How long did it take you to generally become regulated on Lantus?

AliceMeowliss (GA)

Member Since 2019
I just want to hear your stories. Details, numbers, insulin changes (both type and dose), any complications or comorbidities....

The faster I can stabilize, the sooner I can address the lump on her belly and anything else that may require surgery. But I need her to gain and stabilize and be strong again.

Please feed me information. Thank you. :)
 
How do you mean "stabilize." Are you meaning at the time that you start using Lantus, how long does it take for the depot to form? Or, do you mean how long doe it take for a cat to be regulated?

If the former, it takes 5 - 7 days.

If the latter, I don't know that there's one answer. One of the more popular abbreviations around here is ECID - every cat is different. There are kitties that are here and in remission in a month. Gabby was relatively regulated after abut 1.5yrs but her numbers could still go all over the place. She could dive and bounce and drive me crazy.

I may have a different perspective on diabetes and other medical issues. Setting aside that we're talking about your cat. If a diabetic woman found a lump in her breast, I don't think anyone would say, "Wait until your diabetes is well controlled before we do a biopsy or consider surgery." The oncologists would be breaking land speed records to get a breast cancer diagnosis treated. I'm not suggesting that Alice has cancer. I'm pointing out that diabetes in humans is a chronic condition (i.e., people don't go into remission) and you treat the other medical conditions as they occur, have surgery, etc. despite the diabetes. I haven't a clue why some vets seem to think diabetes trumps everything. The BG numbers can be managed and you need to treat whatever is most important first.
 
How do you mean "stabilize." Are you meaning at the time that you start using Lantus, how long does it take for the depot to form? Or, do you mean how long doe it take for a cat to be regulated?

If the former, it takes 5 - 7 days.

If the latter, I don't know that there's one answer. One of the more popular abbreviations around here is ECID - every cat is different. There are kitties that are here and in remission in a month. Gabby was relatively regulated after abut 1.5yrs but her numbers could still go all over the place. She could dive and bounce and drive me crazy.

I may have a different perspective on diabetes and other medical issues. Setting aside that we're talking about your cat. If a diabetic woman found a lump in her breast, I don't think anyone would say, "Wait until your diabetes is well controlled before we do a biopsy or consider surgery." The oncologists would be breaking land speed records to get a breast cancer diagnosis treated. I'm not suggesting that Alice has cancer. I'm pointing out that diabetes in humans is a chronic condition (i.e., people don't go into remission) and you treat the other medical conditions as they occur, have surgery, etc. despite the diabetes. I haven't a clue why some vets seem to think diabetes trumps everything. The BG numbers can be managed and you need to treat whatever is most important first.

I'll edit the title because I meant regulated and that would be a clearer word use. Thank you.

Expecting ECID, I just want the anecdotal info.

Alice is underweight so i think the fact that she needs to have her uterus removed and so on, and it's possible to likely she has a mammary tumor and I read on Cornell's website around 85% of those may be malignant and typically they remove one whole side of mammary tissue...... I do feel like she needs to be able to survive surgery.

If she were a human, she might also be eligible for insurance and treatment without me having to wrack my brain and beg for help to take care of her either.

I messaged the best university in my state for veterinary medicine. It's about two hours away. My vet is going to look over her numbers and we are going to discuss treatment options next week. And I have to figure out how to pay for her life.

All I can do broke from home on a Saturday is gather info, for now....

Would you like to share more about your experience with Gabby?

Thanks for responding. :)
 
Have you looked into Care Credit? It is a credit card for medical and dental. It's 6 months good as cash without interest, after 6 months, interest. It was a life saver for me when Bubba needed his eye removed 3 months after the diabetes DX. I am happy to say in 4 years using the care credit card, I have never had to pay an interest charge.

https://www.mysynchrony.com/mysyf/cmp-index.html?market=healthcare&store=carecreditmastercard

I agree with Sienne that it is futile to wait until a cat is stabilized to address other medical issues. For instance, had Bubba not had a dental to have a bad tooth removed causing him pain and much higher numbers, he would have never got regulated. Or had I waited to have his cancerous eye removed until his BGs got stable, we would have risked that the cancer spread from his eye into his bloodstream.

Just wondering if your vet has ruled out that her lump isn't must a lipoma ( a fatty benign cycst) My civvie cat, Forrest had several of them. One on his neck and one on his abdomen. I am hoping that it could be something as simple as that.

And as Sienne said, the regulation of a kitty is an ECID sort of thing. Some regulate and go into remission in record time of a few months and others stay diabetic for years and suddenly go into remission and then some sadly never make it to OTJ but live nice long lives.

