New member Brian & Penelope Intoduction

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Brian & Penelope

Brian & Penelope

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Hi Everyone.
My name is Brian, and my cat Penelope is a 12 year old female. She is kind of a Siamese mix. I've had her since she was a kitten. She is a cool cat who loves car rides and camping. She has even been out kayaking in the past.
I have one other cat in the household, Crabby Pants, who is a 6 year old long hair grey cat. She was a shelter rescue about 2 years ago.

Penelope was diagnosed August 8, 2024. She had a couple of symptoms that I should have picked up on sooner. First, her rear legs started getting wonky. They still work, but they sometimes splayed out a bit, so her walk looked funny. Also, she was having trouble jumping from the floor to the counter. (She is a foodie, always wants to see what I am cooking.) I started giving her Cosiquine for the leg issue. (I quit that once she was diagnosed with diabetes.)
Her other issue was her ravenous appetite. She was going through 3 cans of cat food a day, and always acting like she was starving. Plus peeing a lot, and sometimes in innappropriate places.

She is now finishing her first week of Vetsulin injections. I have been aggressive in ramping up her Units, starting at 1.0, and now at 3.5. I know I should have been more gradual, but I have a month long trip coming up in 2 weeks, and I wanted to get her dosing to a steady number as quick as I could so that I can have the people watching her not have to figure out the dosing.

I have removed kibble from her diet, and am feeding her Friskies Pate exclusively. I have also eliminated her unhealthy foods. She loves ice-cream, Cheetos, chips, cereal milk, cheese, etc. Like I said, she is a foodie. I am assuming that I can still feed her bits of steak and chicken.
Crabby Pants is still eating kibble (Purina One Plus Indoor Advantage). Crabby is a picky eater, and that is one of the few foods she will eat. I do have a bag of Young Again Zero Mature Health on order. Hopefully Crabby will like that, and I can eliminate the high carb kibble that I think Penelope sometimes gets in to.

Also, I want to thank everyone who has contributed to this forum. It is a valuable source of information. I've been reading and learning a ton from it in this last week.
 
Welcome Brian and Penelope, You are in the right place, apparently you know so much more than I did when I found this Forum, my Corky was diagnosed January2, 2023, I had no idea that cat could suffer from diabetes, never mind the symptoms, you are way ahead of my, glad that that Corky has no other ailments just the diabetes, he is an inside cat since 8 weeks old he will be 11 Sept 18, nest month, I brought him up on MeauMix kibbles, as well as my 1/2 Main Coon Coco she is 4, I had no idea the harm I was causing, here in this Forum I am far from an expert, just a well known member, good to know you have stopped the junk food, as it's not good for us humans is worse for cats, they cannot digest Carbohydrates, therefor it accumulates in the stomach/pancreas which is the cause of diabetes, I was taught that cats with diabetes must consume minimum 4-6 meals a day 2 main meal before insulin AMPS/PMPS, and two-3 small meals in between a tbsp or so, always to be between 0-10 % carbs, I use the Fancy Feast Pates, many flavors and many low carbs, made in the USA which is very regulated, no scraps in the food, below is a link of all brands of food in the third column of each food you will find the Carb % and again welcome:bighug::cat::cat:

https://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/dr-pierson-new-food-chart.174147/
 
Brian & Penelope said:
Hi Everyone.
My name is Brian, and my cat Penelope is a 12 year old female. She is kind of a Siamese mix. I've had her since she was a kitten. She is a cool cat who loves car rides and camping. She has even been out kayaking in the past.
I have one other cat in the household, Crabby Pants, who is a 6 year old long hair grey cat. She was a shelter rescue about 2 years ago.

Penelope was diagnosed August 8, 2024. She had a couple of symptoms that I should have picked up on sooner. First, her rear legs started getting wonky. They still work, but they sometimes splayed out a bit, so her walk looked funny. Also, she was having trouble jumping from the floor to the counter. (She is a foodie, always wants to see what I am cooking.) I started giving her Cosiquine for the leg issue. (I quit that once she was diagnosed with diabetes.)
Her other issue was her ravenous appetite. She was going through 3 cans of cat food a day, and always acting like she was starving. Plus peeing a lot, and sometimes in innappropriate places.

