Introducing a New Sugar Kitty - Peter

Hello, Peter is a 11 years old neutered male tabby who lived in Canada with his buddy Honza and Barbara and her family. Healthy weight 8.5 kg. He was diagnosed with DM in July 2019.

In 2013, Peter had a struvite crystals emergency and consequently was put on the S/O diet. Ended up on weight management dry S/O food from the vet (esspensive!!!) He was obese for a couple of years, probably due to his "prescription" diet.

He started losing weight in the winter of 2018. This was attributed to him getting a new water fountain for Christmas and drinking a lot of water...I know - we were oblivious. Flooding the litter box, barfing food occasionally, etc. Overall, however, he seemed in fair shape, but in July 2019 I started to get worried because I he was a bag of bones for such a big cat.

Our worst fears were realized when Peter was diagnosed on July 9th, 2019. He weighed 5.5 kg at diagnosis. The vet also found ketones in his urine, but because Peter seemed OK, he did not have to be hospitalized. The vet put him on 2 units of Lantus 2x day. I was told to run a urine test in 5 days and a curve in 7 days following the diagnosis. It is suspected that Peter has been a sugar cat for a long time...

He was immediately switched to the Fancy Feast classic 2 cans a day. Peter and his buddy Honza, they love this food! I add water to their canned food (1-1 ratio approximately) in hope of keeping him hydrated and avoiding the struvite crystal emergency repeat. I also occasionally feed him the BARF/raw diet which the cats used to eat before our kids were born.

The shots have been going well (7:30 am/pm schedule). Peter has perked up quite a lot in those three weeks. Kind of back to being a kitten again ;-) I also have been checking his pee with the Ketostix, which is negative now. What fun! When I emailed the BS curve from July 19th, 2019 to the vet, she said to keep the dose and email another curve in a month.

The blood draws are a bit more difficult, as he can be a spicy kitty and he is big. I only started reading FDMB recently and we truly hope to be OTJ at some point...one can hope...Peter is from a very robust line of cats, so maybe we have a shot.

(I realize that I was not taking the PS readings, only after he ate and I shot, as instructed by the vet. There are few PS numbers in the spreadsheet. ) I am concerned that I was getting blue numbers (today AMPS was 6.4 mmol/L or 115 mg/dL and wondering if that could mean that he could go into hypo? DH is watching him today, but he is not experienced with testing yet. The vet only mentioned hypo briefly, but it seems to be a real worry as I read FDMB . Should I be concerned??? Cut the units? Call the vet? Two units seem good for his ideal weight of 8.5 kg, but he was a skinny 5.5 kg at the diagnosis. Too much?

Thank you for the opportunity to participate and learn from the group. I feel like we can do it!

 

Hi and welcome Barbara and Peter. I think you can do it too! and with the information, support and advice you will find here it's going to be easier for you, DH and Peter.

I am going to suggest that you visit the Lantus forum and read the yellow tagged stickies at the top of the page. Tremendous info about how Lantus works, the protocols we use here and access to much more. It's a lot, I'll admit and may take more than one read through, after all, this is new territory for you.

I will say that blue numbers are good, but I am so glad that you are testing to help protect Peter from any hypo event. Also that you are testing for ketones..very important. Barbara you have been doing everything you knew or were told to do, and Peter seems to be responding. I think you should post in the Lantus forum, get the experienced veteran members' eyes on your questions about modifying the dose. They are going to ask you to test before shooting every time, that way you know it's safe before injecting insulin and this helps prevent a hypo. They are also going to ask you to get some mid cycle tests, to see how low the BG goes. The lowest BG in the cycle is the nadir and that is going to help them guide you if you need to lower the insulin dose at any point. We are data driven here, and the more testing data you have, the better.

Read this info:

• How to treat HYPOS - THEY CAN KILL! Print this Out!!
• jojo and bunny's HYPO TOOL BOX

• New? Seeing Low Numbers? How You Can Help Us Help You

Be prepared, just in case. Better safe than sorry.

I am so glad you decided to post now and get more information and advice. The Lantus folks are great. Regarding testing, it can be difficult at first, but it's a process of practice and patience. For suggestions on that issue, just start a new thread in the Main Health forum, and you will get plenty of response. We all had to find ways to make it work, and there will be lots of suggestions to help you out. I have related from time to time, that my DH and I were the Laurel and Hardy of the testing set..funny now, not funny then!

Best wishes going forward

 

Welcome