Newly Diagnosed

Broomhilda was diagnosed 2/2/2015
I got Broomhilda 2 years ago from the animal shelter. They believe she was around 4 years old at that time, they can't be sure. So She is approximately 6 years old now. She began having problems about 2 months ago. She quit using her litter box and had a really bad dry skin problem. She even began to act lethargic , not at all herself. I took her to the vet and asked for blood work. She was not diabetic at the time but needed a cortisone shot for her dry skin and antibiotics for a UTI. Two weeks later She began to drink three times the water She normally consumed. She also stopped using her litter box again. Once again I took her to the vet and explained my concern and asked for a urine sample to be examined. She was diagnosed with diabetes! I myself am a type 1 diabetic and I take Lantus which is what they wanted to put her on. They told me I can use my insulin and to immediately start giving her 1 unit twice a day.

A close friend at work who owns several cats referred me to this site. She was concerned that the vet did not inform me to check her insulin levels before giving her insulin. They had told me I could not use my glucose meter to check her , that I needed to purchase a pet meter. After 2 days of being frustrated trying to get her blood glucose readings , which was a total failure. I learned from some of your videos and my friend to use Vaseline on her ear first. Her having black hair was making it hard to find the blood. Thankfully this worked very successfully. However it is a Sunday and I'am a bit worried She is not getting enough insulin. She tested at 256 this morning and 362 this evening. That's seems very high. I am not sure if I should treat her the same as I would treat myself. Also I know the signs of hyperglycemia but is corn syrup the best thing to give them?

My vet wants me to bring Her in at 9am in the morning for a curve. But after everything I have read that seems illogical. Pets stress at the vets office especially an all day event, which will increase Her insulin levels.
I'am not gonna allow this and do my own curve now that I know how to do Her glucose readings. Also I'am wondering about her food. She is very picky and refuses to eat wet food. I have tried at least 30 brands. She loves her dry Spot's Stew chicken. This was a very healthy brand I found after I realized She is allergic to grains. I would imagine dry food has more carbs then wet. But how do you change a picky eating felines mind? I also tried to get her to eat grain free treats, She wont have them! She gives me that look, turns Her nose up and walks away. With the insulin shots and glucose readings It's been one of my ruses.

I have heard that steroid shots can make cats diabetic and I'am not sure if this is true. Has anyone else seen this happen? Do they remain diabetic or can it go away?

 

Welcome to FDMB.
You can use a human glucometer to test your cat, if you use feline-specific reference numbers. See my signature link Glucometer Notes for more details and reference ranges.
Since you are testing, pop over to Cat Info to read our 'bible' on feline nutrition and get the downloadable food chart.
Lantus is adjusted based on the nadir, the lowest glucose post-shot, around +5 to +7 hours after administration.

And here is How to Handle a Hypo.

 

Thank-you Those glucometer notes is exactly what I needed. I haven't gotten into the food section yet but just knowing how to see Her accurate blood readings is a good start.

 

A smidge more reading - see my signature link Secondary Monitoring Tools for other assessments you may wish to make, such as urine ketones. As you know, diabetic ketoacidosis is very serious, so getting a heads up if signs of it are showing is prudent.

 

Hi April and welcome to you and Broomhilda.

You're spot-on about home curves providing better data than vet-stress-influenced curves. And yes, steroid treatment can lead to diabetes in cats. Cats metabolise insulin faster than humans, so regulation is approached in a systematic, steady fashion. I don't know how that might compare to the approach for a human diabetic. As you know, Lantus is a basal insulin for humans. In cats, it generally produces gradual drops in BG and is longer-acting than other insulins used by some vets for feline diabetes (e.g. Caninsulin/Vetsulin). Newly diagnosed cats treated with Lantus have great potential to see their diabetes go into remission and to become diet-controlled

BJ has already pointed you to catinfo.org. There's great information there about how to transition dry food junkies to wet, low-carb, species-appropriate food. With home testing, you will be able to keep Broomhilda safe during any transition (BG can drop significantly during and after the switch). I thought I'd never get Saoirse to switch to wet food, but she did and it has helped her enormously.

For treats, many people here (myself included) use freeze-dried protein snacks. I think Purebites is a brand available in the States. Cosma Snackies are available in the EU (from zooplus). Saoirse used to love Whiskas Temptations (aka kitty crack), but she far prefers the Snackies I give her now.

 

Welcome April and extra sweet kitty Broomhilda.

I know what it's like to try and get a dry food addict to eat lower carb wet food. My sugardude Wink is a member of DFAA (Dry Food Addicts Anonymous). It took awhile and I tried almost every tip and trick in this article Transitioning Feline Dry Food Addicts to Canned Food by vet Dr. Lisa Pierson, but Wink now loves his wet food. Some days, one of those tricks would work, other days it was a different tip. Sprinkling some Fortiflora or some crushed dry food on top of the wet may help you.

Wink loved the Halo Liv-a-Little freeze dried chicken treats crumbled on top of his food. I'd have to do that 3-5 times to get him to eat an ounce or two of wet food, but he did eat it. Those Halo treats worked better for me than the Pure Bites treats and the Halo treats crumble into a powder easily for feeding wet food with a "topping with sprinkles".

First off, I decided to use his natural appetite and hunger drive to help me out so I switched to meal feeding instead of having food down all the time. I offered my kitty Wink the wet food first, left it down for him to try for at least 30-45 minutes and then put some dry food next to it too. I was gradually cutting back on the amount of dry food each day. It took weeks, but once Wink was almost all on wet food, we went "cold turkey" and took away the dry food completely.

 

Hi and welcome

As BJM pointed out the dosing of lantus is based on how low she is going. We recommend that you test before each shot and then if you can grab another reading during each twelve hour schedule.

The initial starting dose is based on weight and the food being consumed. On the forum we use two protocols for dosing with lantus. These will give you some indication of how you would work out a starting dose and hoe you could alter the dose based on nadirs.

The start low and go slow protocol
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/lantus-levemir-start-low-go-slow-method-slgs.129446/

And the tight regulation protocol
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/lantus-levemir-tight-regulation-protocol.1581/

How much does she weigh?

Lantus takes about five days to build up in the system so it may not be up to full force yet. You can also get bouncing if she is dropping too hard and fast in the middle of the cycle hence the need to do more testing.

 

She weighs 15 pounds

 

If that is either her ideal weight, or she is underweight, then the formula goes
about 6.8 kg
* 0.25
= 1.7.
and gets rounded down to 1.5 units, twice a day