New here, have a general question

How long does it take to start seeing a drop in BGL after insulin is started. I have had my cat on insulin for 3 1/2 weeks now and her BGL are never below 300! Vet says give it time, it takes awhile. Is this advise correct?

 

Hi and welcome. Please read all the topics on Lantus on the Lantus Board. We start low and go slow. Lantus is given twice a day. The weeks you were only giving it once a day , and at 3 units, could have lowered your cat too much and maybe caused rebound. Start at 1 unit and stay there for 2 weeks, but test your cat with the blood tests and urine for ketones. But read, read and read, so you know how Lantus works. Donna

 

Just to confirm, are you home testing?
What kind of food are you feeding?
HAve you visited the lantus board and read all the starred information?
Have you created a spreadsheet to track the BG's?
ARe you posting on the lantus forum to get assistance and input?

 

thank you for your replies. didn't realize there was a lantus board, i will go there right away. this site is sooo big, and i
haven't been to everything yet.

answers to the questions:

yes i am home testing @12hrs
feeding evo makeral & salmon
i have a written spread sheet

 

i will agree that the starting dose was too high and shooting only once a day didn't help, so to be honest, the first couple weeks was a waste. it's as if you are starting insulin just this past 27th of february so you.

fwiw, i just switched to lantus on the 26th and i just started to see some decent numbers last night.

there's some info at the top of the lantus forum that you will find helpful. one shot of lantus doesn't do much. it has a cumulative effect so once it builds up a little in kitty's body, you'll start to see some action.

and remember, this isn't a race. she didn't get diabetes overnight and you can't cure it that fast either

 

Just a warning about feeding an all fish diet--because of the presence of heavy metals in all fish it is recommended, for cats and for people, to limit fish to once or twice a week. With cats there is the added risk that the cat will become 'addicted' to fish and refuse all other food. This condition is particularly dangerous for a diabetic.

 

Thank You again! I just read the Lantus board and WOW! that helped answer some questions.
I added Sabrina's spreadsheet to my signature (hope it worked).

 

Great job!

Look at that duration you got on the 20th! Wow! Definitely glad you cut the dose in half. Now you can spend some time on the lantus board, stick with a consistent dose for a little bit and you'll be able to start making some more educated decisions in no time! And hopefully your vet will work with you on this after she sees how well you are doing.

Jen

 

Welcome. I am glad you found Lantus Land. Did you post over there or just take a peek around? I my opinion the dose is still too high to start with. But then again I don't know much about Sabrina. How bug is she and does she have any other health issues. However, you don't want to just change the dosage unless you are carefully watching for ketones and doing more hometesting. We encourage testing prior to every shot (which you are already doing-yay!).

Your vet is correct about it taking a while though. That is soo true. With Lantus we want to start low and stay slow. Lantus works by building up a shed in the cats system so that there is a steady source of insulin to help level out the BG's.

This is all very overwhelming at first and believe me...we have all been in your shoes. However, Webber would not be where he is without this message board and Lantus Land. I actually ended up teaching my vet about Lantus. It is still fairly new to most vets and not all are familiar with how to dose, etc.

Here are the most important stickies to start out with:
STICKY: LANTUS & LEVEMIR - INSULIN DEPOT -AKA- STORAGE SHED---this one will explain how Lantus works

STICKY: LANTUS & LEVEMIR - NEW TO THE GROUP? PLEASE READ...--this one explains the durations of Lantus plus a lot more.