Update on Diego

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ja9390

ja9390

Member Since 2016
I've been MIA for a while. Between taking care of him and working 6 days a week it's been rough and his numbers have stayed generally in the 300-400s and haven't budged except for recently. His cough has come back and his glucose skyrocketed again. Still on 1.25u twice a day. Sometimes it's every 12, sometimes every 13 but I'm doing my best. I worry that the inconsistencies in my ability to dose him is messing him all up.

I will get around to posting his spreadsheet in its entirety later on this evening. Today I am curving him for the first time in forever. This is the first day I've had off in 13 days. I can't figure him out. When I bumped him up to 1.5 he responded like he was bouncing, and at 1.25 it seems like it's not enough. For the last couple of days his little ears and face were warm and he was lethargic so I think he had an infection. That's gone, but for the last two nights he's woken up coughing. I have a humidifier out at night for him and I give him lysine every day.

5/17 AMPS 483
PMPS 572
+3 488

5/18 AM 489
PM 519
+2 425

5/19 AM 505
+10 430
PM 370

5/20 AM 406
PM 381

5/21 AM HI


Any comments or suggestions are welcome. I'm trying to figure this out without taking him to the vet because it's expensive and I have my own medical bills that are still unpaid. it's sounding like he may need an inhaler though.
 
JC, I'm too new to Lantus to help you with dosing. One thing I've really had to absorb to help Radar better is the power of testing as much as possible when I do have a day off. My cat tends to go lower at night and so when I'm able to do it I try to get a few tests in at night too. My job is very demanding so the night time tests are a real challenge for me but I do the best I can. This obsession with testing has really given me a view of the action of the Lantus during the cycle and not just at the end or the beginning. This is important because the correct dose can only be discovered when I can see how low a particular dose can take him.

I hope the testing you are doing today will provide you with additional information so you can adjust the dose and help Diego feel better.
 
Im sorry he's struggling right now with his numbers and a cough. If it is asthma you can get a prescription from your vet for Flovent and Albertoul I also keep oral predinosolone for flare ups order from Canada its much cheaper.My kitty Fritz has asthma. Praying for :bighug:you and Diego
 
If you are basing he is running high off your preshot bg numbers you cant with lantus. The nadir number 6-7 hours after the morning injection is what you need to base off of or better yet can you fit in a home curve to really see where his numbers are with lantus?
 
I have three suggestions for you...
1. Late this afternoon - two hours before shot time pick up his food so you can get a non food influenced test number.
2. Update your spreadsheet so it's got all the recent testing information on it.
3. Consider posting for dosing help about an hour and a half or so before shot time. The wise experienced Lantus users have helped me so often and Radar is soooooo much better as a result.
 
I am doing a home curve today for the first time in forever. His +5 is HI (over 600). This is not normal for him. He hasn't been exactly in low numbers at any point even since we've started on lantus but at least he hasn't seen the 600s since we ditched Novolin back in March.

I will pick up the food at 5:30 and that will be 2 hours before his night shot. I'll have the spreadsheet updated and will post for dosing advice before his shot too.
 
He's had issues with this cough since Nov 2105. He's seen two different doctors and had a chest X-ray. His new doctor said that if his coughing comes back more frequently or they get worse, she's going to lean toward putting him on an inhaler but when we went in last time for his cough flair ups she said she doesn't want to make any major changes to him yet and that's when she suggested the humidifier and the lysine, which has helped some.

I feel horrible for him. It's been hard on both of us. I'm a professional babysitter/nanny while I'm in school and 6-7 days a week I take care of young children. Then I come home to Diego who needs my attention too and sometimes I feel like I can never clock out of my job. He deserves to be in low numbers. Hoping the lantus experts can help us out.
 
Hi JC, sorry you & Diego are having such a tough time. What do the vets think is causing Diego's cough?
 
One thought it was asthma but did a chest X-ray and supposedly it's been ruled out. Even though she put him on steroids for the cough, of course there'd be no inflammation. Then 3 months later he was diagnosed with diabetes probably accelerated by the steroids.

The other one isn't ruling out asthma but I think that's the direction she's heading especially if he continues to cough. I fired our last vet but I just may have to bring him back there again for an X-ray of his chest. It's $20 vs $100
 
How old is the pen? What is the expiration date? Does it look cloudy or floatie things in it? do you keep it refrigerated? Are you testing for ketones?
 
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He hasn't had any food down since he finally finished his breakfast a few hours ago and all I've given him was a couple of pure bite treats. I'm scared to feed him anything else right now
 
It was opened on March 23. It's in a ziplock bag in a mini fridge. No turbidity or off coloring but I did have issues with the refrigerator not being as cold. Which I fixed yesterday but it was a week or two before it was fixed. It was never NOT refrigerated, just not kept super cool and I'm worried I could have ruined the whole box of pens.
 
I opened up a new pen just in case. The only pen had only about a months left in it anyway.
 
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