? New to Diabetes, help with dosage change?

Katface

Katface

Member Since 2020
Thelmas Spreadsheet

Hello, My Name is Katrina and my 12 year old Norwegian Forrest Cat Thelma has been newly diagnosed with Diabetes, her numbers seem a bit high, do I need to look at doing 1u am and pm?


Back info:: Think we may switch to a more diabetes literate vet because she has her dosed at 1u per day (1 shot) and wanted us to switch to a DM dry food, after finding this site and a few others switched her over to the recommended 0 carb wet food (tiki or nulo in the morning, and fancy feast in the pm) Also I figured out how to test her blood sugars based on the info here, and started that the next morning after starting her Lantus. currently testing preshots and +3 hours after. should I be testing more?
 
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Welcome. It’s amazing how many vets don’t understand diabetes or Lantus. If you like your vet other than that we can help you with diabetes and let your vet handle general health. I’m going to take a look at your spreadsheet and return to help you set up one of ours and with a signature and other stuff. Be right back.
 
I can’t see your amps or test results. You need to set up one of our spreadsheets. When I finish with some comments I’ll give you a link. If you need help we have folks that can help. Then you need to read the yellow stickies at the top of this forum. Lantus is a depot drug so right now the depot is filling. It’s too soon to change your dose.
You need to set up a signature. Look at mine at the bottom of this post. What are you feeding Thelma? Any other health issues? Any meds? Which meter are you using? Where abouts do you live just so we know the time zone? You get the idea.
 
Lantus is dosed based upon how low it takes a cat, the nadir. That’s usually +4-7 after insulin but with some cats it’s earlier or later. I know confusing, right? So spot checks at various time help figure out how your cat reacts. You can also do a 12 hour curve testing every 2 hours. We use two dosing methods. If you feed any dry you would follow SLGS. If not, you have a choice. Which you follow will help us give you dosing advice.
 
I was having trouble seeing your full spreadsheet, as well. This post on helping us to help you will also provide you with some information as to how to set up your signature, a hypo kit, etc.

It's fine to test more. Many of us are/were testaholics. It really depends on your cat, your love (or lack thereof) of data, etc. No one here will ever fault you for getting tests!!

I have 2 Wegies -- Gizmo and Gremlin. They are a wonderful breed of cats.
 
tiffmaxee said:
Welcome. It’s amazing how many vets don’t understand diabetes or Lantus. If you like your vet other than that we can help you with diabetes and let your vet handle general health. I’m going to take a look at your spreadsheet and return to help you set up one of ours and with a signature and other stuff. Be right back.
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Thank you! It was our first visit to the vet, I hadn't taken them since moving so we aren't attached to her yet. Im not sure why its uploading wonky, here is a screenshot of the file
 

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Can you please transfer your date to the Google spreadsheet that we use and attach it to your signature. The screen shot that you attached really isn't readable. This is why we use the Google SS.
 
I was able to see the info on the screenshot. Since you are using a Relion and feeding all wet food you have your choice of dosing methods. TR has the better record of remission provided you can test enough. You don’t have to be a testaholic like Sienne and I were. Read about the methods. You won’t be glued to one and can change at any time. Which one you follow will determine dosing advice though.
 
tiffmaxee said:
I was able to see the info on the screenshot. Since you are using a Relion and feeding all wet food you have your choice of dosing methods. TR has the better record of remission provided you can test enough. You don’t have to be a testaholic like Sienne and I were. Read about the methods. You won’t be glued to one and can change at any time. Which one you follow will determine dosing advice though.
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I was pretty overwhelmed all week trying to figure this out so I figured I'd start with go slow. She was on dry food up to Wednesday morning, so I figured I would wait until the change to wet food was established before attempting the TR
 
Katface said:
Im trying!! I think I got it working now?
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Yes. You have our ss working. :) It looks like you want to follow SLGS so add that to your signature. You will stick with this dose and do a curve after 7 days to see if an adjustments needed unless she drops under 90.
 
