First curve!

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meowsyko

meowsyko

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Hello everyone, I'm new here. My 16-year-old cat, Syko, was diagnosed a few weeks ago and she has been on a starting dose of 1u of Lantus twice a day for about two weeks. I did a practice test last night (was 17.8 mmol/l at 11:58pm), and a full curve today. This is what we got. I'm using the Alphatrak 2. She is on prednisolone twice a day for GI sensitivity/pancreatitis (every time I try to lower her pred dose she stops eating)... and currently on Hill's prescription D/D for the same reasons, the nutritionist thinks we shouldn't mess with her diet yet.

She was fed at 9:25am and 9:22pm, shots at 10:04am and 10:16pm. I gave her one treat with her 2pm test cause I was feeling like a huge meany.

I'm too lazy to type it out so here's my fancy graph:
f3eabe45aa.png

So looks like she needs a higher dose of insulin, the vet gets back from vacation tomorrow so I'm sure i'll be talking with her. I've also set her litter box up to do a glucose/ketone strip test if she decides to 'go' before I go to bed. But she's sleeping now, so that might have to wait.
 
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Hello and welcome. Waving at you from the other side of the Rockies. :) Sorry you had to come to the best place you never wanted to be. There is a lot of information here in the Sticky Notes so you may want to start there. It's a lot of info and you'll find you need to read them several times. Feel free to ask questions - we love to help here.

Good job on getting going on the home glucose testing. And on doing some testing at night. A lot of kitties go lower during the night. On this forum, we find it really helps if we put our numbers in a spreadsheet. We use a common format that helps us help you. Here are the instructions on how to create it. You'll see most of us have a link to our spreadsheets in our signatures. The majority of the people here are from the US, and unfortunately they still use the mg/dl numbers for blood glucose instead of mmol/L. However, we have a non US version of the spreadsheet that does the conversion for us. And there's a version for the Alphatrak meter vs. the human ones that the majority of us here use.

We figure out the dose of Lantus based on how low it takes the kitty. It does look like Syko may need an increase but it's hard to say for sure based on just one days worth of data. And we typically increase in 0.25 unit amounts so if she did need an increase, it would be to 1.25 units. Yes, you have to eyeball that.

My kitty Neko also has GI issues (GI lymphoma) so she's on budesonide instead of prednisolone, as it doesn't impact the blood sugar as much. As for food, there are plenty of commercial options that contain unique proteins if that's why she's on D/D. Ziwipeak or Natures Variety have a good selection and are available in Canada. Neko also eats raw food, which has lots of protein selection and a good choice for kitties with food issues. The D/D food is quite high carb. We generally suggest feeding food that is less than 10% carb. The food chart here lists most of the ones available in North Ameria, along with their carb values. However, you don't want to change food without blood testing, as going from high carb to low carb food can make a huge difference in insulin requirements. One other thing about feeding, it's easier on their pancreas if you spread the food out into several smaller meals in the first half of the cycle. And kitty is generally happier that way too. :)
 
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Cool, I will definitely get on filling out that spreadsheet soon! That is so much easier using a template. I guess I should test before her shot each time? I want to give her poor little ears a break after today though.

I assumed I may have to make some tiny dose changes. The syringes I'm using have half-unit markings so that should make it a bit easier! I am curious what her blood sugar levels were before insulin, because she has been drinking/urinating normally (muuuch less) since we started the injections. She seems to be walking around a bit better too, so I'll take that as confirmation that it is more likely neuropathy and less likely arthritis.

I will see what my vet thinks about budesonide, I've never heard of it before!

Food has been a challenge for Syko. We finally got her to eat only canned food a couple weeks ago, she was on the d/d dry for a while and has been used to grazing all her life. She would eat like a couple kibbles at a time, so we've come pretty far! I still have trouble getting her to eat sometimes, and have to keep pushing the bowl under her nose so I am wary of changing her food. We keep a supply of mirtazapine and feeding syringes on hand because sometimes she just gets too picky. I do want to change her food to something more diabetic-friendly, but I juuuust got her to eat this one somewhat normally. I might get a couple cans of something better and see how she does. I am interested in home-made food (I'm vegetarian and raw meat makes me gag but I really love this cat), but we are moving at the end of the month to Gabriola Island and I want to wait until after we move before I try that out :cat:.

