? HELP - new diabetic owner - Allergy to Lantus???

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Stephanie Rozin

Member Since 2020
Hi I'm hoping to get some advice! My cat is a new diabetic and he was put on lantus 1 UI to start everyday. He had hypoglacimia the 3rd day after administering insulin a little too early. The doctors dropped it down to .5 UI daily but raised in again a week later. He currently has diabetic neuropothy so we are sticking with the lantus. However on Saturday he had a seizure with a BG reading of only 2.9. The ER doctors think that there is something else going on but when I spoke with my doctor he thinks that the diabetic neuropathy is causing this. Walter (my cat) is currently on anti seizure medication - he has never seizured before this. I suspect it is the lantus because everytime he gets insulin he looks in pain.

Here is a video to see his reaction if you have time he really shows the signs at 7 minutes :

Does anyone have experience with this? I am considering changing the type of insulin but I'm not sure the best direction to go in? I read PZI is good and I also saw a forum of someone else saying that their cat was allergic to lantus but im not sure the best direction to move in because of the remission rates for the cats who are not on Lantus.

Would really appreciate your help!

Thank you - Steph
 
Steph, I have watched the video and am concerned. He seems very lethargic. I don't thing it is the type of insulin causing this. With Lantus, we test before each and every shot, to make sure the blood glucose levels are high enough to give insulin, then we feed some food, and shoot the dose. We also try and keep the doses 12 hours apart, because often giving insulin too early can act like an increase in dose.

You have already had symptoms of hypoglycaemia. What meter are you using? 2.9mmol/L would be 52 mg/dl, which is getting low enough, especially on a pet meter. Some cats can show symptoms at this level. After symptomatic hypoglycaemia they are very sensitive to insulin, so my suggestion would be to try and test before each shot, and get at least one mid cycle test in between shots.

I'm afraid you may be giving insulin when he is already low, but without test data, I can't say for certain.

Please also read this info page

New?How You Can Help Us Help You!

In the beginning, we don't suggest giving insulin if preshot numbers are below 150 on human meter, and until you get an idea of how your kitty responds to insulin (by testing). I'm not sure I agree that this is diabetic neuropathy, that looks quite different, and to my knowledge is not linked to seizures.

I need to step away for a while, others will hopefully be by to add comments, and I will try and check back later.
 
Steph, I'm not sure where to start - is this your first post on the FDMB? Did you start out in Main Health?

Typically folks start there so you can get a handle on the basics.

I really can't comment about anything without seeing your Spreadsheet or have an understanding of what food he's eating and several other things.

Are you able to set up a spreadsheet so we can see what's been going on as far as the pre-shot test results have been - have you gotten other tests?

Let's start by having you read this information:

https://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/6-26-psa-please-read.231511/

So the first thing is to post in another group - as suggested in this stickie.

I see that Christie has also posted great suggestions for you...so at this point - let's hold off any further insulin until you can get your Spreadsheet set up...
 
  • It would be helpful if you can set up your signature
  • On the left, under Settings, Click on Signature. This is where you will put information that helps us give you feedback.
    • There is a limit of two lines which may include two links; you may separate pieces with commas, dashes, | etc. This is where you paste the link for your spreadsheet, once it is set up.
    • Add any other text, such as
    • Caregiver & kitty's name (optional)
    • DX: Date
    • Name of Insulin
    • Name of your meter
    • Diet: "LC wet" or "dry food" or "combo"
    • Dosing: TR or SLGS or Custom (if applicable)
    • DKA or other recent health issue (if applicable)
    • Acro, IAA, or Cushings (if applicable)
    • Spreadsheet link. Please put the signature link on the bottom line of your signature information, on its own, so it is easy to find.
    • Please do not put any information about your location in the signature for security reasons. If you wish to add your country location, please add it to your profile.
Be sure to click the 'Save Changes' button at the bottom. If you need help urgently it is important we know these things at a glance. We don’t want to waste valuable time finding out information.


tap on your avatar where it says your name ,then hit profile page ,tap on that ,then go up to the very top, upper right hand side and tap on your name ,it will bring down a drop box, tap on signature, the signature will be under settings, tap on the signature then and you can start to add what I posted above, make sure you hit save ,
Welcome to the best place you could ever be and an awesome group of people
 
Welcome Stephanie, I doubt neuropathy is causing this
I assume Walter has neuropathy since your vet mentioned it.
Does Walter walk on his hocks , his back legs , like a rabbit.?
 
Steph,
Walter is precious. :cat:
I watched intently, and even missed the signs. I don't have any personal experience with seizures. I think you said it didn't happen in the video as noticeably as before. I meant to say hi much earlier, and kept getting distracted in many directions.
I was reading and did see that quivering or seizures COULD be an "other" type side effect of an allergy to Lantus. I haven't yet found a time range after injection relating to an allergic reaction.
Just about every warning of any kind has to do with going hypo/low. I wish I had that source regarding allergic reactions (will find again), but as I said above, I just wanted to say hi and offer some things to ponder about what is going on with Walter. I've taken Lantus for years, and only know a tiny percentage of people who had allergic reactions to it. The more common complaint is with high doses, it can sting a bit.

