New on board with kitty insulin

[Cheryl & Missy]

Have been posting on main health board Missy is. Generally a healthy 18 year old indoor only kitty we have had since about 8 weeks of age. Her past she's had skin and coat allergies sinc she was about 3 years old. They came under control by an inadvertent indirect exposure to tea tree oil, which I was us using to control out of control excema on me .

Interestingly her moist hotspots healed up after a few days of her being exposed but then she had GI issues that were later diagnosed as liver inflammation probably due to the tea tree oil. By then I was feeling better, realized TTO is toxic to cats and stopped it. She's been on low dose prednisolone since, 2.5 mg, had been down to 3 times a week for a few years then a few months ago on routine labs found her sugar elevated and we found this board. Oh she's also on Aloe Vera Juice with her food. Plain unflavored.

She had a bladder infection when she was 15, but normal sugars at that point. I was encouraging her to drink more lifting her onto the bathroom counter to drink from sink, bad idea, lol but she loves that.

Earlier this year, she started peeing on carpet after eating, sitting down not squatting, cleaning herself :roll: then walking from wet spot. That was her only symptoms, wanting to drink from sink ever 3-4 hours or so, though has water in kitchen always. Maybe peeing more, that's borderline. She's never been overweight, have always kept cats on lean side, for her that's 10.5-11 lbs. she hasn't lost weight either. seems to have arthritis too but might be combo arthritis neuropathy?

I have always had dry food out for grazing, and fed canned twice a day rotating FF flavors as well as other canned foods that actually are on Binkys ok list. Diet wise all I have tweaked is staying with just classic ff no longer including gravy, grilled sliced flavors.

She's also tended to be constipated so gave traditional Laxatone every few days. Cut that too, which caused issues, despite Miralax and Metamucil., her sugar dropped from 416 to 253 despite another infection on just those tweaks, all sugars done at vets. Last labs glucose up more as was WBC but her urine cultured negative. We recently found Laxatone natural which solved constipation issues, has no fructose or corn syrup.

Her urine accidents continued, a few times out of character peeing on moms bed. Had been on kitty Prozac since first time peed on bed, but we decided to stop it after a few days but resumed yesterday, as well as starting Lantus insulin 1 unit a day currently. Worked in health field for 30+ years, on disability due to anxiety and panic attacks which impact dealing with this too, my vet seems to know treating cats, think his rx of daily is more so I can adjust. Not testing at home yet, vet discussed there are pros and cons some clients do... He knows I am reading here too. Initially came home with hills md canned and dry I was in such shock. Took the dry back the next day, have used two cans then went back to FF classic instinct, wellness and others on ok list. Also feed Stella & Chewy's freeze dried raw rehydrated of course.

As just daily right now would it be easier to change to morning dosing or just stick to pm as that's when started 18:30 yesterday? Also would it need to be when first ate or q12 hour more important? Mom often wakes and feeds her 5 am but not a morning person here.

Thanks in advance, think all is on spread sheet. Current insulin syringes are 1/2 cc syringes, no half unit markers. And yes U100 Lantus with U100 syringes.

 

[Blue]

Lots of stuff going on.

OK, home testing is pretty important. Stress at the vet when tested doesn't help you, but testing at home where Missy is at ease will let you know how well the insulin is working and will help you know if maybe she can go off insulin.
My 2 cats pretty much slept through having their ears poked, so it's not a stressful action, but a safe one to take.

For the food, so long as the dry is gone, and you are sticking with the LC on Binky's list, all should be fine there.

Insulin shots twice a day, 12hrs apart, whatever times you like are fine.

For constipation, you can give Miralax twice a day, no problem. My Oliver gets Miralax in meals at shot times, and is also on meds for megacolon.... you don't want to slip on the constipation treatment. you also want to make sure you are putting plenty of water into Missy's food because the Miralax pulls moisture from the cat's body and into the stool to soften it for passing. If you see no stool for a few days, and maybe some visits to the litter box, but no deposits, you may want to have the vet take a look. I had to have my Shadoe's anal glands expressed a couple times due to constipation, in spite of my adding water and stool softener to her meals. Instead of adding it every few days, go to every day and adjust the amount as needed.

For the neuropathy, talk to your vet about getting B12 for her.

