Maxie

[Pattyk]

Maxie was diagnosed in August 2017. He was placed on Prozinc at 5 units twice a day at diagnosis. It was dropped to 4 units about two weeks later when he began to go to low. Maxie remained on 4 units for 2 years.

Fast-forward forward to 2019. I changed my vet. The new vet diagnosed Maxie with a dental infection September 2019. The vet took out all but 4 teeth. The new vet was not familiar with prozinc and changed Maxie to Lantus.

After surgery Maxie was not on insulin for 7 days per vet instructions. Maxie was started on 1/2 unit of Lantus mid-september. The following week he was increased to one unit because his numbers were still not good. The vet also instructed me to stop feeding Maxie 4 cans a Fancy Feast a day. Maxie is a big boy; big boned. He weighs about 20 lb but most of that is muscle. Per vet instructions I reduced his food to two cans a day.

Maxie has had several issues since then to include begging for food constantly. He was also sick one day with what I can only guess was a kitty flu. Maxie's dose has been increased to 2 units then 3 units twice a day. So a full unit increase 3 weeks straight . I know this supposed to go slow at .25 or .5 unit increases only.

I truly believe he was being underfed. I have been increasing his food on my own and he seems less stressed; now back to 4 cans a day and seems better. But with three units a day I am concerned. His numbers are not moving. He is also sporadically throwing up mostly in the morning after his shot. After his shot tonight he threw up again. He went to his bowl ate a little more and seems fine.

My vet wants me to bring him in for a curve which I can do. Looking for advice. do you think is ideal dose has been over shot? At 20 lb is 4 Cans too much? Any thoughts would be helpful. Thank you

 

[AmandaE]

hen Mowgli was first diagnosed he was super hungry too, I personally think it is ok for you feed him more if he's that hungry, when a kitties diabetes is not under control they don't process glucose properly and therefore don't properly utilize food and end up hungrier. Until you get Maxies BG a little more under control I would personally feed 4 cans a day, if you feel badly about it Maybe do 3 cans a day. As long as its not so much food that it makes him sick.

1u increases are not advised here for sure, I think there is a chance that you may have overshot his dose, That being said, the fact that Maxie was on 4u Prozinc before should factor into his Lantus dose, @Wendy&Neko would you have any insight into what you might do in this situation?.

Do you have syringes with half unit markings? We use them for finer dosing. If you would rather increase by 0.25u or 0.5u it is your choice, I would say go with your instinct. Have you considered following one of our dosing protocols here? for Lantus we have 2: Start Low Go Slow, and Tight Regulation. Have a look at the description of these methods Here and see if one might work for you. In both TR and SLGS. We only increase or decrease by 0.25u at a time. How long you hold a dose depends also on whether you follow TR or SLGS.

A couple things that could help us help you here is if you could set up asignature(grey text that appears below a post)

To create your own signature, click on your profile name at the upper right hand corner of the page. Select ‘Signature’ on the left side of the profile menu and write a signature containing the following information:

• Your first name (if you want)
• Kitty's name, age, & sex
• Date of diagnosis
• Name of the insulin being used
• The name of the blood glucose meter you are using
• Has kitty experienced any complications from diabetes? Ex. DKA, Neuropathy
• Is kitty currently taking any other medications or supplements?
• Does kitty have any health issues (current or in the past)?
• Food: What are you currently feeding kitty?
• Any information about your cat which is important, but hasn't been covered above
• Your country / timezone - this helps for timezone specific advice
• If you’re home testing, a link to your kitty’s spreadsheet

Select Save Changes.

