New to Board/New Diagnosis - question

TanyaK · May 19, 2010

Hi all,

So my cat has just been diagnosed with diabetes. He is 10.5 years old. His blood glucose was 480mg/dl, everything else was fine. He was prescribed Hill's m/d and insulin glargine 1.5 U twice a day.

From hearing and reading all the information, my main concern is of course hypoglycemia. The vet told me that if 30 minutes after the shot he appears normal (no hypo symptoms) then I don't have to worry about it. But after reading about the insulin glargine this doesn't make sense to me. Since its a "long acting" insulin, and the nadirs occur several hours after a shot.

My main concern is that, say I give him his shots 9AM and 9PM daily. Say after the morning shot, I hang around and leave my house at 10-11AM, then what if at 3-4PM he has low blood sugar and I am not home.

In your experience with this insulin, if your cat went into hypo when was this in relation to the shot?

Thanks,

TanyaK

Nicole & Baby · May 19, 2010

Hi, Tanya! I am thankful you found the message board, there are so many educated & experienced people who are here to answer all of your questions & give you the support you need. We all suggest you switch your kitty over to a low carb canned food (under 10 on the foodcharts) or a Raw Diet & not feed the kibble your Vet suggested/sold. Food Charts
Also, it is impossible to answer your question, because kitties can go hypo at any given time, we REALLY strongly encourage home testing. Do you plan to do this? There is so much to learn, please click on this link to help - there is great information there. You will want to begin posting in Lantus Land, since your kitty is on Lantus. Curious how your Vet got to the starting dose of 1.5 as well!! I have to run to a meeting, but others will be by to help too!!

Lantus

gingerand((calliope))(GA) · May 19, 2010

TanyaK said:

Hi all,

Hi Tanya and welcome to the board. You've come to the right place for suggestions and help along the way!

So my cat has just been diagnosed with diabetes. He is 10.5 years old. His blood glucose was 480mg/dl, everything else was fine. He was prescribed Hill's m/d and insulin glargine 1.5 U twice a day.

Generally, it's suggested that a starting dose of a max of 1 u, is a safe place to begin. Some cats really react to the insulin more quickly than others and it takes 7-10 days for lantus to "settle" when first starting out. That's a general suggestion, as I said, to see how the kitty reacts.

On the food, most of us have found that the dry prescription foods are not effective in helping our kitties with FD. We use low carb wet foods and a list of those can be found on Janet and Binky's food chart. You will find that info in the newcomer fact thread which is a sticky thread at the top of this forum. In fact, you'll find a lot of very helpful information there. You can take a look and ask questions about anything on which you need help.

On the food, when I switched Calliope to the Fancy Feast gluten free foods, she reacted very well. We started on 1u of lantus and never went up. We had to start reducing her dose because her blood glucose levels went down. Since you are already using insulin, a food switch should be done slowly and with monitoring by hometesting. Has your vet discussed home testing with you? There's information on that in the newcomer thread, as well.

I have to disagree with your vet's suggestion that kitty will be fine if no symptoms show up within a half hour. Without doing hometesting, there's just no way to know how your kitty is reacting to the insulin. Once you start hometesting, you can see patterns and collect a lot of information on what's going on.

One other thing about the numbers you got at the vet is that kitty's numbers could be elevated at the vet's office due to what we call "vet stress". For example, Calliope was at 500 on diagnosis. She didn't like going to the vet's office. My vet wanted me to start at 4u of lantus twice a day based on that number. I came here and was told to start at 1u. Good thing I did because with the food change and not being at the vet's office, her numbers were quite different here and that's even considering that she was not a cooperative kitty when it came to testing. Most cats do just fine, but Calliope was a tortie and she wanted no part of it. She was a drama queen. :lol:

From hearing and reading all the information, my main concern is of course hypoglycemia. The vet told me that if 30 minutes after the shot he appears normal (no hypo symptoms) then I don't have to worry about it. But after reading about the insulin glargine this doesn't make sense to me. Since its a "long acting" insulin, and the nadirs occur several hours after a shot.

As I suggested above, hometesting is going to arm you with a lot of information and help you keep your kitty safe. Lantus is a gentle insulin, but until you test, you don't know how kitty will react. Another good thing about lantus is that many kitties go into remission when FD is caught early and lantus is used, along with the change to low carb wet foods. Doesn't happen all the time, but it does happen. Calliope was off the insulin after 18 days.

My main concern is that, say I give him his shots 9AM and 9PM daily. Say after the morning shot, I hang around and leave my house at 10-11AM, then what if at 3-4PM he has low blood sugar and I am not home.

Many folks here work and are away from home during the day. We have a lot of people here who can help you get a schedule that works for you. They will have many suggestions.

In your experience with this insulin, if your cat went into hypo when was this in relation to the shot?

Again, this is where hometesting comes in and it's invaluable.

Thanks,

TanyaK
Click to expand...

When you read the newcomer thread, take a look at the things to have on hand in case you suspect that your kitty's blood glucose is going too low. We have a recommendation on what to use and what to do. It will help you, tremendously.

Also, please read about testing for ketones, since you are in the early stages and the number at the vet was elevated. It's important to test for those. If you have questions after you read the information, please don't hesitate to ask.

Some other folks will come along and have other information for you. Someone may have posted to you while I was writing! I had some work interruptions!

You will find this place to be a good home for you and your sugar kitty. I'm glad you came here.

Melanie and Smokey · May 19, 2010

Oh my goodness, it sounds like your vet doesn't know the insulin they are prescribing. Tho a hypo situation can occur at anytime during the cycle (every cat is different) the typical low spot on Lantus (the nadir) usually around 5-7 hours after the shot. I am glad you found this site and are educating yourself to help your kitty. Read all the stickies in the Lantus Support forum. I think I read for 3 days straight after finding this site.

All I can say is home test, test, test. It is the best and safest way for you to know where your kitty is and be on top of reacting to low numbers. It is also, IMO, a key to regulation and possible remission. I would usually test my Smokey about +2 or +3 and then leave for work. If she looked to be dropping to much too fast, I'd wait to keep an eye on her.

Sue and Oliver (GA) · May 19, 2010

Tanya, you have gotten some excellent advice. Have you seen the Lantus support group board? The stickies at the top will give you lots of info: viewforum.php?f=9

Everyone is urging you to hometest and I will join in. We changed Oliver's food from dry to wet lo carb. His numbers went down 100 points overnight. If we hadn't been testing, we would have given him the usual dose and he would have hypoed. This site is a great introduction to hometesting: http://www.sugarcats.net/sites/harry/bgtest.htm

I still remember how hard it was to take advice from strangers on the internet instead of my vet. We love our vet but she doesn't deal with many diabetic cats. I figure she is like a GP -she knows a little about a lot of things. Everyone on this site either had or has a diabetic cat and has been successful in their treatment. The methods work. I am still paying it forward for the advice we were given in the beginning. It literally saved Oliver's life.

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New to Board/New Diagnosis - question

TanyaK New Member

Nicole & Baby Well-Known Member

gingerand((calliope))(GA) Member

Melanie and Smokey Well-Known Member

Sue and Oliver (GA) Well-Known Member

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