Pepper says Hi

Hi. Much loved 15 year old neutered male. Recently diagnosed, on insulin (Lantus) for one month. Controlled but not yet stable (numbers bounce a lot). History of mega colon, constipation and pancreatitis. Still happy and playful. Insulin has made a great improvement.

 

Hi Pepper and Tim and welcome to FDMB. Glad to hear your experience so far has been positive. The diagnosis of diabetes for our furry friends can be very overwhelming and scary at first but it gets much easier as you develop a routine and start to understand how your kitty responds.
This community is a treasure chest of info so if you have any questions or concerns about diabetes or other things feline, post your questions over on the Health forum HERE and we'll help out in any way we can. Looking forward to hearing more about handsome Pepper!

 

Good morning and welcome Tim and Pepper. So that members can answer any questions and respond to concerns about Pepper, would you take a few minutes and create a signature? This will display Pepper's pertinent information with each of your posts.
Setting up your signature (light grey text under a post). Here's how:
click on your name in the upper right corner of this page
click on "signature" in the menu that drops down
type the following in the box that opens: kitty's name/age/date of diabetes diagnosis/insulin you're using and dosage amount /glucose meter you're using/what (s)he eats/any other meds or health issues (s)he has. You can add your name, and a geographic location (sometimes the time zone matters) Be sure to SAVE when you are finished. Another thing that will help us help you if you've started BG testing at home is to set up a spreadsheet like the one we use here. You will see how the trends and patterns emerge, and members can review his/her progress before offering suggestions or advice: http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/fdmb-spreadsheet-instructions.130337/
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/understanding-the-spreadsheet-grid.156606/
Look around on the board so you can see what kind of information is on the different forums and let us know how we can help.
Best wishes going forward

 

Thanks for the welcome aboard!

Have done my best - hope it comes out ok (LOL - edit Pepper's age)

 

Good job getting your signature and spreadsheet done and getting readings entered on it.

I do however have some concerns about the dosing and the low readings you have been getting. I would strongly suggest you lower the dose to no more than 0.75u at this time. The full unit dose is taking Pepper's BG far too low.

I also strongly suggest you post over on the Health Forum (see above for link) where we can get into more specifics about keeping Pepper safe while aiming for regulation and possibly, with some luck, remission.

This particular forum is our welcome mat and doesn't get a lot of traffic. This board is peer reviewed so we keep all advice on the busier boards where there are a lot more eyes and more options can be offered by more members. I'll be looking for you.

 

Thanks and I appreciate your comments. I added some notes to the spreadsheet that got lost in a cut and paste operation. My Vet (who has been absolutely amazing) actually wanted me to suspend testing and continue with 1.0u BID for a week. He is confident that this dose is low enough and safe. He calibrated my meter with his big analysis machine (at no extra expense) and you can add.0.3-0.4mmol/L (+7 in your lingo) to my readings. Pepper has no clinical indications of Hypo even at 2.3mmol/L (He’s been checked, but I would never dose him if he was that low- Vet says ok for half dose at 3.0). However, you will notice I blinked and only gave him 0.75 this evening and will be keeping a close eye on him.

Cheers

 

Tim, I have the utmost respect for veterinarians who have one of the most difficult jobs on this planet in my humble opinion (wanted to be one myself and chickened out... became R.N. instead) but telling you not to test for a week while continuing on a dose that is taking Pepper into very low numbers on the AT2 meter is not safe. If you were to ask your vet if they would give insulin to a baby without first checking to see if it was safe to do so, I'll bet the answer would be a resounding NO! Pepper is like a baby dose wise.

You obviously are a very pro-active pet parent but most vets gear their instructions to those who do not take such a pro-active approach. They do so to make sure they aren't faced with pet parents asking them to put down healthy animals who happen to have diabetes requiring a little more care than most cats.

We consider normal numbers on an AT2 meter to be 3.9mmol to 8.3 mmol or using IDEXX normal values 4.0 mmol to 9.7 mmol. I have to wonder if your vet has calibrated their lab equipment to human meter readings rather than pet meter values as they are indeed lower. Giving any insulin at a reading of 3.0 mmol on the AT2 meter is NOT safe.

As a user of both a pet and human meter for my girl I implore you to heed my advice for the sake of Pepper's well being.

 

Linda,

Thanks again for your concern. I think you’re probably right on the dosage. I tried to give him 0.75 last night but shot his fur instead. I gave him the same dose this morning and will let the Vet know where I’m going with it. See what he has to say. Still confident he knows where Peppy’s BG needs to be, relative to the meter I have. The clinic has a loaner Alpha Trak 2 that consistently reads higher than mine - they compared it with the same samples used to check mine. No two meters are the same. Nor any two cats for that matter. If they’d only read the book, but cats never do.

 

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I'd have to wonder if both meters were set to the correct code for the strips being used for the comparison testing if I had 2 AT2 meters reading significantly differently on presumably the same sample of blood. It's a common occurrence for the code not to be changed particularly in a multiple user environment where there may be more than one vial of strips in use. Just food for thought.

I saw Pepper's high pre-shot this morning and wondered if he might be bouncing from a lower BG during the night but a fur shot explains the higher reading. They happen to us all.