Pretty sure this forum saved my cats life tonight.

I wanted to thank all of you for the wonderful informative posts Ive found here. Im still shaken and incredibly angry with my vet.

Im relatively new to being a diabetic cat mom and my fur baby Shurshishkas BG pre feeding is usually 324 -360, as were working on our way to regulation at 2u a dose. I did Shurshishkas curve as usual on Sunday and forwarded the results to my vet who got back to me on Tuesday. Her curve at the time jumped up to 504 temporarily, and a wonderful member here let me know about “bouncing.” My vet recommended a doseage increase to 3u without knowing the lowest point on her curve, and gave me some haphazard advice about watching out for hypoglycemia. Ive read elsewhere that sometimes a whole unit increase can be bad for a cat so I was hesitant. My fiancee and I hesitantly gave her 2.5u not trusting the vets advice. Five and a half hours later her BG was at a whopping 62.4! Im scared to think of what would have happened had we administered the full dosage our vet recommended.

We monitored her BG every 30 minutes until it came back up to a comfortable 111.6. She didnt display any symptoms like shaking, she was just tired and wanted to nap lol.

Im very grateful for this forum. Thank you to Wendy&Niko for your knowledge about BG bouncing. Without it I wouldnt have known what to look out for, and we would have had to say goodbye to our baby before it was her time. At best, we avoided thousands of dollars in ER vet bills.

 

Hi Lizzee,

It's great that you're home testing and I'm glad that Shurshishka's OK.

Can you let us know which insulin and which type of meter you're using?


Mogs
.

 

hi critter mom,

she is on Lantus and much to the detriment of my wallet, I use Alpha Trak.

 

https://rxcanada4less.com Marks Marine pharmacy

Here is the link for Canada with the pens we use them like a vial because with the pens you can only increase or decrease by whole units, so you would just take your syringe and stick it in the little grey rubber stopper and just draw the insulin from that







Lantus Solostar Cartridges 5x3ml per box (temp. gauge. ice pack, express-air mail) Brand 100u/ml 15 ml $159.99 USD

Lantus Solostar PEN CAN (temp. gauge. ice pack, express-air mail) *single pen open box* Brand 100iu/ml one pen 3 ml $49.99 USD

Lantus Solostar PENS 5x3ml per box (temp. gauge. ice pack, express-air mail) Brand 100u/ml 15 ml $164.99 USD

Lantus VIAL Insulin (10ml per vial) (temp. gauge. ice pack, express-air mail) Brand 100u/ml 10 ml $110.99 USD


Like I said you are better off buying the 5 pack of cartridges or the 5 pack of pens
They will last you way over a year
After your vet writes the first script you won't ever need another script.
Call them and will tell you what to do
They are very nice people

Oh when you buy the pens they will have an expiration date on them
Most likely 2022 or 2023 by now.
Put them in the frig , a middle shelf
As long as you don't puncture them they will be good until the expiration date
So you are actually saving a ton of money


We also use syringes with half unit markings. U-100 syringes
We increase or decrease by 0.25 units at a time.
It makes it easier using the half unit syringes

 

• when you get a chance ,It would be helpful if you can set up your signature so we don't have to ask you the same questions over again. Members will look at this first .
• It appears after each post in gray, look at mine,

• On the left, under Settings, Click on Signature. This is where you will put information that helps us give you feedback.
• • There is a limit of two lines which may include two links; you may separate pieces with commas, dashes, | etc. This is where you paste the link for your spreadsheet, once it is set up.
  • Add any other text, such as
  • Caregiver & kitty's name (optional)
  • DX: Date
  • Name of Insulin
  • Name of your meter
  • Diet: "LC wet" or "dry food" or "combo"
  • Dosing: TR or SLGS or Custom (if applicable)
  • DKA or other recent health issue (if applicable)
  • Acro, IAA, or Cushings (if applicable)
  • Spreadsheet link. Please put the signature link on the bottom line of your signature information, on its own, so it is easy to find.
  • Please do not put any information about your location in the signature for security reasons. If you wish to add your country location, please add it to your profile.

Be sure to click the 'Save Changes' button at the bottom. If you need help urgently it is important we know these things at a glance. We don’t want to waste valuable time finding out information.


tap on your avatar where it says your name ,then hit profile page ,tap on that ,then go up to the very top, upper right hand side and tap on your name ,it will bring down a drop box, tap on signature, the signature will be under settings, tap on the signature then and you can start to add what I posted above, make sure you hit save ,
Welcome to the best place you could ever be and an awesome group of people
You can also add where you live in your profile, not your signature

 

Hi Lizzee,

[Emphasis mine]

Categorically the 2.5IU dose is too high. The normal feline BG reference range given to me by vet for use with my Alphatrak is 70-150mg/dL* so Shurshishka was biochemically hypoglycaemic at 62.4 and you need to reduce immediately. Here's a link to the FDMB Lantus dosing guidelines, and you can post for help and advice at any time.

[ETA] Link:

Lantus Dosing: Start Low, Go Slow and Tight Regulation

BTW if Shurshishka's preshot was fairly high before the drop down to 62.4 that might explain her tiredness: big drops can take a little bit out of a kitty, but the effects are typically self-limiting.


Mogs

(* Note: FDMB use 68 as the lower bound of the reference range.)

.

 

It's so cool that they could help you! I am very glad to have such news, once my mother was also helped on this forum, she said that she remembered it for the rest of her life!

 

I have pens in the fridge that I tried one or twice but did not use, so those would no longer be good, some have a date of 2002 on them.

 

Hi Lizzie

I started out with Alphtrak as well but like most found the strips too expensive. Most of the members on here use human glucometers and test strips.

 

Glad you didnt listen to the Vet.. I had similar experience my vet,vet started Vengeance out at 3 units and told me not to test him at all... if it had not been for the people on this board he would have went into hypo very quickly but they helped me with the dosage and answered every question I had...

 

Wow, that was quite the scary experience Lizzee! I am so glad Shurshishka is OK now. This is yet another testament to why we do home testing. Good catch!

@Diane Tyler's Mom Lizzee is in Canada - Lantus is much cheaper OTC at pharmacies here instead of going through Marks.

 

Wendy thanks for letting me know that if you live in Canada Lantus is cheaper buying it from pharmacies, I noticed that you mentioned it in a a different thread for
someone else. Thank you
@Wendy&Neko