Great job setting up your spreadsheet, instead of having it as an attachment like you have, we like to put a link to our spreadsheet in our signature. In order to do that you need to have your spreadsheet in google docs and make it shareable, you can find directions how to do that HERE. If youre having trouble you can ask for help from one of our members

Sorry for the information dump! if you have questions please ask! Also, welcome to the Lantus Basaglar and Levemir Group

 

[Sienne and Gabby (GA)]

Patty -

I do suspect your cat isn't getting enough food. This is a formula to approximate the calories your cat needs on a daily basis:
Required calories per day = [13.6 X optimal lean body weight in pounds] + 70 which calculates out to 370 calories for a 20 lb cat. Low carb cat foods really vary in their calories so check the label on the can or you can check on the manufacturer's website or on the food chart on Lisa Pierson, DVM's feline nutrition website. I wouldn't simply go by the number of cans you're feeding. Look at the calories. Also, look at Maxie's weight. Is he losing weight on the new "diet?"

I also suspect that Maxie was started on too low of a dose of Lantus. When a cat has been on another insulin, you can make a direct switch. In other words, Maxie could have been started out at the same amount of Lantus as he was getting of Prozinc -- 4.0u. For safety's sake, you might have lowered the dose a bit but a drop from 4.0u to 0.5u was a big decrease.

Re. the throwing up: Some cats can get a bit of an acid stomach overnight. A lot may depend on how you're feeding Maxie. If you're not already doing so, consider spreading out his food into several small meals. A timed feeder may help, especially during the PM cycle. The only thing you need to make sure you do is to not feed 2 hours prior to a shot. Feeding too close to shot time may cause a food spike and your pre-test numbers will be influenced by food.

It would be very helpful if you could transfer your Excel data to the spreadsheet we use here. Not everyone uses Excel. I'm also a bit leery of downloading files onto my computer. The spreadsheet we use is a Google document and it is easily viewed by everyone.

I'd also encourage you to start getting at least a "before bed" test every night. Many cats experience lower numbers during the PM cycle. You don't know if this is the case with Maxie. Getting PM cycle tests will allow you to be sure Maxie is in safe numbers overnight. Right now, you're missing half of your data!

 

[Margie and Jackson]

Maxie was diagnosed in August 2017. He was placed on Prozinc at 5 units twice a day at diagnosis. It was dropped to 4 units about two weeks later when he began to go to low. Maxie remained on 4 units for 2 years.

Fast-forward forward to 2019. I changed my vet. The new vet diagnosed Maxie with a dental infection September 2019. The vet took out all but 4 teeth. The new vet was not familiar with prozinc and changed Maxie to Lantus.

After surgery Maxie was not on insulin for 7 days per vet instructions. Maxie was started on 1/2 unit of Lantus mid-september. The following week he was increased to one unit because his numbers were still not good. The vet also instructed me to stop feeding Maxie 4 cans a Fancy Feast a day. Maxie is a big boy; big boned. He weighs about 20 lb but most of that is muscle. Per vet instructions I reduced his food to two cans a day.

Maxie has had several issues since then to include begging for food constantly. He was also sick one day with what I can only guess was a kitty flu. Maxie's dose has been increased to 2 units then 3 units twice a day. So a full unit increase 3 weeks straight . I know this supposed to go slow at .25 or .5 unit increases only.

I truly believe he was being underfed. I have been increasing his food on my own and he seems less stressed; now back to 4 cans a day and seems better. But with three units a day I am concerned. His numbers are not moving. He is also sporadically throwing up mostly in the morning after his shot. After his shot tonight he threw up again. He went to his bowl ate a little more and seems fine.

My vet wants me to bring him in for a curve which I can do. Looking for advice. do you think is ideal dose has been over shot? At 20 lb is 4 Cans too much? Any thoughts would be helpful. Thank you

I second Amanda about diabetics needing more food. They were making my poor boy live off 2 cans a day in the shelter for the 6 weeks he was there. He was ravenous and underweight at 10 pounds. I think you’re right to follow your instinct. You can help your cat lose weight slowly if he needs to. Imagine asking any human to suddenly cut out half their daily calories!

I’ll leave advice about dosing to someone more experienced, but I wish you luck with Maxie’s health.