Maverick - Insulin day 1 today - woohoo

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Karrie and Maverick

Karrie and Maverick

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I thought today was insulin day but it was practice with saline injection day lol.

Maverick was diagnosed as diabetic last week (managed prediabetes for 9 months by switching him to wet food). We got our tutorial at the vets office this afternoon. My fear about the ear pricking resolved for the most part when I saw what a small amount of blood was required for the meter. I didn't watch any videos before the tutorial because I was worried my anxiety level would be too high. I will be watching the videos tonight that I've avoided for the past week. I did a practice injection with saline but he was a bit ornery so I wasn't able to do an ear prick myself.

The injections I'm still not 100% confident in. I will be trimming some injection spots so I can see the syringe enter and feel better that I'm injecting right. I bought short insulin needles as I was told this was easier for a beginner and reduce the chance of furshots initially.

Maverick is 15.5lbs, fructosamine with last Tuesdays blood draw was 571. Today in the vets office his blood sugar was 16.5 I believe. I learned how to use my accucheck nano meter. I loved seeing it sip up the blood as quickly as it did. The vet is starting him on 2 units of lantus twice a day. She wants me to check his blood glucose every 4 hours for the first few days. No more than that to prevent stressing him out too much.

So I'm still quite nervous. Fairly prepared, but nervous. I know we'll come up to speed quite quickly and soon it will all be routine. I have corn syrup and kitty treats in the event of a hypo. I bought five 3ml insulin cartridges but will be using insulin needles initially until he is fine with injections. We have pure bites chicken for treats after his injections. He loves these and I haven't given him any in a week so he'll really be seeing it as a reward when he gets them tomorrow and will associate them with a post injection bribe :) I have makeup sponges to raise the vein for ear lancing, gauze for holding his ear after to minimize bruising. I hope I'm all set.

Thank you for everyone on the forum. It is a great site. Very educational and supportive!!!!

I'll post on this thread tomorrow on how our first insulin injection went.
Karrie and Maverick
 
Re: Maverick - Insulin day 1 tomorrow

If you havent read all the sticky's at the top of the Lantus support forum, go there to read them.
You will need to understand about the cats insulin storage shed and the protocol for dose increases and decreases.
You will also want to set up a spreadsheet and enter your cats BG readings in it and add the link to the spreadsheet to your signature so others can view it.
In the new to the forum sticky it tells about all that.
You should visit that forum rather than this one. Alot of people over there are very knowlegable about Lantus.

Good luck.
 
Re: Maverick - Insulin day 1 tomorrow

Cool, thanks for the advice. I was over on the lantus forum reading their stickies.

I have the spread sheet saved now. Its US numbers, do most people post in US numbers or can I post in Canadian numbers also? I wonder if I can get my glucose meter to use US numbers if it would help with getting advice from here.

We put off doing insulin today and I feel guilty. Maverick vomited once this morning. My dog with heart failure had a rough night last night so I knew we'd be bringing her to the vet today but didn't know when. So I didn't want Maverick's first day on insulin not to be monitored the whole day. So I put it off till tomorrow.

Karrie and Maverick.
 
Re: Maverick - Insulin day 1 tomorrow

Karrie,

If you set up your spreadsheet as the "world" version, you can flip back and forth between metric and us numbers. It is an option a little further down the page on the Tech page directions.

I am not sure if you can modify it now or would have to set up a new one. Surely someone else will know.

I hope your vet will start at a nice safe low dose-.5 or one unit twice daily.
 
Re: Maverick - Insulin day 1 tomorrow

I am sorry to hear about your dog.

We all post in US numbers here. Multiply your Canadian numbers by 18 (and round off). Some use a printed chart that has all of the numbers and the conversion. I used to keep a calculator by my computer. I know that some use a SS that converts world to US numbers automatically. Go to the Lantus ISG page, look for the sticky note at the top labelled "New to the Group, please read", and in the section on spreadsheets, there are instructions there for finding the SS for non-US members.

Many start Lantus at 1 unit twice daily, however initial dosing also considers weight. I won't comment on your starting dose, but if you post an introduction on the Lantus board, others may. It sounds like you are working with a very good and supportive vet, so I am sure that things will go well for you.

Lantus doses will be adjusted in increments of less than 1 unit, so it is best to use the insulin syringes with 1/2 unit markings, and continue to use those with your cartridge.

Good luck. It sounds like you are off to a very good start.
 
Re: Maverick - Insulin day 1 tomorrow

I'll keep track in Canadian numbers for my vet and post on here in US numbers then :)

I did visit the lantus forum but it said not to do introductory posts and had a formal way of starting threads there.... so I am not sure if I can post there before starting insulin and getting advice on the 2 units. They seem very formal over there ;)

Maverick's gotten sick three times today. I really want to start the insulin and hate that I'm waiting until tomorrow. I want to be able to watch him the day of the first dose and I can't do that if I'm sleeping. My dog with CHF is doing much better. That diagnosis is a roller coaster in itself - just like feline diabetes. Thankfully each of them seem to have great vets looking after them. And great forums for additional support/feet grounding :)

Karrie and Maverick.
 
