So here we are

Status
Not open for further replies.
George&Bert

George&Bert

Member Since 2009
Andre' has been on Lantus four full days of u100 one unit BID

Today after a ferocious struggle he measured 374 at plus 4 hours.

Now prior to this he and the others were on a very high carb dry food diet. I was feeding an expensive natural food, but it was super high in carbs and I never knew it or thought about it much. My guys (all twenty ) have been thriving on it.

This past week I have been metering out the high carb dry and metering in the low carb dry (Core and EVO)
I have also been increasing the amount of low carb canned they all get.

Today after seeing that high number i have pulled all the hi carb dry and added another wet meal for everyone.

here is what is puzzling...Andre' was a strong and strapping boy and very healthy..never been to the vet, never had any meds or depo or anything so how did he get DM out of the thin air.

Vet (1) says watch it. He thinks it is due to the infection and is transient.

That's my story albeit abbreviated.
 
"Why MY cat, and why THIS one?"

who knows... I think you need to look at the WHY the cat needs insulin and you have to start from the point where that cat's pancreas may not be able to function 100%. It could also be due to illness, pain, dental issues, infections.

We don't usually know when our cat 'became' diabetic, but unless it was from something like steroid-induced situation, we may not ever know a reason other than just cuz.

So the logical places to start would be do bloodwork and see that the numbers show. You would check urine as well for any sort of infections. If all is ruled out with the numbers, look to the teeth and it could be as simple as a cracked tooth or one that is in lousy shape and needs to come out. Sometimes a visual check is not going to show a below the gums problem. I took Shadoe for her very first dental after her dx, her did not look bad considering she had never had a dental, but there was on in need of extraction.

The next to do, after b/w and u/a have been checked, and teeth have fixed, is food... get on a healthy foods.

When you have looked into all of the above, and you are getting BG in the 300s and higher, it's looking like you are going to need the insulin shots.

one thing that's good to have is a ss with Georges's test numbers on it. Even if they are just here or there, lots of people can give you some help if they know what George is getting.

I like the Relaxed group because we can really think outside the box.

so any plan you think may be worth trying, just post it and see what people have to say.
 
Welcome!

Okay the first thing to tackle is probably the testing, while we don't test or at least a lot of us over here don't test as much as they do over in TR, there are still some tests that are critical to get in, so 'hit and miss' in all honesty is only going to fly for so long. The three critical tests are before each shot and that is to keep Andre safe while on insulin especially if he could possibly be transit due to infection. You need to know that he is high enough to give insulin to in the first place. The second one is nadir which "normally' on Lantus is around +6 but not always and may shift from day to day, then when you can get them in any spot checks just add to the data colected which helps to tell you how he is doing on a given dose.

So the first step is getting the testing down so that when you need to do it you can do it consistantly and confidently. I don't think any of our cats started out loving getting jab in the ear repeatly everyday. But we do have a few tricks to make it easier on you both and get Andre to start looking forward to the process. The biggest one on Andre's part is going to be TREATS, nice low carb ones of course. It might take a little trial and error to find ones that he dearly loves, and those you reserve for test time only. In the case of my Maxwell that is a good brushing folowed up by a little boiled chicken, for my Musette it is fat free cream cheese, just got to figure out what is Andre's favorite and go from there.

But everytime you test or attempt to test Andre gets his treat whether you have gotten blood or not, and with my sugarcats since I adopted them both as diabetics I had a 3 stikes and your out rule. I got 3 tries to get blood then if I still hadn't by then, we quit trying for awhile they got to go do their cat things or we would just have some snuggle time, then later in the day, once everyone was relaxed again we would try again. But each and every attempt they got their treats. It wasn't their fault that mom was a clutz and couldn't get blood they had upheld their part of the bargin by letting me try.

Also cats like routine, so figure out a special place as well where you are always going to test, get a special basket or blanket that is where testing is going to take place, and you can even start out with simply training him to come to that spot and get on his blanket or in his basket first. Just call him or picking up and place him where you want him, give him loving and praise as well as a treat several times a day until when you tell him it is test time he goes to his spot. Cats are smart they figure out pretty quickly that a little poke to the ear is a small price to pay for their favorite snack.

Also if you are having problems with a certain part of the testing process let us know what it is exactly and we will see if we have some tips to help you out.

