Tao

This is Tao, my 15 year old Burmese queen, recently diagnosed with diabetes. She has good days and bad days, but is responding well to Caninsulin. Lantus didn't work well for her at all. She is keeping a steady 7 glucose reading on Caninsulin.

 

Hello and welcome. That is interesting about the lantus not working. What was happening with it? My cat had terrible issues with the vetsulin. Lantus worked so much better.

 

Lantus just did not get her levels acceptable, and she went up and down like a yoyo. Caninsulin seems to be holding her steady. Been 2 weeks now!

 

Are you doing curves at home?

 

Welcome to you and your beautiful girl!

 

What was your starting dose with the Lantus? Was the dose increased while you were using it?

If your starting dose was too high it is possible that you missed Tao's optimal dose. Too much insulin can cause the glucose levels to be to high since the cat's body is releasing extra glucose to prevent it from hypoglycemia.

 

Starting dose 2 units twice a day. Went up to 3 units twice a day. And then 4 units morning 3 units night.

 

This was over a two month period with a glucose curve done at the vet, as well. I don't home test.

 

No, she goes to the vet for readings. I keep a very sharp watch on her behavior, water intake and food consumption, as I am a music teacher and work half days at school and half at home.
She is an only cat, so her litter box tells me a whole lot too.

 

Hi Tao's Person,

I saw another post from you on a different thread but I want to reply to it here so as not to interrupt the other thread.

Link to original post:

http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/...wbie-i-never-home-tested.157159/#post-1670942

From the above post:

I am not home testing either.
I have an excellent relationship with my vet who practices 5 minutes away from my home.
We have found a good balance and the insulin that seems to work. We started on Lantus, but the results were too up and down.
She is now on Caninsulin and holding a steady 7 for the past two weeks.
She was diagnosed 2 months ago.
She eats only wet food, a change I have made over the past week.

[Emphasis mine]

Has your vet checked Tao since the food change? If not I strongly recommend you get Tao's blood glucose levels checked ASAP because the change to wet food - especially if it's to a low carb food - may have dropped her blood glucose levels very significantly. If the Caninsulin dose has not been reduced to take into account a reduced dietary carb intake it may now be too high. This is doubly important because Tao was getting nadirs in the normal range on her Caninsulin so there's not much of a safety buffer if the dose is now too strong.

Note: Should it transpire that Tao's blood glucose tests higher after the food change but the carbs are definitely lower in her diet, the higher BG level may be a sign of too high a dose since a cat's body may release extra glucose and counter-regulatory hormones to try to keep levels up in an effort to protect the cat from hypoglycaemia if it is getting too much insulin.

Following a change to wet, low carb food blood glucose levels may continue to fall over the following days and weeks as the body adjusts to it.

Case in point: When my cat was on Caninsulin her dose had to be cut from 3 IU BID down to 0.5 IU BID in the space of about 48 hours. (The guts of that drop were within the first 24 hours. Thankfully I was home testing her so was able to adjust the dose at each cycle.) The initial drop in BG levels due to the food change was very dramatic but over the course of the next week or so her BG levels continued to improve to the point where it became no longer safe for me to continue treating her with Caninsulin.


Mogs
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would you be willing to learn to home test?

 

Hometesting is something we recommend for several reasons.

1) It gives you a more accurate gauge how well the insulin dose is working and allows you determine if there are any abnormal patterns in the readings. It will also help you determine if the dose needs to be increased or decreased.
2) It will help you prevent giving insulin if Tao's glucose levels are too low and avoid hypoglycemia.
3) It will also help you determine if your insulin may becoming ineffective.
4) It will save you a lot of money and time by not having to take Tao to the vet just to be tested.