New member here

Mollycat
Hi, I'm a new member.
I have a 12 yr old male cat . Diagnosed 11 mos ago and still not regulated. We started on Lantus in April 2018. Blood sugars averaging around 400, never less than high 200's but right back up to 600's so we kept increasing by half units. . Eventually up to 7units twice a day, vet suspecting insulin resistance. We recently switched to Prozinc this Feb 15 . Started at 1 unit for a week. He was awful...drinking almost constantly, flooding the litterbox and eating an unbelieveable amount of food. The blood sugars off the meter over 600. Up to 2 for a few days, 500 plus, up to 3 few days, still high, 4, then, 5 now 6.This past Wednesday the am test was 286. I was told he is insulin resistant and keep him at 6. Two hours later it was almost 500. Today's test before food or insulin was plus 600. He's lost weight but not drinking a lot or flooding the litter box. Eating only friskies pate and fancy feast classic pate. No dry. In daily contact with vet. They feel at this point just watch for clinical signs and test at various times throughout the day. I'm a registered nurse and and using the Relion glucometer , testing on his ear without difficulty. Acromegaly had been mentioned as a factor. He does have irritable bowel but no vomiting or diarrhea. I read these forums and appreciate any input. Thank you!!

 

Hi. Sorry he is doing so poorly. Can you set up a spreadsheet and input as much data as you can? Here we initially increase by .25 at the beginning to not miss a good dose. I suspect he does have insulin resistance and/or acromegaly. Have you thought about testing for this? Levimar is a good insulin for high dose kitties. I’m going to tag someone who can help with that. @Wendy&Neko

 

Hi there,

What a sweet boy Lots of great pet parents here, you will find support and help. Hang in there!

 

Hello and welcome. Sorry you are having a hard time getting your kitty regulated. My girl Neko had two conditions we call "high dose", though not all cats with those conditions need high doses. She had both acromegaly and IAA (insulin auto antibodies) and got as high as 8.75 units. We've had many kitties go even higher in dose. Tests for both of those conditions are done with a blood test that is sent to Michigan State University. It is the only place that does the test in North America. We suggest that anyone who has a cat on over 6 units and on a low carb diet get the tests done. Here is a page with the links to the tests. Knowing what you are dealing with makes dosing decisions easier.

The majority of cats with acromegaly do not present clinical signs on diagnosis. My cat's only sign was the higher dose and ravenous hunger. I discovered later that her one eye tearing was from soft tissue growth in the eye duct. Acrocats present with different symptoms when they show them. GI issues are not uncommon as the benign pituitary tumour sending out excess growth hormone also impacts organs.

Since you were getting no numbers below high 200's, you were probably correct to do 0.5 units increases, as long as there was enough testing to know that you weren't missing any lower numbers on that dose. As Elise (@tiffmaxee ) suggested, we can help you get your kitty regulated if you set up a spreadsheet with the data you have recorded. Since your kitty has been diabetic a while, just enter the last couple weeks worth of data. The link to the spreadsheet instructions is here.

From our experience, the longer last insulins like Lantus or Levemir are better for high dose kitties. And Levemir is probably the better of the two. For some cats, the acid base of Lantus means it stings at higher doses. Levemir has similar long lasting action (maybe even longer), but has a bit later onset and nadir. Also, when we switch from one insulin to the other, we take the dose of the existing insulin in mind. So we wouldn't have gone back to 1.0 units of Prozinc.

My suggested actions are to first get your kitty tested for both IAA and acromegaly and start that spreadsheet. The IAA test is done at the same lab and is a relatively cheap add on. Once you have the lab results, we can help you figure out what to do next. The spreadsheet will help us figure out if there is a way we can help you get your kitty regulated faster. There are quite a few members with acros in the Lantus/Levemir/Basaglar forum.

I meant to mention, one in four diabetic cats has acromegaly.

 

Blue text are clickable links and will take you to the post to get the spreadsheet going.