19 year old cat newly diagnosed with diabetes

Hello, I visited this site a long time ago when my cat Kenai, who has gone over the rainbow bridge, was diagnosed with diabetes. Her sister who is now 19 years old and has a host of medical problems (inflammatory bowel disease, kidney disease, grand mal seizures, hypothyroid from radio active iodine treatment, spinal arthritis, and hypertension) has had diabetes added into the mix. I do know how to home test and have current supplies because my husband is a type 2 diabetic. Sitka was prescribed Lantus 1 unit twice a day. My main question is years ago the rule seemed to be if a cats home test was under 200 do not shoot insulin. Is this still accurate? Thanks so much for being here - I remember when I was here before everyone was so nice. Jan

 

Hi Jan,
And welcome back... the normal advise to new people is to not shoot under 200, yes. You may not qualify as "new" since you are familiar with the routine. I would not recommend shooting that low until you have gotten a few days worth of data however. You want to determine where her BG is and what that 1u dose is doing first.
You have the testing supplies.... what does she eat? Have you started her on the lantus? Do you know what her BG was at diagnosis, and have you gotten any tests at home since then?

Carl

 

Welcome to you and Sitka! Wow 19 years old, vey impressive

When you are starting out and until you are still gathering data, yes it is the guideline to not dose under 200. Once you have gathered enough data to know how Sitka will react to the Lantus, you will be able to tell if you can shoot into the lower numbers. Since 200 is still a diabetic number, we would want to administer some insulin, unless we know that the particular cat is one that is sensitive to insulin. It is great that you already home test so you will be getting data right from the start and will know how to handle the lower numbers much quicker.

Be sure to read the sticky threads in the Lantus - Tight Regulation ISG, as they contain a lot of information that may be new since the last time you were on the site. There has been a lot of advancement in the treatment of diabetes in cats!

 

Jan, I don't know what previous insulin you used for Kenai(GA) but Lantus is totally different than any of the Humulins that were out and also PZI. This link gives you all the info you really need to read to understand how Lantus works. http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewforum.php?f=9

Wonderful long life for Sitka but doesn't seem fair that with all of her health problems she gets hit with diabetes too. Once you have read the Lantus info about handling, storage shed, etc. you can go to the Relaxed Lantus forum instead of the Tight Regulation one.

 

Thanks so much Carl and Melanie. Sitka's BG was 542 at the vets office and no ketones present. She was also given an antibiotic (Clavamox) because she had a large number of white cells (vet felt positive she was on her way to an infection). Last night she got her first insulin shot around 6:30pm - this morning her BG was 206 at 5:15am and I did give her a unit. I work a 4-10 schedule so won't be able to do a midpoint test until Thursday. She eats Natural balance Duck/Green Pea and Turkey/Giblets - I also gave her some Royal Canin Recovery this morning. She is also on other meds - budesconide (a steroid and probably why she is diabetic), omeprazole, amlodipine every other day, soloxine, and Azodyl (kidney supplement). She gets subq fluids nightly, B12 every other week and adequan once a month. I guess the good news is that I'm used to doing a lot of caretaking with her so adding something else isn't as much of a shock as if she were perfectly healthy.

 

Folks who've done fluids on diabeteics have noted that using different locations for each is advisable so the insulin doesn't get diluted. They also note that offsetting administration times of each by an hour or so may help in preventing any dilution of the insulin.

 

Hello Jan,
something caught my eye. My Gumpy - 14 yrs. (GA) had hypertension and had seizures. The subque fluids sent her into two seizures back to back, to the er after the inital vet visit (they were closed by the time of the seizure) and raised her bp to 290. I know ecid, but the original vet never mentioned that fluids could do this to her but the er did. We never gave that much fluid after that - very small amounts and they (new vet) would watch her for hours after admin.

Poor baby, wishing her luck and mommabean too as watching seizures is very very tough and sad! :sad:

What a fighter Ms. Sitka is - 19 wow, gives me hope for civvie Slappy pushing 16 right now. Only problem so far is hypothyroid and we opted to treat w/ meds to the ears everynite.

Is changing her food an option w/ the other issues? Perhaps from Binkys list of low carb foods?

Welcome back - :roll: - I have only been here since 4/11, but is the BEST place to be for me and my 3 girls :razz:

 

Thanks Ohbell & BJM, I did think about the fluids - I asked the vet tech about it and she thought it wouldn't matter. However my brain thought that the fluids diluting the insulin wasn't a good thing. So I injected Sitka last night on the left side and did her fluids on her right shoulder so it pools on the right side. She's been getting subq's for almost a year and fortunately it hasn't affected her seizures at all. Last night her bg was 512 and this morning it was 362 - but I expect things need a couple of weeks to settle down. On the food issue I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place - food low in carbs aren't good for her kidneys (which are already in the moderate/severe disease range with her creatnine at 4.0) and high carb/low protein food not good for her diabetes. So I figure just a balanced food will have to be the course. She's been really good about the ear sticks (plus she doesn't have any teeth so not worried about biting LOL) - last night I must have hit a major ear vein because it would not stop bleeding. Hubby finally got some flour and that stopped it. She looked pretty funny with a white ear. I'm going to have to get one of those styptic pencils for those ear occasions. The water drinking has slowed down a lot along with urine output so the insulin is definitely having some effect. Sigh - a cat mom's work is never done. Thanks a bunch for helping out a (sort of) newbie. Jan

 

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