Katface said:
I was pretty overwhelmed all week trying to figure this out so I figured I'd start with go slow. She was on dry food up to Wednesday morning, so I figured I would wait until the change to wet food was established before attempting the TR
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That’s a good idea because just changing to all wet food leads some cats into remission. If not it can cause her to require less insulin.
 
tiffmaxee said:
Yes. You have our ss working. :) It looks like you want to follow SLGS so add that to your signature. You will stick with this dose and do a curve after 7 days to see if an adjustments needed unless she drops under 90.
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So when I do curves its testing every 2 hours for just that day? or multiple days? also do you wake up in the night to do it?
 
Katface said:
So when I do curves its testing every 2 hours for just that day? or multiple days? also do you wake up in the night to do it?
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It’s just that one day. It’s good to get spot checks on all days at various times to see if you can figure out the nadir. A +3 often is a good indicator if it will be an active cycle and then it would be good to get a +6-7 . Think of the ss as a puzzle and try and get a few test other than AMPS/PMPS at various times each day. At night I would get a +2-3 or before bed test as many cats drop lower at night.
 
tiffmaxee said:
It’s just that one day. It’s good to get spot checks on all days at various times to see if you can figure out the nadir. A +3 often is a good indicator if it will be an active cycle and then it would be good to get a +6-7 . Think of the ss as a puzzle and try and get a few test other than AMPS/PMPS at various times each day. At night I would get a +2-3 or before bed test as many cats drop lower at night.
Click to expand...
I've been doing +3 for both morning and night, trouble is she tends to hide during the day from my 6 year old daughter who loves her just a *little too much* for her liking, I don't want to drag her out and have her not want to cooperate with testing.
 
We need to find the nadir , lowest point in the cycle. That determines dosing rather than the preshots. Can you find a treat she really likes? Freeze dried protein for example works well and won’t raise the bg. Maybe the treat will be appreciated and she won’t mind being dragged out from under the bed.
 
tiffmaxee said:
We need to find the nadir , lowest point in the cycle. That determines dosing rather than the preshots. Can you find a treat she really likes? Freeze dried protein for example works well and won’t raise the bg. Maybe the treat will be appreciated and she won’t mind being dragged out from under the bed.
Click to expand...

I give her freeze dried 5 fish blend for treats while testing her glucose levels.
 
Actually, for a curve you test every 2 hours for a 12 hour period or every 3 hours for an 18 hour period. In other words, I would test every 2 hours for one cycle -- usually the AM cycle.

And thank you for getting your spreadsheet converted.
 
Welcome! I'm new here so I don't have any expert advice yet. What I did find helpful were the tips on how to do the ear pricks with the cotton pad on the inside of the ear and pricking at a 45 degree angle. I also followed advice to use the freeze dried chicken breast, liver and fish treats. My guy is really affectionate so I also do lots of cuddles after the testing to help him associate the testing with lots of positives. He really is pretty tolerant now that I know a bit more what I am doing.
I was completely overwhelmed (and still am) with health difficulties for myself and my son. I didn't think I could manage the diabetes with Milo. However, I'm happy to report that within a couple of weeks these dedicated volunteers have helped me manage a very steep learning curve. I went from a very sick cat on Caninsulin, peeing everywhere in my house then quarantined due to pee problems. He was lethargic, drinking all the time and his personality was completely depressed. He was a very unhappy and unwell cat. Now, everything has turned around on the Lantus and the help of these folks with dosing. I feel like I can do this now because of the support from this community.
I will follow your journey with interest. You've already done a lot of the hard work getting set up!
 
Katrina, I should also add that my Milo's brother, Singha, was diagnosed last year by a different vet and I just did Caninsulin at 1 unit daily for the year, without knowing anything else. Even with this limited knowledge and just following my vet's advice, we've been lucky. I have been testing Singha for two weeks now and he stays consistently below 68 without insulin. It seems like remission is absolutely possible. This gives me hope for his brother. Best of luck to you and Thelma!
 
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