Diabetes revisited.....

Good morning ladies and gentlemen.. We have 2 rescue cats which are priceless to me. My older cat Gus, became diabetic and was on Lantus several years ago.. As others have found, his illness went into remission and for 2 years, his sugar was fine and he needed no insulin... 

Round 2... His sugar issue returned about 6 weeks ago. Our new vet recommended Novalin R. Since he had lost weight, Gus was started on 3 units.. Over the 6 weeks, It has been increased to 4 units.. This morning, his sugar was 405.. For some reason, it is more difficult to get his sugar under control this time..

I realize Gus is older now. I don't know his real age but I would say 15 years old or so.. He is acting more normal now as he has a good appetite and is back to his grumpy old self..

My question is how much Novalin R is too much?  Is his age and condition just getting to the point it won't go down? 

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated..

Thank you.

I would think this might be a question for your Vet, BUT, maybe someone here will have some experience with this particular medication.

Just curious though...is there some reason why they did not put him back on the Lantus, since he got good results with it?

I highly recommend posting on the FelineDiabetes.com message board to get more detailed help from experienced diabetic cat owners.

I know that R is not a recommended insulin to use daily. It works more like a booster in addition to a long acting insulin to quickly lower blood gluocse levels.  Do you know why the vet recommended R instead of Lantus? There are other insulins to use, such as Levemir and ProZinc and PZI.

Has your cat been tested for a acromegaly or Cushing's disease? Both of these can cause a diabetic to come out of remission and require a higher than usual amount of insulin. Diabetc cats wirh either conditon may need as much as 15 units of insulin twice daily.