Thunder's diagnosis

[All5castle]

HI,

I have been reading the board for a while now and think it is time to post as Thunder's numbers seem to be all over the place. Thunder is my 15 year old Orange best buddy. Let me begin by telling his story to date. He was diagnosed in February but after two weeks on 1 unit of Lantus and all wet, low carb food (mostly FF classics), I took him to the vet and his number was in the 100's and she told me to stop the insulin and keep feeding what I have been feeding. I had just begun to read this board and had not gotten the testing equipment yet, so I went home happy and just kept feeding him the FF.

Fast forward to August, Thunder wasn't acting right so I thought his BG might be coming up and took him to the vet. Well, she said his BG was fine but his kidney numbers were not good. She recommended Prescription food, both wet and dry. I regret that I listened, especially about the dry. Fast forward again to three weeks ago and Thunder was really failing. Back to the vet and his BG was over 500, his white blood count was sky high and he had a fever. Back to 1 unit of the Lantus, give antibiotics and this time I went right out and got all the testing supplies and put together a hypo kit. We are using a RELION CONFIRM to test, now feeding Weruva On the Cat Wok and Steak Frites (lower phosphorus) with a bit of Instinct raw chicken added occasionally. His number stayed in the low 400's and into the 300's over the first week so the vet said to increase to 1.5 units. After a tough start we are doing OK, not great, with the testing. I started a Spreadsheet, but unfortunately, my schedule lately has not allowed me to test consistently for any 12hour period. Last week his AMPS was 131 and 114 1 hour later. I didn't give him an AM shot for fear he may go Hypo while I was at work. Called from work that morning and Vet advised I stop the insulin and test periodically. I tested when I got home that night at 9pm (worked late) and he was at 579! I gave him 1 unit and called the vet the next day. Her advice was to stick to the 1 unit, test as often as I could, don't shoot anything 100 or under.

So here I am...his numbers are not really improving on the 1 unit. I am thinking that the 1.5 was doing better for him but afraid that he got so low the one time. Was thinking..... could I do 1 unit in AM and 1.5 in PM, hoping that it would help his numbers get more consistently low?

Any help is so appreciated! Love my little guy so much!

 

[BJM]

Welcome to the message board, the best place you never wanted to be.

There are 4 things you'll need to manage your kitty's diabetes:
- You - without your commitment, the following won't work.
- Home blood glucose monitoring with an inexpensive human glucometer such as the WalMart Relion Confirm or Target Up and Up (the pet ones will break your budget!). This saves you the cost of going to the vet for curves and done regularly, removes the need for a fructosamine test. All of our insulin guidelines use human glucometer numbers for reference.
- Low carb over the counter canned or raw diet, such as many Friskies pates. See Cat Info for more info. If already on insulin, you must be home testing before changing the diet. Food changes should be gradual to avoid GI upsets - 20-25% different food each day until switched. There are 2 low carb, dry, over the counter foods in the US - Evo Cat and Kitten dry found at pet specialty stores and Young Again 0 Carb found online.
- A long-lasting insulin such as ProZinc, Lantus, BCP PZI, or Levemir. No insulin lasts 24 hours in the cat, so giving it every 12 hours is optimal for control.

 

[Brashworks]

Hi, I'm not aware of "variable" dosing between morning and night as I understand Lantus works best with consistency but I am very new here.

I would suggest cross-posting over in the Lantus/Levemir forum - the folks there are very experienced with Lantus and I'm sure someone can help you.

Good luck with Thunder, and welcome.

 

[BJM]

It takes anywhere from 3 to 5 full days on a Lantus dose to be able to evaluate how it is doing for your cat, based on how low the glucose goes between shots. For the moment, how about sticking with 1 unit, and then posting over in Lantus, plus reading all the sticky posts there on how to use Lantus best.