Diagnosed in Dec. Two insulins and BG not under control

Hi everyone. First of all, I am so glad this board exists. Thank you. Next, my 13 year old cat Pinkie was diagnosed in Dec. He was started on 2 units twice a day of ProZinc, bumped up to 3 and now changed to Lantus (2 units twice a day) because his sugars were over 600 in the am's and never got below 400 during the 12 hour stretch between doses. His fructosamine test was 450 after about a month on ProZinc. He had his second dose of Lantus tonight an hour and a half ago and is still at almost 500. I am afraid there is something else wrong with him. Why is he not responding to insulin? How long does it take for the Lantus to kick in? Should I have seen a big drop immediately or will I not be able to see any change for a while? He is starting to be really afraid of me and he was already a borderline feral kitty, just starting to trust me a little in his older age. I am constantly poking at him or having other people poke him. I am starting to just melt down over here. I feel like I can't go anywhere because I am so worried (and it's hard to get a petsitter who will test, do insulin, etc.) I am going broke (I have 3 other special needs cats) and most of all, am just worried that this is going to end up causing other problems that kill him. I am sure others have experienced all these same feelings but it's really hard... Thanks, Gina

 

Gina, try to relax. Maybe he is feeling your stress and that is part of the reason he is running from you.
You are doing a good job treating him and home testing his blood sugars will help to keep him safe.
Lantus is a slow acting insulin that doesn't usually yank numbers down like the faster insulins do.
Please post in the Main Health forum next, so more people can respond and help you.

 

Hi Gina, as Dyana said, it takes Lantus a few days to build up a depot and really get to work. Come to the Main Health Forum and we can help you with the testing (treats are very important!), dosing and understanding how Lantus works. In the meantime go to the Lantus forum and read the yellow stickies at the top of the page
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/forums/lantus-glargine-levemir-detemir.9/

 

Welcome, and I'm so sorry things are so rough right now! It is so stressful to deal with a situation like this, all you want is for your Pinkie to feel better, but it's often not a straight path diagnosis-treatment-wellness with this disease.

As Dyana and Sharon14 say, come on over to Feline Health-- there are lots of people there who will have lots of tips to help you manage Pinkie's diabetes.

It will get easier.

 

Welcome!
There are lots of experienced members here to help you get Pinkie's numbers under control and support you too! Just some quick comments. It took me about 1 1/2 months to see "solid" improvements in my boy's numbers on Prozinc. Another note, you vet (like most others) increase the dose by a full unit, and from experienced members, we prefer to do small increases like 0.25U or 0.5U. Since you are on Lantus now, like Sharon said it needs to build a depot (kind of like a spare tank of insulin) before it starts working and you won't see numbers fall right away.

We use a spreadsheet and if you set it up our Lantus members can better advise you at your discretion: http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/fdmb-spreadsheet-instructions.130337/

And some information in your Signature helps when you head on to the Main Health Forum:
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/editing-your-signature-profile-and-preferences.130340/

Great that you are already home testing too!

 

Thank you, everyone

 

Oh wow, you are from the Bay Area. I was born in Oakland and grew up in Walnut Creek. Small world.