Introducing Cole, my 18yo BFF with CKD and diabetes

Hello all! My cat Cole was diagnosed about 5 years ago and after a food change (dry to wet) and a couple days of insulin he went into remission. In Jan 2015 his glucose numbers started climbing and he went back on Lantus, but ended up being hospitalized for ketoacidosis and pancreatitis. The amazing staff at Univ of Pennsylvania vet hospital got him back on his feet and he spent the spring and summer in good, steady health. But this fall he developed pancreatitis again and since November we have not been able to control his BGs. We played around with different units of Lantus but he kept dipping so low we had to try something else. Right now we are back on a diabetic diet (vs the kidney diet) and using 3 units of NPH 2x a day. I don't think it's enough -- Cole's back legs are losing function and his appetite is down. I'll be doing another this weekend and expect another insulin change (maybe something else entirely this time). There's our story -- I've only been poking around this site and the Facebook site for a couple weeks but find everyone so supportive and with great advice. Thank you for sharing som much of your time and experiences!

 

Hi Debra and Cole,

Welcome! It sounds like you two have had quite an adventure. I hope you'll check out the stickies on the Lantus forum on the site. They have a very successful protocol and lots of people have success dosing tiny doses. Would that maybe be an option rather than switching insulin?

And here is a great resource for CRF.

http://www.felinecrf.org/

They have a food chart that has suggestions for diabetic cats that have CRF.

 

My kitty J.D. was hospitalized at the U of Penn Philadelphia with DKA as well when he was first diagnosed, way back in 2005. I remember asking them if I could please try Lantus (thanks to this board), way back when Lantus was just starting to be used with cats. It is a good hospital.

 

My cat Sheba has diabetes and CRD. I feed her a home prepared diet of cooked chicken, raw kangaroo meat, and a small amount of chicken hearts and liver. And supplements.. To reduce the amount of phosphorus in the diet I give her a cooked egg white mashed in her food every day to take the place of some of the meat. And lots of fluids.

You don't mention anywhere that Cole has kidney disease except to say he was on the diet......do you know what stage he is at and if the CRD is stable?

His back legs should return to normal once the BSLs return to normal. You could use Zobaline ....vitamin B 12 which helps with peripheral neuropathy, but I am not sure it is a good idea to give large amounts to CRD kitties.

I would recommend you set up a spread sheet and ask for some help in trying to stabilise Cole's BSl numbers. Here is the link. If you run into trouble yell and someone will help you set it up.

http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/fdmb-spreadsheet-instructions.130337/

Cole is gorgeous by the way!
Welcome to the forum.

 

Exactly my thoughts, too.

 

How often were you changing the dose? Lantus and Levemir work best by using a consistent dose, every 12 hours, and waiting - 5-7 days on the first dose and 3-5 days for any adjustments after that, for the dose to stabilize.

If they had you changing more often than that, and/or started too high, what you may have seen is erratic overlap, with bouncing when the glucose dropped too fast and/or dropped to an unusual number for the cat (ex 200s instead of 400s), or dropped to actual hypoglycemic numbers (< 50 mg/dL on a human meter; < 68 mg/dL on a pet meter).