Hi everyone, today is Ollie's first day on Lantus (1 unit). His backstory: dx in March, diet controlled through summer, I was home testing sporadically and his BG started rising last month. He has been drinking excessively and losing weight, urinalysis was clear so we are starting insulin. Yesterday he spent the day at the vets for his first dose and a curve but it didn't go well, he didn't eat there but they gave him the insulin anyway and after he came home I found out they didn't give him the food I sent with him, so I have no idea what they fed him (can't call there until later today). Also they want him on 2 units but I don't feel comfortable starting him at that dose - we discussed starting him at a low dose but somehow they gave him 2 units anyway. He vomited last night when he was supposed to get his second dose because he ate so much when he got home. This was probably the wrong thing to do but I didn't give him a second dose last night. Today I started with 1 unit in the morning. I've been reading everything available but I have some questions. His normal feeding schedule is wet food at 9 AM and 5 PM with PureBites chicken at noon and a small amount of Young Again dry food at 11:30 PM. I want him to get insulin at 7:45 AM/PM. Today he ate half his normal portion of wet food at 7:45 AM and got the insulin, then he ate the other half at 9 AM. He just had his chicken now at 12:30 PM. I'm planning on giving him half his portion of wet at 5 PM and then the other half at 7:45 PM. Does this feeding schedule sound okay or is feeding him too often going to screw up his BG? How important is it that he eats a full meal when he is getting insulin? He is 12.1 pounds but is a large boy so he is underweight now, I'd say his ideal is a little above 13 pounds. Another question, when would be the best times for me to check his BG during his first days on insulin? He doesn't mind it and neither do I and I'm home almost all of the time. Thanks so much for your time spent reading this longer than intended post, any advice is appreciated.
We like details here and are very data oriented. Your morning feeding sounds fine but not the evening. It’s best to feed most of the food in the first half of the cycle unless you need to give food to bring the bg up. You want to pick up all food 2 hours before your pretests to make sure the reading is not food influenced. So the 5 PM feeding might bring his bg up too high as it’s toward the end of the cycle. You might want to move that feeding to 7:45 and the next feeding later. You can try your schedule and see if that needs to be changed. The first cycle it’s good to test every 2-3 hours. The +2 is often a good indicator of whether the cycle will be an active one. If the bg is lower than the pretest it will likely be active. Onset of Lantus is for many around +2 but for some it’s earlier and others later. It looks like you have read the yellow stickies. Have a look at the dosing methods as it will give you ideas for initial testing.
Here’s the sticky to read. https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/the-basics-new-to-the-group-start-here.18139/
Hello and welcome. I originally fed two main meals that weren't 12 hour apart when Neko started insulin. Similar timing to yours. She didn't want to do away with any meals, but was fine with adding some, even if smaller. You want to feed as few a carbs as possible after nadir, when the insulin is strongest. After that the insulin is slowing down, and any carb will slow it down even faster, shortening the duration. So if you have to feed a 5PM meal (like I did) I switched to as low carb as possible. Some pieces of boiled or baked chicken breast are one option. Then try to do a similar feeding schedule in the PM schedule. Since you are feeding the Young Again dry food, that means you have to follow the Start Low Go Slow for dosing, and 1 unit is the right dose to start with some dry food in the picture.
