lantus

Hi...my Shirley was diagnosed, in February. She is currently on 3 units of lantus x 2 a day. She is eating wet foods merrick chicken, nature variety chicken and tiki cat chicken. Still not regulated, but I think k she is bouncing from maybe to low glucose. Vet is coming tomorrow for blood work. I will start a glucose curve Friday.

 

Welcome to the message board, the best place you never wanted to be.

There are 4 things you'll need to manage your kitty's diabetes:

- You - without your commitment, the following won't work.

- Home blood glucose monitoring with an inexpensive human glucometer such as the WalMart Relion Confirm or Target Up and Up (the pet ones will break your budget!). This keeps your cat safe and saves you the cost of going to the vet for curves and done regularly, removes the need for a fructosamine test. All of our insulin guidelines use human glucometer numbers for reference. We record them on a grid; instructions are here.

- Low carb over the counter canned or raw diet, such as many Friskies pates. See Cat Info for more info. If already on insulin, you must be home testing before changing the diet. Food changes should be gradual to avoid GI upsets - 20-25% different food each day until switched. There are 2 low carb, dry, over the counter foods in the US - Evo Cat and Kitten dry found at pet specialty stores and Young Again 0 found online.

- A long-lasting insulin such as ProZinc, Lantus, BCP PZI, or Levemir. No insulin lasts 24 hours in the cat, so giving it every 12 hours is optimal for control.

 

Hello and welcome

 

Thank you....I was under the impression that diabetic cats were to have no dry food at all. A wet diet only.

 

Low carb wet food is best. The dry BJ mentioned is for those kibble addicted cats, or while transitioning to wet.

 

They are eating merrick chicken, natures variety chicken and tiki chicken wet food. I've always feed them good wet. They used to have natures variety dry to nibble on. I'm thinking Shirley's diabeties might have an under lying cause because she las lost the weight she needed to and still isn't regulating.

 

It takes some cats longer than others to regulate. You're feeding good food, so that's a great start. Are you home testing her blood glucose levels? That is the best way to achieve regulation because you can see how well the insulin is working. Sometimes too much insulin can actually look like not enough.

 

Yes I am....I don't do it, if her urine is negative. I am going to start testing more. I read to feed give insulin then 6-7 later check her.

 

Yes that was I was thinking...she was negative urine for about a week then bounced to highest urine reading...i read about the somogyi effect. Vet is coming today to do blood work and fructose test. Ohh and all of her bloodwork was fine when diagnosed but her cholesterol was very high. That's why I'm concerned the diabeties is caused by and underlying issue.

 

Ohh and her initial sugar was 335 when diagnosed a

 

You should always test first, then feed, then give insulin. That's the only way to know if their glucose is high enough to give any insulin. Then spot check when you can during the cycle. If you can set up a spreadsheet it will help you, your vet and us to see what's going on and be better able to help you. Here are the instructions
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/fdmb-spreadsheet-instructions.130337/
If you have trouble setting it up, just ask and someone will help you!