Below is my Top 8 list of things that will help you to regulate your diabetic cat.
1) A diabetic cat: really, otherwise, what's the point? (small joke)
2) A glucometer used to measure blood glucose: We use the AccuCheck Advantage. Many people do not test their cats at home and the cats do just fine. However, it can save a lot of money by not getting curves done at the vets as well as time and stress on the cat. As well, it's is a great tool if something doesn't seem right and you want to see if your cat is suffering from hypoglycemia (low blood sugar).
3) A low carb cat food. Feed your cat what he will eat. However, if you can switch to a high quality low carbohydrate cat food, that may reduce your cat's insulin needs. My diabetic cat does not like wet food much, so I am feeding him Science Diet MD, a lower carb dry food available by prescription from the vet. He likes it, so we are sticking with this for now.
4) A cooperative vet knowledgeable in feline diabetes: We are lucky, our vet is wonderful and lets us do all our testing at home and then report in to her, where we make dosing decisions. It would be a nightmare if we had to take Kitty to the vets for this!
5)Insulin: A long lasting insulin such as PZI, Lantus, Caninsulin/Vetsulin.
6) Syringes: We started with Caninsulin and the syringes that we purchased did not work well for us. Kitty would fight his shots. We ended up buying syringes from the pharmacy, BD Ultra Fine, 31 gauge, short needles and have not had a problem since. Note that insulin comes in different strengths, U100, U40, U50 (all of which indicate the number of units of insulin ber ml). Therefore, if your cat is getting Caninsulin, a U40 insulin and you wish to use the U100 thinner syringes, you would need to inject two and a half times as many units using the U100 syringe. If you were giving your cat 2 units of Caninsulin, using the U100 syringes, you would take the insulin to the 5U mark. Please make sure to double check with your veterinarian before changing syringes. Ideally, it is best to use the syringe designed for your insulin, but there are options if you run into trouble.
7) Ketostix: These are available at any pharmacy and are used by people to check for ketones in the urine. Ketones are formed when there is a) not enough food and/or b)not enough insulin. The body starts to metabolize body fat, and a by product is ketones. A serious complication of ketones is possible diabetic ketoacidosis (dka), which requires immediate veterinary attention. If you ever check your cats urine and see ketones, it is best to contact your vet immediately.
8) Patience: Regulation is not a race. Start with low doses and increase slowly. Cats can live with high blood sugar for a long time (it has been 5 months for us with little improvement) but extremely low blood sugar can kill very quickly.
Good luck treating your diabetic cat!
Showing posts with label Caninsulin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Caninsulin. Show all posts
Types of Insulin Used to Treat Feline Diabetes
There are many different types of insulin used to treat feline diabetes. Part of the trick of feline diabetes is that none of these insulins are exactly like cat insulin. You must find, through trial and error, the best insulin for your cat.
Many vets prescribe human insulins. These are cheap and easy to get and work very well for many cats. Humulin N, L and U are three that are typically prescribed. The N insulin is a short acting insulin and probably does not have enough duration for most cats. It can have sharp steep drops (where the blood sugar drops too low) and then it can wear off quickly causing the blood sugar to increase quickly. L and U (Lente and Ultra lente) are medium and longer lasting insulins. Unfortunately, Eli Lilly, the manufacturer has discountinued these and many people whose cats have been regulated on these are scrambling to find alternatives.
Caninsulin is a pork based insulin which is prescribed by the veterinarian. It is considered a medium acting insulin. This is also knows as Vetsulin in the United States.
Lantus is a newer human insulin that has some promising research done on cats. It is very long lasting insulin.
PZI is another insulin and it can be found in a pork or beef format. The insulin is in a protamine zinc suspension, which makes it a long lasting insulin as well. Many cats do well on the beef derived PZI.
Many vets prescribe human insulins. These are cheap and easy to get and work very well for many cats. Humulin N, L and U are three that are typically prescribed. The N insulin is a short acting insulin and probably does not have enough duration for most cats. It can have sharp steep drops (where the blood sugar drops too low) and then it can wear off quickly causing the blood sugar to increase quickly. L and U (Lente and Ultra lente) are medium and longer lasting insulins. Unfortunately, Eli Lilly, the manufacturer has discountinued these and many people whose cats have been regulated on these are scrambling to find alternatives.
Lantus is a newer human insulin that has some promising research done on cats. It is very long lasting insulin.