She is now finishing her first week of Vetsulin injections. I have been aggressive in ramping up her Units, starting at 1.0, and now at 3.5. I know I should have been more gradual, but I have a month long trip coming up in 2 weeks, and I wanted to get her dosing to a steady number as quick as I could so that I can have the people watching her not have to figure out the dosing.

I have removed kibble from her diet, and am feeding her Friskies Pate exclusively. I have also eliminated her unhealthy foods. She loves ice-cream, Cheetos, chips, cereal milk, cheese, etc. Like I said, she is a foodie. I am assuming that I can still feed her bits of steak and chicken.
Crabby Pants is still eating kibble (Purina One Plus Indoor Advantage). Crabby is a picky eater, and that is one of the few foods she will eat. I do have a bag of Young Again Zero Mature Health on order. Hopefully Crabby will like that, and I can eliminate the high carb kibble that I think Penelope sometimes gets in to.

Also, I want to thank everyone who has contributed to this forum. It is a valuable source of information. I've been reading and learning a ton from it in this last week.
Click to expand...
Tagging Suzanne for you who is familiar with Vetsulin and to look at your spreadsheet
You really need to try and keep your shooting times the same for AMPS and PMPS
You really don't need the tabs that say AMPS before food and AMPS after food .
You just need AMPS and then UNITS
@Suzanne & Darcy

@Brian & Penelope
Can you please add SLGS to your signature also
 
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Yes. U-40 syringe with half unit markings.
I have the AMPS before and after foods so I can keep better track of when I tested. I was doing the tests after food, then read that I was supposed to do the test before food. I will work to get that testing more consistent. And dial in the insulin shot times.
 
Welcome to FDMB!

Penelope sounds like she has an adventurous spirit! (I'm not sure what to conclude about Crabby Pants!!!)

If I may offer a thought or two. At one time, Vetsulin (or as it's called elsewhere in the world, Caninsulin) was a popular insulin. As you can tell from the name, this was an insulin developed for use with dogs who have a slower metabolism than cats. In 2018, the American Animal Hospital Assn stopped endorsing Vetsulin as an appropriate insulin for managing feline diabetes. This is a link to their guidelines. The issue with Vetsulin is that it does not have sufficient duration to last through the 12-hour insulin cycle. The AAHA recommends either glargine (this is the generic/biosimilar form of Lantus) or Prozinc. It may be worth discussing the insulin choice with your vet. Some cats do well on Vetsulin. However, we've seen far greater success with cats going into remission with either glargine/Lantus or Prozinc.

Just so you're aware, 3.0u is a lot of insulin in a very short time. We do not ramp up the dose that quickly, especially with Vetsulin. Vetsulin is a harsh, fast acting insulin. I'm particularly concerned because you're not getting any PM cycle tests. Many cats experience lower numbers at night. Without any PM tests, you have no idea how low the insulin is bringing Penelope's blood glucose level. In addition, you're missing half of your data. At the minimum, can you get a test before you head off to bed?

I'm also providing a link to our beginner's guide to Vetsulin. The guide will give you a bit more information on dosing. While I can appreciate you're wanting to have Penelope on a stable dose before you head out of town. Whenever I would travel, I had my cat on a reduced dose of insulin. There's no way to predict if Penelope will eat like she usually does or what will happen with her numbers. It's safer to have your cat on less insulin than to risk hypoglycemia.
 
Sienne,
Thank you for the input. Once I got on the forum, I saw that Vetsulin is probably not the best choice. With my time constraint of heading out of town soon, I think I will keep her on that while I am gone, and then talk to my vet to decide whether she should stay on that long term, or switch to one of the better choices. Having a longer acting insulin would definitely be good, as her numbers get elevated towards the end of the 12 hours.
I will also get some PM numbers on there.
And the idea of reducing the dose while I am gone makes a lot of sense. I do not want her having a Hypoglycemic episode while I am away.
 
Hi Brian,
Just double checking Penelope did not have DKA or ketones at diagnosis.
Are you able to get some tests in during the pm cycle.?

Who is going to be looking after Penelope while you are away?
Are they going to be testing the BGs?
 
