We're back :(

Status
Not open for further replies.
H

Heather and Raja (GA)

Active Member
Raja relapsed. A few weeks back I had to rush Raja to the emergency vet because she wasn't eating or drinking and was throwing up. The gave her an antibiotic shot and fluids and sent us to the regular vet. The regular vet gave more fluids and meds and recommended 2 more doses of the antibiotic shot. Raja seemed to have gotten over her nasty infection but I think it is the reason we are back.

Her blood sugar is in the 400 to 500 range so we are starting lantus again tomorrow evening and I'm crossing my fingers she just needs it temporarily. She was diagnosed in march of 08 and went into remission in april of 08
 
Hi Heather,
Welcome back, though is wish you came back because you wanted to rather than because Raja is not doing well.
Did the vet do bloodwork, or mention anything else going on (pancratitis, ketones, anything besides an infection?). The "throwing up" thing is why I'm asking.
What dose did they recommend you start at?
Make sure and visit the Lantus forum too. Lots and lots of people there every day, some of which may have been here during your last time.

Carl in SC
 
They think they throwing up was from the infection. Her pancrease and liver values were sky high at the emergency vet but a week later they were back in the normal range at the regular vet.

She is starting us off at 1 unit twice a day.

I'm going to be using the solo start pen, any advice on the pen? Last time I used the vial

I will check out the lantus board tomorrow, still a little upset over the relapse.
 
I certainly understand the upset. Unfortunately, I have no experience with the pen or vial on Lantus. Bob was a PZI guy. I think most of the lantus users use the pens, though. You'll get great help and advice from them. The 1u dose is good. Hopefully this is just a bump in the road and Raja will only need insulin for a short time like before.

Carl
 
Raja girl what are you doing??

Hi Heather, nice to see you again, although not under these circumstances. i do link your paw testing video anytime i get a chance so maybe Raja was thinking she needed to do some more celebrekitty appearances???

you know the drill i'm sure but i'll comment on the pens vs. the vials. you don't use the pens as they are designed to be used, on humans, because they can't be very accurate that way on kitties. what you do is take the cap off and use it as a mini vial. in other words, use a regular syringe you would be used to, u100 right?, and draw up your dose out of the end of the pen. make sense? if not, speak up because i think it is squeem3 that has some good illustrations/pictures to explain it with.

here's a video i did although it's of poor quality as you can barely see what i'm doing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAm5VaXijZU
 
Ok I can do that but I have a couple more questions

First my dad uses the lantus pen so he is giving me his 'lost' pen which he thinks has about 80 units left. That means he's been using it like you're supposed to for humans. Will that make a difference with me using it? I might be able to talk him into giving me a brand new pen but I'm not sure...that's stuff is expensive even with insurance

Is it U100 needles? I was hoping I could just use the pen but I can go to the store and buy some needles.

I get a 3 day weekend this weekend, her values are in the upper 400s to upper 500s do you think I could wait to give her insulin this weekend or should I start her tonight when I get the pen from my dad?

She's eating normal, she's not inhaling her food but she is drinking a LOT and peeing a LOT and although she's not just laying around she's also not near as playful as usual

What do you think the chances of her going back into remission is? I would venture a guess that's she's been diabetic for a month now all together. Also do you think the antibiotic they gave her played a role in any of this? I don't know the name of it right off the bat but when I get home i can look at her records and tell yall. It's supposed to last 2 weeks, and she got it 3 times on schedule every 2 weeks the first one on August 1st and the last one this Saturday
 
Ohh and I'm glad you link the video! Princess Raja loves the attention :lol:

Once it reaches 100,000 views I believe they will allow me to profit share or whatever it's called and I will donate all the money here.
 
i think that should be ok to still use his old pen

and yes, you want to get the same u100 needles you've probably used in the past? remind me which insulin she used before just to make sure we're on the same page.

the store might want to sell you "pen needles" but those are not what you need. you just want to get u100 syringes that are 3/10cc 5/16" needles 30 or 31 gauge and preferably with 1/2 unit markings. i get mine at walmart for roughly $14 after taxes for a box of 100 of them

i personally would go ahead and get started because you don't want to risk ketones and with a possible infection and those high numbers, you are at risk i think.

and just in case, i bet that antibiotic shot was convenia. just want to give you a heads up on that because it's earning a bad reputation. cats are having bad reactions to it so be very very careful letting a vet give it to her. if you search here you'll find some posts on it. dr. lisa isn't a fan of it, nor is my vet, and someone recently posted how their cat reacted very badly to it. (i'll see if i can find them if fiance leaves me alone for a minute :-) )

and fwiw, i do believe remission would be possible again :-)
 
Bandit went out of remission at the end of June due to a very traumatic dental, and now he's back OTJ again. He was on insulin maybe a little over a month (he needed insulin for about a year the first time around). I'm sure the relapse is due to the infection, and now that it's cleared she probably will only need insulin for a short time. Just don't be afraid to get her started right away, because the sooner she's regulated, the better her chances of a quick remission are.

