New Member 06/08/2024 saying hi

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Russell & Miles

Russell & Miles

Member Since 2024
hello there, my name is Russell and my feline pal is Miles, who is almost 18.. Still new to this and came here on the recommendation of one of my vets. We're just a couple of weeks into this new life. It began with Miles' glucose reading sky high, vet #1 said in the 900s. They gave him fluids and a couple of medicines and sent me home with instructions for 2 units twice a day. This is apparently a very high dose and I woke up one morning to find him near comotose and rushed off to the animal hospital. He was in pretty bad shape and he ended up staying the night. I came to take him home the next day and he was stabilized. They took good care of him and the surgical precision they used to extract the price of a nice vacation from my wallet was pretty astounding. That dr. strongly recommended that I lower the dosage to 1/2-1 unit. So I did, and brought him to the vet a day later to start a plan. The vet#2 kept him for the day and said the prozinc was a little much as Miles' levels went from extreme lows to extreme highs. He suggested switching to Lantus and announced he'd be gone 13 days. So, here I am. about to dive into this forum. It's a very impressive thing you've done here, and I look forward to educating myself.
 
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Welcome to FDMB!

It sounds like you and Miles had a rocky start. We encourage members to home test. This means buying a glucometer. Most members use a human meter (vs a pet specific meter) as the costs with a human meter are far less. Many people use the Walmart Relion meter as the strips are the least expensive around. We have lots of materials on how to home test.

We also recommend that you feed Miles a low carbohydrate, canned food diet. If the vet convinced you to buy "prescription" food, there's no need for the prescription food. Further, many of the prescription foods, especially the dry varieties, are absurdly high in carbs. We consider under 10% to be a low carb diet although most members feed their cat in the 5% range. This is a link to a food chart with nutritional information on most of the canned foods available in the US.

It would also be helpful if you set up your signature and a spreadsheet. The signature will give us information about Miles so we don't keep asking you the same questions repeatedly. A spreadsheet will allow you to track Miles' progress and we can follow along. This is information on how you can help us to help you that has the instructions.

As for 13 days.... When my cat was diagnosed, she was critically ill. She was hospitalized with diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA), hepatic lipidosis, and pancreatitis. She spend several days on the kitty ICU with two vets warning me that many cats do not survive. She had 6.5 more years.

Please let us know how we can help.
 
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Hi and welcome to you both.
I also recommend you set up a spreadsheet and signature so we can see all your data…
When you buy a glucose mete, I would recommend you get a human meter such as the ReliOn premier from Walmart. You will also need some test strips and lancets. Ask for size 26 or 28 gauge lancets and also get some cotton balls to hold behind the ear when testing.
What dose of Lantus did the vet suggest?
 
Bron and Sheba (GA) said:
Hi and welcome to you both.
I also recommend you set up a spreadsheet and signature so we can see all your data…
When you buy a glucose mete, I would recommend you get a human meter such as the ReliOn premier from Walmart. You will also need some test strips and lancets. Ask for size 26 or 28 gauge lancets and also get some cotton balls to hold behind the ear when testing.
What dose of Lantus did the vet suggest?
Click to expand...
When Miles was at Blue Pearl (ER) the dr suggested a unit if over 200 and 1/2 a unit under 200. That's of the prozinc. The Lantus......I'm still gathering data as that vet is out for a week. I have the pen. I ordered the syringes that go with Lantus, as he said something about being worried the pen would have trouble with such small doses and suggested loading the syringes from the pen. But till then, he suggested just 1/2 a unit (prozinc), which has actually been working pretty well with Miles. Meanwhile, my head is spinning and I'm trying to remember everything I'm told. I'm personally starting to lean more towards getting the pen needle. I'll be doing more reading today. The blood test is getting me very spooked. He's skittish and so am I . I also have a small tremor that's aggravated by stress- so the learning curve on this I'm going to dread. But we'll get there. As I said , I'll be doing more reading today. I wouldn't know how to do a spreadsheet to save my life but I imagine I'll figure that out too.
 
There are a couple of issues with using the pens. First, the pens dispense insulin in 1.0u increments. You can't dose in quarter or half unit amounts. This is why we recommend using a syringe. We adjust the dose in 0.25u amounts. You also need to prime the pen. In other words, every time you plan to give a shot, you have to waste a unit of insulin. By comparison, with a syringe, you overdraw insulin by a very small amount and probably lose a drop or two of insulin as you fine tune the dose. There are also a few articles that suggest that the pens are much less accurate than a syringe. They tend to underdose the amount.

With Lantus, you do not want to use a sliding scale for dosing. Lantus is a depot type of insulin. It works best if your dose is consistent unless you need to reduce the dose due to a drop in numbers. Once you either increase or decrease a dose, you hold the dose for a minimum of 3 days/6 cycles if you're following Tight Regulation or for a week if you're following Start Low Go Slow (SLGS) for your dosing method.

In the "helping us to help you" post, there are instructions on how to fill out the spreadsheet. It will become second nature. We don't use the actual time of day because our members are from all over the world. For example, Bron is in Australia. I'm in Ohio. Instead, our "time" is in the number of hours from when you gave a shot. So a +4 is 4 hours after you gave either your AM or your PM shot. The column that's labeled "U" is for the number of units of insulin in the dose you gave your cat. Take a look at any of our spreadsheets. (And please don't get freaked out by mine. I was a testaholic! Gabby had an early nadir and a tendency to have her numbers plummet.) Members who are using a continuous glucose monitor, like the Freestyle Libre, make my spreadsheet look like I didn't test enough. The Libre has a sensor that's attached to your cat and you can get readings on your phone whenever you feel like it. There are issues with the Libre but it's also an option that has become popular.

I would suggest distracting yourself (and your cat) when testing. Talk to Miles or sing or hum. It's difficult to to spook yourself if you're singing!
 
ok, thanks that's good to know..also gives me a little more confidence in the vet that told me about it. We came home with a Freestyle Libre with sensor on Miles. Boy, the tracking is easy, except there wasn't a moment of the day he didn't scratch and try to remove that thing. I think we managed 8-9 days before he succeeded. I tried topical anti-itch medicine and even tried a tee shirt-which looked quite fetching on him. and he hated it. wish they could come up with something less distressing to cats. thanks again for the pen info...I'll redirect my reading!
 
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