HELP! diabetic - neuropathy bad, possible misdiagnosed DR"S

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dmartini4

dmartini4

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Back in May, I was told my cat Shakespeare was pre diabetes. His number was 126 and was constantly getting UR infections so the vet put him on Hills Prescription diet food, wet and dry and from there he went down hill. He lost 6 pounds in 3 months and started drinking a lot of water and peeing a lot. The vet in Septmeber said his glucose was 300 and he will have to go on insulin. So thats when i started the insulin and constant back and forth trips to the vet for testing and curves. It was horrible. I didnt find this website until October but by then it was too late. They had his insulin at 3 unitls 2x a day and his numbers were crazy up and down. this is also when the neuropathy started very bad. So come November I switched vets, learned a lot from this website and started home testing. that is when I realized that at home he was in the 200's on insulin and when we went to the vet he would go up to 400's.
We started on Lantus at the end of November. the first 5 days on Lantus, his legs were getting better, he was able to jump a little, and from what I read it takes a week before the new insulin kicks in. after the first week on lantus, his neuropathy started getting bad again and he has been going down hill again since. IS there any way that he should not be on insulin at all and that is what is causing the neuropathy? I am very tempted to take him off completely but very scared it would harm him...I feed him only Fancy Feast wet food only, very low carb. PLEASE ANY INPUT WOULD BE APPRECIATED...i am currently giving him 2.5 units 2x a day...can I just stop the injections or would that harm him
 
Re: HELP! diabetic - neuropathy bad, possible misdiagnosed D

I am sorry to read that you are still having troubles. To help, we need more info

1. are you hometesting?
2. has he had recent blood work done?

To answer your questions, you can lower his dose to see if he's being overdosed, but you should be testing blood glucose levels while doing so as well as his urine for ketones.

Jen

edited to add: I just reread your post and you say you are testing at home. So how did you reach 2.5 units of lantus? Do you have some data you can provide?
 
Re: HELP! diabetic - neuropathy bad, possible misdiagnosed D

Wonderful that you are hometesting! Do you have some recent numbers? it is good to have a number before every shot and at about 6 hours after the shot. Then people can really see what is happening.
 
Re: HELP! diabetic - neuropathy bad, possible misdiagnosed D

the new vet I saw said that since he was on 3 units of Humlin, I should switch to 3 untis of Lantis.
whic I did but that was too high, I did no tlike the way he reacted to I lowered to 2.5.
His numbers in the morning and night are always in the mid 200's, and the curve we did last Sunday was pre shot - 269
+2 -275
+4 -246
+6-183
+8-137
+10-147
+11=167
+12-281

I though they are not supposed to jump so high on Lantus and that is what makes me think he shoul d not be on insulin and the fact that his legs are so bad, he can barely walk. I spoke with a new vet last night and she did not have an answer as to why the 1st week of lantus he got better, then after that progressively got worse. I have been through 4 vets now and dont have any answers. no one can tell me why his legs are so bad, and the only thing I can now come up with is that he is not diabetic to begin with and maybe I should stop
 
Re: HELP! diabetic - neuropathy bad, possible misdiagnosed D

ok, so first of all, he should not have been started on 3 units of lantus because it isn't the same as N at all.

Second, I cannot comment on the curve, you will need some specific lantus user advice on that and I would suggest the lantus insulin subgroup for that.

third, I also cannot comment on his neuropathy getting worse again but it is suspicious to me..that is why I wonder about blood work as other things like low potassium could be a culprit. I do not know if getting too much insulin can make it worse.

I know this is frustrating and hard. My suggestion is to start posting on the lantus ISG on a frequent basis and see if you can get a handle on things.

Jen
 
Re: HELP! diabetic - neuropathy bad, possible misdiagnosed D

I think your numbers look pretty good for a new diabetic. Numbers in the 400s and 500s are scary numbers. Your kitty is going down to low hundreds at the lowest point in the cycle. Have you posted on the Lantus forum and read the stickies? Here is the forum: viewforum.php?f=9 and here is the general guideline about dosing:

General" Guidelines:
Hold the initial starting dose for 5 - 7 days (10 - 14 cycles) unless the numbers tell you otherwise. Kitties experiencing high flat curves or prone to ketones may want to increase the starting dose after 3 days (6 cycles).
Each subsequent dose is held for a minimum of 3 days (6 cycles) unless kitty earns a reduction (See: Reducing the dose...).
Adjustments to dose are based on nadirs with only some consideration given to preshot numbers.

Increasing the dose...
Hold the dose for 3 - 5 days (6 - 10 cycles) if nadirs are less than 200 before increasing the dose.
After 3 consecutive days (6 cycles)... if nadirs are greater than 200, but less than 300 increase the dose by 0.25 unit.
After 3 consecutive days (6 cycles)... if nadirs are greater than 300 increase the dose by 0.5 unit.

They will want a spreadsheet as their protocol is very numbers driven. If you need help setting one up, just send me a pm.
 
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