New to the Board - Felix

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Tanteka42

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Hi everyone. Firstly, thanks all for being here and providing newbies with information. Felix was brought to my vet by his previous owner with a temperature of 90 degrees and he was in the midst of a DKA episode. His former owner couldn't really afford to take care of him so my vet was treating Felix for free. She had gone on maternity leave about 8 months ago and made arrangements for Felix's owner to see another doctor in the practice (free of charge) but the woman didn't bring him in during that time nor had my doctor seen him until a week and a half ago when he was in dire need of medical attention. My vet was extremely upset because Felix is a love and she knew that his owner didn't do the right thing for him. She also put her own cat to sleep from CRF just a few days earlier. I run an animal charity here in NJ so she called me to see if we could do anything. With a cracking voice she told me she "just couldn't put him to sleep." Because of his condition, I knew it would be difficult to adopt him out so I spoke with my husband (who has a huge heart) and we added # 10 (most of which have some medical condition) to our brood.

So my vet fixed him up and I picked him up from the animal hospital two Fridays ago. He was on 2 units of Lantus twice a day but when I brought him back for a checkup on Wednesday, his BG was 700. He was at the end of the 12 hour cycle by the time we had our appointment. So my vet upped his dosage and he was receiving 3 units. After doing more research, I changed his food (he was on Friskies with gravy and also was getting Friskies dry food at his previous owner's home) to Fancy Feast low carb versions and he now only gets wet food as well. I also went out on Friday and purchased a blood glucose monitor. I've learned how to draw a drop of blood from his ear. He's such a good boy, too -- as soon as he sees the plastic shoebox with everything in it he comes running over for his test. It's like he knows we're trying to help him.

So for the last 5 days or so, his 12 hour glucose reading has been 500+. Yesterday morning though, it was 380 and last night 245. This morning it was 103 -- so I tested again to confirm and got a 117 reading. I texted my vet who was not yet at work -- she has been wonderful communicating with me all along via text regarding his readings and how he is doing -- and she told me to skip a dose. Tonight his reading was 410. We're thinking that potentially he may only need one shot a day, but we'll see. If anyone has any insight on this or any suggestions as to other things we can do to help Felix, please, please let me know.

I am going to be doing a lot of reading over the next few days and will probably have some questions. I absolutely love my vet but also know that I need to be educated about this disease in order to have an intelligent conversation with her. Knowledge is power. I'm one of the moderators on the FIP Cat Support group on Yahoo and that is our motto. Without knowledge, how can you know the best way to care for your kitty?

Bless you all for taking such wonderful care of your babies -- they are wonderful creatures who bring such joy to life!!

Hugs to all and I am sure you'll be hearing from me soon,

Kathleen
 
Welcome Kathleen. Bless you for taking in this sweet kitty.

You are busy on the steep learning curve- wonderful! So glad you are hometesting and caught that low number. One thing you can do when you get a low number is to wait 30 minutes and test again to see if it is high enough to shoot. With Lantus, if you skip the dose, you deplete the shed. Have you seen the Lantus forum? They have some excellent stickies that have great info on how Lantus works:http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewforum.php?f=9

To post on Lantus, you will need a spreadsheet so they can give you good advice. Here are the directions:http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=18207. If you need help with it, just ask.
 
Hi Kathleen and of course Felix.

Lantus is a great insulin but it really needs to be a consistant dose every 12 hours as it works off a shed that it builds up in their bodies. If you haven't already please go read the stickies in the insulin support group on this board for Lantus. It will give you a better understanding on how it works.

While skipping that shot was a good idea with that low of a test, you may want to start over at 1u or even .5u b.i.d, Now that you are home testing so you know how that dose is going. It may be that you have over shot his ideal dose. But there are very few cats that can only go with 1 shot a day. As they metabolize insulin faster than we humans do. So they spend 12 hours in good numbers and the other 12 high.

I'm sure others will be along shortly to add to the information.

Thanks for helping out an extra sweet kitty.

Mel, Max & The Fur Gang
 
Kathleen, just wanted to say how amazing you are for taking this kitty on and for working to get him healthy. You rock. And it sounds to me like you've got a fairly decent handle on home testing and diet, so that's awesome.
 
Kathleen, no help with the Lantus...have never used it.....but wanted to thank you for stepping in and stepping up to help Felix and give him a home. Sounds like you also have a great vet to work with. I just wanted to mention, in case you haven't yet, you should test his urine when you get a chance with KetoStix (ketones only) or KetoDiastix (ketones and glucose). It helps if you have a diabetic that has already had DKA to catch urine whenever and get a head start on treating if he should ever throw them again. You cannot always go by just bg numbers as to whether he develops them. Mishka can run great numbers and be throwing ketones. Welcome to FDMB cat_pet_icon
 
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