? 8/29 Tigger Switching from Lantus to Levemir, need dosing advice

Previous Post on 7/30

Hello all! It's been a bit since I've last posted. Life has been crazy, my sister was in a bad car accident, but doing better, we've been to a beach house twice, plus work and usual life stuff. I have been limping Tigger along on his Lantus. I know I have slacked off on testing as much, usually not making my husband get a check during the day, because I know Tigger is just too high anyway.

If anyone knows our struggle to get Levemir, you know it has been a horrible one. No vet would give it to us, with a long list of reasons why. Tigger is a high dose cat, but the reason remains unknown at the moment. I am working on that. BUT I FINALLY GOT A VET TO AGREE!!!

I have had him on 10u of Lantus now for quite a bit. Yes, I know, I am technically following TR, but I needed to get him through on safe dose of insulin for him because of vacations and having a different sitter. I also just personally needed a break from his schedule, and I just needed to slack a bit. Having a diabetic cat and all that goes into it truly is exhausting, as many of you are aware. Plus, his numbers aren't the worst I've seen, so he really isn't doing bad in the big scheme of things.
However, we are now home, I can get him started on his Levemir which is ready to go in my fridge!! FINALLY!!

The vet said to start at 1u/twice a day on Levemir and go from there, since according to him, "it is extremely potent in cats and is usually only meant for dogs" . Tigger's symptoms may have improved ever so slightly on the 10u of Lantus, but he still is peeing quite a bit. I don't want his sugar to be crazy high, but I also do not want him to have any hypo-episodes.

Can someone take a look at my spreadsheet and recommend a starting dose for us? I will be home all day tomorrow to monitor his first day and then my husband can get a mid-day check throughout the week and I will be home in the evenings.

Really hope this is our last insulin switch, as there is no other option really. Thank you all for your time!!

 

The vet that gave you the Levemir script doesn't know how to use it either.

We usually recommend starting at 70% of the Lantus dose....so for Tigger, that's 7U

Going all the way back to 1U would just waste a lot of time while you worked your way back up to a dose that would work.

And Levemir isn't exactly "stronger" than Lantus...it just works in a different way and for some cats, at higher doses the lantus can sting. That's not a problem with Levemir

 

Perfect! Thank you! I knew I didn't want to start all the way back at 1u, but I wasn't sure how much of a reduced dose to give.

Wish us luck, I am having one heck of a time with the loads of litter and buying mass quantities of wet food. People probably think I have 12 cats, not one, haha.
Hopefully this gets us somewhere since I've pushed so hard for it!

 

Are you using chewy for your food and litter? And have it on authorship so you get a little savings and great time saver. I use to have 2 autoships 1 for food and one for litter and a full in food.

I would rather have Ollie back but I don't miss the flooded boxes and amount of litter we went through. Didn't realize it, now sometimes one box isn't even used all day.

 

Yes, Chewy is a life saver! I do the same thing. It's not necessarily the cost of everything..just the constant hassle/mess of the box and then having to throw it all out, and the bags are so heavy! Tigger is a huge cat to begin with (18.4lbs, was at 20). Maybe part Maine coone. So to maintain his weight, he's eating about 4 3oz cans a day of FF or Friskies.

Plus, while we were gone, the dog decided to try to eat one of Tigger's autofeeders and break it. So there was another 50 bucks off Amazon

 

So glad you finally got a script for Levemir! Are you buying it from Marks? They'll save you a bundle and you'll have less future hassles with renewals.

Agreed with the 7 units. Cats typically need around the same amount of Levemir as Lantus, plus or minus. But some cats have a strong reaction to the switch so the reduction is for safety. You will have to choose a time to switch when you can monitor closely the first couple cycles. If you post daily when you switch, we can help you fast track up in dose if you need to.

I think Levemir is stronger in dogs - cats are not dogs.

 

Yes! Marks has been great. I was only given "3" refills so it's nice to know they don't listen to it once they have a prescription on file.