New member - Lantus insue and dosage advise

Status
Not open for further replies.
C

Caroline Brodeur

Member Since 2021
Hello and thanks for adding me to the forum (I used google translate to help me, so Hope I am doing this right)

My cat was diagnosticated in April 2021 (male, 9 years old) and since, I am home testing (Alpha Track2), 100% wet food low carbs ( FF, Nulo, Tiki cat pate) and I am in the Feline Diabetes Facebook groupe.

My Kitty was on Caninsulin for the first 6 months and honestly, he was doing great. But... I was wondering if a remission was possible for him and on November 17th, we changed for Lantus. Starting dose at 0.50... I didn't give the full 10 days before I upper the dosage to 0,75 so I went back down to 0.50 for two mores days after advise. After that, I ajusted the dosage back to 0.75 and my kitty is on that dosage since.

I am not happy with the results. I have my worst numbers since a long long time. Could Lantus not be a good insuline for my Kitty ? Should I go back on Caninsulin as he was doing good? Or should I try ProZinc? I am so concern about my decision to change.. I feel very bad right now..

Here is my spreedsheet (french version).
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...vAXygTxlLGYC2R_h-it2Fe5MI/edit#gid=1018299240
 
I am trying to use words I hope Google will translate well

Changing to Lantus was a great choice! The Caninsulin was giving you green numbers but he kept going back up, so you could not increase the dose anyway. Stuck between a rock and a hard place as we say.

Give the Lantus some time. They are very different insulins, so it's normal to not need the same dose, and take some time to adjust.

The key is to increase the dose as soon as you can (safely). Here is a link to the dosing methods we use, because he eats low carb wet food, and you test enough, you can follow the Tight Regulation protocol if you'd like. With that method you reduce when he goes under 68 on an AlphaTrak. With the Start Low Go Slow protocol, you hold the dose for a week, then do a curve, then decide if you can increase. You would reduce when he goes under 90. You have better odds of remission using Tight Regulation, but it is never a guarantee.

Since you got numbers under 100, you would hold the dose for 10 cycles minimum, then consider an increase (it will depend on method you want to follow). However, those missed shots you noted restart the count, because the misses destabilize the depot.

Remember, Lantus is designed to keep low numbers low, and give flat cycles. It is very different from Caninsulin. So it will take some time to get the numbers you would like to see.
 
Thank you!! I will keep .75 until the deposit is full again and I will increase to one unit. I will read the protocol and will probably go with the tight regulation.
 
The other consideration is that when. you switched to Lantus, you reduced the dose. You would have been fine with either keeping the same dose of Lantus as Caninsulin or reducing by a smaller amount. I suspect you'll start seeing better numbers once you're closer to the same dose you were using with Caninsulin.
 
Thank you for your reply. Yes! Caninsulin vial eas opened for a long time so this is why we have decrease the dose. Wheb I got a 17 mmol/L and a 20 yesterday, I have increase to 1u without no more wait.

I have another concern. With Lantus, we have a big spike after food. From 7.8 to 13.1 at +2

Same spike with Nulo turkey and FF chiken and other low carbs. Is this a normal spike ? Wasn’t like that with Caninsulin.. maybe because of the fast action insuline I guess..
 
Caroline Brodeur said:
Thank you for your reply. Yes! Caninsulin vial eas opened for a long time so this is why we have decrease the dose. Wheb I got a 17 mmol/L and a 20 yesterday, I have increase to 1u without no more wait.

I have another concern. With Lantus, we have a big spike after food. From 7.8 to 13.1 at +2

Same spike with Nulo turkey and FF chiken and other low carbs. Is this a normal spike ? Wasn’t like that with Caninsulin.. maybe because of the fast action insuline I guess..
Click to expand...
Yes, that is normal. You are correct, it's because of a different insulin (and a dose too low, but you must be methodical and patient with increasing the dose)
 
One of the biggest differences between Lantus and shorter acting insulin, like Caninsulin, is how long it takes for the insulin to start working -- the time it takes for insulin onset. With Caninsulin, it is a very short time before the insulin starts to drop numbers which is why you have to feed your cat at least 20 min before you give an injection. With Lantus, onset takes around 2 hours for most cats. This means you can test your cats glucose level, feed, and shoot all within a very few minutes. It also means that the food will raise blood glucose levels between the time you feed your cat and when the insulin starts to work.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top