Emmett - On Lantus since Feb 12, 2018

Emmett has been on Lantus since Feb 12, 2018.

See spreadsheet. I have been monitoring BG while I'm home and was skipping doses when he got to a low number (I was told to skip dose if it goes below 15mmol/L) -- I was skipping at 11 and 8 and 14 kinda numbers.

When I did this, we can see in the spreadsheet it all went outta whack for the next few days. I've been reading this forum quite a lot now and have come to the conclusion that NONE of my numbers have been what we consider LOW.

A note about the spreadsheet, at least my thoughts. The first reading is the reading at the vet. Went in the next day to get the Lantus and needles. After 4 continuous shots in the beginning (I didn't have a BG meter) but after 4 cycles he was at a respectable 9.3 (but info in this forum says still high). I was advised to skip the dose.

As I said, when dose is skipped it all went outta whack since. I will continue with 1.5 units for a bit this week and see how it goes. Not skipping doses and watching BG.

As the spreadsheet indicates I have skipped quite a few doses. And thanks to this forum have realized that's not a good idea.

So please provide any tips or perhaps an increase may be necessary. At this point will see how 1.5u goes. I have a follow-up appointment tomorrow, so will ask them some questions or if they've heard of TR protocol.

I am on vacation this week, but most of the time I am not home to watch Emmett during the day and neither is anyone else, so I guess I cannot be too aggressive but would like to get this under control and hopefully (obviously) into remission.




Rob

 

Welcome!

 

Thanks! I should also mention that I am not feeding him any dry food anymore. He was on 1/2 can wet/day plus 1/2 cup dry food/day.

He is now eating 1 can per day. Wellness Turkey & Salmon recipe. He's super picky and always has been. Even changes in the Wellness recipe he won't eat that either. He seems to love dried chicken hearts (recently discovered this) so I'll be crumbling that on his food.


Rob

 

Sounds like you and Emmett are on the right track! Awesome that he likes the dried chicken hearts, they probably are low carb. My dude won't eat any of the dried treats I've bought.

I'm pretty new to this also, but my advice is to stick to a dose for at least 4 or 5 days, and then do a curve. It's not good to change doses or skipping. It actually takes the 4 or 5 days for their body to adjust to the level.

 

Welcome to the group! Great job with testing, switching to all-wet, and getting that spreadsheet up and running! Have you read the stickies up at the top of the forum? TONS of great info in there, and we are happy to answer any questions you may have about any of the information in them.

Don't be shocked if your vet hasn't heard of TR....they wouldn't be the first! With home testing for safety and response tracking, TR is one of the best ways to get your cat well-regulated in healthy numbers, and with any luck, maybe even remission!

Emmet is very cute!!

 

Hey thanks all. Haha, I've spent the day off and on reading all the Lantus stickies! lol. I'm all read up for my vet visit tomorrow. The forum is great! Can't believe all the info here after googling and finding so many different opinions it's good to have a dedicated source to the insulin EMMETT is using!

 

Hi, welcome!!

You're off to a great start and Emmet numbers don't look so bad for a newly diagnosed kitty

You don't mention if you have already decided which protocol will you use, give yourself some time to read each one so that you can pick the one that suits you best.

In either case when you start shooting insulin it is advisable to keep the dose for at least one week before adjusting the dose unless he goes lower than 90 (5 mmol/L) at any time during the day then I do suggest you post here and ask for advice as to what dose to give. This is to give his body time to form the depot and get used to it.

Also if he´s below 200 (11 mmol/L) in his preshoot test don't feed and ask for advice before shooting him

 

Hi Robert, and welcome from a fellow Canadian. Freezing on the west coast, but warm from our Olympic results yesterday.

Great job getting up and running with the testing. And getting him on all wet food. The freeze dried chicken hearts are great, but a little rich so don't overdo it.

Not all vets have heard of TR protocol, but mine had at least heard of "work being done in Queensland", which is where Dr. Jacquie Rand (one of the authors) lives.

 

Welcome.

 

Well, I’ve read it all and I’ll have to double check but I’m gonna try the TR protocol. To be honest the SLGS and the TR protocol seems similar. I guess he main difference between the two is the aggressiveness at which the dose changes. I probably don’t have the luxury (sadly I have to go to work haha — I’d rather take care of kitteh than go to work) ...anyway, I probably will do SLGS but may do a hybrid kind thing ...we’ll see. Gonna read up more on the differences tomorrow.


Rob

 

Can someone take a look at Emmett's chart? We had a what I could think is a fairly good day on March 2, quite good numbers (kinda scary at first because I had never seen the numbers that low), but then the next few days it was so so. And this morning he was quite high again.

On the March 2nd date I gave him a quarter can at about 5 pm, and then shot 2 iu at about 6:30 (14.4 mmol/L I believe) by about 8pm or something he was 10 mmol/L, then went down to 3.4 mmol/L around 11 pm. Didn't seem to go much lower, but then the following day and days after that hovering around 11-16. And this morning, quite high 20+ mmol/L.

As you can see, he at 2 iu still (started at 1.5 iu). I'm pretty sure that I should increase, maybe 2.25 or 2.5 iu? Didn't want to this morning as I had to go to work and wouldn't be home.

Also, I've read that the scruff of the neck is not a very good place for insulin due to blood flow being weak there. That said, on the March 2nd evening (when we achieved 3.4 mmol/L he got his shot in the car (lol, I was travelling ...so he wasn't even that calm that day)...and the shot was probably in his side -- 1/3 way down his side between his spine and tummy and just about 1/2 way between his front and back legs...(I think referred to as the "flank")...

I am wondering if I'm getting these odd (sometimes relatively good days and sometimes weird days where it doesn't seem to change much) due to where or how I do the injection...does this make any sense?

Overall, his crazy thirst subsided many weeks ago and I'd say is back to normal.


Any thoughts?

 

Actually looking at another diagram, I'd say March 2 shot was on the side of the chest (lateral thorax -- as I read on another thread).


R

 

Hi

His numbers are improving just nicely, you handled those low numbers very good, still since those haven't happened again I would try to see if something else was happening that day, but I would raise his dose to 2.25 (better to do it slowly ) but I would do it when you can monitor him at least at +2

I did noticed some change when I started shooting on the flank ( I did it because he didn't liked the shoot on the scruff not really because I thought there would be any effect ) and I think some people have noticed that too, not a big change though, is good that he's not so thirsty, that means the insulin is starting to help him even if his numbers are still on the yellows, which by the way is excellent in such a short time

 

Also I would suggest you open a new thread is easier for everyone to track, we usually start a new thread every day putting the date in the subject and just add a link to the previous day

 

Thank you. Yes, it has been a short time, not even a month and I'm not trying to rush anything just want to make sure that I do everything correctly. But from reading, I guess a lot of people experience these weird fluctuations. I would love to see the blue numbers again though.

Rob

 

I wouldn't up his dose just yet. It could be that Emmett is bouncing from those sweet little greens you saw the night of March 2nd. It can take up to six cycles after the "low" event for the bounce to resolve. Tonight will be the sixth cycle. If you don't see greens before tomorrow, then you can increase to 2.25 units.

 

Oh, hmmm. Yes, well this is what I was wondering. That's why I've been hesitant to increase. Maybe his numbers will be good tonight, I may go another cycle (like you say).