new diabetic cat mom joining lantus relaxed

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tibbs5

tibbs5

Member Since 2014
Hi everyone,
I have gotten some wonderful answers on the main board but thought i should join this one as i am using lantus.
Tibbs was diagnosed last friday and i am trying to regulate his insulin dose but he is not eating very well so it is
very difficult. For 4 days now we skipped his morning shot because he was 50, 55, 127, 104 and i learned not
to dose him if he is under 200. We started at 2 units but dropped to 1 unit at night because his night numbers are
high (320 last night) & his morning numbers too low. I am trying to reduce the night dose so that i can also dose him in the morning but it is so
difficult as his eating is totally variable. I am still using his old food just to get him to eat anything at all as he
won't touch the "diabetic food" Does anyone have any advice on good canned food that they will actually eat?
and should i be worried about the 320 last night? Also, i am only testing twice per day as he absolutely hates having
his ear sticks. I test right before i give or don't give the insulin. I have seen mention of tight regulation and relaxed
regulation and i don't really even know what that means. anyone out there, i am so upset by having to stick my little
guy and i know i have to do it but any advice would be so greatly appreciated. And thanks to those that have already
given me wonderful advice and suggestions. This message board is saving me !!!!
Nadine
 
Welcome Nadine and you too extra sweet Tibbs

Okay let's start with the difference between Tight and Relaxed Lantus. Over here we test a lot less than in Tight. For multiple reasons...cats learning to be tested, long term stable diabetics, real life obligations or a sugarcat that just refuses to read the manual on how to be a good sugarcat.

Normally we test either 4 times a day everyday or test just preshots daily then once a week run either full curves (testing every 2 hours) or a mini curve (testing every 3 hours). Although you're certainly allowed to test more often. No one will ever complain you're testing too much.

Next food..what was Mister Tibbs eating before? Did he ever have a brand of canned food he liked? Most commercial canned pate style canned food is fine for a diabetic. I have 3 diabetics along with 13 civies everyone here eats just plain old fashioned Friskies and 9-lives pate style canned food and my one guy went into and has been in remission for the last 4 years. Not a single cat here will touch the nasty prescription stuff, so take it back and save yourself some bucks. Tell them Tibbs won't eat it.

I know you're not going to believe this but not only will Tibbs learn to except being tested, he'll actually learn to look forward to it if you remember a couple very key ingredients..TREATS for him and confidence for you. No apologies for poking him and no tears. Just a firm confident its going to happen because it has to happen to help him. Cats speak to each other very little with their voices their language is mostly body so you speak volumes to him with your body. You're upset he'll be upset. You smiles, sing to him or tell him jokes while testing he's gonna go Okay mom is happy this must be a good thing and Hey if I let her poke my ear I score a yummy tidbit...that's a fair trade. Pretty soon he'll associate test=treat and special lovins from his bean. Fawn all over him at test time make it fun and magical...yes I even show mine their meters and we discuss their numbers lol

You aren't hurting him or are you damaging his ears. Right now its just strange to him and more annoying than painful.

Lastly Lantus needs a consistent dose a.m. and p.m. given as close to 12 hours apart as humanly possible. And 2u is way too high of a starting dose. If he was mine I'd start him at .5u twice a day and work up from there especially with him not eating well.

I think I covered everything you asked if I missed something let me know and I'll address it.

Oh yeah....CONGRATS ON BEING PROUDLY OWNED BY THE MOST SPECIAL BREED....A SUGARCAT!! (Trust me in time you'll understand what a blessing they are)

Mel and The Fur Gang
 
Oh I see one thing I missed in your post...nope don't worry about the 320 last night. Tibbs was diabetic long before you knew anything wrong with him and he isn't going to get over it overnight either. In fact he'll never stop being diabetic hopefully he will be one of the lucky ones and stop needing insulin but even then he'll still be diabetic just a diet controlled one.

Mel and The Fur Gang
 
YOU ARE WONDERFUL !!!!! Thank you so much. You made me feel so much better,you have no idea.
I really needed that "pep" talk. I love my little guy so much and this has just been so stressful on
him. I actually will be doing the .5 to start. this is such great information and i will also be happy and
"sing" to him at test time. I love all of your ideas. Your cats must be so happy. i have 8 others so we have
a busy household. Thank you so very much.
Take care
Nadine
 
Your welcome Nadine and we hope to see you post daily condos (our term for the kitty's threads) So we can get to know you both. As well as help out in anyway we can to get Mister Tibbs feeling his former perky self.

