? New member

My 8 year old Houston (the orange guy) was diagnosed with diabetes 2 weeks ago & started Lantus the same day. We went for a curve today but because he did not get his full dose of insulin the vet decided to reschedule to save me $$. He has gained nearly 2 lbs & he is less ravenous since starting Lantus so I am feeling better about the whole situation. His initial blood came back at 475 (holy crap!) Today was about 350 still high but because I know he didn't get his full unit that affected things. The first 2 days were easy giving him his shot as I did it while he was eating but he's not as dumb as I thought he was & wouldn't come near me any more. I since started crating him, feeding him then injecting him & it's been a lot less stressful for all. My others also feel the stress. Anyway as of last night he has started laying in the room with the crate so there is no more chase which makes things easier for both of us. I will admit initially I considered surrendering him because of the cost - $800 for the initial visit & blood work, second visit to the ER & cost of insulin all within 24hrs. GoodRx (my go to for discounted meds) would not discount Lantus for use in pets but I do work for Walmart & was able to use my employee discount. The ER vet told me I could use the vial for up to 6 months (anyone else told that?) as he only gets 1 unit BID so that helps reduce the cost as well. So here I am joining a group with yet another disease 1 of my darlings has been diagnosed with. I lost my 18 year old to cancer (after a 3+ yr battle) 6 mos ago.

 

Welcome. I am glad to hear you are feeling relieved. There is lots of information here, plus a community of experienced caring members. Please create a signature so we know more about Houston. Just click on your name in the upper right corner. You can list age, gender, diagnosis date, what type of insulin and dosage, home testing meter, what type of food, etc. See my signature under my post. This info is helpful for assistance and answering questions. You may want to take a look at the yellow tagged info and sticky items at the top of forums. You can post questions in the Main forum.

 

Thank you because I'm lost here trying to figure how to get started in this group. Not seeing where to enter his info, please help. Thx.

 

No problem, look at the upper right hand corner, see Mags920, click on that. A list comes up, click on signature. You can edit at any time..

 

Welcome! If you are willing to test glucose at home, that would save you the money of paying the vet to do tests/curves.

 

Welcome

 

Houston is going for his curve Fri, hoping all goes well. It's was a little difficult giving him his shot at first but he has come around & actually went into the crate himself yesterday am. Calling the vet to get a cost on the curve because I don't have any excess $$ plus my other 8 yo is going for much needed dental Fri.

 

We paid $109.00 for Idjit's curve at the vet. I wish we had waited until we were better at testing and saved the money. We found a good place to test, same place every time, warmed his ear and actually got good at it. He got a treat whether the test was successful or not, and lots of lovies.

 

The vet called & they are charging me $75 for the curve. Wish the dental was as cheap.

 

Houston has been vomiting at night, anyone else have a diabetic fur baby doing this? I know it can be related to other potential issues but hoping not, will find out Fri.

 

Smaller meals more often might help with the vomit. A middle of the night snack or 3-4 hrs before giving insulin might help. A lot of times they vomit because acid build up if they go to long between meals. Automatic feeder can be invaluable during the night or when out if house.

 

You might start a thread in the Main Forum regarding this new issue. More eyes to see and provide some assistance. Paula has a good point about providing smaller meals more often. We are doing that with Idjit even though he's OTJ, just seems to be easier on his tummy. He's a food vacuum cleaner and I hated that he gobbled up so much at each feeding. When he was on insulin, we did get a battery operated timed feeder, for a midnight feeding. I was waking him up out of a sound sleep to eat, then he got the hang of it, kind of jumping the gun, and would wake me up because it hadn't opened yet and he wanted to eat. We retired the feeder. He's fine!

 

Thanks for both replies, I'll re-post in Main Forum. Still getting the hang of how this forum works.