Getting him off the dry food and onto a low carb canned is a great place to start in bringing his numbers down, but also the same reason you are going to want to get testing down, so when you need to get a test you can get a test. Since some cats will drop as much as a couple 100 points with just the removal of the dry food.

Lastly the nadir becomes important because Lantus dosing changes are based on that nadir or lowest point in the cycle, with only a slight consideration given to the preshot numbers. So when you get a free day usually once every couple weeks you are going to want to run a curve so you can get a complete picture of how the insulin is working in his body. A curve is done by testing at the preshot and then every 2 hours between that preshot and the next one, or a mini curve where you test every 3 hours.

Mel, Maxwell, Musette & The Fur Gang
 
Hi hi,

Just wanted to pop in and say welcome! Kitten and I joined the Relaxed Lantus group almost 2 months ago (wow, time goes by fast!) and the people here are truly amazing. I have learned so much along the way and Kitten is doing so much better! I'm not going to repeat what was mentioned about the critical testing times, but just say that I totally agree with them. Please let us know if we can help in any way to make the process easier! At the beginning I used to cry a lot and get super frustrated with testing, but now it's second nature. You've gotten some good advice from Gayle and Mel, so just dont hesitate to ask any questions that you have!
 
i should explain that I had another cat on here (if you did not see an older post). I was on this site for two years with him on PZI. I have home tested over a thousand times. It's not the method, it's Andre' and how much stress and pain he has suffered with vets. The more I test him the worse he gets.
Also, i am nearly 70, have a shaking hand due to injuries in a car accident and have really, really bad vision. It is so hard to see what I am doing. I use a magnifying glass to fill the syringe but cannot use one for testing. I just don't have enough hands. watching him struggle claw and fight me is stressing me as much as him. He was so distraught I was worried about him.

I'm going to try and get him better and in the meantime continue to cut back on the food with carbs. Now, at 375 even if I take all the dry away he should stay safe with the dose I am giving him. Some cats don't have a problem surviving well at higher numbers.

I think...as long as he is on insulin, even the low one unit BID dose he should not go K and it is high enough he should not drop low unless his DM is disease related and he gets better.

Sometimes we do everything right, do everything we can and it's still not enough. It's no different than people.
 
At the very least you will need to figure out a way to monitor his blood sugar while he is on insulin. Because for some cats 1u b.i.d. becomes too much insulin and they drop extremely low. Just this mrning after giving my Musette .5u last night I woke up to her testing in at 31!

I would highly recommend to at least get test in at his preshots to make sure he is high enough to give insulin to in the first place.

I adopted both of my diabetics as diabetics so we had zero bond before we started testing, with lots of treats we got over that hump and have grown very close. I know you can also get little strips that go in the litter box that you can also use to monitor bloodsugar but they only give you an idea over time if they are still spilling sugar into their urine, they will not catch the onset of a hypo. But I also know with my two testing itself was as different as day and night, with Maxwell he just isn't a lap cat, he likes to lay next to you but isn't much on the whole being held thing so with him in the beginning I would turn him into a kitty burrito, just wrapped him up in a big bath towel and tested while he was restrained that way, now with Musette she is very laid back and likes to sit in laps so with her I never had to restrain her in fact the one and only time I did the fight was on. So with her I just slip up next to her and test her without trying to physically restrain her.

Yes some cats do fine in the higher numbers as long as they aren't too high, anything over the renal threshhold of 250 is causing organ damage if the cat stays up there for any length of time. The other problem with leaving them in the higher numbers is that they can literally starve to death while eating like a little pig because their bodies need the insulin to be able to convert the food they are eating into energy to survive.

I'm hoping that others have some more ideas on how to make testing easier on Andre and you, because I honestly don't know how you are going to keep him safe and prevent hypos while shooting blind. Even if for now all you can get him to tolerate is the preshots that would be at least something. Especially if he is a transient diabetic because once the infection clears he could drop into normal numbers vitually over night.

Mel, Maxwell, Musette & The Fur Gang
 
Although Andre' is a feral who would bare his teeth at me when I went to feed him in the reeds by the bay, today he is a lover boy. he is so affectionate and likes to rub noses with me as he purrs happily. he just hates having his ears touched..really hates it.

Remember I have twenty cats so littler box anything is out.

The other part is the meter..when he sees it he starts to run. Is there a meter where you load the strip and then put it in the meter? Maybe a pipette with a needle..just thinking.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top