Hi Georgia,
I wanted to welcome you and say that you may have troubles finding a vet who is as knowledgeable as this group, so if your vet is good for other issues, you can stick with your vet, no problem.
My vet office has very few diabetic clients; my 2 cats are the bulk of them! When Shadoe was first dx, the vet we saw said to give caninsulin. Shortly after that time, there were the warnings on vetsulin/caninsulin. From this site, I decided to switch to Lantus; my vet knew nothing because it's a human insulin, did not even know if I needed an rx, said sure try 2units once a day.
She obviously knows next to nothing about FD, but she is incredible when it comes to rx for other problems, an amazing diagnostician, and she does all the dental at that office. She is incredible and ALL my cats love her. Even though she has no FD knowledge, she knows about a/b for various illnesses, she understands my cats' recurring problems with pancreatitis, ect, and the other vet we see there is good with heart issues, but also clueless about FD. I have been educating THEM, and so it's worked out great.
Please be sure that you leave your vet for all reasons, and not just because of a weakness in one area. Especially, if Simon likes your vet, then you can remain there.
Next, that dose is very high; maybe too high. Most cats never get up to that high of a dose, so just in case it's too high, watch for hypo signs and know what to do:
List of Hypo symptoms
How to treat HYPOS – They can kill! Print this out!
Jojo’s HYPO TOOLKIT
Next, the food amounts and spreading out the total through the day:
I know you likely have been given plenty of food links, but I wanted to be sure you had Binky's list as it's a reference used by many when searching for foods that are low carb and acceptable by cats. We all know that the cat's the boss, so if a food is healthy does not mean the cat will eat it! Sometimes, the cat decides "that's crap and I'm not eating it!"
Binky’s Food Lists
Feeding Your Cat: Know The Basics of Feline Nutrition
Many people use autofeeders because it's better for diabetics to eat more frequently, but smaller meals, just to balance out their sugars.
Petsafe 5-meal Auto Feeder
My two used to eat around 30oz and 24oz a day before they were regulated. Now, if they eat 12oz and 6oz in a day that's alot. Oliver was very underweight when I adopted him, so he needed to put on weight and I dont' know how he ate before, but Shadoe ate like a bird before her dx, ate like a garburator after dx, and then returned to her bird like nibbles again.
I did notice that she began her appetite increase when we started the insulin so I had blamed the insulin on the change.
I think maybe the insulin made her feel well enough to WANT to eat, but it's all in the past.
I'd decide on an amount for Simon, spread it out and just let him eat, within reason.
Last, my two are high dose kitties, but I still started at 1unit BID and built up to their current doses. I hope you are able test for ketones, and can drop the dose, but only once you are home testing and able to monitor Simon's BG. With high BG, you need to be watching for ketones daily.
Please be sure to ask any and all questions you may have; there will always be someone around to reply, if not with the answer, at least with support.