Oh do I understand a busy household there are 17 animals in total here. Plus the husband. Lol. My original sugarcat earned her wings over 4 years ago but these guys are so addictive I have since adopted 3 more!! Now if this was tough with all my critters do you really think I'd take on 3 more? Heehee.

It really is only scary in the beginning. Once you find your groove it becomes like brushing your teeth or making your bed in the morning.

I should mention for treats they need to be low carb and since you have a big household like me you're probably not going to want to use expensive commercial ones. Afterall can't give a treat to one kid and not to the others...Right? So some of the things I use is plain boiled chicken breasts cut into tiny bite size pieces, little bites of water packed tuna or sardine even if the grocery store has a sale on the plain boiled popcorn or cocktail shrimp. Or the all time fav nips of low fat cream cheese.

The other things that will help us help you help Tibbs is if we could have you set up an online spreadsheet like the ones in my signature that way we can see the numbers you're seeing. There are instruction in the tech support section of this board but if you have difficulty just shoot me a pm (button is under my name under Autumn's picture) and I'll be happy to get you started.

Also eventually you will need to add midcycle test because dosing changes are based off the nadir or lowest part of the cycle. There are two cycles per day a.m. and p.m. each 12 hours long. Lantus cats normally hit nadir at 5-7 hours after injection. All preshots tell you is that Tibbs is above your "no shoot" number and should be safe to shoot a full dose. 200 or below is a Starting no shoot number that will lower as you learn Tibbs particular pattern.

We call it the Sugar Dance for a reason. Like learning any new dance you're gonna trip, forget steps, do them in the wrong order, fall down, step on your partner's toes etc. But that's what we're here for to teach you the steps, to correct you when you miss steps and offer a hand back up when you fall down.

But unlike most dances only one of you can hear the music your dancing to and it isn't you it's Mister Tibbs. You have to follow his lead, again we can show you how to do that because every cat dances differently...some waltz, some cha-cha, some salsa or tango and some decide they just don't like to dance at all and go off insulin altogether.

Everyone here that will offer you advice are either currently are dancing or have danced with a sugarcat of their own. Some with long term partners, some with new partners and some with multiple partners. But we all were once right where you are now overwhelmed and scared to death for our babies. We learned from the others before us and stayed to teach the next generation and hand down the tips and tricks that kept our sanity together.

Lastly BREATHE!!! Keep asking questions and we'll keep answering. The only stupid question here is the one that goes unasked.

Mel and The Fur Gang
 
wow. i read your "breathe" and i cried. you don't realize how much you are holding in. it's just been a rough year. we lost 2 furry children to cancer this year and tibbsy being sick just put me over the edge. thank you for all your care. i am keeping a spreadsheet so i will look at yours and make one like yours. thank you
nadine
 
hi mel and the fur gang :)
can you tell me on your spreadsheet.
i see the blood glucose column but what is AMPS?
and in the dosing col. what is fat.5 i know it's half a unit but
what does the "fat" mean?
thanks.
nadine & tibbs
(and leah, sara, gracie, jake, j.c lambchop (i know .my silly boy), angel, twinky,hallie
and my 2 outdoor ferals callie & blondie boy.
and my two that went to the rainbow this year. vinny & willie. love you my boys.
 
ah ha. i just saw the pmps and realized it must be
am preshot and pm preshot???? so just the fat.5
thanks.
 
You got it amps= a.m. preshot
Pmps=p.m. preshot.
U= units given

Lol Autumn is a microdose girl. A fat .5 is one drop more than a half unit. Yep I've been doing this long enough with Autumn that I adjust her dose in 1/10s

Mel and The Fur Gang
 
hi mel and gang. so tibbsy was up to 432 tonight. he was eating a little more today.
i started the .5 dose and hopefully i can give him .5 in the morning. i was looking at autumn's spreadsheet
and just wonder why she went so high on may 5 i think ? her numbers went over 500 and i just wondered if you knew why. i am sure tibbs went up tonight because he is eating a bit more. i hope that's it.
thanks.
nadine
 
Yep I sure do. She was starting to drop dangerously low on mere drops of Levemir but couldn't hold remission when I took her off so her vet and I tried her on a compounded PZI...it had no effect on her at all so we moved her back to Levemir again and started running tests. Turns out she is one of the rare cats that are hypothyroid due to an old injury that damaged her thyroid. She's on a synthetic thyroid med now but I constantly have to adjust her dose because of the fluctuation in her thyroid production.