PZI is another insulin and it can be found in a pork or beef format. The insulin is in a protamine zinc suspension, which makes it a long lasting insulin as well. Many cats do well on the beef derived PZI.
Initial Treatment of Feline Diabetes
Further to the "OH MY GOD, My cat has diabetes" theme, I am going to talk a bit about initial treatment of feline diabetes. Once your vet has determined that indeed you are dealing with feline diabetes, he or she will send you home with a vial of insulin (or instructions on where to get some), instructions on how and when to inject it and perhaps suggestions on a diet change (we'll get to that at a later date).
You will probably start at a low dose, usually twice a day. The needles are given subcutaneously (under the skin). My first reaction to this notion was that I could never give my cat needles. Well, fear not. They can hardly even feel them. Many vets like the humulin insulins, as they are cheap, easy to get, and work very well for many cats. Unfortunately, Eli Lilly, the maker of two very popular insulins for cats, L and U have discontinued these. Alternatively, your vet may start you on the pork based insulin called Caninsulin in Canada (Vetsulin in the United States). This insulin is exactly like canine insulin and similar to feline insulin. Other insulins that are available are PZI Vet, Lantus (a long lasting human insulin) and a new insulin called Levemir that is showing some promise in cats.
The choice of insulin can be a little tricky. Many cats respond well to a different insulin than their own. There are some like Kitty that decide to go on a wild rollercoater ride with various insulins (more on that later too!).
After a week or two, the vet will probably ask you to bring your cat back to do a glucose curve. It will give an indication on how well the insulin is working. Based on this, the vet will decide whether to increase, decrease or maintain the dose. Many people are now testing their cats blood sugar at home using a human glucometer.
Kitty is INCREDIBLY fractious at the vets and there would be absolutely no point in doing a curve at the vets as stress can raise blood sugar levels even higher, throwing the results off. We do glucose curves at home and I will describe later how to do this and what the results may mean.
The final thing that the vet will alert you to is signs of hypoglycemia (low blood sugar). Many cats can get low blood sugar without any symptoms. However, if your cat seems to be acting strangely, disoriented, having seizures or convulsions, it is possible that their blood sugar has gone too low. Always keep some corn syrup around and apply to the cats gums if they won't eat it. This will create an increase in blood sugar, albeit temporary. Feeding some of their regular food afterwards will hopefully pick up where the corn syrup has worn off. This is where being able to test at home is an invaluable tool. If you are uncertain what is going on, please get your cat to the vet as soon as possible.
So, you leave the vet armed with-
a) your cat
b) the insulin and syringes
c) instructions on how to treat hypoglycemia and
d) perhaps a new diet.
It all seems so overwhelming those first few weeks, but I can promise you that it will all start to make sense and get much, much easier!
Feline diabetes is NOT a death sentence.
It takes diligence and care, but your cat can live a long, happy life with it.
You will probably start at a low dose, usually twice a day. The needles are given subcutaneously (under the skin). My first reaction to this notion was that I could never give my cat needles. Well, fear not. They can hardly even feel them. Many vets like the humulin insulins, as they are cheap, easy to get, and work very well for many cats. Unfortunately, Eli Lilly, the maker of two very popular insulins for cats, L and U have discontinued these. Alternatively, your vet may start you on the pork based insulin called Caninsulin in Canada (Vetsulin in the United States). This insulin is exactly like canine insulin and similar to feline insulin. Other insulins that are available are PZI Vet, Lantus (a long lasting human insulin) and a new insulin called Levemir that is showing some promise in cats.
After a week or two, the vet will probably ask you to bring your cat back to do a glucose curve. It will give an indication on how well the insulin is working. Based on this, the vet will decide whether to increase, decrease or maintain the dose. Many people are now testing their cats blood sugar at home using a human glucometer.
Kitty is INCREDIBLY fractious at the vets and there would be absolutely no point in doing a curve at the vets as stress can raise blood sugar levels even higher, throwing the results off. We do glucose curves at home and I will describe later how to do this and what the results may mean.
The final thing that the vet will alert you to is signs of hypoglycemia (low blood sugar). Many cats can get low blood sugar without any symptoms. However, if your cat seems to be acting strangely, disoriented, having seizures or convulsions, it is possible that their blood sugar has gone too low. Always keep some corn syrup around and apply to the cats gums if they won't eat it. This will create an increase in blood sugar, albeit temporary. Feeding some of their regular food afterwards will hopefully pick up where the corn syrup has worn off. This is where being able to test at home is an invaluable tool. If you are uncertain what is going on, please get your cat to the vet as soon as possible.
