New member, needing emotional support

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trudyCVT

Member Since 2020
Hello cat people of the internet,

I'll start out by saying that I have direct access to several DVMs and am a CVT myself, so my boy and I are covered medically but I was referred here by a client to chat with people who understand my pain.

My 17 year old became diabetic in February and did awesome on his 2units of lantus twice daily until last friday when I found him open mouth breathing with a BG of 39. I stabilized him and took him off the lantus until yesterday. Per his vet. I have him one unit in the morning only; he got a little low mid day but she wanted me to give the same dose today.

He didn't eat dinner tonight. This cat has never missed a meal. He's a garbage disposal. I gave him some honey and the lantus will leave his system around 3am (18 hour acting, for those not familiar) and he's still bright. I'm going to wait until morning to start making decisions but I'm just so emotionally drained. I'm not ready to lose him.
 
Hi Trudy and welcome. I’m sorry you have had this worry. We all love our kitties so much and when they are sick or not themselves, we all stress and worry...so we do understand :bighug:
I’m in Australia so I don’t know what a CVT is but I’m guessing it is a certified vet assistant or something similar.....

Have you been testing for ketones since you stopped the insulin? I would strongly suggest you get some Ketostix from Walmart or a pharmacy and check to see if there are any ketones in the urine. I think ketones needs to be ruled out as one of the first things.
If he is not eating and he usually does, that is a concern.
Is he lethargic?

As you no doubt know Lantus is best given to cats every 12 hours. Once every 24 hours is not the best way to do it.
You would be better reducing the 1 unit once a day to 0.5 unit twice a day if the BG is high enough in the morning to give it or maybe even a lower dose depending on the BG.

Are you home testing the BG levels? And what type of meter? A pet meter or a human meter?
What type of food are you feeding him?
How low did the BG go today...you said he got a little low?
Sorry for all the questions :)
I’m going to tag @Wendy&Neko to get another opinion.
Bron
 
Hi Trudy and whatever your kitty's name is. We've had vets, techs, and doctors here - all are welcome.

I agree with what Bron says. We very rarely find one dose a day works in cats, and for those that it does, they are on really tiny doses, much smaller than you are giving. Two units is also a larger dose than we would typically start a cat on, unless a really large cat. And as Bron said, it's important to test for ketones if you have a cat on a much smaller dose on insulin, actually I guess 5 days without insulin, and not wanting to eat. Did you test his sugars during that time off insulin? Any chance he has an infection or inflammation of some kind? When you say he got "low mid day" yesterday, how low are you talking?

We typically taper a cat's dose down, not drop from two units to zero. Most cat's won't stay in remission with that big a drop.

Also, what food are you feeding?
 
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