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If it's not too much of a headache, could you remove the pick color from the empty cells on your spreadsheet? I had a rather visceral reaction seeing those colors since for those of us who look at spreadsheets routinely, I thought you were testing every hour and were getting largely numbers in the 300s.
 
Sienne and Gabby (GA) said:
If it's not too much of a headache, could you remove the pick color from the empty cells on your spreadsheet? I had a rather visceral reaction seeing those colors since for those of us who look at spreadsheets routinely, I thought you were testing every hour and were getting largely numbers in the 300s.
Click to expand...

I think that’s a bug :) it happens for me occasionally… Ivy’s spreadsheet will be all lime green, Pudge’s all red, etc. usually it corrects itself the next time I open it.
 
Bron,
My vet did not say anything about DKA or ketones. They did not run a urine test.
I am not up to speed on how to perform these tests, and have no idea what you mean by "on cycle". Is there a link or how to article dealing with this?
I will have a cat-sitter who is a vet tech checking on Penelope 2x a day. She will be checking BG, and giving an insulin shot.
 
Brian & Penelope said:
Bron,
My vet did not say anything about DKA or ketones. They did not run a urine test.
I am not up to speed on how to perform these tests, and have no idea what you mean by "on cycle". Is there a link or how to article dealing with this?
I will have a cat-sitter who is a vet tech checking on Penelope 2x a day. She will be checking BG, and giving an insulin shot.
Click to expand...
That was a typo with the on cycle…I’ve corrected it. Sorry…It should have said pm cycle:rolleyes:
To test for ketones in the urine, you need to get a bottle of Ketostix from a pharmacy, collect a urine from Penelope, testThe urine, read it exactly15 seconds later. And hopefully there will be no ketones. If there are please tell us as we do things a bit differently if there are.
Brian & Penelope said:
I will have a cat-sitter who is a vet tech checking on Penelope 2x a day. She will be checking BG, and giving an insulin shot.
Click to expand...
is she going to be feeding her 30 minutes before each dose and then leaving some extra food for later each time?
 
@Bron and Sheba (GA)
I am getting some PM tests in.
I ordered a "Nova Max Plus" it was 'free' when I ordered 20 ketone test strips. $40 total. I will let you know the results once I test her.
Yes to feeding her first, then waiting 30 minutes to give her insulin. And leaving some food to eat throughout the day. She will alo be letting me know the numbers, so that I can keep my spreadsheet updated. Additionally, I will have some family and friends coming over to give her a random BG test.
I'm experimenting with freezing portions of her food, then putting that out after her first feeding, so that she has something to eat later in the day.
 
I see this am cycle she had a Preshot of 137 and you skipped the dose. The 137 Preshot indicates she dropped lower than that during the pm cycle last night. Unfortunately you didn’t get a pm cycle test in…you can see why it’s important. Then there is no dose put in the pm cycle tonight. Did you give any insulin?

I’m going to ask @Suzanne & Darcy to have a look at the dose and also about the vacation dose moving forward for when you are away.
I’ll be interested to hear how you go with the blood ketone meter.
 
I just forgot to enter the evening dose. She did get a standard 3.5U shot.
I really appreciate that you are keeping such a close eye on Penelope's chart. Its nice to have a second person paying attention to what I'm doing.
 
Hi all!
I just wanted to let everyone know that I switched Penelope from Vetsulin to Lantus. I switched this around October 5, 2024.
She is responding much better. Her numbers are consistently in the blue and green range. She is feeling better too. She can jump and climb again. Runs up the stairs. She was having an issue with her back legs splaying out when walking, and that seems to have gone away.
So, to anyone who is on Vetsulin, please give Lantus a try if you haven't already. It's a world of difference for this cat.
 
@Brian & Penelope
When do you go on vacation?
What dosing method you following Brian? I can see you are not getting any tests in during the pm cycles . It is really important you get at least one test in each cycle. Cats often drop lower at night so I would encourage you to do that. Those red preshot Penelope is getting is telling me she is dropping low at night and bouncing up high. Remember Lantus dosing is based on how low the dose takes a cat, not the preshot BGs.
To do TR dosing method, you need to get at least one test in every cycle apart from the preshot. If you are following SLGS you should be reducing the dose when she drops under 90.
 
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