Welcome to FDMB.
Just to make sure I understand, the vet prescribed 1 unit of Lantus (glargine) twice a day? Insulin should be given twice a day and with Lantus, you want to give the same dose with only a few exceptions. I'd like to suggest that you read the
sticky notes that are at the top of the Lantus forum. The notes will provide you with a great deal of information about Lantus and the way it works as well as how to manage your cat's insulin dose.
Lantus works differently than most other insulin. In addition, insulin is a hormone and as such, it works differently than other medications. What may have been a good dose last week, may not be a great dose this week. In addition, a cat's pancreas can heal which means that insulin needs decrease or there may be other reasons that have an effect on a diabetic cat's insulin needs. If you've been giving your cat the same dose of insulin since she was diagnosed, it very possible that she needs a larger dose of insulin.
It sounds like you're home testing! That's wonderful. We're very vocal advocates of home testing. It's the best way to keep Suki safe and to monitor her progress.
One of the issues that may be contributing to your cat's higher blood glucose numbers is what you're feeding her. We encourage members to feed their cat a low carbohydrate diet. From what I can tell, it looks like what you're feeding Suki is 25% carbohydrate. We consider low carb to be less than 10%. (In case I have the wrong food, there are cat food carbohydrate calculators on the web.) Most dry food is very high in carbs. In addition, most of the "diabetic" foods are also high in carbs. This is a list of
foods that are available in Mexico and Brazil. I don't know that we have any current members in South America but the list is a place to start. If you're going to transition Suki to a low carbohydrate, canned food diet, please start home testing if you're not already doing so and make the transition slowly. Switching to a low carb diet will cause her blood glucose numbers to be lower.
It will also be helpful if you can set up your signature and a spreadsheet. The signature will contain some basic information so we don't keep asking you the same questions. The spreadsheet will provide a record of your home testing data so we can offer help that is informed by Suki's blood glucose numbers. The information is in this post on
helping us to help you.
Please let us know if you have questions. We're here to help.
