Hi! Tiger & Gigi need your support, please.

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gigiviolet

Member Since 2014
Hi! I am so happy to be here with you all. I have 21 rescue kitties...it's a kitty cat circus. I rescued them from a dangerous situation. Our story is quite extraordinary. Tiger was diagnosed 02/06/14. He is on Lantus. I would be so grateful if you all would look over his SS and share your thoughts. I have my fingers crossed that Tiger will someday soon be OTJ...life was already quite overwhelming before diabetes. This new project is kicking my bum ;) Trying to figure out what Lantus is up to is a bit tricky :) Please feel welcome to encourage me to get to the necessary dose. I've read very carefully about TR and I'm prepared to do what's necessary. We are on "a wing and a prayer" - I'm hoping Tiger will get lucky! I'm so thankful that you all are here!
 
Wow. Bless you for all you're doing for all those cats. Tiger is so handsome!
You're doing a good job so far. Got your profile and spreadsheet up and testing lots. :thumbup
I would have tested again at +5 after that 139 at +3 last night. Maybe he had some green numbers last night as cats do tend to go lower at night. I know you have your hands full.
 
I just wanted to say Hi and Welcome!! Wow! :shock: A pride of 21!!! :o You have your hands full!! Bless you for all you do! o:-)
Lots and lots of info here and help from folks who have been there, done that.
Terri & Chicken Little & the Drooler, Little Dog
 
I note on his profile that the vet doesn't want to do a dental until he is regulated.

We find that dental infection can make it impossible to get regulated. Is he getting any antibiotic for the infection?
 
Hi Gigi and sugarkitty Tiger and welcome to the message board.

Gigi, you are just surrounded by love.

Please, ask all the questions you need to. We are here to help. Just paying it forward to the new members here.
 
Dyana, Terriy, BJM, and Deb & Wink,
Thank you so much for such a warm welcome, I feel much less alone suddenly. A wonderful way to start the day - with new friends. :-D
Dyana, J.D. is quite adorable. I see you are in New Jersey, how exciting! I dream of NYC and New Jersey, too ;) I agree about the +5 test...I actually gave a tiny snack after the +3 test because I so needed to sleep. Lantus is making me wish I were 20 something again...wouldn't that be lovely.
Terriy, I so love black cats! I have 3: Boo, Matilda, and Sassy...they are magical.
BJM, thank you for the links you shared. Tiger completed 2 courses of Clindamycin but the abscess returned each time. It has since drained and I'm giving him olive leaf which seems to be preventing the infection from returning. Maybe his numbers will reflect this. The area under his eye where the abscess drained healed very quickly once his BG's were lower!
Deb & Wink, The N. Shore...oh how exciting!! I've spent my life in Georgia. I have utter wanderlust...but I'm not going anywhere - too many "kids" ;)
I'm a total newbie to a message board - I have no idea what I'm doing! Please feel welcome to give me tips. Should I post in the Lantus Support Group forum? Thoughts on dosage?
I hope you all have a wonderful day. Tiger sends XOXO
 
BJM, I would love to hear about adorable orange Gracie!
Deb & Wink, I love tuxedo cats! I have 5: Avery, Ruby, Nicolas, Lucy and Sissy ;) Wink is an awesome name!
 
Gracie was an owner surrender last November when the the owner's spouse dictated euthanasia. I wasn't quite awake when I got a private message asking if I could help and said yes, thinking that transport was needed. C'est la vie; I have her now.

She is on ProZinc as my schedule doesn't often do exact 12 hour intervals and with ProZinc, I can adjust the dose on the fly to accommodate early or late shots very easily compared to Lantus which works best on as near to 12 hour shooting as you can manage.

Gracie is a diva and not happy about the other cats in the house. She'd be much happier being the only cat and queen of all she surveyed. Her coloring is actually dilute tortoiseshell - peaches,cream, and grey.

I had another diabetic kitty, Spitzer, who was on Lantus. He had other medical conditions and when he threw a blood clot to his hind legs (saddle thrombus), I had him euthanized.

I was able to help an adopter for a local rescue get her kitty Dusty off insulin in about 4 weeks with diet switch and Lantus. Good thing, as she had vision and arthritis issues making home testing virtually impossible.
 
Thoughts on dosage?
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Well, it looks like you have a pretty good handle on making those dose changes, nice and slow with only 0.25U increases and you've been giving the doses time to settle and letting the insulin depot fill up before you increase again.

You've done fantastic getting your SS and a Profile set up for Tiger already.

Have you thought about if you wanted to follow the Lantus TR protocol or are you more of a SLGS (start low, go slow) type of person? You mentioned reading up on TR so it sounded like that may be the way you wanted to go, but not sure what your plans were with all your other responsibilities.

There is some great reading over in the Lantus TR forum, in the Stickies about the depot, the protocol, handling low numbers, etc. All good reading when you have a chance.

