7/29 Alex's second day on Lantus AMPS 16.3

Alex was diagnosed about a year and a half ago and I had him on prozinc which never seemed to work well for him, but I couldn't seem to get a vet who would be willing to switch and would always blame something else and would want to run more and more tests. 1.5-1.75u would leave him too high but if I went just a little over and gave him closer to 2u within 2-3 days he would swing into hypo range, every time. He was "fine" living with high numbers, but eating and drinking too much, losing weight and muscle mass, and I know it's doing slow internal damage.

Now switching to Lantus and yesterday was scary because the numbers were so high all day and I could tell he was feeling awful, but this morning it's really quite low (for him), but I still gave the full dose. It's hard to remind myself that this is what we're looking for and what is supposed to be happening, because I've spent so long knowing that anything below 20 required a dose reduction or he'd swing low. This might be a high number for the rest of you, but this is scary low for him. I feel like a new diabetic cat owner again, despite all my experience.

I will be watching him very, very carefully today but I really hope that this is the right move for Alex and will finally get his diabetes under control.

 

Hi Aslina,
Would you please indicate on the US view of your spreadsheet that you switched to Lantus on 28 July. That will make it easier for people to read.
Lantus is a "depot" insulin; ideally this enables it to regulate the blood sugar without great swings in either direction . It will take a few days for Lantus to settle in (the depot needs to be built; until it is built, some of the Lantus is going into the depot and not all going into working on the blood glucose). So for now I would suggest keeping the dose at 1 Unit and see what happens. Keep in mind that Lantus dosing is based on the lowest number of the cycle (usually around mid-cycle)--not on the pre-shot number.
Read the "Stickies" at the top of the forum. Once the Lantus depot is established, you can follow the guidelines in the TR protocol, or the SLGS method. Read about the two and decide which one you want to follow. You can always switch from one to the other. Just remember that Lantus likes consistency. When you make changes in dose, give the new dose a few days to settle in before making any more changes, and make changes in small increments: 0.25 of a Unit is generally recommended. Each Cat is Different (ECID), so you may require guidance with regard to changes in dose from one of the experienced people here.

Good luck with the switch!

 

Hi again, Looking at Alex's spreadsheet for the last several days, I think you can safely raise his dose to 1.25 U. Hold the new dose for 3 days (6 cycles) and then evaluate.

 

Hello and welcome to this forum. Make sure to read all the yellow starred Sticky Notes. There is lots of information - so much so that it'll take multiple reads. Feel free to ask questions, we love to help here. One of the questions we'll be asking you is which dosing method you'd like to follow. What you do with the dose will depend on that answer.

When people switch from Prozinc to Lantus, we suggest switching over to the same dose. I presume you have the U-100 syringe? If so, and you were giving around 1.5 to 1.75 units, I'd suggest going up to 1.5 units now.