"cindys" wrote in message
...

"Phil P." wrote in message
news:cdjNj.14514$gT3.11370@trndny02...

"georgepds" wrote in message
...


My question is should I just simply begin insulin treatment now?

Because you're monitoring his BG at home, you can combine both therapies
(low carb and insulin) and adjust his insulin dosage based on his
response
to the low-carb diet. I would check his BG twice a day before giving him
insulin rather than every other day for better control and to avoid
insulin
overdose and overlap- especially if you're using glargine (Lantus)
insulin-
which is the insulin of choice for diabetic cats.
--------
I can attest (from personal experience) to this part about checking his BG
before administering the insulin is straight on. When Alex (of blessed
memory) was diagnosed, and our veterinarian explained about giving the
Lantus and monitoring the BGs, she gave us explicit instructions to *not*
adjust the Lantus dose on our own. She said that clients often try to do
that and get into trouble because they don't know what they're doing.


That's good advice since most people with newly diagnosed cats don't know
what they're doing. But it doesn't take long to know what you're doing if
you do your homework and your vet educates you rather than merely gives you
instructions to follow without explaining them.


She
said we should phone her before making any changes in his dose.


I'm surprised she didn't give you a guide sheet with doses for various BG
levels- especially when using glargine- which is well known for producing
rapid declines in BG and rapid remissions when therapy is initiated early.



We were advised to check BGs but only once weekly (but five or six times
on
that one day) in an effort to graph how Alex's BG fluctuated at various
hours of the day.

Glargine has a very long duration of action in cats that usually results in
a carry-over effect from the previous dose. So, its a good idea to check BG
before giving glargine injections. This is especially important if the cat
is starting on the road to remission as your Alex was. You're very lucky his
testing day fell on a day when his BG was very low. If his testing day fell
on a day later he would have been in big trouble.

Hopefully, the high success rate of glargine will reduce the number of
owner-surrenders and euthanasia of diabetic cats. Most of the diabetic cats
we've had we got from vets- the owners brought the cats in to be euthanized
because they couldn't- or didn't want to- be bothered with treating their
cats. Some of the owners signed their cats over only because it was cheaper
than euthanasia.

Phil