Kat & Elsie
Member
Hello! I've been lurking and learning for a couple of months. Finally had the chance to make my first post! This might be a bit of an info dump, my apologies in advance.
My kitty, Elsie, was diagnosed in September. Vet prescribed 1 unit glargine (I haven't posted in the Lantus forum yet but I plan to get over there). At first I was using the pen needles, just to get used to giving the shots, and to overcome one learning curve at a time, since I was pretty overwhelmed (I know you all recommend the syringes). I got the Relion home meter everyone here uses. I have not been consistent with home testing, but I did some when I remembered, even have a sparsely-filled spreadsheet setup.
After about a month of seeing no change in symptoms or numbers on the single unit, I did take her in to the vet to have them run a curve, as they had requested (was supposed to be after 7-10 days, but I was busy researching since the vet was not as helpful as I'd have liked, no surprise there I'm sure, and her numbers didn't seem to be dropping into dangerous territory).
The numbers were still at the same elevated levels she had upon DX (upper 300s on the vet's pet meter, always mid-upper 200s on my human meter), so the vet upped her dose to 2 units. It was about a week before Halloween that her dose was raised. I went ahead and finished off the box of pen needles I had, and, feeling more comfortable with the routine by this point, decided to switch to the syringes. I didn't ever feel sure the pen needle shots were accurate, either due to pen or user error.
After 2 weeks of 2 unit doses, and possibly also due to the more properly accurate dosage after switching to syringes, I remembered that I should be testing more consistently. Of course the vet wanted another curve, but I decided I should run one myself today. For the first time since starting insulin, Elsie's numbers are not only under 200 (human meter), they dropped under 100! This is good news, but of course I now know I absolutely must be more diligent and informed, so as to avoid hypo. I honestly was not expecting such a dramatic change in such a short time. And so I have come to you all, finally.
Before she was officially DX'd, I had started to suspect diabetes as a possible cause of her sypmtoms (insatiable appetite, litter box troubles, back leg neuropathy), although I wasn't sure. She's a bit overweight as it is (12-13 pounds she carries all in her middle), and has always been very food-motivated. So just in an effort to try and get her to shed some weight for her general health, I had switched her over to all wet/low carb meals. She gets approximately 3 small (avg. 3 oz) cans of food per day, either Fancy Feast Classic pate or Tiki Cat After Dark, usually she gets some of each in a day. 1 can for breakfast, 1 for dinner, and 1 can split into 2 mid-day snacks. She does occasionally get a bite of our other cat's kibble, but we try to watch and put his food up after he's done. We no longer intentionally feed her anything dry. She also gets freeze-dried treats after every test & shot (just one little treat).
I don't know if I covered, or over-covered, everything, but I look forward to receiving more guidance from everyone here. The site has been very helpful in educating me so far; I've read everything I could, but I'm definitely still new to this whole thing. Let me know if you need more information, and thank you!
Edit: I forgot to ask if I should change the dose now that I have some green numbers? Or should I stick with 2 units?
My kitty, Elsie, was diagnosed in September. Vet prescribed 1 unit glargine (I haven't posted in the Lantus forum yet but I plan to get over there). At first I was using the pen needles, just to get used to giving the shots, and to overcome one learning curve at a time, since I was pretty overwhelmed (I know you all recommend the syringes). I got the Relion home meter everyone here uses. I have not been consistent with home testing, but I did some when I remembered, even have a sparsely-filled spreadsheet setup.
After about a month of seeing no change in symptoms or numbers on the single unit, I did take her in to the vet to have them run a curve, as they had requested (was supposed to be after 7-10 days, but I was busy researching since the vet was not as helpful as I'd have liked, no surprise there I'm sure, and her numbers didn't seem to be dropping into dangerous territory).
The numbers were still at the same elevated levels she had upon DX (upper 300s on the vet's pet meter, always mid-upper 200s on my human meter), so the vet upped her dose to 2 units. It was about a week before Halloween that her dose was raised. I went ahead and finished off the box of pen needles I had, and, feeling more comfortable with the routine by this point, decided to switch to the syringes. I didn't ever feel sure the pen needle shots were accurate, either due to pen or user error.
After 2 weeks of 2 unit doses, and possibly also due to the more properly accurate dosage after switching to syringes, I remembered that I should be testing more consistently. Of course the vet wanted another curve, but I decided I should run one myself today. For the first time since starting insulin, Elsie's numbers are not only under 200 (human meter), they dropped under 100! This is good news, but of course I now know I absolutely must be more diligent and informed, so as to avoid hypo. I honestly was not expecting such a dramatic change in such a short time. And so I have come to you all, finally.
Before she was officially DX'd, I had started to suspect diabetes as a possible cause of her sypmtoms (insatiable appetite, litter box troubles, back leg neuropathy), although I wasn't sure. She's a bit overweight as it is (12-13 pounds she carries all in her middle), and has always been very food-motivated. So just in an effort to try and get her to shed some weight for her general health, I had switched her over to all wet/low carb meals. She gets approximately 3 small (avg. 3 oz) cans of food per day, either Fancy Feast Classic pate or Tiki Cat After Dark, usually she gets some of each in a day. 1 can for breakfast, 1 for dinner, and 1 can split into 2 mid-day snacks. She does occasionally get a bite of our other cat's kibble, but we try to watch and put his food up after he's done. We no longer intentionally feed her anything dry. She also gets freeze-dried treats after every test & shot (just one little treat).
I don't know if I covered, or over-covered, everything, but I look forward to receiving more guidance from everyone here. The site has been very helpful in educating me so far; I've read everything I could, but I'm definitely still new to this whole thing. Let me know if you need more information, and thank you!
Edit: I forgot to ask if I should change the dose now that I have some green numbers? Or should I stick with 2 units?
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