New Member - Little Lee with diabetes diagnosis in Jan 2022 and now up to 8.5 units lantus

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Kathleen Gallagher

Kathleen Gallagher

Member Since 2022
Hi, my cat Little Lee is on 8.5 units of Lantus. This week we started taking BG measurements ourselves in the morning before he eats (note: it's early between 4:30 and 5 am). Mid 200's and 300's - each day different.

Previously I was going up weekly (3pm) to the Vets and their results have been over 400 (2 time in 300's) since January. Last week is when I said to the Vet staff, I want to start taking the BG myself.

I think 8.5 is way too high for my Little Lee but when I lowered the dose after a mid 200's reading the next day it went back up to mid 300's.

Note: 11/3/2021 he had a 4 hour operation to remove a cancerous tumor blocking his bowels. He is on Meloxicam for the chance not all cancer was removed.

In January 2022 he changed his personality (insistent for food constantly, drinking water alot and peeing) so was diagnosed with diabetes.

The Vet did do a curve but the #'s remained in the 400's
Any thoughts?
 
Hi Kathleen and Little Lee and welcome to the forum.
8.5 units is a lot of insulin. When was he diagnosed?
What dose did he start on and how often was the insulin increased and by how much each time?

I’m glad you are going to start hometesting the blood glucose.always test before giving every dose of insulin to see it is safe to give the dose. And then try and get a test in during every cycle around the +4 to +7 times…vary it.
So the routine is test, feed then give the insulin.
Can you tell us what type of glucose meter you are using please?
And what type of food are you feeding him?

We will be able to help you a lot more if you can set up a spreadsheet for us and start entering in all the BG data you collect.
I will give you a link to the spreadsheet below. If you have any trouble setting it up I can get @Bandit's Mom to help you with it.

HELP US HELP YOU Also in this link you will find the signature. If you can fill that out it will tell us all about Little Lee.
Bron
 
Hi and welcome to the group. Sorry to hear about Little Lee.

I see Meloxicam is an NSAID I wonder if it can have the same effect as some steroids do, known as steroid-induced diabetes. You're right 8.5 is a lot, at least it seems like it to me anyway. I'm pretty new to all of this, my kitty was diagnosed in January as well.

You've come to the right place to get him help! But this group is very numbers driven, which I love, but it is going to require that you provide data to be analyzed. You are smart to start doing home BG testing, you'll want to do that often and enter the data into a spreadsheet for the experts here to pour over and figure out how to help Lee.

See this link here:

https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/new-how-you-can-help-us-help-you.216696/
 
It's not unusual for a cats numbers to be a lot higher at the vet due to stress. I had one diabetic test over 220 at the vet one day, and 53 at home the next. However, if your cat is still alive after being on 8.5 units for a while, it's a possibility he needs that much insulin (or more). My girl got up to 8.75 units of Lantus. In addition to testing him in the morning before he eats, it'd be helpful to test him mid way between his AM and PM shot. That's when Lantus is the strongest and you should see lower numbers then. So if you give a shot around 5, a test from about 10 though to noon/midnight might be more interesting.

There are a few secondary conditions that cats can have that cause them to need higher amounts of insulin. My girl had two such conditions. One called acromegaly is caused by a benign tumour on the pituitary gland, which causes excess growth hormone to be output. It causes the diabetes. The second condition is IAA or insulin auto antibodies. Think of it like antibodies reacting to the injected insulin like an allergic reaction. There are blood tests for both conditions - the tests are performed at Michigan State University.
 
Bron and Sheba (GA) said:
Hi Kathleen and Little Lee and welcome to the forum.
8.5 units is a lot of insulin. When was he diagnosed?
What dose did he start on and how often was the insulin increased and by how much each time?

I’m glad you are going to start hometesting the blood glucose.always test before giving every dose of insulin to see it is safe to give the dose. And then try and get a test in during every cycle around the +4 to +7 times…vary it.
So the routine is test, feed then give the insulin.
Can you tell us what type of glucose meter you are using please?
And what type of food are you feeding him?

