Yvonne & Simon
Member Since 2021
Hi all.
New member here. My cat Simon was just diagnosed with diabetes last week.
History: 15 yr old Siamese, neutered male. Had one high blood sugar (33) discovered incidentally during vet appointment 2 yrs ago. Vet felt stress induced. I checked his BGs carefully at home and the BG normalized after three days. Has been normalish since (BGs ranging 4-8) on human meter. Oh, and I am in Canada so use SI BG monitoring units.
Has been vomiting for years, increased frequency over the past year. Vet did ultrasound and diagnosed inflammatory bowel disease. Started him on Budesonide (steroid with the least systemic effects) with some trepidation on my part. She felt that since it should have a fairly localized action in his digestive tract, this would lower his chances of getting steroid induced diabetes.
Bloodwork done at this time and was surprisingly good for a 15 yr old cat. Just mild renal impairment, normal thyroid, and liver enzymes mostly normal.
Went home and over the next week gradually titrated the Budesonide dose up, and at a full dose the vomiting resolved and he was clinically looking and feeling better. Gaining weight (a good thing).
Unfortunately, five weeks later, I noted increased lethargy, excess drinking and urination, and then significant wt loss and dehydration. Checked BGs and yup they were elevated (about 18-20).
Took him to vet the next day where he was started on insulin and received IV fluids (ringers) for two days. Budesonide stopped. Sent home with twice a day insulin. BGs still in their 20's at the time of discharge.
My issues:
Put on Toujeo (concentrated Lantus) in an insulin pen, which of course will only do full units at a time
Cat is a SUPER SUPER fussy eater. Will only eat kibble. After his first high BG two years ago, I tried for a full year to convert him to canned food. Tried everything. 100s of varieties, raw and plain protein sources (hard no!), etc. After he nearly starved and lost 2 lbs body weight (and he wasn't overwt to begin with) I realized he is so stubborn he'd rather die than change foods. So transitioning to canned has been incredibly unsuccessful. Vet has given me Purina DM canned. No way. Trying Hills m/d dry. He'll nibble a bit. Did eat some canned C/D. But intake has been quite poor since the onset of the diabetes.
Unfortunately vomiting has just started again
BGs have been quite labile and trending high. He was started on 1 unit of the Toujeo twice a day and has now been upped to 2 twice a day. BGs ranging around 20.
I am monitoring with a human meter (One Touch Verio) anywhere from every 2-6 hrs. I did a curve by checking every two hours a couple days back and see that nadir for him appears to be about 8 hrs.
I realize that a human meter reads low compared to an Alphatrak but prefer not to go that route if I don't have to as am hoping with steroid withdrawl his BGs will normalize again. So ideally would prefer not to have to make the investment in that meter which vet has advised me will be about $150 with $2/each per strip, especially at the rate I’m currently checking his BGs.
Each time I bring cat in to clinic, I have checked my meter to theirs and it has consistently been running about 20% less than their Alphatrak.
Since I just joined this group this morning, I have not had time to create a google spreadsheet as recommended here, but till now, have been monitoring everything very carefully with my meter and its associated data gathering ability/spreadsheet/graphs etc. No real firm trends can be evidenced yet as far as I can see. But as soon as I get a chance, I’ll do up the spreadsheet as recommended.
Vet is optimistic that if we get his BGs down, he will hopefully go back into remission. I had been checking his BGs right up to when he went on the Budenoside and they were normal right up to the the month prior. He was on the steroids for approx 6 weeks, only.
My questions are:
1. Is anyone using Toujeo insulin?
2. Is anyone using insulin pens on their cat? Or does the fact that they have too little adjustment ability (since are only in 1 unit increments) preclude their use? Frankly I do prefer this method as compared to drawing it up with a syringe and as I understand, the dosing tends to be more accurate.
Addendum: I did a search through the site and see that for half doses folks are using the pen as a vial and using the small insulin syringes to draw up in half unit increments. I can certainly do that if necessary.
3. I am interested in trying the Freestyle Libre continuous glucose monitoring sensor on my cat, and have purchased one. Brought it to the vet clinic and was told by them that they wanted no part of using it. Has anyone tried it, and if so what was your experience, and any words of wisdom?
4. Anyone else had experience with Budesonide withdrawl and how long did it take?
Sorry for the lengthy story!
