Hello,
I just wanted to share my experience. My angel kitty Taco was diabetic for 6 years until cancer took him. The Vet initially started him on Humulin L insulin but the manufacturer stopped making it, just when I'd gotten him so amazingly regulated....so I had to make the decision to switch to something else. My choices were PZI, caninsulin, Lantus or Levemir (the latter being 2 relatively new human insulins). After much research, I chose Levemir. At the time (this was about 4 years ago?), there was a small group of people on the Feline Diabetes Forum who were trying out Levemir in their cats (lead by a guythere name Steve, his cat's name was/is Jock). Levemir interested me the most because it worked differently than the other insulins in terms of.......it would keep the blood glucose level consistent for the 12 hour period as opposed to the other insulins in which there is a 'peak' action (and therefore the risk of hypo). I liked that. I wasn't sure what dose of Levemir to start him out at.......and it's not like I could get any suggestion from my Vet because she knew nothing about Levemir (in fact, most vets know diddly about feline diabetes and insulins, IMO). Based on the anecdotal experiences of those who were trying their cats on Levemir, I decided to start with 1 unit every 12 hours and give it time to settle, ensuring I did a curve to start....and kept a log of my readings. Start low, go slow is the motto. Now he was already pretty darn well controlled on the Humulin L so we were starting off with pretty good BGs to begin with, which I think helped. Anyway, I ended up tweaking the dose up to 1.5 units twice a day over time. I loved this insulin for him!!! It kept his BG nice and consistent for the whole 12 hour period. And I sometimes was a little late giving his shot and it didn't seem to matter. There were many times I didn't even have to give one of his shots because his BG was in the 'normal range'. It didn't take long to get him regulated so nicely that I swear, all of his BG readings (morning and night) were in the normal range....and they stayed there.
I had him on a strict diet of ONLY canned food and he wouldn't go for DM.....EVO canned is a good one, low carbs....have you tried that? ...he wasn't keen on it.....so we resorted to the pate varieties of Fancy Feast which are all low carb.
Find the forum on FDMB re: Levemir if you can.
I had considered PZI but found it would be too much of a pain in the arse to try and get it (I'm here in canada, too). i'd considered Lantus but seems to me, if I recall correctly, some found that a shot didn't provide a full 12 hours coverage (or maybe it was that there was too much overlap? can't recall now)......
I liked the Levemir too because I would buy a box of 5 cartridges and although it cost about $130 a box, that whole box would last me a year!!! The cartridges are designed for an insulin pen (for humans) but you just draw up the insulin from the cartridge by injecting the needle of the syringe into the little rubber stopper at the end of the cartridge, no different than if drawing it up from a regular vial. Didn't have to rotate the vial before using (in fact, not supposed to) but keep in fridge. If it wasn't for Taco's cancer, I know he would still be here today because I got him so perfectly controlled. Had I not wasted time with Humulin from the start, it's possible I could have gotten him off insulin altogether (guess you never know, though)....but I think by the time we made the switch to the Levemir, his pancreas was really kaput because it did take us a lot of time with the humulin to get him regulated.
Every cat is different