Urine accidents were common with my Shadoe and they started when she was dx with feline diabetes. Over the years, she did improve, I had to put a step for her in front of the box, but still there were other times when she missed the box.

Cats need insulin shots twice a day. Once you are home testing, you will see that the insulin shot loses effect way before the 12hrs is up, so Missy is higher for the next 12hrs till the next shot. If you like 630am 630pm, go with those times for the shots.

 

[Cheryl & Missy]

Gayle you have no idea on lots of stuff going on.

Not sure on home testing but will be next I tackle as confidence builds. Got the box of syringes today, looked at box ready to do battle cry begging to change to syringes marked half unit, glad looked first, cause that's what doc ordered and what they supplied. ;-)
Having the right syringes is a confidence boost for me though. So if I give the insulin 2 hours after meals as long as consistant same time 12 hours apart that's ok? As she often nibbles the canned over several hours. She does stil have access to dry but primarily eats canned, some days doesn't seem like she touches the dry. In morning especially she eats faster usually and if glucose falls would be afraid of hypo. Actually gave her second dose of biweekly Pred last night rather then this am.

I tried both Miralax and or Metamucil but they weren't helping really, she often was not going for 72+ hours. With the "natural Laxatone" she's going daily again.

Laxatone Natural Flavor
Ingredients
Soybean Oil, Hydrolyzed Vegetable Oil, Cod Liver Oil, Flaxseed Oil, Chicken Flavor, Vitamin E, Lecithin, Soy Protein, Sorbitol, Beeswax, Maple Flavor, Methylcellulose, and Chamomile.

Oh one other question, do people use alcohol swabs prior to shooting? Haven't seen any comment on that.

 

[Blue]

I guess that was an understatement.... got alot of stuff going on!

OK! It sounds like you got things pretty straight and are just about set..... I want to talk about the dry food though, especially before starting with insulin because if Missy is very carb sensitive, like my Shadoe was, just a mouthful of dry food is enough to send BG numbers high. If you want to leave food for her to eat, you can leave the wet food.
Many people use autofeeders so that they can spread out the day's food ...
Petsafe 5-meal Auto Feeder
The dry food can cause spikes in her numbers and can stick around for days, so more wet food is the healthier way to go. If you want, you can freeze portions and drop them into the feeder sections.

The home testing is a good thing to start because you may find that taking away the dry food will show that Missy has lower numbers than before. In order to eliminate the fear of a hypo incident, you want to test just before giving each shot, just so you know that her numbers are high enough to give the shot. Home testing will eliminate your hypo fears.

Lantus/Levemir are insulins that like consistent dosing, no juggling the dose up or down often, and sticking to regular 12hr intervals. It is important to pull up all food for the 2hrs before shot times because food affects the BG numbers..... let Missy have a nibble an hour before her shot and the BG number you get at shot time will be food influenced.
You could end up giving a dose for that higher number, then the food wears off in another hour and you are stuck with worrying about a hypo incident.

The miralax, how much are you giving? Are you mixing in her food, and how much water are you adding to the food that has the miralax in it? If she has what I call 'slow stool' like my Oliver, you may want to talk to your vet about trying something a bit stronger to 'get things moving'.
There is something else you can try that we are giving to Oliver is Sennekot which is OTC; we give him 1 tablet a day. It can't do any harm, so it's something you could look into and try. Oliver also gets subQ fluids every 2nd day because he needs the fluids because of the miralax and because he does not drink water from a bowl. He also gets cisapride for his mega colon.

If you have any questions, please ask and someone will be able to help you find some answers.

 

[Cheryl & Missy]

I guess that was an understatement.... got alot of stuff going on!

OK! It sounds like you got things pretty straight and are just about set..... I want to talk about the dry food though, especially before starting with insulin because if Missy is very carb sensitive, like my Shadoe was, just a mouthful of dry food is enough to send BG numbers high. If you want to leave food for her to eat, you can leave the wet food.
Many people use autofeeders so that they can spread out the day's food ...
Petsafe 5-meal Auto Feeder
The dry food can cause spikes in her numbers and can stick around for days, so more wet food is the healthier way to go. If you want, you can freeze portions and drop them into the feeder sections.