New member here. My cat Simon was just diagnosed with diabetes last week.
History: 15 yr old Siamese, neutered male. Had one high blood sugar (33) discovered incidentally during vet appointment 2 yrs ago. Vet felt stress induced. I checked his BGs carefully at home and the BG normalized after three days. Has been normalish since (BGs ranging 4-8) on human meter. Oh, and I am in Canada so use SI BG monitoring units.
Has been vomiting for years, increased frequency over the past year. Vet did ultrasound and diagnosed inflammatory bowel disease. Started him on Budesonide (steroid with the least systemic effects) with some trepidation on my part. She felt that since it should have a fairly localized action in his digestive tract, this would lower his chances of getting steroid induced diabetes.
Bloodwork done at this time and was surprisingly good for a 15 yr old cat. Just mild renal impairment, normal thyroid, and liver enzymes mostly normal.
Went home and over the next week gradually titrated the Budesonide dose up, and at a full dose the vomiting resolved and he was clinically looking and feeling better. Gaining weight (a good thing).
Unfortunately, five weeks later, I noted increased lethargy, excess drinking and urination, and then significant wt loss and dehydration. Checked BGs and yup they were elevated (about 18-20).
Took him to vet the next day where he was started on insulin and received IV fluids (ringers) for two days. Budesonide stopped. Sent home with twice a day insulin. BGs still in their 20's at the time of discharge.
My issues:
Put on Toujeo (concentrated Lantus) in an insulin pen, which of course will only do full units at a time
Cat is a SUPER SUPER fussy eater. Will only eat kibble. After his first high BG two years ago, I tried for a full year to convert him to canned food. Tried everything. 100s of varieties, raw and plain protein sources (hard no!), etc. After he nearly starved and lost 2 lbs body weight (and he wasn't overwt to begin with) I realized he is so stubborn he'd rather die than change foods. So transitioning to canned has been incredibly unsuccessful. Vet has given me Purina DM canned. No way. Trying Hills m/d dry. He'll nibble a bit. Did eat some canned C/D. But intake has been quite poor since the onset of the diabetes.
Unfortunately vomiting has just started again
BGs have been quite labile and trending high. He was started on 1 unit of the Toujeo twice a day and has now been upped to 2 twice a day. BGs ranging around 20.
I am monitoring with a human meter (One Touch Verio) anywhere from every 2-6 hrs. I did a curve by checking every two hours a couple days back and see that nadir for him appears to be about 8 hrs.
I realize that a human meter reads low compared to an Alphatrak but prefer not to go that route if I don't have to as am hoping with steroid withdrawl his BGs will normalize again. So ideally would prefer not to have to make the investment in that meter which vet has advised me will be about $150 with $2/each per strip, especially at the rate I’m currently checking his BGs.
Each time I bring cat in to clinic, I have checked my meter to theirs and it has consistently been running about 20% less than their Alphatrak.
Since I just joined this group this morning, I have not had time to create a google spreadsheet as recommended here, but till now, have been monitoring everything very carefully with my meter and its associated data gathering ability/spreadsheet/graphs etc. No real firm trends can be evidenced yet as far as I can see. But as soon as I get a chance, I’ll do up the spreadsheet as recommended.
Vet is optimistic that if we get his BGs down, he will hopefully go back into remission. I had been checking his BGs right up to when he went on the Budenoside and they were normal right up to the the month prior. He was on the steroids for approx 6 weeks, only.
My questions are:
1. Is anyone using Toujeo insulin?
2. Is anyone using insulin pens on their cat? Or does the fact that they have too little adjustment ability (since are only in 1 unit increments) preclude their use? Frankly I do prefer this method as compared to drawing it up with a syringe and as I understand, the dosing tends to be more accurate.
Addendum: I did a search through the site and see that for half doses folks are using the pen as a vial and using the small insulin syringes to draw up in half unit increments. I can certainly do that if necessary.
3. I am interested in trying the Freestyle Libre continuous glucose monitoring sensor on my cat, and have purchased one. Brought it to the vet clinic and was told by them that they wanted no part of using it. Has anyone tried it, and if so what was your experience, and any words of wisdom?
4. Anyone else had experience with Budesonide withdrawl and how long did it take?
Sorry for the lengthy story!
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