Dealing with Diabetes for over a year

Hello everyone,

My cat Tank was diagnosed with diabetes last year. We found out because he had to be admitted to the hospital because he was in a DKA state. They were able to stabilize him and he was able to come home. He is on Lantus and he has to take it twice a day. Lately, his numbers keep rising to the 400's and it seems like we have to give him more insulin to keep his numbers down. Does anyone else have this issue?? Has anyone tried any other alternatives to help their cat??

Vanessa

 

Welcome Vanessa and Tank!
Sorry you had to find out about diagnosis via DKA but glad he made it through . Lantus is one of the preferred insulins for cats so hopefully the experienced members can help you figure out what's going on with Tank. With a history of DKA we definitely want to see him away from those 400s. Sounds like you are home testing, which is great! Would you be open to setting up a Spreadsheet for Tank? Just need a google account: http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/fdmb-spreadsheet-instructions.130337/
If we can see his BG (blood glucose) numbers, it could help determine if maybe he's getting too much insulin right now. Giving more insulin is probably not the best idea, especially with a depot insulin like Lantus. Are you testing him for ketones?

Let's get your Signature setup with some information about Tank, instructions are here: http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/editing-your-signature-profile-and-preferences.130340/
Be sure to add his DKA date as well.

And as a new member to the forum, I'll leave you this too: http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/how-to-treat-hypos-they-can-kill-print-this-out.15887/

Here is the link to the Lantus thread and remember they will be able to help better, the more information you are able to set up with these links
Any general questions you might have can be posted on the Main Health Forum.
Hope we can help you and Tank

 

Thanks for replying to my post. I have looked at the spreadsheet that you have for Maury. I think I understand it but I have some questions about some of the things that are on there so that I know how to set up Tanks. What does the +1, +2 etc numbers mean? Also, I notice that there is either an F or an S in front of the units that were given. What does that mean?? Thanks for your help!!

 

The +1, +2 etcetera refers to the number of hours past shot time. We do it this way because people on the forum are from all different time zones. F usually means fat and s is skinny. So a fat 1 unit is just in the other side of 1, skinny is just on the smaller side of the 1 line.

 

What Janet said
Here's a link to further explain things on the spreadsheet: http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/understanding-the-spreadsheet-grid.156606/