Newly Diagnosed- Buckwheat

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Mr.Wheats

Mr.Wheats

Member Since 2010
Hi guys. I have read a lot of useful info on the site but everywhere online including many vets say to roll the vial. This seems to be the only place that says not to. Where did the info come from about not rolling it? Thanks... looking forward to learning more and hopefully sending Mr. Wheats into remission!
 
Welcome to Lantus Land! I'm sure not an expert here, but there are several people qualified enough to answer your question and I'm sure they will be along to help. I know the results this board sees is proof enough for me :smile: I hope Buckwheat does amazingly well on Lantus!
 
Did they say specifically to roll Lantus or Glargine? My vet didn't know anything about the insulin she prescribed me and told me to roll the vial as well. I later found out that is was other insulin's that needed rolling, but not this one. She just assumed it was the same for all. So until I found this website I was rolling the vial....But then I read the stickies on this site and then even went to the Lantus specific website and learned to NOT roll this type of insulin. So I would stop rolling the insulin if I were you....but as Carrie mentioned, the experts will tell you more.

And welcome by the way... :) This is a great group with tons of people to help you on this journey!
 
Also, I am having a hard time feeding him the canned food, he eats it and throws it up. Yesterday I was scared because I gave him his shot during feeding and then he threw up. I thought he was going to get sick from the insulin but I had to give him treats and a little hard food (which is what i used to feed him). He used to eat the hard food and throw it up to occasionally but the food was down all day so he would just go back later and I can't do that now... what do I do?
 
Welcome to Lantus Land.

Many other forms of insulin are suspensions. When they sit for a while, the solids falls out of solution and you need to roll the vial in order to put the material back into suspension. Humulin N, for example, will separate into a clear liquid and a white sediment. Lantus, however, is a solution. There is nothing to come out of suspension. In addition, Lantus is rather fragile. Rolling, shaking, having your cat think it's a hockey puck may cause a crystalline precipitant (i.e., "floaties") to form and means your insulin has gone bad.

Many cats have a difficult time making the transition from dry to canned food. You might want to take a look at this information on Lisa Pierson, DVM's website on feline nutrition. She has a section on transitioning a cat off of dry food.
 
He actually loves the soft food and has no problems eating it, he used to throw up the dry food too. It's just now I can only feed him at 6:30 and 6:30... so is it better to underfeed him or give him a snack of the soft food in the middle of the day. I want to make sure he gets all the calories he needs but I don't want to mess with his blood sugar levels through out the day if it's bad.
 
Welcome to the board!

I feed my kitty many small meals throughout the day, rather than just two larger meals. The small meals are less taxing on his pancreas. I would highly recommend several mini-meals rather than the 'feasting and fasting' 'approach.

Smaller meals during the day tend to level out the blood sugars instead of making them rise and fall more sharply. So it is good not bad. :-D
 
Ditto what CD said, many of us do that, It's more work fot us, but the cats do better. If you can't be home there are timed feeders that open automatically.
 
Welcome to Lantus Land. You have come to the right place. Tons of caring helpful people all having been where you are now. They share all that they have learned and help us newbies help our kitties.
I try to feed multiple times a day too. If you have to work it can be challenging so I have ordered an timed automatic feeder from KV Vet so I can leave mini meals during the day. It has ice packs to keep the food from spoiling in hot weather. I've also learned about freezing cubes of food to leave out now while I wait. My cat does eat them. Buckwheat will find lots of friends and support just like you.
 
Thanks guys!
 

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Buckwheat! What beautiful eyes.
Ready to go trick-or-treating, I see. Make sure Mannie picks him up along the way to join the party.

MJ&Donovan
 
Bucky didn't eat all his food this morning so he's really hungry. I am supposed to feed him @ 6:30. Is it ok to feed him now even though I don't give him his shot till 7?
 
Are you home testing? I know you asked about feeding, but if you are home testing, you don't want to feed within two hours of testing and shooting....it will give you an inaccurate preshot test.

If you aren't home testing, would you consider learning how? It's really the cornerstone to regulation, and certainly the cornerstone to tight regulation...which is what we are striving for here in LL. It also is the only way you can really know if it is safe to give Buckwheat his insulin....

If you're not hometesting, then it is fine to feed anytime....we actually encourage small frequent meals as it keeps the BG more even throughout the day.
 
He just started a week ago on lantus... we are taking him in to the vet next week and then we will start testing. Another thing is he has soft stool, and has had it for a while. Is that a normal part of the diabetes?
 
Hmmm...soft stool could be a lot of things, not directly related to diabetes as far as I know. Maybe if you post a thread in Health about it, you might get more responses?

If you just switched over from dry to wet food, it could be from that...there's more moisture in the food, so the stool tends to be softer.

I'm a little confused...why are you waiting two weeks to start home testing?
 
Because I asked the vet if I should buy a home tester and she said just to get used to doing the shots and changing of feeding times/type of food. She is doing a curve on thursday the 11th.
 
Buckwheat

Hey guys, before breakfast this morning, Bucky threw up a very little clear liquid. I had not fed him or given him his shot yet. Any ideas? He doesn't usually throw up unless he eats too fast, but like I said he hadn't even eaten yet.

Note... he still ate all his food right after that, he doesn't appear to be feeling bad.
 
