somewhat still new....

[heatherj932]

Hello All,

I am still learning my way around this forum, and I finally found the insulin support group page!! woo-hoo! I have posted before on the diabetic health page, but I will just do a quick run down of my situation. Cyrus is a 7 year old male cat. He is the most lovable, kind and gentle cat. He has never once hissed at me throughout our whole process-and it has been a process!! Cyrus also has a condition called Stomatits, which effects his entire mouth/teeth. He had a full mouth extraction in May 2006. Cyrus HAS to be on steroids to keep the inflammation down. We have tried everything, and finally came to the conclusion that Cyrus will have to take a pill most likely forever.

Cyrus was diagnosed with diabetes when he was acting different. He was only sleeping, eating very little. He dropped 3 lbs. I took him to the vet and his bg # was 350. The vet put him on Glipizide-we did that for a couple of weeks, then stopped after I read all of the horrible things about what it can do to the liver. I started home testing 2x daily. Can someone please let me know where I can get a spreadsheet-I would love to input all of his #'s. I just started using the Levemir. I was told to do so 2 wks ago, but everytime I test Cyrus he seems to be in the low 200's. So I was too scared to give it to him. After research, I feel more comfortable with giving him the Levemir. My vet said to do 2 u 2 times a day. I knew this was too much to start. I have been giving 1 u but only if he tests over 200. Cyrus is on Hills M/D...very little of that and FF Classic. Usually 2 cans daily. Cyrus currently weighs 15 lbs. He is acting normal. He sits on my lap every night and rubs his face all over mine-hopefully this is good sign!! I hope that once I learn how to do the spreadsheet that someone can look at it and give some advice!!

Sorry that this is such a long post, I just did not want to forget anything. I am sure that Cyrus will appreciate any advice as well.

Thank you!!

Heather & Cyrus

 

[pamela and tigger]

Hi Heather, welcome to the Levemir forum! Here are the instructions on creating a spreadsheet:

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=16

Also, it is helpful if you could do a short history on Cyrus pretty much like you did here in this post. That way people don't have to refer back to this thread to gather that info. Here are instructions on how to do that:

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=531

You can see that some of us have our profile linked to the old board via the icon showing next to the PM button under our name.

Yes, it has taken all of us a while to get used to this new board format. I am still learning stuff!

So Cyrus had all his teeth removed two years ago? Has that really helped with his Stomatitis symptoms? I know of some others that said it really helped a lot and their kitties were much happier and didn't even seem to notice they didn't have any teeth!

Good for you for being so proactive in Cyrus' care. Others will be along to welcome you as well as look at your spreadsheet.

 

[Melissa&Paul-Kyle]

Hi Heather, Welcome to the Lev forum- glad you found us!

Levemir is an insulin that builds on its last dose and works best if given consistantly without skipping doses.

From: http://petdiabetes.wikia.com/wiki/Levemir

Levemir is long-acting in cats (peak at 8-12 hours, duration of 10-20 hours varying by dosage). Administered twice daily, with the same dosage each time, with substantial overlap, it is usually able to keep an uncomplicated diabetic cat very tightly regulated, often in non-diabetic ranges all day. This is because its curve is so gentle that there's no need to wait for a high diabetic number before injecting more.

I am glad you are home testing and glad that you knew right away that 2u BID was too much to start.

I'm thinking you may even want to lower your 1u if you are getting numbers you are not comfortable shooting.

Without knowing other numbers in the cycle, It is difficult to give informed advice, however I am thinking if you can lower your dose to .75u or .5u for awhile until you get more comfortable shooting the numbers you get, the lower dose will likely allow you to shoot more consistently.

Consistent shots, the same dose every 12 hours, will help Cyrus to keep his blood sugars in a more even keel instead of getting too low for you to feel comfortable shooting then likely getting pretty high up there without the insulin and then back way down with the 1u again.

Does that make sense?

Wondering if it is possible for you to get additonal blood tests through the cycle? It is helpful to understand how the insulin effects progress through the cycle...others may be along to explain that further...

Welcome again and please let us know how we can help you!

 

[Sheila & Beau GA & Jeddie GA]

Hello again, Heather. Glad to see you have started levemir. It is such a great insulin. Don't be afraid to use it.

Normally, I would say that a starting dose of .5u is good, but because he is on steroids I am not sure what effect that has on his blood glucose (BG) levels. 2u does seems high for a starting dose, so it is good that you started at 1u twice a day.

If it has been 2-3 days since you started insulin, you need to get a spot check at about 5 to 7 hours after the shot. In order to know how well the dose is working, we need to know how low he goes on it. Lev is safe to shoot at lower BG numbers, so you are probably OK to give him insulin down to 150 or so. If you check out some of our spreadsheets you will see that insulin is given by some even below 100. A normal cat's BG will be from mid 40s to low 100s - most are probably around 65-85, I'd guess.

Until you get a spread sheet you can post your numbers like this:

amPS 180 1u
+4 85
+7 90
pmPS 175 1u

amPS = morning preshot test number, then 1u given. +4 is 4 hours after the shot, and so on. That's how we all did it before spreadsheets.

Once you know how low he is going you will fel more comfortable giving insulin and knowing he will be OK. Nice that he seems to be feeling better.

And don't worry about long posts - you haven't even scratched the surface on that one!