Little Lantis still too much but needed

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Elizabeth A

Elizabeth A

Member Since 2013
My 17 year old cat Cassie is having a problem with her dose that has the vet baffled, as well as me. If off insulin she does indeed show as diabetic, with sugar in her urine and blood numbers over 200. But even a small dose of Lantis twice a day is bringing her too low, 40 and such. I got 50 today, stopped testing and gave her some Karo. This is after two weeks of 1/2 unit every 12 hours. I am not sure what to do. Any advice, my vet has never had an animal in his practice need less than 1 unit. When we have stopped it for a while she definitely goes back to diabetic numbers. Also if stopped is prone to UTI and pancreatitis so it's important to find a solution, since we just cleared both of those up and don't want that to happen again. Weight loss also bothersome with this disease. Thank you so much!
 
We have cats on .25 unit doses, .1 unit doses and 1 and 2 drop doses here!

There are several doses less than .5 unit!!

It will really help if you're already home testing to get our spreadsheet set up and start posting your numbers on it.....we really depend on what we see on that spreadsheet to help us with dosing advice. Here are the Instructions on setting up the FDMB spreadsheet
 
I am having trouble getting the spreadsheet to work. I am trying, but have another cat in the hospital and am in a bad way. Just trying to cover the bases as best I can while I am constantly on call with him.

How do you give smaller doses, I think it's hard to measure 1/2 in the needle.
 
Elizabeth A said:
I am having trouble getting the spreadsheet to work. I am trying, but have another cat in the hospital and am in a bad way. Just trying to cover the bases as best I can while I am constantly on call with him.

How do you give smaller doses, I think it's hard to measure 1/2 in the needle.
Click to expand...
Many of us use digital calipers for accuracy, or some just eyeball it.

What syringes are you using? Most people on here who use Lantus use the u100 syringes with the half unit markings already indicated which makes increasing and/or decreasing with micro doses much easier.
 
The syringe is called a 3/10th ml insulin syringe. I don't actually know what u100 is, or digital calipers, but I will look them up now. My other kitty got to come home after five days in the hospital but I can't leave him for a while, so need to just order anything I may need over the internet. For now, Cassie is off insulin and the vet wants me to test in a couple days, and restart at 1/4 dose if we can figure out how. He has a great practice over decades but she is the first to need this in his practice. Of course it's my cat, always. Thank you for your input, hoping the son can figure out the spreadsheet for me.
 
There are some pictures of micro-dosing in the sticky "Syringe & Insulin Info: Handling, Drawing & Fine Doses" at the very bottom

All these have half unit markings and are the correct syringes for U100 insulin and are available from ADW online: (Lantus is a U100 insulin...some other brands are different concentrations)
UtiCare
Monoject
Carepoint
Sure Comfort
BD Ultra-Fine

They're also available at WalMart if you have one near you..Their Relion Brand 3/10ml, 3o or 31 gauge, 8mm insulin syringes all come with half unit markings and are only $12.58 for a box of 100 (although it seems a lot of WalMart employees don't realize that they DO come with half unit markings!!)

Here's some great information on "Dosing with Calipers" if you want to check it out

If you have some test results to put into our spreadsheet, I'll be happy to set it up for you. Just send me a private conversation by clicking on my name and choosing "Start Conversation"...it takes about a minute so it's really no trouble!
 
Thank you Chris so much, I am studying the info and pictures on low dose. My boy (Cat, I guess I should say lol) who was so sick is home so now I stay here and watch him. That should leave time to study up for my girl Cassie! I am using the Monoject syringes, I can tell you the vet's cost more than the ones at Walmart, wow. I use Relion brand for the meter, hence strips, so will check this out sometime I am near there. Tomorrow when I can think straight I will type her results for you, thank you for the offer. My human boy and I are sort of fried from the two trips a day to the hospital for it was actually six days and all the drama. I am sure anyone in this group understands how that is.
 
It is very common for a cat to still need a very little amount insulin while the pancreas continues to heal. Very recently, my cat just went from 3 units down to .1 units (a drop or 2) and is currently on a trial for remission/has had no insulin for 6 days. Most vets increase and decrease by whole units (sometimes half units) and by doing so, can sometimes miss the ideal dose by not microdosing. Even a drop can make a big difference as insulin is a powerful hormone, which is why you could be seeing those steep plunges into low numbers - Cassie's pancreas could be trying to work and therefore her insulin requirement may be less than that of the 1/2 unit she's been getting.
Hope your other kitty feels better, best of luck on reading up on everything! :cat:
 
It takes some practice with your syringes if you need less than .25 unit.....You basically fill your syringe to a set amount (like .5 or 1 unit) and then keep practicing until you can count the number of drops you get from that

Once you know how many drops you get from (for example, 1/2 unit) you pull that half unit and then dispose of the "extra" drops....so if you get 8 drops in .5 unit, .4 drops would be .25....2 drops would be .125

Pull .5 into the syringe and "waste" 6 drops and you should be left with 2 drops.....understand the concept?
 
Yes, thank you, I sure get that! And it's really not even a waste because at these puny doses that pen will be over six months way before the insulin is gone. I will get to work figuring out what 1/4 is because I think she'll need insulin in the next few days. I feel pretty good about 1/2 after doing that for 2 weeks so I'll use that as my base for now. Thank you again, and I will share this with my vet's office because they have never encountered this and are truly interested. They looked into diluting and of course the official answer on that was no, but they were trying to find me a creative solution. I told them "I know some folks..."
 
Get the insulin syringes that have half unit markings.....that makes getting the .25 a lot easier

It's still "between the lines", but at least there are lines to look at!!

What's important is consistency though, not that it's "exactly" .25.....you have to decide where you're going to call .25 and then try to keep it as consistent as possible.

Some people will fill a sample syringe with a colored liquid of some kind to compare to
 
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