Newly Diagnosed FD ... A Few Q's

[TheWxGuy]

Hi everyone!

My cat Denver is a rescue--I took him in about 6 months ago--and was diagnosed about a month ago with FD. Since the diagnosis he has gained about 2-3 pounds and seems to be much, much better! He has more energy and acts more and more like a cat every day. (Doing funny things and actually playing)

I'm giving him the shots every 12 hours and most days it's not a problem. How big of a deal is it if he misses a shot every once in a while..let's say once a week a few times a month at the very most?

That's basically the only question I have.

I just think it's remarkable how much his behavior has turned around since we started him on the insulin. Right now he's on 4 units of Lantus every 12 hours. I'm learning how to give him the shots...some days he doesn't seem to mind and others it seems as though it hurts him, but he still lets me do it. Any tips?

 

[Karen & Smokey(GA)]

I suggest you visit the Lantus Insulin Support Group here for advice on Lantus.

I understand that Lantus really likes consistency, so it might be a problem to miss shots.

Also, 4 units bid for a newly diagnosed cat is a rather high dose.

I hope you're home-testing ???

 

[Jess & Earl]

Welcome thewxguy

I'm learning how to give him the shots...some days he doesn't seem to mind and others it seems as though it hurts him, but he still lets me do it. Any tips?

Is it always you giving the shots? Does the pain correlate with the location?

 

[TheWxGuy]

He's been on insulin for about a month now. we started him at 2 units. then 3, now 4. I am not home testing. He's going to vet once every other week right now for the Glucose Curve. I don't have time to home test due to my busy sched. I'm relying on the vet to tell me the correct dose.

And yes, it's always me giving the shots. I don't think so. I think it has more to do with my technique. I've found that putting the needle in a bit slower is less painful. He seems to feel some pain when I go to do the injections. Maybe the needle is moving around a bit? I'm also doing the shots while he's eating. He doesn't seem to mind.

 

[Hillary & Maui (GA)]

OK, the first problem is that you are NOT hometesting. It honestly doesn't take much time and is quite easy to do. In order to truly understand how the insulin is working or not working for your cat, you really must home test.

You've been on lantus for a month and are at 4 units. It's very possible that this could be TOO much insulin for you cat and that you missed his ideal dose.

Think of home testing like this:

If you were diagnosed with diabetes and gave yourself insulin - would you do it blindly or would you test yourself before shooting? Well it's the same for your cat. Not testing is like getting in your car, blindfolded yourself and then driving.

Where on the body do you shoot him? What size syringe are you using? You may find that changing syringes and using a short needle may be less painful.

I shot Maui in her flank area and tented the skin before shooting. Here is a link to what I'm referring: http://petdiabetes.wikia.com/wiki/Injecting_insulin

What kind of food are you feeding your cat? As food is another integral part of treating diabetes.

If I came off harsh, I apologize, but it is important for you to understand the importance of home testing and that it won't take up alot of your time to do.

 

[Gina & Yittle (GA)]

Home testing does not take very much time at all. After a month or two of it I could find Yittle, get him to where I tested him, take out the supplies, prep the supplies, test him, record the results and put the supplies away in under 90 seconds. And that was when I had been woken up by my alarm after only 3-4 hours of sleep. One of the downsides of being nocturnal his breakfast hour was in the middle of my sleep schedule.

On several occaisions during the time Yittle was on Vetsulin and Lantus if I had shot his regular dose into him without testing him first, and then gone back to bed or left the house we would have in all likelyhood died. There were several times when he was on Vetsulin where his pre-shot blood sugar was 150-250 points lower then usual and his normal dose would have put him into severe hypoglycemia. He was averaging in the 500-600's then and he was under 200. Many other times if I had not known he was lower and made sure he was tested near to his nadir and given him appropriate food so he wouldn't bottom out he also would have gone hypoglycemic. He could drop from the 260's to the 30's in under 4 hours at times. That how we knew it was time to decrease his doses slowly.

One reason your cat could be reacting negatively to the shots is if they make them feel bad - and trust me, going from a really high pre-shot number to a really low one and then back up again will make a cat miserable. But you won't know that, because you're not testing their blood sugar. Please reconsider, it doesn't take much time and if you use an inexpensive human meter like Walmart's Relion Micro its not expensive. That meter is about $12 with 50 strips running another $23 or so. The $60 or so that you'll spend a month on testing supplies is a lot less then a single trip to the cat ER or vet if your cat goes hypoglycemic. I got a nearly $500 vet bill today from Yittle making a bad landing when he jumped off the back of the sofa (or something like that...) and sprained his leg badly. If he'd had to stay overnight at the vet for any reason that bill would have skyrocketed. Its also cheaper then taking the cat to the vet for them to test or do curves.