Snickers started Lantus 11/11/10

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Linda and Mandy

Linda and Mandy

Member Since 2009
Snickers was started on Lantus when NPH plain quit working. The vet and I wanted to start a trail of Lantus 11/2 years ago,but my sister kept refusing and wanted to wait. Well Last time in the office the vet had had enough of his lousy cures I had been bringing and when my sister turned her back I told Dr.Kerry Write the scrpit for Lantus.Well we started at 1 unit 2x/day. He had been staying in 400-500 range. So I started Lantus did 12 hr curve . Well we finished first day in upper 400 range.I read the syringe wrong gave 2 units by mistake called vet said continue on with 2units. Things were going well then he got sick with pancreatitis and Liver infection and Hyperomoler syndrome.For almost 16hrs BG to High to register. Finally at 5:20 pm meter registered 739. Transfered him to ER/Critcal care Hospital for Regular insulin drip. 14hrs laterbgs running 200-300. Had to continue bolus of NPH for 2 days. All of this was done in vet office as he had central line,cather. WEd afternoon his abdomen bloated and chest filled with fluid. That was corrected on its own without medication.He is still only eating small amounts of food 1-2x day approx 2-4tsp a day.
Bgs this weekend SAt 11/20 and sunday 11/21 blood sugars have ranged 344 to 325.
Since he has been in hospital and so sick I have not curved him.
My questions are. How long does it take to see if Lantus is working? Also where he is still does not have much of an appeite is there a high risk of a hypo? I have nutracal on hand. He is refusing his canned FF turkey and Giblets and canned dm that he likes as a treat. He seems to only be intrested in dry dm. I have tried baby food chicken etc,vet tried some white turkey meat from the office thanksgiving party ,I/d w/D (he will not stay in the same room with W/D). I am just letting eat what ever he is interested in. I have copied and read and keep all the info from the site on Lantus. Do cats with pancreatitis take a long time getting their appeite back. ?
I was going to wait till he is feeling alot better to do a curve. He still gets tried easily. He is up and socializing more everyday. But he seems to still look like he is a little still and maybe achy.
 
Hi Linda, welcome to Lantus Land! I know you're not a FDMB newbie, but I don't think I have seen you in LL before so welcome.

Wow, it sounds like you have your hands full. I have to look up hypermoler syndrome because I'm not sure what that is. I would say that with no appetite and probably still being in a pancreatitis flare, the greater risks would be ketones or hepatic lipidosis, more than hypo. It doesn't sound like Snickers' numbers are getting too close to hypo range yet, and really it sounds like he might need more insulin than he's getting. If you don't have a curve, just various spot checks on different days work great (I find those more useful than curves anyway). Does the 2-4 tsp he is eating include the dry food?

I agree with you that he should eat anything he wants right now. You can always adjust the insulin dose to compensate for the dry food.

Have you tried KFC or rotisserie chicken from the grocery store? Those seem to have additives that are tasty to cats (probably mostly the salt). Not a good long term diet but it might entice him to eat. After Lucy was sick she finally went for rotisserie-style chicken. I also would warm up low sodium chicken broth and add it to canned food, and sometimes that was more interesting to her. It sounds promising that he is out and about and social, though. :smile:

Please let us know how we can help.
 
hi linda, welcome to the group!
i agree. i'd let snickers eat whatever he wants. eating trumps all!
*usually* it takes at least a few cycles to see the effects of a dose. have you had a chance to read the tight regulation protocol sticky at the top of the forum? you may want to go a little slower than the guidelines suggest since snicker's appetite hasn't returned to normal yet. checking for ketones frequently is a real good idea. if he starts to throw even trace ketones, i'd call your vet. when alex got sick earlier this year, her appetite went down to nothing. i ended up finger feeding her. for some reason she took to finger feeding more than syringe feeding. i was just happy to get her to eat any way i could. have you tried the usual... parmesan cheese or freeze dried chicken crumbled on top of his food? i even ground up some kibble in a food processor to sprinkle on top of her food.

i wouldn't worry about getting a curve right now. random spot checks (especially nadir checks) will give you the data you need.

hope to see you posting often. we'll be wondering how snickers is doing...
 
Welcome to Lantus Land.

It sounds like Snickers was a pretty sick kitty and hopefully, he is well on the road to recovery. I agree with what Jill and Libby have said -- feed Snickers whatever he will eat. Did you happen to speak to your vet about an appetite stimulant? When Gabby went through pancreatitis and HL, the vet prescribed Pepsid and an appetite stimulant, as well as pain killers buprenorphine) for the pancreatitis. Given how well cats compartmentalize pain, if Snickers is looking achy, he's probably pretty uncomfortable. Pancreatitis is supposed to be very painful.

It takes roughly 5 days for Lantus to build up and really start working.
 
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