With everything else you have going on, taking care of 21 kitties, you are right on top of things and doing well with Tiger.

I might suggest an increase of a 0.25U dose soon for Tiger. You've been getting him down into those blue numbers but we would like to see him down even a bit lower, into those greens (<100) to help his pancreas to heal. So far, it looks encouraging and hope to see Tiger doing even better in the future.

You are certainly welcome to post over in the Lantus TR forum anytime. Format is the date, your cat's name, AMPS (or PMPS) readings and any subsequent readings for the day. You edit your first post of the day, to add in the new BG readings in your subject header. That way, anyone scanning the board for info can pop in if it looks like you may need help. Introduce yourself and let people know you are new. Please link in your previous post each day, so that people can follow back through the history of your cat, and be better able to help you. Most people try to post daily there. Put the Question Mark Post Icon on your post when you are looking for answers to specific questions.

Do you have your hypo toolkit pulled together, just in case Tiger surprises you and goes low?

IN CASE OF EMERGENCY - YOUR HYPO KIT
Put together NOW the following items and put in an easily accessible place!

● Phone number of your vet
● Phone number, address and map/directions to your nearest emergency vet (or phone number of the cab company and some cash/credit card)
● Karo syrup, honey or corn syrup
● High carb canned food with gravy – 2-3 cans
● Some favourite treats
● Spare pack of 25 blood glucose strips
● Coffee for you ;)
 
Since I already had this open for someone else, I thought I'd share it with you. ;-) In the Tight Regulation Lantus Forum there are "Stickies" at the top to help guide you through the process, which I've summarized for you below:
  • New to the Group?: General Info on Lantus, glucometers, syringes, dosing, what a typical Lantus curve might look like, food lists, etc....
  • Tight Regulation Protocol: dosing information.
  • Info, Proper handling, & Storage: syringes, pens vs. vials, etc....
  • Insulin Depot: explaining how the depot works and how Lantus and Levemir differ significantly in dosing from all the other insulins available (i.e. PZI/ProZinc).
  • Shooting and Handling Low Numbers: What to do when you see pre-shot numbers under 200 when first starting out or 150 after you've been doing it for a while. Specifically for introducing the "shoot low to stay low" method of the Tight Regulation protocol.
 
BJM,
I'm so very happy for Gracie that she found you. I too have a "diva", Penny ;) I am so very sorry for your loss of Spitzer, I know that heartbreak well. It leaves us forever changed. Spitzer was so very fortunate to have found you.
Such a wonderful thing you did to help with Dusty, too. I feel safer with you on the planet ;)
 
Deb & Wink, You guys rock! Thanks so much for such a thoughtful and generous reply. The encouragement means so much, it is very powerful. Whenever you need some in return, just ask! Thanks for your kind words. Tiger's profile and SS were done in lieu of sleep ;)
I was thinking of increasing the dose by 0.25 in the am, I'm happy you mentioned the increase. Will this likely mean higher BG's b/c of the depot? I'm quite interested in TR...it seems it might be Tiger's best "shot" for remission in a "timely fashion"...which is especially important b/c what I'm doing isn't sustainable long term. Short term I will do whatever is necessary, to my own detriment, LOL. I have my hypo instructions posted on the fridge and review them daily.
Thanks for the instructions on posting in the Lantus TR forum. You all are exceptional people, I know this ;)
 
I was thinking of increasing the dose by 0.25 in the am, I'm happy you mentioned the increase. Will this likely mean higher BG's b/c of the depot?
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Yes, I do think it's time to increase Tiger's dose. He's been pretty steady in those yellow numbers at pre-shot and only down to the high to mid blue numbers at nadir. You could safely increase up to 1.75U to try to get his BG's to come down a bit more.

Once the depot fills again with this dose increase, we hope to see lower numbers for Tiger. Love to see him out of those yellow numbers at pre-shot but it's still early days and this takes time. It's a marathon, not a sprint.

Keep getting those PM +3 tests when you can. It does look like Tiger tends to go lower at night, like a lot of our kitties tend to do. It's good to know what's happening in the evening cycle, in case he drops lower than normal.

So far, so good. Keep up the good work and here's hoping TR will get Tiger off the juice eventually.
 
Deb & Wink,
Hello! Regarding posting in the Lantus TR forum you said "...link in your previous post each day..." - Will it be obvious how this is done? I'm a message board newbie! Everyone in the Lantus TR forum will certainly appreciate you & Wink giving me tips ahead of time!!! Otherwise I likely would have broken all the etiquette ;) Thanks!
 
How to link your previous post:
1 go to that post and open it
2) at the top of the page is the URL (Universal Resource Locator) or address for that page. Copy that.
3) exit the old post, go to where you want to make the new post, and click New Topic
4) In the body of the post, paste the URL
5) highlight the url and click. The button just above which says URL. This will make it a link. Look at it carefully and notice that the 2nd URL in brackets has a slash in front of the letters. The slash ends the link text.
 
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