New here - not sure Lantus is working!

Hi Everyone!

Ginger has been on Lantus almost 2 months. She was previously on NPH, and when we changed to Lantus the vet started her on the same dose. On another diabetic cat board they told me it was too high and said to go down to 1 unit and up from there. Her doses have been high and low and her numbers are still high. I've been told that NPH is a horrible insulin and not to go back to it, but the truth is Ginger's numbers were better when she was on that than Lantus, and she did previously go into remission when she was on it. I feel like I'm getting nowhere with Lantus and am worried about Ginger's numbers being so high it could cause damage to her kidneys, etc.

I hope you are able to access my spreadsheet. A link should show up in my signature, but I'm new and not sure I did everything right. I'd appreciate any opinions you may have on this. Thanks so much!

 

Hi Kathy, sorry no one replied to your post yet.
I was able to see Ginger's spreadsheet and it looks like she had a nice low number at her PM pre-shot tonight. I'm guessing you decided to skip the shot because it was too low for your comfort level.
I'm not experienced enough to give dosing advice so I will leave that to someone else but I think the Lantus is bringing her numbers down.
I hope tomorrow you will get more experienced eyes on your post and can get things sorted out!

 

Hello and welcome. I hope we can help you get some better numbers for Ginger with Lantus. First a couple of differences between Lantus and NPH. First, Lantus is a depot insulin so on this board, we find it better to do consistent dosing each cycle. We also dose primarily on how low a dose takes the cat, or the nadirs you are getting and not on the preshot value. Take a read of the Sticky Notes on the top of this forum, ask questions.

I can see your spreadsheet. What dose did you give the PM of 12/8?

As you have discovered why, we are not big fans of “starting over”, but rather take the dose of the previous insulin into consideration. With that green tonight, you are getting in the right area for dose. She is still a relatively newly diagnosed cat, so it’s not surprising to see her bouncing into high numbers.