On the days that I work I usually get her to eat about 1/4 can before her shot, then leave her another 1/4 to eat when i'm at work... but she doesn't always eat without me there encouraging her so that's why I'm trying to do 1/2 a can at a time now. I might try spreading it out more on the days I am home.

Just did her last test for the night, 17.8! I'll update the photo. Interesting how it went down more from the before-shot level this time than last, but went to about the same level... I want to stay up and do another one but it's 2:40am so I probably shouldn't :p
 
Welcome to Lantus & Lev Land!

Yes, you absolutely should test every time before you give a shot. (You'll see this noted at AMPS/PMPS for AM Pre-Shot or PM Pre-Shot on the spreadsheet.) Without that pre-shot test, you don't know whether it's safe to give insulin.

Like Wendy, I'd encourage you to consider a food that's lower in carbs than the D/D. It is around 16% carbs. We consider food that's under 10% low carb (10 - 15% is medium carb and over 15% is high carb). In other words,you're feeding Syko high carb food which is, no doubt, contributing to her high blood glucose (BG) numbers.

I'm assuming your kitty has had blood tests run before she was diagnosed as part of her routine check-ups. You should have pre-FD BG numbers on those lab reports.

When you have some time, it's helpful to become familiar with the sticky notes at the top of the board.There's a very steep learning curve when trying to sort out your cat's diabetes the information in the stickies and the associated links is a great start.

 
My vet advised me not to test all the time at first. Maybe so that I didn't change her dose myself and because Lantus needs to build up in her body? I also didn't have the meter until last week. I'm not sure, but now that I'm an ear-poking pro I will be testing before each shot.

I will talk to the vet about changing her diet today, and possibly changing her to budesonide.

I don't have copies of her labs, although I will be getting them before I move. And I'll be sure to read the stickies more in my free time :cat:

I started a spreadsheet! https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1esC8MLPtTu-Kzf0VZS2l4_MBgxHQpQU-HkdtBs_5NS0/edit?usp=sharing

I'll go sleep for a bit now before I need to get up for her breakfast!
 
Hi and welcome. Glad you set up the spreadsheet- it looks good!! -
I so sympathize with the kitty eating issues - Murphy is the same. I am constantly bringing his food bowl to where he is - I also find that putting the bowl by him when he is sleeping, then gently waking him up works - he starts eating before he really wakes up. Here are some tips on appetite stimulation
Murphy also has GI/pancreatitis issues - there is a lot of great information on www.ibdkitties.net
daily cerenia has helped Murphy's vomiting/pancreatitis - like a miracle really
anyway, welcome to you and Syko
 
Good morning and welcome.

You doing really good job taking care of you newly diagnosed FD. I understand that "sugar dance" is very confusing but you are definitely in the right place. You will get lot of feedback from members that already experienced many problems that you have. My cat Gus is 17 years old and has IBD/pancreatitis etc. and very finicky eater. Sometimes I have to try several different foods for him to eat and he likes variety one day he will eat something but next day not so much. What really made big difference in his overall GI health is addition of Plant Enzymes & Probiotics. When he won't eat but doesn't appear sick (nauseated) I give him Cyproheptad 1/4 pill and within 30 minutes he will eat. We tried many different medications without good results.

Good luck.
 
Hey everyone!

I talked to our vet yesterday, and we are increasing her morning dose to 2 units and leaving her evening dose at 1 unit, since she doesn't seem to go quite as high at night.
Our vet is looking into budesonide for me, as she hasn't heard of it before.

She wants to keep her on her prescription diet for now, and said she would talk to the nutritionist at Hill's to see if there is anything better for her, and I just feel that they would be extremely biased and only recommend their own products. I did find that one of the ZiwiPeak foods is similar to what she has now, their Venison cans are similar to the D/D Venison we have but without the and way less carbs (2% vs D/D's 20+%). It is twice as expensive as her food though and isn't available locally, so I'm not sure about that yet, but I might give it a try
 
It sounds like your vet is more used to the older in and out insulins. A lot of Canadian vets are more familiar with Caninsulin (which Neko was on first). Lantus is a depot insulin and works best when the same dose is given evening and night. And we increase in smaller amounts, a 1 unit increase is a lot. You'd probably get better results shooting 1.5 units day and night.

Ziwipeak is a good quality food. Maybe you can find an on line retailer than supplies it - some do free shipping too.

Budesonide comes in pills or you can get it compounded at a compounding pharmacy. Neko gets hers in liquid, fish flavour.
 
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