The home testing is a good thing to start because you may find that taking away the dry food will show that Missy has lower numbers than before. In order to eliminate the fear of a hypo incident, you want to test just before giving each shot, just so you know that her numbers are high enough to give the shot. Home testing will eliminate your hypo fears.

Lantus/Levemir are insulins that like consistent dosing, no juggling the dose up or down often, and sticking to regular 12hr intervals. It is important to pull up all food for the 2hrs before shot times because food affects the BG numbers..... let Missy have a nibble an hour before her shot and the BG number you get at shot time will be food influenced.
You could end up giving a dose for that higher number, then the food wears off in another hour and you are stuck with worrying about a hypo incident.

The miralax, how much are you giving? Are you mixing in her food, and how much water are you adding to the food that has the miralax in it? If she has what I call 'slow stool' like my Oliver, you may want to talk to your vet about trying something a bit stronger to 'get things moving'.
There is something else you can try that we are giving to Oliver is Sennekot which is OTC; we give him 1 tablet a day. It can't do any harm, so it's something you could look into and try. Oliver also gets subQ fluids every 2nd day because he needs the fluids because of the miralax and because he does not drink water from a bowl. He also gets cisapride for his mega colon.

If you have any questions, please ask and someone will be able to help you find some answers.

Hi Gayle sorry for delay, been crazy here but Missy doing well. We use 1/4- tsp Miralax mixed with food in am, Mom feeds in am I sometimes add an additional 1/4 tsp bringing it up to the half tsp, I add some water but if do to point of being soupy Missy won't touch it.she sometimes drinks more from bowl finally, in addition to what she drinks from sink. I was also giving her a capsule of Metamucil opened in food at dinner, with aloe Vera juice and water before, again if added too much water she wouldn't touch it. I even tried one of those pet fountains for a while but wasn't afraid of it just not interested.
With a little Laxatone natural every few days she's going fine now.
Ingredients as listed above.

Again do people use alcohol swabs prior to the insulin shots or usually not?

 

[Blue]

No to alcohol swabs before shots; how would you do that with all the fur? You are lifting up the skin and tenting the lifted skin with one hand, and I don't recall ever seeing vets do any swabbing before shots.... they just shoot.

 

[Cheryl & Missy]

Gayle I tried doing with alcohol a few times and between her moving and fur your right not practical but I feel guilty doing it without it coming from human field

Missy's a little constipated again today but always wonder if that's my view. Going day by day

 

[laurie1]

The miralax, how much are you giving? Are you mixing in her food, and how much water are you adding to the food that has the miralax in it? If she has what I call 'slow stool' like my Oliver, you may want to talk to your vet about trying something a bit stronger to 'get things moving'.
There is something else you can try that we are giving to Oliver is Sennekot which is OTC; we give him 1 tablet a day. It can't do any harm, so it's something you could look into and try. Oliver also gets subQ fluids every 2nd day because he needs the fluids because of the miralax and because he does not drink water from a bowl. He also gets cisapride for his mega colon.

I'm new to the diabetes diagnosis - my kitty was just diagnosed and we are starting insulin today. But as for chronic constipation and cats, I have that down. My other cat has a big problem with that, and if not under control, it's another trip to the vet for an enema or two. I give him 1/4 tsp of miralax in tuna (just a little to mix up the miralax). The tuna is low-carb, and although I am new to the diabetes diagnosis, wouldn't that make it OK to give to your cat? If the miralax itself does not work, take the tuna mixture and add a little lactulose in. You get it from the vet - it is a liquid made for constipated cats. I have a huge bottle of it for my cat. If I need to, I give him 2-3 cc of it. It is another suggestion for a cure. I don't know about the carb content of the medication, so it is something to check with the vet, but it is a prescribed medication.

I do hope that helps some with one part of your poor kitty's problems. I am a bit nervous about starting on this journey, but here goes nothing...

 

[Blue]

You want to check with your vet to be sure your cat is blocked, and if not, just play around with the amount of miralax you give, then adjust more or less, depending on the looseness of the solid stool.
You really want to be sure there is no blockage because you could see some diarrhea and think all is OK but it's really not.

My Oliver is also getting lactulose and miralax and another med for his megacolon condition, and if we let up on any of his cocktail, he bunches up again. So just keep giving him the miralax every day, even if you think everything is fine.... it could be fine because of the miralax you are using... take it away and the problem comes back.