Re: Maverick - Insulin day 1 tomorrow

klkelly said:
I did visit the lantus forum but it said not to do introductory posts and had a formal way of starting threads there.... so I am not sure if I can post there before starting insulin and getting advice on the 2 units. They seem very formal over there ;)
Click to expand...

Once you have a SS up and running, the Lantus group will have some info upon which to base their feedback, if you would like some from them. It's entirely up to you where you feel more comfortable posting. Posting in Lantus is pretty simple - just open one thread per day, and label it with the date and your cat's name. You can add in your recent test number. It really is not as daunting as it looks, and they are a pretty welcoming bunch. But you are getting a lot of help here in Health, and you are off to a great start, so don't do anything you feel uncomfortable with. The learning curve is fast on this Board, whatever forum you are in. It all comes very quickly. Good luck with your first dose!
 
Re: Maverick - Insulin day 1 tomorrow

Linda, I just watched Bear's garden video and saw that he is an Angel now. He was beautiful.
Maverick looks just like Bear, even his eyes, but a bit chunkier (15.5lbs down from 20 though).

I'm sending lots of hugs your way.

Karrie and Maverick.
 
Re: Maverick - Insulin day 1 tomorrow

klkelly said:
Linda, I just watched Bear's garden video and saw that he is an Angel now. He was beautiful.
Maverick looks just like Bear, even his eyes, but a bit chunkier (15.5lbs down from 20 though).

I'm sending lots of hugs your way.

Karrie and Maverick.
Click to expand...

Thanks Karrie. I sure miss him. He was blind since birth, but I don't think he looks it in that video.
 
Re: Maverick - Insulin day 1 tomorrow

klkelly said:
I'll keep track in Canadian numbers for my vet and post on here in US numbers then :)
Click to expand...

Here is a link to another Canadian cat's SS using the world format. You can see that there is a sheet for each format, so your vet can see your Canadian numbers, and your entries are converted automatically into US numbers on the other sheet. (Ithink that's how it works - I didn't use this format).

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key= ... JV1E&gid=0
 
It couldn't have gone any better!!!!! Everything I think went perfectly.

We put rice in a sock and warmed it up. Used it to pet him and massage his ear. He loved it lol. I have this little led light that I use to find clothes in the dresser when my husband is sleeping: http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs..._-D27X-_-100670776&locStoreNum=121&marketID=1 I put it against his ear and it lit the vein right up and provided a firm backing for lancing. We used the 25 gauge syringe tips the vet gave us and got a drop of blood right away - no milking. 1/2 hour after breakfast it read 311 (17.3).

Then I got out the pure bites chicken treats I've been holding back. While he was sniffing them and trying to eat them off the blankets I gave his insulin injection. He didn't even notice it! No flinching or anything! And I didn't feel any wetness so our first shot we didn't have to worry about it being a furshot. (And have to wait out 12 hours until his next one).

It was a much better experience than I ever thought it would be. He will be loving this attention and treats. Thank you for all the great advice and support here. We survived his first injection.
 
Well done! Sounds like you have a good handle on everything, but I am a bit concerned that your starting dose of 2u is too high. Starting too high can result in you missing the optimal dose - 1u is the usual starting point (some even start at 0.5u). Unless he has had issues with ketones- in which case, don't lower the dose!

Speaking of ketones, please pop into a pharmacy and get a bottle of ketostix. Test the urine daily while regulating. This monitors for a very dangerous diabetic condition called DKA, and can give you early warning before it progresses. Some info on DKA: http://petdiabetes.wikia.com/wiki/Ketoacidosis

We have gotten pretty good at posting in US values, even tho' the rest of us (Canada, Europe/UK, Australia, etc.) use the metric system. I'm in Canada (NS) and usually posted both values. Also remember that if you post the numbers here, you shouldn't use actual "clock times" since we cover about 20 time zones, and that gets confusing really fast. The morning preshot BG is just listed as "AM PS", then if you check the BG 4 hours later, it's listed as "+4", so you could post something like :

AM PS 16.2 (292) - gave 1u
+4 10 (180)

etc.

Like learning a whole new language, isn't it?

In any case, you've obviously done your homework, and Maverick is in good hands. Welcome aboard.
 
Congrats and welcome to the Vampire Club. Secret hand shake coming later...lol

Now see wasn't all that worrying for nothing? Maverick sounds like he is in very good hands.

Mel
 
Ahhh - thats why you guys use the +2 +4. Makes sense. I still have a lot to learn. I started a thread on the lantus group and they've been very welcoming also. I am so glad I'm not in this alone!

I am worried about the 2 units being really high also. I'll ask the lantus group about it specifically and then call my vet to check. I'd hate for her to think I'm not listening to her. Maverick's blood glucose is testing a lot lower than his fructosamine did a week ago.

The vampire club made me laugh. I swear I thought I'd faint doing this. When I saw the teeny amount of blood needed Tuesday at the vets office I laughed with relief. I had avoided watching videos until my tutorial session.

Off to find a picture for an avatar now :)
 
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