You want to use regular u-100 syringes with the pens, not the needles that come with it. I use 31g 5/16" 3/10ml syringes, and they are great. Nearly impossible to get a fur shot with them.
 
I am almost positive it was conviena UGH I could scream now. I made sure to ask the emergency vet if that was a good thing to give her because she was diabetic and he said yes and I asked again at the regular vet and she said yes. I KNEW I should have just stuck with amoxicillian! I could kick myself.

She was on Lantus before, and thats why she's on it now. The vet actually wanted to put her on pzi but because I am familiar with lantus and because my dad can give me a pen I wanted to go that route.

Ok I will get the needles tonight, thanks yall.

I leave the house at 730am and dont get home until 630pm, tonight because I have to go to my dads and get the pen I wont be home till close to 8.

So give her a dose at 8 tonight and then what time should I give the morning dose (of course after I check her BG) Would 645 be too early? Do you think she would be ok home alone all day Wednesday?

I am crossing my fingers she goes back into remission
 
You'll want to try and give it to her as close to 8 as you can--especially if you won't be there during the day to test. An early shot=a dose increase. If you can't manage that, though, she'd likely be fine because it takes about 24 hours for the shed to build. Just leave some frozen food out or set your feeder if you have one so that she has access to food mid-cycle just in case. That's what I did with Bandit while I was at work all day.
 
The latest I can give her a shot in the morning would be 730, I wonder if it would be best just to start her tomorrow instead of tonight, that way I know she will get it 12 hours apart rather than trying to figure out how to work it all out tonight.
 
7:30 would be ok! You can move the shot up to 30min a day (either 30 min at one shot or 15 min at each one). And with her shed filling it's not likely to cause any problems.
 
OK so does this schedual sound ok? Keep in mind I will be checking her BG the entire time

Tuesday night 1 unit at 8ish
Wednesday morning 1 unit at 730
Wednesday evening 1 unit 730
Thursday morning 1 unit at 700
Thursday evening 1 unit at 700

Or should I just give it at 8 tonight and 730 tomorrow morning and then go to a 7 and 7 scheduled?
 
Crap I was in a hurry and I think I got the wrong needles. This is what it says
1ml cc doses up to 100 units
12.7 mm (1/2")
30G

I don't see 1 2 3 4 I see 10 20 30 40, wrong ones aren't they?
 
well technically you could use them, they'll just be hard on the eyes and if you want to do or have to do under 1 unit doses, i think it could be near impossible to judge it. as it is doing 1 unit might be hard to judge on them? maybe call the store and see if they'll exchange them. don't be surprised if they don't though. liability and all when it comes to syringes.

if you can't, you could maybe post them on the high dose/acro group and see if anyone there would buy them from you.
 
They did say they would return them if they were the wrong ones. It only cost me 3 bucks so if they don't ill see if someone else can use them.

Ugh I knew I should've waited but I was hoping to get that taken care of before I got off work.
 
Yeah, you definitely need the 3/10 ml syringes with half unit markings--the relapse could be very short lived and you may find yourself needing to microdose in no time. Bandit was on insulin maybe a week or two before we had to drop down to .5u this time around.

I used the ones with 1/2" needles last time and this time I got ones with 5/16" needles--the shorter needles are SO much easier to shoot with!
 
Ok stopped by CVS and picked up some needles there, they only had one with unit marks not half unit marks so I will make do until this weekend and I'll go buy walmart and pick up some

I gave her 1 unit at 7pm tonight and her BG was at 440

When do you think I should check her BG again? Sorry I know I should know all of this but you'd be surprised what you forget in 3yrs
 
I wouldn't worry about testing too much tonight, because you won't really see it work on the BG at all. Maybe a spot check later to see how she is.

The mid-cycle tests are the most important right now, because you want to figure when her nadir is going to be. So that means getting some +4-+7s in at least one of the cycles daily. You don't have to do them all at once..you can stagger them, like do a +4 and a +6 one night, and then a +5 and a +7 the next night, and rotate them like that. And do a curve at least once a week.

Of course, you can test as much as you'd like! the more data you have, the better off you are. That's the minimum number of tests that I liked to get to see what's going on.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top