Is anyone Treating a cat with prednisolone and insulin

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Peg and Toby

Peg and Toby

Member Since 2014
My name is Peg and my cat is Toby you may have read my other posts about having a hard time regulating him. He is on 2.5 mgs of prednisolone twice a day.Right now he is on 4 Units of BCP PZI insulin twice a day. I am wondering if anyone has any luck using Lantus with a cat on prednisolone? Am Hoping to hear from someone using pred. and insulin and how your doing.
Thanks, Peg and toby
 
Steroids and diabetic cats are not a good mix. Steroids are why my cat developed diabetes. I don't know why Toby is taking steroids but that is probably the reason why you are having difficulty regulating his insulin needs. I know that vets really like to give steroids for a multitude of reasons but after my boy ended up diabetic, damaged kidneys, and heart damage from overuse of steroids I have decided that I will not tolerate the use of steroids again.
I also want to ask what type of food are you feeding? Wet or dry? The Little Friskies Classic Pate and Fancy Feast Classic have helped me to get Squeaker to remission and his diabetes is diet controlled. We did use Lantus and the wet foods I mentioned; he went into remission in about 2 months. In addition to the Lantus and food I also have to stress that the Pred was withdrawn. Have you had a Spec fPLI to check for pancreatitis?

Anita and Squeaker
 
I think Melissa and Tarragon use Prednisolone and insulin for Mr. T's asthma. I know there are others...I'll pm Melissa, maybe she can remember others.

HUGS!
 
Hello! I wanted to stop by and give my experience. My kitty, Tarragon, is a hard core asthmatic and has IBD as well as FD. He is on 5 mg of prednisolone a day and has been for about a year now. It is possible to manage pred and insulin it will just take awhile to get the correct dosing.

A little background - Tarragon has had asthma for 8 years. He was treated with steroid shots, which eventually led to his diabetes 4 years ago. He did fine for awhile with just the Aerokat inhaler and flovent but his asthma has gotten worse which tends to happen. He is now on the inhaled steroids and prednisolone pills. While it is ideal to never give steroids, there are instances where it is the only thing that works, like breathing.

It took us about 2 months to get Tarragon's insulin dose adjusted using TR (Tight Regulation). We would hold a dose for 6 cycles (3 days) and if he wasn't seeing anything below about 150 then we would up it by .25 U. After it was all said and done, I think we went up about 1.5 U because of the steroids from .5 U to 2U. I only like to increase on Thursdays since we work during the week and only have weekends to to a full curve.

Let me know if you have any questions or need anything!

Melissa & Tarragon
 
I am thinking about trying Lantus. Asked my vet. about it but she said she didn't think it would make much difference. I think it is worth a try. Wish I could get Toby off the steroids but even when we tried to reduce it a little bit he vomits, runs a fever and has to be syringe feed. I know this may shorten his life but , right now he has a better quality of life. Am just hoping to get his bg down to better numbers. It looks like you were able to do this with lantus. Am hoping to do this for Toby. Thanks for telling me about Tarragon. Toby has inflammatory pancreatitis. Peg and toby
 
A rationale for switching to Lantus or Levemir is if there is inadequate duration, ie dramatic rise after hitting peak effect. A curve could show that. If you can show that, the vet is more likely to agree. With the pred and the need for a higher insulin dose, I'd go with Levemir, as large doses of Lantus can sting.
 
Hi, I know other people have responded but I wanted to put my 2 cents in.

My cat has been diabetic for nearly 3 years now. He's well regulated and we haven't had any serious issues in quite awhile. Unfortunately, he was prescribed prednisolone for bronchitis last week. 5 days later, he quit eating and drinking (something he has never done in 9+ years of life) and now he's in the hospital with DKA. Four separate veterinarians have said that they believe the cause of this DKA is the prednisolone. His blood work from a week ago is completely different than his bloodwork from yesterday (when we went to the ER).

Be very careful giving your diabetic cats steroids...you're really playing with fire and it should be avoided at all possible.
 
Shadow was on both. And her numbers rose because of the prednisolone ( it's in her 2015 chart)
She was on the drug for ibd/lymphoma....
when there is a medical condition that necessitates the steroids, you just have to treat that first and then work with the insulin.
 
Do you have any recent BG curves?
Your SS stops at 6/29/2016
My Bailey was on prednesolone adn it increased his insulin needs. He was on Lantus
 
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