New and need help with Lantus & low BG, diet change

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Jaime's Mom

Jaime's Mom

Member Since 2013
Hi and good morning!

This is our 1st post. Thank you for this wonderful site which has been so helpful. We have been monitoring
Jaime on Lantus since her fist day (2 Nov). I take her BG in the morning and night, only on the weekends
can we test more often.

We started a spread sheet when we started Lantus and invite you to take a look. Jaime our 4 yr old rescue
seems to respond very well, perhaps too well, as her numbers can get (too) low? We are trying to wean her
and our other 3 rescues off, or mostly away from, dry food, while keeping her 0.5 unit Lantus shot
constant. Last night was the first night there was no dry food down and when tested her, when I got up at
4am, +9 hours, BG was a very low 31, and it scared us, as it was ca. 3 hrs past the nadir?

Should we leave dry down at night? Should we drop the dose to 0.25 units?

We see very knowledgeable people on this site say normal BG for a cat is anywhere from 40-120, up to 70-

120. That's a big difference between 40 and 70. Please help us - we have no faith in our vet after the
Vetsulin failure and 2 unit Lantus starting prescription.

Little background about Jaime, who "found" us the day before a blizzard, near death, 4 years ago. She
made it back, seemingly healthy, except she never went into heat and has never been spayed, and now
diabetes at an early age. Jaime was diagnosed on October 10 - she was taken to the vet because she was
very sluggish. Her (non) reaction is in the spread sheet remarks.

Our goal is to beat this and get her off insulin.

Thanks for all your help and insights!!

Kathy

http://tinyurl.com/ojxbmxo This is the link for the spreadsheet
 
Based on your spreadsheet, Jamie may not need anymore insulin.
I would not put down dry. Based on recent BGs, I would not give any more than 0.25 units tonight but but maybe I would give not insulin tonight. It depends upon this evening's preshot BG
 
Jamie definitely earned her dose reduction.
I agree that you should wait and see how she does today and tonight.

You can set wet food out at night instead, (ditch that dry completely) if you mix in water it will slow it down from getting crusty.
 
the major concern is that no dry last night, her BG was only 31 at +9, theoretically 2-3 after lowest at nadir. if she needs carbs to raise, my logic is wouldn't dry be better than wet? thanks!
 
The dry is what's probably sending her above the 120, plus bouncing from low numbers.

Her chances of otj are really good.

The low last night shows that 0.5u is too much. She earned a reduction back on 11/17 with that 43.

It's not easy but working the dose down from 0.25u to 0.10 and then off insulin gives the strongest remission.
This is why you should monitor today/tonight and see if she stays in the greens on her own.

I see you just got a 152.....

feed her a small meal and see where she is in 3-4 hours.... does she bring herself down on her own?
 
thanks RnS for the encouraging words. was out for 2 hours and she printed 225+8, took dry food up now and will try to get her to eat now or in the next hour and see if she can bring it down before her next time when she's due for a shot.

based on what we've been hearing and reading we're going down to 0.25 units.
 
Jaime's Mom said:
if she needs carbs to raise, my logic is wouldn't dry be better than wet? thanks!
Click to expand...

Dry takes much too long to raise BGs and takes much too long to wear off. When they're low, depending on how low they are, their regular wet food or some medium carb gravy will work just fine without sending them sky-high and will wear off quicker. If they're under 40, that's usually when you break out the Karo syrup (or another simple sugar like honey) to bring them up quick, however, that hits hard and wears off fast so you have to keep testing and keep feeding to keep the numbers up.

Either way, you don't want to have a cat drop so low that you have to intervene with food and/or Karo. The general rule of thumb is that if they drop below 50 at any point in the cycle, that's an automatic dose reduction of at least .25u across both shots.
 
Thank you everyone! Took the 911 icon off the post, dropped dose to 0.25 Lantus and no dry food, and we'll see how it goes.

Good luck to all of you!!
 
Looks great so far! 10 days of 50-130 and we consider her in remission. And we have tips to help keep her there

keep us updated!

Wendy
 
Thanks Wendy, and everyone else who has taken an interest in Jaime.

So far so good, 3rd day no dry food, 2nd day no shots...

Kathy
 
Just wanted to give an update on our Jaime girl! Today is the start of day 7 with no insulin :mrgreen: All 4 of our cats have been transitioned off dry food completely and only get low carb wet food. Thank you for all your help, Russ and I (Kathy) appreciate it immensely!!

Our mantra is to "beat the betes"!! Our Jaime is doing it!!
 
try setting out two dishes when you go to bed at night.... add some water to the second one.... the added water is good for them plus it will
help keep the food from getting crusty too quickly.
Hopefully she will get a few bites in the night and it might help keep her numbers down. ( like that 122)

Paws crossed that there aren't any higher bg's in there.
 
Hi Rhiannon

I put out 4 bowls at night and I always have a bowl of water out for the cats. Not quite sure why she was crying but she used to do that some time ago when she thought she was home alone. Today she has been really good and eating good. Thanks again for the input as it has gotten us where we are today!!
 
We are so excited!! Today is day 12 no insulin for our Jaime girl :-D She is doing so much better and finally getting some of her spunk back!! Thank you everyone for all your support!!

Russ, Kathy, Jaime, Moley, Scarey and Squeety!!
 
Haven't had much time for my OTJ trial poems lately, but here's one for Jaime.

Jaime girl is doing so well,
gonna kick the insulin since she's doing so swell,
starting to feel good and really spunky,
we'll have an OTJ party soon and dance real funky!
 
Congratulations! 14 days of Normal BG numbers for Jaime!

Remember, Jaime is still a diabetic, just a diet controlled diabetic.

Tips to stay OTJ

1. Never feed dry - not even treats. If you change wet food types, be 100% sure the new food is also low carb and same low carb % as your current food. Some cats are very carb sensitive and an increase from 3-6% to 8-10% can spike the BG’s. Don’t feed if you aren’t sure!
2. Weigh every 2 weeks to 1 month to watch for weight changes. Too much of a weight gain can cause loss of remission.
3. Measure blood once a week, indefinitely. You want to catch a relapse quickly. Some people only do checks every 2 weeks to a month.
4. No steroids or oral meds with sugar - remind your vet whenever giving you any medication. Always double check.
5. Monitor food intake, peeing and drinking. If increasing, a sign of losing remission.
6. Regular vet checks for infection such as dental , ear or UTI. And get them treated quick!

If your cat does fall out of remission you need to be more aggressive and resolve issues/ back on insulin as soon as possible as the window for a second remission is tight if any.

Glad you enjoyed one of my little poems. ;-)
 
Congratulations!!! :-D :razz: :cool: :smile: :mrgreen: :smile: :cool: :razz: :-D I hope she stays in remission a very long time.
 
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