New to the Site

Status
Not open for further replies.
K

Kitty mom

Member Since 2014
Hello ,
My 7 year old cat Dasher was diagnose yesterday and I'm doing my best to educate myself on this whole thing. He will be taking Lantus starting this week. I'm trying to keep cool and not panic but I do feel overwhelmed as of right now. I did find the vile of Lantus at our Target for $204.00 and this is the cheapest I'm finding.
I do see the ejectable pens and think I should call around to see if I can get them to sell me just one pen out of the box or should I just start out with the vile until I get comfortable and this all sinks in. I read that some cats go into remission I so hope my boy will be one of these kitties.
I'm thankful for finding this site as I did think this disease was a death sentence but I now know we can treat him and hopefully have many years of joy ahead of us.
I need all the support and understanding I can get.
 
Hi Robin, welcome. It seems to me that some of the most important things you can do for kitty, especially in the beginning, is to feed him a wet food only high protein, LOW carb diet and get your kitty regulated on insulin sooner rather than later. Find out about purchasing single pens later if you can. I've read a really sad post not too long ago where they called the nearby pharmacies to purchase a single pen that it took a few weeks before they had them on insulin.

*Edited* I should have added home testing as others have emphasized. Incredibly important for giving accurate, safe, & most optimal insulin dosing and to be able to track and analyze kitty's blood-glucose in realtime.
 
Welcome Robin and extra sweet Dasher!

I'd go for the pen but you'll still need syringes, you can't use the pen needles as they're not accurate enough for kitties dose. When you remove the pen cap, there's the same rubber syringe that's in the vial. Some places will split a pack of pens, others won't.

Nope, ain't a death sentence...some have been diabetic for years. Dakota has been extra sweet for about 4.5 years now. He'll likely never go 'off the juice' (diet controlled) but that's OK, we'll just continue to pokie.

Oops, little change to post above...LOW carb foods rather than high carb foods. :)

HUGS!
 
Switching to a low carb, canned or raw diet over the next few days is the best thing you can do right now. Go to Cat Info and read over the site, plus print out the food list for shopping. Regular foods should be under 10% calories from carbohydrates, Like Fancy Feast Classic Turkey and Giblets. Once you are giving insulin, you'll want a few cans of high carb gravvied foods like Fancy Feast Gravy Lovers, to be used if the glucose ever goes too low.

Do the food switch gradually, changing out about 20+25% of the food each day. This minimizes food refusal, vomiting, and diarrhea from a sudden shock to the GI tract.

The next most important thing you can do is home glucose testing, beginning with an inexpensive human glucometer such as the WalMart ReliOn Confirm or Confirm Micro, matching test strips, and 26-28 gauge lancets to get the droplet. Read the instructions, practice on an apple and yourself first to get a feel for it, then you're ready to test on the outer edge of the ear, or on the paw pad. Let us know when you're ready, we'll coach you through it.
 
The pens are more accurate than syringes but only for integer unit dosing. The pens only dispense in integer units. not like 1/2 or 1/4 units.
http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/22/1/137

Squeaky and KT said:
Welcome Robin and extra sweet Dasher!

I'd go for the pen but you'll still need syringes, you can't use the pen needles as they're not accurate enough for kitties dose. When you remove the pen cap, there's the same rubber syringe that's in the vial. Some places will split a pack of pens, others won't.

Nope, ain't a death sentence...some have been diabetic for years. Dakota has been extra sweet for about 4.5 years now. He'll likely never go 'off the juice' (diet controlled) but that's OK, we'll just continue to pokie.

Oops, little change to post above...LOW carb foods rather than high carb foods. :)

HUGS!
Click to expand...
 
Welcome Robin and Dasher,

I'd go for the pens too. Before Hank got switched to ProZinc insulin, I looked into the Lantus Solostar pens. Sam's pharmacy said that they would sell me individual pens at $74 each. I heard that Target would sell them individually too. It may be just a matter of calling around.

Also, what helped me was watching some YouTube videos on testing, giving injections and how to use a syringe to get insulin out of pen all for cats. They were very helpful. I watched a LOT of them!! :smile:

You're at the right place. If you have anymore questions, just ask by starting a new thread or add on to this one.

Kimmie
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top