New User - Introduction

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beka509

Member Since 2013
Hello,

My name is Becky. I am a volunteer with a local cat rescue and I am fostering Screechy. We recently rescued Screechy from a rural Virginia shelter. We were shcoked when we saw him for the first time. He is skin and bones. When he went into the shelter in January he weighed 8 lbs, and he now weighs 5 lbs. He is approximately 10 years old and was just diagnosed as being diabetic. We are currently running more tests to determine if there are any other medical issues we should address. This is my first time working with a diabetic cat, although others in my rescue have a lot of experience and are helping me. Yesterday we started Screechy on 1 unit of Lantus every 12 hr. He's on a complete Fancy Feast classic canned food diet. I'm going to home test, and have started log to track Screechy's numbers.

I'd like to thank everyone who has put time into this site and message board over the years. I have found the information to be incredibly helpful and reassuring. I look forward to interacting with others, possibly making friends, and hopefully one day passing along my knowledge as others have done for me.
 
Hello and welcome to the board! Its great that you adopted Screechy - he has a good home now and hopefully doesn't have any other issues.

Sooner you can start home testing the better. At only 5lbs 1IU seems a lot to start on,especially if he is eating low carb canned. Our formula is:
Using a weight based formula for determining a starting dose of Lantus or Levemir when following the Tight Regulation Protocol:
the formula is 0.25 unit per kg of the cat's ideal weight
if kitty is underweight, the formula frequently used is 0.25 unit per kg of kitty's actual weight
Click to expand...

So by my reckoning he should be only getting 0.5IU but I will ask others to come over and comment. Will you be home all day? I hope you have a hypo kit set up - below.

Wendy

IN CASE OF EMERGENCY - YOUR HYPO KIT
Put together NOW the following items and put in an easily accessible place!
Phone number of your vet
Phone number, address and map/directions to your nearest emergency vet (or phone number of the cab company and some cash/credit card)
Karo syrup, honey or corn syrup
High carb canned food with gravy – 2-3 cans
Some favourite treats
Spare pack of 25 blood glucose strips
Coffee for you ;)
And review this http://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=1122
 
hi Becky,
its so wonderful of you to foster Screechy - hopefully you can turn him around and get him healthy again.

Are you ok with setting up a spreadsheet? That will really help the dosing advisors.
Is he eating ok - with that rapid weight loss he really needs to eat more than normal to counteract it.

Welcome!

Denise & Honey
 
Hi Becky,
Fancy Feast classics are a great choice. Does he have a good appetite? How much are you able to get him to eat on a daily basis?

Do you have any recent blood glucose numbers, and how are they being collected?

Carl
 
Thank you for fostering poor little Screechy! 1 unit does seem like a lot for such a small cat, to keep him safe you really need to start testing. Change to a low carb food can dramatically change blood glucose.

Two good inexpensive meters are the Up & Up from Target and the Relion from Walmart. Their strips are relatively inexpensive as well and both have gotten good reviews from Consumer Reports. Testing prior to giving insulin is important so as not to give insulin when the BG is too low. With lantus it is also necessary to get some tests in mid cycle to see just how low the insulin brings down the BG numbers. For Lantus it is this mid cycle test that determines the dose.

There is a ton of good info here on how to test. It's often the most frustrating part of dealing w/ FD, but it gets to be routine soon enough.
 
Screechy has a GREAT appetite! He would eat all day if I let him. In a 24 hour period he is getting a total of 4 cans of FF, evenly timed throughout the day. He gets a full can in the AM and another in the PM with his insulin and a half can every 4 hours or so in between.

I am home testing and his glucose numbers are below.
His PMPS was 418. 3+ was 350. His AMPS was 284.

We have a hypo kit ready, just in case. In the next few days I hope to be able to test every 2 hours so I can get a full understanding of how the Lantus is affecting his numbers.

Thank you for all the advice so far!
 
That's great, four cans should put some weight back on him fairly quickly!
Carl
 
The spreadsheet looks great; you will find it a great tool for tracking all info like feeding notes, you could put his food info into the comments column if you wanted, as an example.

Now, looking at the few numbers you have, it may be a good idea if you could get a few tests in today, because the numbers you have so far are all going down and with Lantus, once the shed is filled, you may expect even lower numbers. You have gone from 418 to 350 to a 284 in less than 24hrs, so to be sure he does not go too low, if his BG tonite at shot time is still following a downward trend, you may want to go with a smaller dose, as was suggested.... try a .5u dose if his PMPS is lower than his AMPS of 284 this morn.

Just to confirm, you have 1/2 unit markings on your syringes, yes? It may be that he will be good on a dose of around .75u, so you'll need the extra markings to measure the in between doses if needed.
 
Watch out! With the dose possibly being a bit too high for him, since you changed to low carb canned food, please get tests around +3 hours after the shot and through the probably nadir period; we want to be sure he doesn't go too low. With a human glucometer, he should stay above a reading of 50.

The maximum effect of a shot is usually sometime +5 to +7 hours afterward when the nadir, lowest glucose level between shots, is reached.

You'll want to be prepared in case he does try to go too low. Please print out this post. Read over the hypo guidelines until you understand them. Also, locate any emergency or on call vets in your area just in case you need to take him (ex if unconscious or seizing).

Do you have all these supplies in your hypo kit: oral syringe, Karo syrup/glucose/honey, a reserve supply of 50 test strips, and some gravied, high carb food? These should be in an easily accessible location.

See my signature link Secondary Monitoring Tools for info on using urine test strips to check for ketones, a byproduct of fat breakdown. Too many ketones may indicate diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA), a potentially fatal, very expensive to treat, complication of diabetes.
 
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