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terri1962

terri1962

Member Since 2011
Checked Lilly tonight PM she was at 121 and 119 preshot. I am afraid to give her the shot otherwise having to stay up all night and test. What should I do? She is now almost a half hour over do.
She is also having pancreatitis issues lately. She only gets .50 but still?

Terri
 
Terri,
I'm a newbie too, so can't advise, but can you stall longer for a rising # , without throwing your schedule for her morning shot off too much?
 
I am having a hell of time getting on the board or posting not sure whats going on. I guessed bases on the guidelines and the fact that I am new I will not give shot tonight.

Terri
 
it's this site - it's all hung up tonight.

have you printed out the sticky "how to deal with low preshots/numbers?" at the top of the lantus forum. if not, do so! for moments just like this.

your choices are to

1. stall 30 minutes without feeding, test again and if it's a number you're comfy with, go ahead and shoot. if not, you can repeat as long as you want, with the caveat that you have to be able to shoot 12 hours later.

2. give a token dose, like 1/2 of your regular dose

3. skip the shot entirely.
 
Is she eating? You have 3 options. Shoot, give a reduced dose, skip. Got thrown off halfway through my post. They do not recommend skipping. How do you feel about a BCS (big chicken sh*t) dose. You know your cat best.
 
If you have not shot this low before (and your SS suggests you haven't), do not give the full dose. You can either skip, or give a BCS dose (basically a drop or two). Is she still having appetite issues?

MJ&Donovan
 
I have never shot her at that low of numbers before and don`t think I feel good about doing it. She is 13 years old and has had pancreatitis as I said and I am not sure whats going on at this point.
I did read how to handle low numbers and I don`t have enough data at this point to know what will happen if I do shoot at this low of a number.
Quite frankly she usually does not go this low. I am going to skip for tonight to for safety.
Julie
Yes she is eating, I think she has other health issues the vet is not catching as well as the pancreatitis, heart disease? not sure about that I have spent a so much money and could still spend thousands more but I am not sure I could still save her. I am doing the best I can but it pins and needles at this point everyday.
She has been on an appetite stimulant to get her to eat.
Terri
 
are you getting lots of fluids in her for the pancreatitis? i haven't dealt with it, but i think the usual treatment includes lots of fluids and pain med. i saw you have trouble pilling her - have you tried the pill pockets? or burrito-wrapping her if there's no other way? i wrapped punkin's meds in the duck & pea (ok for diabetics) pill pockets and after 18 days of poking them down his throat he discovered he liked them. then i could throw them on the floor. you might try throwing some little balls of it without meds as a decoy to see if you can get her to eat them.

what is she getting for pain?

are you adding lots of water to her food?
 
The stupid vet said she was not in any pain and did not give me anything. I will probably take her tom. for sub cu fluids as she has had diarrhea this weekend.
She is just having such a hard time. Tried burrito she had a fit and will not eat pill pockets.

Terri
 
I don`t have enough data...
Click to expand...
I agree. You are not testing enough for me to feel comfortable advising you to do anything other than to skip a shot.

Most medications can be compounded into a liquid that you can give orally or into a transdermal gel if you can't give your cat a pill.
 
You can get the flagyll (common name for your med) compounded into a liquid, we get double fish as it is the only flavor that comes close to masking the taste. They drool more with the liquid than with the pill, but its usually over quickly because they lick their mouths to clean off the fishiness. The bad thing is the fish flavors have very short shelf lives so it costs more. Its well worth it for us with Smokey, she doesn't pill well and once she figured out the flagyll was so nasty she fought. With the liquid you only need to hold on long enough to get the syringe end in their mouth and squirt.

DId your vets happen to take any nadir (mid-cycle) tests while they had her? Those tests are really important with Lantus, its what dosing decisions are made on.

Have your vets considered triatitis or triad disease? My vets said it is very common is cats that present with chronic pancreatitis to also have IBD and liver issues. If she's fighting IBD too, it might be why she feels so crappy.

I must have balls of steel. Once we went under 1U on Smokey, I never skipped a shot unless we were in the 60s.
 
Melanie

Loved your post. I will look into the the meds you suggested. Lilly can not be pilled at all. the appetite stimulant I have to give causes her to throw a fit a drool too.
Yes the vet did nadir cycles I think when the had her but I will ask them. I just get so scared I know there is more wrong with her than the are catching. Thats one of the reason I don`t test her alot it stresses her and I know she has pancreatitis but cut I am not sure what else is wrong with her.
Now she just hides all the time.

Terri
 
If you can get their numbers and put them in your spreadsheet, it might show a better picture of what is going on.

I completely feel for you with her hiding. I KNOW how you feel. Smokey got so she would just see us look at her or open the fridge and she run under the bed. We weren't even doing the insulin and testing when we started the flagyll. We took a couple breaks from it, and then stopped it and kept on with the other med we were giving for her liver which seems to be maintaining the liver and pancreatic numbers. We were lucky because Smokey health was not adversely affected much by the pancreatitis, she'd lost some weight quickly so on a 6mo checkup decided to run a blood panel and caught some wonky numbers but her personality was doing great before we started medicating her so our choice between meds or quality of life was easier.

Is there anything she absolutely LOVES? Something that you can reward (and distract) her with a treat or toy immediately after the meds? Smokey would get a part of one of those Fancy Feast Appetizers of shredded chicken and tuna. Its gotten so my youngest loves everyone else getting medicine, as soon I go to the medicine corner she comes running because she knows some kind of treat is coming out.
 
I have nothing to add in terms of information. Just stopping by to send hugs. I hope Lilly feels better. Sending healing thoughts!
 
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