chetanddot
Member Since 2026
Hi,
We treated a diabetic kitty for 8 years (she passed 11 years ago) and never thought we'd have another one. Well here we are with a 13 year old diabetic guy who has been on grain free raw/canned his whole life. He was diagnosed in late August 2026.
We were prescribed Lantus which is different from our previous experience with PZI. I read the forums and felt confident I understood the protocol. However, Orson is extremely difficult to test and gets VERY stressed especially after any failed attempt. This is with two capable cat people. We try to give him a little reward as positive reinforcement, but he's on to us. He's also incredibly strong and squirmy, it's crazy how he can manage to keep ear access hidden. He pulls away quickly and I'm afraid of tearing his ear. He already has sensitive ears and anytime we get near them, he gets defensive. There are many times that it is just not possible to get a reading. In the past, when he's wrapped in a towel for any treatment, he gets extremely stressed and we've seen him start to pant which is concerning. We're opting for the start low, go slow method. However, sometimes we can only get a glucose reading once or twice a day and his numbers have only been consistently around 300.
We've increased his dosage to very gradually, every 7 to 10 days to 3 units but now I'm worried that's not enough. I know the only way to really know what's going on is frequent testing. The numbers we're getting are rarely under 200. Any advice for this situation? We've been trying to get +3 +6 +9 readings every day and when we do, his numbers are around 300. Does he need a higher dose of insulin?
We didn't have any of these issues with our other kitty so this has been very frustrating. He saw a vet at urgent care for another matter and she scared us about increasing his insulin from 1 unit to 3, so now we're afraid we're doing the wrong thing.
We treated a diabetic kitty for 8 years (she passed 11 years ago) and never thought we'd have another one. Well here we are with a 13 year old diabetic guy who has been on grain free raw/canned his whole life. He was diagnosed in late August 2026.
We were prescribed Lantus which is different from our previous experience with PZI. I read the forums and felt confident I understood the protocol. However, Orson is extremely difficult to test and gets VERY stressed especially after any failed attempt. This is with two capable cat people. We try to give him a little reward as positive reinforcement, but he's on to us. He's also incredibly strong and squirmy, it's crazy how he can manage to keep ear access hidden. He pulls away quickly and I'm afraid of tearing his ear. He already has sensitive ears and anytime we get near them, he gets defensive. There are many times that it is just not possible to get a reading. In the past, when he's wrapped in a towel for any treatment, he gets extremely stressed and we've seen him start to pant which is concerning. We're opting for the start low, go slow method. However, sometimes we can only get a glucose reading once or twice a day and his numbers have only been consistently around 300.
We've increased his dosage to very gradually, every 7 to 10 days to 3 units but now I'm worried that's not enough. I know the only way to really know what's going on is frequent testing. The numbers we're getting are rarely under 200. Any advice for this situation? We've been trying to get +3 +6 +9 readings every day and when we do, his numbers are around 300. Does he need a higher dose of insulin?
We didn't have any of these issues with our other kitty so this has been very frustrating. He saw a vet at urgent care for another matter and she scared us about increasing his insulin from 1 unit to 3, so now we're afraid we're doing the wrong thing.