We will be able to help you a lot more if you can set up a spreadsheet for us and start entering in all the BG data you collect.
I will give you a link to the spreadsheet below. If you have any trouble setting it up I can get @Bandit's Mom to help you with it.

HELP US HELP YOU Also in this link you will find the signature. If you can fill that out it will tell us all about Little Lee.
Bron
Click to expand...
Thank you Bron. I just asked for access to the spreadsheet. In the meantime: 1/26/2022 Diagnosed started on Vetsulin 1 unit U40 syringe
2/3/2022 BG 410 increased to 2 units 2x/day with Vetsulin
2/10/22 BG 448 increased to 3 units Vetsulin
2/17/22 BG 477 increased to 4 units Vetsulin
2/24/22 BG 474 stay on 4 units Vetsulin
3/3/2022 BG 436 increase to 5 units Vetsulin
3/11/2022 BG 456 increase to 6 units Vetsulin
3/18/2022 started Lantus with 1 unit
4/1/2022 BG 470 increased to 3 units Lantus
4/8/22 BG 373 increased to 4.5 units Lantus
4/15/22 BG 444 increased to 6 units Lantus
4/22/22 BG 391 increased to 7.5 units Lantus
4/29/22 BG 461 increased to 8.5 units Lantus
5/6/22 BG 406 and I said no more increases I want to test from home (left for a business trip 5/9 so first test from home is 5/20)
5/20/22 BG320 8.5 units lantus
5/21/22 BG 239 8.5 units lantus
5/22/22 BG 334 8.5 units lantus
5/23/22 BG 342 8.5 units lantus
5/24/22 BG 289 8.5 units lantus
5/25/22 BG 327 8.5 units lantus
5/26/22 BG 322 8.5 units lantus
5/27/22 BG 307 in a.m. and 335 at Vet (I took the blood sample) 8.5 units lantus
5/28/22 BG 417 (HAD Lowered dosage the evening before to 6 units from 8.5 and the BG increased)
5/29/22 BG 349 (increased back up to 8.5 units)
5/30/22 BG 309 8.5 units lantus
5/31/22 BG 408 8.5 units lantus NOTE: I had 2 errors with the blood so had to poke a 3rd time. Little Lee was most upset
6/1/22 BG 293 8.5 units lantus
 
Wendy&Neko said:
It's not unusual for a cats numbers to be a lot higher at the vet due to stress. I had one diabetic test over 220 at the vet one day, and 53 at home the next. However, if your cat is still alive after being on 8.5 units for a while, it's a possibility he needs that much insulin (or more). My girl got up to 8.75 units of Lantus. In addition to testing him in the morning before he eats, it'd be helpful to test him mid way between his AM and PM shot. That's when Lantus is the strongest and you should see lower numbers then. So if you give a shot around 5, a test from about 10 though to noon/midnight might be more interesting.

There are a few secondary conditions that cats can have that cause them to need higher amounts of insulin. My girl had two such conditions. One called acromegaly is caused by a benign tumour on the pituitary gland, which causes excess growth hormone to be output. It causes the diabetes. The second condition is IAA or insulin auto antibodies. Think of it like antibodies reacting to the injected insulin like an allergic reaction. There are blood tests for both conditions - the tests are performed at Michigan State University.
Click to expand...
Hi and thanks. He has cancer and is on the meloxicam.
 
Wendy&Neko said:
I'm sorry to hear about the cancer. :bighug: What type is it? Some are quite treatable.
Click to expand...
Hi Wendy I see Kathleen noted this in her post above
Note: 11/3/2021 he had a 4 hour operation to remove a cancerous tumor blocking his bowels. He is on Meloxicam for the chance not all cancer was removed.
 
Hi Kathleen,
Would you be happy to set up a spreadsheet so you could add the data you have in post 6. It is much easier to read and understand when in a spreadsheet. If you are unable to do it I can ask @Bandit's Mom to assist, she is very good and quick at it.
Just wanting to check…….are you giving the 8.5 units once or twice a day?
 
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