My kitty had pretty severe neuropathy before getting her back to much better health. Once (before FD diagnosis), she fell off the counter top, and her back legs went into spasms for about a minute. I do not know what caused the seizure/spasm thing, but she did have bad neuropathy and arthritis.
After starting insulin, it took 3-4 months to see some obvious improvement in the neuropathy. When I first started giving insulin, she was very lazy, lethargic, and extremely easy to test. No resistance in her at all. The first time she fought me over poking her ear gave me a huge smile. She was feeling better.

Welcome Steph, and the video was helpful. Maybe you'll get more input that can help:)
 
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Hello and welcome. I'm sorry I don't have time to watch the entire video, but I didn't see anything around the 7 minute mark.

What anti-seizure medication is Walter on? is there any chance it has side effects? Any other meds or conditions he has? Some cats react to Lantus, because it has an acid base. Levemir is an insulin with similar action but without the sting and with similar remission rates. However, the first goal is to get him regulated. Home testing of his blood sugars will help if you aren't already.

Note to others, I'm moving this post to Feline Health for general help getting started at FDMB.
 
hey folks! i spent time recreating walters blood glucose on a chart https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1zDn9NAUd-vZUPo1M9ewqZcZn25I-BwMCx8MUTMOjzWU/edit?usp=sharing please take a look!

Walter is currently in good hands (I hope) with a specialist to help regulate his BG. He will be in hospital until tomorrow (hopefully we can get him out safe and sound). Stressing about this journey but glad that there are so many people willing to help!

Thank you all for your time and looking into this I really appreciate it.
 
Stephanie, I just popped in from the Facebook group to say I'm keeping Walter in my happy thoughts.

I am so glad you are home testing. Please take some time to learn when not to give any insulin. If his BGL is under a certain level, he should not get insulin. If you look at the sticky posts in the Lantus section, it will explain this further. I don't know pet meters as well, but i see from your spreadsheet you've been giving him insulin when he is in green numbers, and that is risking a hypo reaction.
 
Stephanie Rozin said:
Walter is currently in good hands (I hope) with a specialist to help regulate his BG.
Click to expand...

Hopefully that will ease your worries at least about whether Walter is having any type of reaction to the lantus, but the worst place a cat can be in to "regulate" the insulin is at a vet's office. The stress of being at the vet can raise the blood glucose much higher than you'd see at home. Also, it can take weeks or months to find a good dose...it's not something that can be figured out overnight, even at home. With my China, it was a good 5-6 months before I started to see anything that resembled a pattern (and that was with me posting daily here and testing like a mad woman at home).

If the vet doesn't think the lethargy (or what I assume you think is seizure activity) has anything to do with the Lantus and sends Walter home on it, please consider dropping his dose to .5 and holding it for at least 3 days (unless he drops below 68 on an AlphaTrak which would mean the dose is still too high)
 
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JL and Chip said:
@Stephanie Rozin How is Walter doing?

Also, I’m just curious ... what was the liquid you dabbed on Walter’s ears just before getting the BG test? Water? Alcohol? You want the ear to be DRY before taking the test or else the result can be skewed.

Hope all is well.
Click to expand...

_________________

Hey Walter is doing better he came back from emerg last week. Im glad to know about the water in the ear. I try to wipe it clean each time but i will keep that in mind. Thank you for letting me know

His numbers are looking better I set up a spreadsheet. I was definitely given a too high of dose from the vet (1UI and .5UI) now were back to .5UI

I set up a spreadsheet and its looking better: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1zDn9NAUd-vZUPo1M9ewqZcZn25I-BwMCx8MUTMOjzWU/edit?usp=sharing

walter seems to react weird to the insulin - he starts twitching his ear as if its irritating it. He looks fine this morning but sometimes hes back legs will pull in. Im getting some higher numbers so that might be why but were slowly bringing it down. We were advised to do .25UI by the facebook group but it didnt work out well so were back to .5UI.

Its been a journey everyday im afraid he has keotacidosis but ive been testing with keto sticks and he seems fine. I think I just really need to regulate him more because hes super sensitive to the insulin. I hoping to follow up with the specialist im working with if anything changes.

AND if I get another video of the same thing happening i will post in here. Its definetely my bad looking at the numbers on the spreadsheet :/ I just hope hes overall okay
 
Hi Stephanie GOOD job getting that spread sheet loaded !!!
What you need now is your signature. It will appear WITH the link to your spread sheet at the bottom of each of your posts that way its accessible quickly. Let us know if you have difficulties .;)
  • On the left, under Settings, Click on Signature. This is where you will put information that helps us give you feedback.
    • There is a limit of two lines which may include two links; you may separate pieces with commas, dashes, | etc. This is where you paste the link for your spreadsheet, once it is set up.
    • Add any other text, such as
    • Caregiver & kitty's name (optional)
    • DX: Date
    • Name of Insulin
    • Name of your meter
    • Diet: "LC wet" or "dry food" or "combo"
    • Dosing: TR or SLGS or Custom (if applicable)
    • DKA or other recent health issue (if applicable)
    • Acro, IAA, or Cushings (if applicable)
    • Spreadsheet link. Please put the signature link on the bottom line of your signature information, on its own, so it is easy to find.
    • Please do not put any information about your location in the signature for security reasons. If you wish to add your country location, please add it to your profile.
Be sure to click the 'Save Changes' button at the bottom. If you need help urgently it is important we know these things at a glance. We don’t want to waste valuable time finding out information.

You will have to abbreviate most of your text as only so many characters are allowed. instead of "and's" use / and so on
 
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