First off Welcome to the best place you never wanted to be but the absolute best place to help you help Twizzler!
As far as perferred insulins go...the three biggies are Lantus, Levermir and PZI. My personal favorite is Lantus. but it likes a strick 12/12 shooting schedule, Levermir is a little more flexible as far as timing the shooting schedule. While I don't have any experience with either Levermir and PZI, since my current diabetic what on Lantus, and my former one on Humilin, I do know all three work pretty well in cats. Humilin is a very harsh insulin, especially for cats, since they metabolize insulin much faster than either dogs or humans. When my Muse was on Humilin it was a roller-coaster ride for her, she would drop very low, very fast at onset and then it would wear off way before the full 12 hours, so she would sky-rocket back up for part of the day. She has since passed away (not from diabetes), and I adopted my current sugarcat Maxwell, from this very board.
Others have said how important home testing is, and I know without a doubt in my mind that it saved my Maxwell's life. Since I adopted him as a diabetic, wehad no past history together so what exactly was "normal" for him was unknown to me. Well when he was first dxed his bloodsugar was 485. One of the ladies from this board pulled him from the vet's office where he was scheduled to be put to sleep, if a new home couldn't be found for him. She took him home with her for a week while transport was arranged out to me and started him on 1u twice a day of Lantus, while changing his diet to a low carb/high protein canned food diet. On the day he was flown out to me, he recieved no insulin, and he had a long flight (he came from Mass to Nebr.) So that very first night I figured his BGs would be through the roof, so even though his insulin hadn't yet arrived I tested him...and guess what? He was barely in diabetic range. Same thing for the next morning, by then I had his insulin and gave him his first shot in his new home, but had to skip is evening shot as he wasn't high enough to safely shoot. After that initial first couple of days, Maxwell only had one additional half dose of insulin and has been diet controlled for the last 7 months with no signs of returning to insulin dependency. But had I blindly gone on giving him his starting does, I would have either seriously hurt him or out right killed him, because we just didn't have any history together and I would have missed those early behavioral changes that spell the onset of a hypo.
Even though he has been in remission for over half a year I still test him at the very least once a month and usually more often than that. And if you look at my avatar you can see his ears are still just as pretty as they ever were. Maxwell and I even now go out and give home testing demos for local vet offices and shelters. He's a champ at it. It is just so important I can't stress that enough, and even thorough in the beginning we had our rocky start, we have still built a deep and loving bond between us, he doesn't hate or fear me because I stick his ear, in fact because he associates testing with treats, he will come to me and ask to be tested!
Now the second question...What are you feeding Twizzler? Diet plays a huge role in managing a diabetic. But we don't encourage you to change diet until you are home testing if you are feeding dry food, as just the vey removal of dry food can drop a cat's bgs by as much as 100 pts. But once you are home testing we highly encourage you to switch out any dry food for a low carb/ high protein canned food. Personally I have 11 cats of which only one is a diabetic, and everyone here eats exactly what my Maxwell eats. Just good old fashioned Friskies Pate Style flavors, and they all look fabulous on this diet. Shinier coats, more energy, better weight control and the list goes on and on. So if Twizzler has any furry feline friends in the house they can all benefit from the diet change, mine certainly have. And the best part is with just a few weeks of insulin and a new diet Maxwell is not only still alive but a thriving, happy and loved member of my family and no longer requires insulin. Now while not every cat get to go into remission, we have seen an aweful lot of them that do.
Welcome again and remember just breathe, read and ask questions, and there will always be someone around here to talk you down off the ledge, and hold your hand and paw while you learn the steps to the Sugar cat tango. And unlike the vet's office, we never close, we have no business hours, no holidays off, and we don't close for vacations. Everyone who will respond to you either has currently or has had a diabetic cat that we have or are treating successfully. We eat, sleep and breathe feline diabetes here, why? Because we all love our extra sweet furry babies, and we treat every cat and their person like members of our own family, we cheer the successes and mourn the losses just as if it was one of our own babies.
Mel, Maxwell, and The Fur Gang