Autumn is kinda a special case I adopted her as a diabetic after she went completely untreated at all for 10+months from the time she was diagnosed. At some point in her past she was shot in the face, neck and shoulder. Which is where the damage to her thyroid comes from.

Mel and The Fur Gang
 
oh my god. i can't believe what she's been through. thank god she has you now to
take care of her. give her some hugs from me too.
 
Hi there! I am a newbie too so I feel so much for you. After I do a curve on Simmie tomorrow I plan to join this group. I 'know' Kpassa comes to this group and she recommended it to me and I know she is fantastic. Anyway, this is not about me but about you. I only wanted to say that Mr. Tibbs will tolerate his pokes if you follow the unbelievable advise here! Simmie has just started to say "hey, I get snacks, mom is aok, and I have no worries AND this is gonna happen no matter what!". He has a tiny bit of his fav food (Tiki Pau Pau - but warning this is VERY VERY expensive, I might turn it into a treat and move him back to one of the store brands but my Murph has pancreatitis so I think it's good for him too) and now stops, sits and waits for the poking to stop then goes back to eating! I NEVER thought this is would happen and it happened the day after we had a wrestling event :lol: I was the poking queen but said "Simmie you will stop fighting me! Mommy always wins" then I had to talk to his ears to give me some darn blood, ANYTHING ! :evil: And, it all happened and since that time Simmie doesn't fight!

You know you are in the right place. I don't have to tell you that. I used to have 7 indoor kitties (one DF a long time ago) but now I have a new group of 3 (one is a feral in transition Princess Kitty Kat) and a dog who I found on the highway, Buddy the Dog. I want more kitties but DH has put a lid on it. :-D

Oh, and poor Murphy was a feral and has 12 BBs in his body. Some people take up too much space on this earth...sorry, but that's how I feel. The place where we found him was a b&b where we saw the owner kicking poor Murph off of the guys patio - suffice to say we left and took Murph with us. To this day he is the kindest most gentle kitty in the world.

YOU'RE GOING TO DO GREAT! MANY HUGS! Lydette
 
Hi Nadine and Tibbs and welcome! This forum is the best place to help you help Tibbs. It's made all the difference to me and my cat Max. Mel has given you a lot of great advice. She helped me a lot with Max too. One thing to remember with feline diabetes is that it's a marathon and not a sprint. There will be ups and downs, especially at first. I remember how overwhelming it all was and the tears I shed, but you will get the hang of things. It may not seem like it now, but you will... really. BG #'s, especially for a newly diagnosed kitty, can be all over the place. It's takes some time for things to settle down, so it's not unexpected. Testing was one of the hardest things for me. Be sure to notice the was. I never thought when I was starting out that it would get easier, but it did. I would read people's posts about their testing experiences and think "yeah... right... your kitty isn't like mine... he'll never do that," but then he did. For Max, it's all about the treats. He loves treat treats. I shake the treat container and he comes running for his tests now. Sometimes he'll just go to his test area even when it's not test time cause he wants a treat and is like "mom here I am... give me a poke... so I can have a treat." Sweet boy! I talk to him the whole time and tell him what a good boy he is and how handsome he is and that he's my favorite (he's an only... so no other kitties to get jealous). As I got better at testing with experience and with the help from the treats, it got so much easier. A low carb diet also made a huge difference. Just take it one day and one step at a time though.
 
hi holly & lydette.
so great to meet all of you. yes mel's advice is amazing.
she has helped me so much and so has everyone else. everyone here are such wonderful people. i am so happy that i found this site. so i have also been singing & dancing around tibbs for his test & it really works!!!! it really makes him feel better . tibbs was only diagnosed last week so i am trying to get his numbers to stabilize. i know i have to b patient. so glad to meet all of you. i will be looking forward to all of ur posts.
nadine
 
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