Just some housekeeping...we start only one thread each a day. So, any questions you might have, post them on your daily thread and just change the title with a question mark so peeps will know you have a questions and you will get eyes on your thread.
 
I'm happy to share any info about Gabby. What did you want to know?
Anything you care to share, honestly. What kind of numbers did you start out with? What insulin did you choose first and why? (Or if you ever tried more than one, why the switch?) Did you start with a high or low weight cat? Did you find the "right" dose for awhile or change frequently?

I'm really just looking for anyone to ramble about their process, if they would like to. All in one space.
 
I have had carecredit for years and its maxed and I have 3 other cats and a bunny. I painfully do know how helpful it CAN be when it's available to be used. It might've saved one of the animals I lost last year.

@Bobbie And Bubba
I'm sure you're trying to be helpful with your "little housekeeping" but it's not really needed. If this is one too many posts for you, skip on by. Count this as making up for the days I didn't post over the past week. Whatever works for you.
It's one extra post one time and it's meant to be cat-general but Lantus-specific (not about my cat specifically or only), so this seemed an appropriate place. I was really just reaching out for information.
This is why I was originally hesitant to move to this ISG.
 
I have had carecredit for years and its maxed and I have 3 other cats and a bunny. I painfully do know how helpful it CAN be when it's available to be used. It might've saved one of the animals I lost last year.

@Bobbie And Bubba
I'm sure you're trying to be helpful with your "little housekeeping" but it's not really needed. If this is one too many posts for you, skip on by. Count this as making up for the days I didn't post over the past week. Whatever works for you.
It's one extra post one time and it's meant to be cat-general but Lantus-specific (not about my cat specifically or only), so this seemed an appropriate place. I was really just reaching out for information.
This is why I was originally hesitant to move to this ISG.
Please do not be offended by my above post. That is just how we do it here is L, B,& L land as there are so many post and it helps to keep thing stream line. It is not my rule...

ETA: It was not meant to be offensive. It was just an informative post.
 
Please do not be offended by my above post. That is just how we do it here is L, B,& L land as there are so many post and it helps to keep thing stream line. It is not my rule...

ETA: It was not meant to be offensive. It was just an informative post.

It felt off-putting but that can be my permanent twilight month of little-to-no sleep rearing about too. I really thought it would be okay as just once in awhile and a general question and I don't post for her every day.

I appreciated your comment about the fatty thing. More directions for info to search and gobble is good.

ECID and I want to hear about them all. Alice is fortunately at least the same species. Lol. :)
 
It felt off-putting but that can be my permanent twilight month of little-to-no sleep rearing about too. I really thought it would be okay as just once in awhile and a general question and I don't post for her every day.

I appreciated your comment about the fatty thing. More directions for info to search and gobble is good.

ECID and I want to hear about them all. Alice is fortunately at least the same species. Lol. :)
It’s okay , I so get it. We are all here to help each other. I’ve been on the sleep deprivation thing for sure! Please know that I have no ego involved here at all. My only commitment is to assist and help others.

You are doing a great job with Alice or you wouldn’t be here. :)
 
It’s okay , I so get it. We are all here to help each other. I’ve been on the sleep deprivation thing for sure! Please know that I have no ego involved here at all. My only commitment is to assist and help others.

You are doing a great job with Alice or you wouldn’t be here. :)

Thanks. I'm personally mildly embarrassed to be so affected or take it personally at all so we can move on. Lol.

Life is just a pretty full plate right now and I think underneath however I am coping is probably a deep well of fear over not having the financial resources to take care of what needs to be done.

Information is the only thing that's sort of mostly free so Alice and I need all of that I can process!


So with all that done, I continue to be open to others' Tales of Regulation. :D
 
Gabby's SS is in my signature. There are multiple tabs -- it goes back to 2009 until she crossed the Bridge 6.5 years later. She typically had an early nadir and could dive like crazy. Ultimately, I worked at trying to prevent dose reductions by propping her numbers up with food sober body adjusted better to lower numbers. Gabby was a tortie and had all of the attitude one associates with a tortie. She would categorically not allow anyone except me to test. She would tolerate my cat sitter giving her a shot, mostly because there was food involved. She was a character!
 
Gabby's SS is in my signature. There are multiple tabs -- it goes back to 2009 until she crossed the Bridge 6.5 years later. She typically had an early nadir and could dive like crazy. Ultimately, I worked at trying to prevent dose reductions by propping her numbers up with food sober body adjusted better to lower numbers. Gabby was a tortie and had all of the attitude one associates with a tortie. She would categorically not allow anyone except me to test. She would tolerate my cat sitter giving her a shot, mostly because there was food involved. She was a character!
Thank you that is interesting! I haven't seen anyone else mention trying to balance food to handle lower numbers in that way. :)
 
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