Some kitties throw up clear liquid if they are very hungry....just watch today to make sure he is holding the food down, okay?

Not sure where you are located, but if you have a Walmart nearby, there is the Walmart Reli-On micro meter. The test strips are very reasonably priced. Many people will help you get started with the home testing. It is really an important step in dealing with FD...

I shot my two kitties for a whole week without testing them before I found this website. Once I read all the stickies at the top of the page, I realized that shooting insulin without testing is like driving down the highway at 80mph with a paper bag over one's head. You are shooting blindly without knowing what the BG numbers are. It is really best to get a human meter and begin home testing....

You will see in our signatures a link to our spreadsheets. Once you begin to home test, you will use the template here: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=18207 Once you begin getting the Blood Glucose numbers, we will be very happy to assist you. You can find lots of interesting information in the starred stickies at the top of this page. Maybe begin here, New to the Group: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=18139
 
Ditto everything everyone else has said especially about testing. His vomiting could be from too long without eating. Are you still only feeding twice a day? I was reading where others have suggested feeding more often. Did you try feeding frozen food cubes while you are at work? I don't see where you have said what food you are feeding. What is Buckwheat eating and how much? Some kitties are sensitive to wheat gluten IDK but maybe other more experienced members could weigh in on this.
 
just saying Welcome!

what a gorgeous cat...and one who wears costumes! you guys will fit right in here...
the best of the best are here on the forum...they have vast experience, great knowledge, and are more helpful than the United Nations.
(okay, bad example...but they are REALLY helpful here)

celi & binks
 
Welcome to LL. I agree w/ Pat there is no need to wait and every reason to start testing NOW. Without testing there is no way to know if his BG is too low to shoot or if you are in a hypo sitution. Ask any parebt if they would give their child insulin w/out testing and they would look at you w/ horror.

Human meters work very well for cats, you do not need a "special" Alpha Track for pets which is way more expensive and has really expensive strips. You do not need your vet's permission to test either. Buckwheat is your cat!
 
He is eating Purina Vet DM. The vet said every 12 hours with food so I fed him @ 7 & 7 every day at first, but like I posted earlier, sometimes he eats too fast and throws it up... it's hard to get him to eat all the food he has to in only two sittings. I am out of work right now so I am feeding him a few times a day right now but I have two concerns here, one is that I am trying to regulate his blood sugar right? So isn't feeding at random times bad? Another concern is that I am hopefully going to be going back to work soon and will not be able to do this so I feel that I should at least try to get him to eat at 7 and 7 like he will have to do when I get back to my working schedule. He used to pee a lot and drink a lot of water but almost immediately after switching foods to canned and giving him his injections, he pees normally and drinks almost no water... the peeing and water drinking were the original reasons for the vet visit when I found out about him. Does that mean he is at least starting to get better?
 
First, it's much better to feed smaller meals through the day than two large meals. It helps keep the BG more level. Lantus is not the type of insulin that needs a big meal at shot time..it's much gentler than most other insulins. Many of us work and have the issue you are talking about, but there are ways to feed smaller amounts through the day when you aren't there....you can freeze the food into pucks or cubes and leave it out to thaw for fresh food later, you can add water to the food to keep it fresh longer (and the extra water is good for diabetic cats anyway!), or you can use a timed feeder to offer snacks at different times.

Home testing is the only way to be sure that it is safe to give the shots, and it's the very best way to assess the dose you are giving. The analogy of driving down the road with a paper bag over your head is a good one. Let me ask you this...if you were diagnosed with diabetes and prescribed insulin, would you give yourself insulin shots for 2 weeks without testing your blood? Wouldn't that be kinda dangerous?
 
Yes, I understand about testing... so you just leave the frozen food pucks out and then they eat the food when it thaws hours later? Sounds like a good idea, I have two cats though, so I guess I would just leave two out then? My diabetic cat is a piggy, he will probably eat all the others food too lol.
 
You could try leaving pucks out when you are home and see how it will work. I weigh my cats weekly....that gives me a heads up to any problems. The other good thing about leaving food out when you aren't home is if Buckwheat's BG goes low, he will probably instinctively look for food to help bring it up.

If you were home testing, you wouldn't need to have the vet do the curve...you could do it yourself! Not only would that save you money, it would also be more accurate...the stress of going to the vet raises the BG levels and often results in too high of a dose from the false high curve.
 
Yeah, I am getting married and going on my honeymoon this weekend so we are dropping him off at the vet thursday because us and all of our loved ones (except for the kitties) are going to be out of town. She said that would be a decent time to do the curve since he would be there a while. I didn't really want to leave him there but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do... he is very calm and well behaved when he goes to see her and there are a couple of really nice ladies that will take good care of him. I sure will miss the little guy though; at least if anything goes wrong he'll be in a good place. Thanks for the tips guys. I'll start testing as soon as I can.
 
Congrats on your marriage!!! Have a wonderful honeymoon!!

Buckwheat is beautiful and I want to also welcome you to LL. Like everyone else has said, the important things with Lantus are (1) home testing (2) feeding mini meals and (3) consistency. We've got great advisors here; also...I don't think any of us feed DM..it is actually high in carbs. We use Janet and BInkys food chart to find foods that are lower in % calories from carbs. Here's a link:

http://binkyspage.tripod.com/CanFoodNew.html

Let us know when you get back and what questions you have.
 
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