you. The spreadsheet will track your cat's blood glucose levels and your dose. The signature will give us basic information about your cat -- things like when he was diagnosed, insulin, food, etc. We can't offer much insight into dose without a spreadsheet.
 
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