Change from Lantus to Levemir

[Larry and Kitties]

I adopted Tonis a little over two weeks ago as a recently diagnosed but not yet treated diabetic kitty. I started him on Lantus and only saw a reduced PS after the first shot which I now think was due to him not eating that much. I have gotten PS in the 400 and 500s with does from 1 to 3.5 units. I reduced the does down to 1 this morning and received a Hi this evening. I have been using some N and R insulin to try to get the high BGs down at least for some time period. He responds well to the N and R with the short durations es expected. I even had him down to 94 @+3 last night but that was due to some 0.5R at the previous +9 506, a PS of 426 (1 Lantus 1.5 N).

My question is has other users experienced where Lantus did not seem to work while Levemir did work.

 

[pamela and tigger]

I adopted Tonis a little over two weeks ago as a recently diagnosed but not yet treated diabetic kitty. I started him on Lantus and only saw a reduced PS after the first shot which I now think was due to him not eating that much. I have gotten PS in the 400 and 500s with does from 1 to 3.5 units. I reduced the does down to 1 this morning and received a Hi this evening. I have been using some N and R insulin to try to get the high BGs down at least for some time period. He responds well to the N and R with the short durations es expected. I even had him down to 94 @+3 last night but that was due to some 0.5R at the previous +9 506, a PS of 426 (1 Lantus 1.5 N).

My question is has other users experienced where Lantus did not seem to work while Levemir did work.

I think most here switched from one of the PZI's or from Vetsulin, with the exception of maybe a couple people here. But I do know there are quite a few on the Lantus forum that made the switch but they still post over there. Like Arnie's Dad (a few posts down here) just recently switched from lantus to Lev but still posts mainly on the Lantus forum.

So good of you to adopt this kitty Larry. I kind of like the idea of using N or R along with the lantus (or Lev) to bring down those initial, 'new diagnosis' wonky numbers. As you know it used to be done that way all the time on the old board (TR forum especially) quite successfully. It is so much easier to manipulate the shorter acting insulins while maintaining the longer acting insulin at a lower level with small increases.

No Tilly protocol there, just attacking those numbers aggressively and hoping to break through some of that glucose toxicity instead of gradually working your way up the dosing scale via Tilly. Not to say that Tilly doesn't work well, it does (but in some cases it might take longer). Plus not too many people besides yourself and some high dosers have the knowledge and experience anymore to attack high bg numbers this way.

Good luck with Tonis. Has he settled down since you first got him?

P.S. I wish you had a spreadsheet so we could follow along. It would be interesting to see.

 

[Larry and Kitties]

I use the Numbers spreadsheet on my iPad and it is hard convert Tinos' sheet and move it to Google Docs.

 

[Sheila & Beau GA & Jeddie GA]

I think that in general from what I have read here, lev is started at a lower dose (15% lower%) and has a gentler action than lantus. We recommend a starting dose of .5u on lev and a start low go slow approach.

No lantus experience here, but from what you posted I wonder if you have just been making too many dose adjustments? At two weeks I would think that you would be no higher than 1.5u if you gave each dose a chance to settle.

I also wonder if he needed a starting dose of .5u? What was his BG when you first got him? Could he have been stressed then from a new home?

And what diet? I am assuming low carb and no dry?

I, too, would really like to see the timeline or BGs and doses.....that would make it easier to see what is going on.

 

[Kelly & Oscar]

I switched Oscar from Lantus to Levemir. He was at almost 3u of Lantus, and his optimal dose now seems to be around .5u of Levemir. We were doing great right up until the dog food incident. *sigh* Now we are all over the place, so don't look at our latest numbers from like the last 3 weeks.