here we go again! This time Andre" Need quick answers

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George&Bert

George&Bert

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I have had my cat under a vets care since December and after spending $8oo.00 in visits and treatments and what is worse, torturing my poor cat and he is getting worse again.

So, I saw another vet today who said my four year old Andre' is diabetic. His reading was 375 in the office and apparently has been there for over two months.

I told my vet about Levemir, but he said he has never heard of it so he cannot write a scrip for it. I urged him to look it up and he was surprised and is going to try it on his diabetic cats first.

So, he put Andre' on Glargine which I understand is Lantus. The vet said to get Glargine and use a U100 syringe and one (1.0) unit twice a day to start.

What is the difference between pens and syringes.

And is Lantus as good as Levemir?

I just checked with Walmart..
Levemir pens $236.00 for 5 pens and $134.00 for a vile
Lantus pens (solostar) $238.00 for 5 pens and $127.00 for a vile.

Are pens easier to use ?
 
Lantus and levemir work very much alike and both are great insulins for cats. Also sounds like your vet has you starting at a good starting dose.

The other things that will not only help your sweet Andre as well as keep a lot more money in your wallet is learning to test Andre's bloodsugar at home. Not only will this assure that he is high enough to give insulin to in the first place, it will also mean no more dragging your kitty back to the vet all the time. SInce you can do what they are doing on your own time in an enviroment in which Andre is all comfy and relaxed. The problem with testing at the Vet's is that all cats are stressed out there, (strange smells, barking dogs, people that aren't their humans etc.)

The other question would be what is Andre is eating...Diet plays a huge role in managing diabetes. We recommend a low carb/high protien diet.

I have 13 cats only 2 of which are diabetics, everyone here eats exactly what my 2 diabetics eat, just good old fashioned Friskies Pate Style canned cat food. With this diet switch alone and a short course of Lantus, my Maxwell went off insulin completely and as remained diet controlled for over a year now. My Musette is still insulin dependent but with the change in her diet she has gone from 1.5u of Lantus twice a day to .5u twice a day and with any luck once her dental problems are taken care of she too will become diet controlled as well.

Lantus has a wonderful remission rate with newly dxed cats.

Mel, Maxwell, Musette & The Fur Gang
 
either lantus or levemir would be a fine choice of insulins.

pens are cheaper in the long run

you won't use them as they are designed to be used for humans. in other words, you won't use them as a pen. humans use much larger doses than we use on our cats (most of them anyway) so pens work fine for us. also, on a cat it would have to go thru all that hair and their tougher skin which also leads to inaccuracies in using a pen on a cat.

what you will do is pull the cap off the pen and you will see that it basically has a small vial on the end of it. you will use that as a vial. in other words you will insert a syringe into the end of the pen and draw out your dose of insulin into the syringe, then give it to the cat via the syringe. i have a video around here somewhere that shows this. let me see if i can find it.

seems to defeat the purpose doesn't it? the biggest reason most of us say to get the pens is cost. you won't be throwing a bunch of insulin away like you can with a vial because it comes in smaller packages thus you will use it up before it goes bad.

also, a vial is what, a 1000 units? the 5 pack of pens is 1500 units. you'll use up half to two thirds of the vial and likely have to toss it at that point whereas with the pens, you very well could use all 1500 of those units like i get to. i'm not saying a pen never goes bad prematurely, but it's less likely if cared for properly
 
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