Insulin doesn't seem to be working

We have been keeping our cat pretty regulated for about 2 yrs using Lantus. We test his blood every single time we give him insulin and he usually is in the mid 300's. Two weeks ago we switched to a new bottle of insulin and a couple days after that his readings started going over 500. For about a week now he has steadily been in the mid 400's in the morning and evening.

We are pretty sure nothing else is wrong and he seems to feel OK but I know the high BG levels are not good for him. We are a little frustrated because it seemed almost too easy to get and keep him regulated and now we aren't sure what to do.

I guess the first thing is to get him into the vet to check him and make sure nothing else is wrong, We also need to do a few BG readings in the middle of the day rather than just in the morning and evening.

Does anyone have other suggestions as to what might be wrong? We have had problems in the first few days of a new vial before but it was neven this bad for this long. We keep thinking he will adjust to the new insulin but we are getting very woried that it has lasted this long.

 

It is possible that the insulin is bad.

If it got frozen during shipment or dropped on the floor - it could be bad.

Return it to the pharmacy for replacement -- you can even show your Blood Sugar test logs -- maybe be vague on WHO is getting the insulin...

 

that was my first thought too, that you got a bad vial of insulin.

 

ditto

 

We took Cody to the vet this morning just to make sure something else wasn't going on and because he seemed to have gotten worse over night and clearly wasn't feeling well.

He has a pretty severly broken tooth that is infected along with bad gum disease in general. He is 16 yrs old and so I guess Im not surprised. We have found it very difficult over the years to keep his teeth clean and they have never been bad enough to warrant putting him under to have them cleaned by a vet.

We are now going to have to have him put under and have the broken tooth pulled and fixed up. The vet thinks the infection is bad enough to affect the insulin.

So the current plan is to get new insulin before tonight. Give him his normal 1.5 unit dose tonight and continue with that for 3-4 days to see if his BG starts to come down. We are also going to be giving him an antibiotic to treat the infection and start to prepare him for the oral surgery. If after a few days his BG is still high we are going to increase his dose to 2.0 for a few days and see if that helps.

Thanks for the replies. They are greatly appreciated.

 

Dental disease can indeed raise b/g levels, but is it possible you are also seeing some rebound? Do you have numbers from curves and spot checks to share with the group in Lantus Land? If so, they can help you spot a possible rebound.