Introduction

[Karen/Simon]

Hi there. My 11 yr old kitty Simon, a himalayan/siamese mix, was diagnosed last week. Thank you so much to Erin for leading me here and to you all for sharing your knowledge and support.
Simon is on 1 of Lantus twice a day but his numbers are still high when I have tested. The vet wants to know the readings soon and I suspect she will increase his dosage. He originally tested at 22.4 (at home) and the lowest reading I have gotten is 18.3 and the highest 24.0
I would like to ask if there is a general rule about feeding now. He has always had a TBSP or so of canned Friskies twice a day and dry Friskies or Whiskas in a bowl to free feed. When I suspected he was not well (lots of drinking and peeing) and before the vet was able to come, I switched his canned food to Fancy Feast and limited the dry that was left out. Now I'm not sure if I'm doing the right thing by giving him about a 3rd of a can of Fancy Feast three times a day and leaving 1/4 cup dry out 2 times a day. He eats most of the canned if its the flavors he likes and sometimes has left some of the dry. Do these high number indicate that he is eating too much?

 

[BJM]

Welcome to FDMB, Karen.

You're home testing! Terrific.

Lantus is a good insulin for cats. We have 2 approaches here: Tight Regulation or Start Low, Go Slow. Either work, it just depends on how intensively you can monitor him.

Diet ... there is some room for improvement there. Dr Pierson of Cat Info discusses feline nutrition and there is a downloadable PDF of nutrition info. First, ditch the dry. Second, pick low carb canned foods from the food list.

 

[RobinCot]

Hi Karen

BJ is right - ditch the dry food. You are fortunate because your kitty already likes canned food so removing the dry should be easy. Catinfo.org as suggested reading will give you the reasons and justification for removing the dry food from any feline diet.

Also, your cat will be very hungry until regulated and especially without the dry food. We like to feed several small meals a day. I do not feel like he is eating too much and that it contributes to his high numbers. His high numbers however, do contribute to his hunger.

 

[Lisa and Witn (GA)]

I agree, stop feeding the dry food. After you stop, you probably will see a decrease in the readings you are getting. Before you or your vet decides an increase is needed, I suggest that you get at least a weeks worth of readings after you remove the dry food. Then you will be able to accurately determine if an increase is needed.

If you do need to increase the dose, only increase it by 1/4 to 1/2 unit. Wait at least a week before you decide if you need to increase it more. By increasing it in small increments and giving sufficient time between dose changes, you are more likely to find the optimal dose for Simon.

 

[Deb & Wink]

When are you testing? Since dosing changes for Lantus are based on the nadir (lowest ) BG reading in the cycle, you need to be testing during the middle of the cycle in the +5 to +7 hour range to find when Simon's nadir is. Some cats nadir earlier around +3 to +4 like my Wink. Some cats nadir later, around +7 to +9. Only by testing will you find out when Simon has his low.

From what you have told us, we have no idea what times you have tested in relation to the insulin shot.

If you set up our handy dandy color coded spreadsheet, we'll be better able to see what's going on. Directions here.