Newly diagnosed Dylan with Leonard still in remission

[steviep]

Hello all!

Two years ago my cat Leonard was diagnosed with diabetes. After a change to a low carb/high protein diet he quickly went into remission with only a few doses of Lantus needed, ever. It was wonderful and this board was a great help, especially when I was extremely nervous about Hypo at first.

But now, even though she's on the same diet as Len, my other cat Dylan was diagnosed with diabetes. Since she's already on a low carb/high protein diet I was surprised! She still snacked on carbs once in awhile unlike her brother but it was fairly rare. So now we begin insulin treatment for Dylan. I'm much more calm about it this time and she's much better at letting me take blood readings but insulin still makes me nervous! We've started with Lantus at 0.5 but her BG didn't decrease much. After dropping an entire bottle of insulin yesterday (UGH), tonight we try shooting at 1.0 which the vet says should be fine.

So a little nervous but at least this time around I'm much more comfortable with everything thanks to this board!

 

[BJM]

You need to hold a Lantus dose for a minimum of 6 cycles (3 days) to see what its effect is as there is overlap/buildup of the dose (aka 'depot', 'shed').

Read up on Lantus here

 

[Wendy&Tiggy(GA)]

Sometimes there is an underlying cause to the diabetes.. have you checked..?

1. That the food is indeed low carb - check this latest list and double check your food /flavours are under 10% carbs. http://www.catinfo.org/docs/Food Chart Public 9-22-12.pdf.
2. Also what about treats? No more snacking on occasional carbs or kibble! I saw a report recently that even a small amount of carbs can spike their BG for over 24hours.(unlike humans that it passes in a couple of hours)
3. How are her teeth? any decay or problems there? what about signs of a UTI? Sometimes infection can cause high BG.. and diabetes.

Remember dose changes are based on nadir - the low point of the day - so try an get some readings at least 5-7 hours after her shot.. and some spot checks too.

If I can suggest you come over to the lantus forum like you did last time and post more often? There are lots of eyes there that can really advise: http://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewforum.php?f=9
Wendy

 

[steviep]

Thanks so much for the advice. I've kept her dose the same for now with a lot of testing mixed in to do a bit of a curve. The lowest reading she's had so far has been 275. We have a curve planned out for Saturday to see where she's hitting her lowest as so far it's been tough to detect. I'll hop on the Lantus forum soon.

This morning she had the same 0.5 dose, shot at 299 after her FF chicken wet food.

At the vet, she had her blood/urine tested and the only thing out of sorts was her glucose levels. There she tested at 360 and had some glucose in her urine. Vet said kidneys, etc. checked out fine and her diabetes was caught much earlier than I did with Leonard. She ate maybe 30 kibbles a week pre-diagnosis which has been removed. Her diet was a mix of Wellness No Grain wet food and FF Classic flavours with a tiny bit of kibble so I was surprised by the diagnosis.

1. Food was low carb for sure. After the first cat, I brushed up on what to feed them properly.
2. She doesn't get treats.
3. Teeth are not the best but the vet said they're fine. She's 14 so just the usual amount of decay but nothing beyond that.

Thanks again! I'll hop over to the Lantus forum from now on.

 

[Wendy&Tiggy(GA)]

Well maybe even a little kibble is too much for a species that isn't designed to eat carbs. Will be watching for u on lantus tight regulation forum.