So, you leave the vet armed with-
a) your cat
b) the insulin and syringes
c) instructions on how to treat hypoglycemia and
d) perhaps a new diet.
It all seems so overwhelming those first few weeks, but I can promise you that it will all start to make sense and get much, much easier!
Feline diabetes is NOT a death sentence.
It takes diligence and care, but your cat can live a long, happy life with it.
The Caninsulin Chronicles (some background history)
Initially, our veterinarian wanted my diabetic cat on Caninsulin 2U BID (twice a day). We got absolutely no response. Day after day, the glucometer was reading HI (or >33.4 mmol/dl). We increased to 3U, then 4...
At around 5 units of Caninsulin scary things started to happen, we got crazy highs and crashing lows. We never knew what was going to happen from one day to the next. My poor cat suffered three months of this. It was truly enough to drive anyone MAD. I was a basket case, and certain that I was going to kill my cat and not knowing what to do about it.
We finally got to 6 units and the veterinarian and I decided that we need to try something else. This was NOT working at all. There is a new human insulin called Lantus that seemed promising for cats in an Australian study. I was ready to try anything at this point. So on January 18th, we started the new insulin at 3.5 U BID to treat his feline diabetes.
It is not the savior that I had so desperately hoped for.
To be continued...
At around 5 units of Caninsulin scary things started to happen, we got crazy highs and crashing lows. We never knew what was going to happen from one day to the next. My poor cat suffered three months of this. It was truly enough to drive anyone MAD. I was a basket case, and certain that I was going to kill my cat and not knowing what to do about it.
We finally got to 6 units and the veterinarian and I decided that we need to try something else. This was NOT working at all. There is a new human insulin called Lantus that seemed promising for cats in an Australian study. I was ready to try anything at this point. So on January 18th, we started the new insulin at 3.5 U BID to treat his feline diabetes.
It is not the savior that I had so desperately hoped for.
To be continued...
The start of our journey with Feline Diabetes
Back in late 2000, I noticed that my cat Kitty was drinking an awful lot of water...Sometimes he would drink 4 bowls overnight! However, I was in denial, it's winter, it's dry...He was a big boy (25 pounds!) but one day I weighed him and he was 19 pounds. He lost 6 pounds and I knew this was trouble. Took him to the vets in early Jan 2001 where my worst fears were realized-Kitty was diabetic.
She started him on an insulin called Caninsulin (also known as Vetsulin in the US). We got to 2U twice a day and after a few glucose curves at the vet, he was declared regulated. Around this time, I discovered the Feline Diabetes Message Board (FDMB) where I discovered LOTS of people had diabetic cats! One thing they were doing is testing their cats glucose levels with a human glucometer, pricking their cats ears. I was not ready for that, getting used to giving shots was enough (although I would rather give 100 needles than 1 pill, they were not difficult at all!).
Fast forward to June 2001. Kitty would not eat. I couldn't give insulin without him eating, so one day, I got up the nerve and tested him and he was at 3.3 mmol/dL, which is a reading expected from non-diabetics! I took him to the vets and she agreed that Kitty was in remission. Whew, I thought...Dodged that bullet.
Fast forward to October 2005 and Kitty is drinking a lot. Got the glucometer out and it appears that he is diabetic again. This was confirmed by our vet. Little did I know the hell that this would become.....
She started him on an insulin called Caninsulin (also known as Vetsulin in the US). We got to 2U twice a day and after a few glucose curves at the vet, he was declared regulated. Around this time, I discovered the Feline Diabetes Message Board (FDMB) where I discovered LOTS of people had diabetic cats! One thing they were doing is testing their cats glucose levels with a human glucometer, pricking their cats ears. I was not ready for that, getting used to giving shots was enough (although I would rather give 100 needles than 1 pill, they were not difficult at all!).
Fast forward to June 2001. Kitty would not eat. I couldn't give insulin without him eating, so one day, I got up the nerve and tested him and he was at 3.3 mmol/dL, which is a reading expected from non-diabetics! I took him to the vets and she agreed that Kitty was in remission. Whew, I thought...Dodged that bullet.
Fast forward to October 2005 and Kitty is drinking a lot. Got the glucometer out and it appears that he is diabetic again. This was confirmed by our vet. Little did I know the hell that this would become.....
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