Just looking for advise please

My cat Cubby and I have been trying to battle since his diagnosis at the end of November. I haven't received any help from the Vet at all. Everything I've learned is from facebook and FDMB. So far I have started transitioning him to Fancy Feast and testing his blood. We changed from 2 large meals to 4 smaller meals. Every day he is in the 300-450 range. He's on 1u ProZinc every 12hrs... he is acting like he's starving to death. He's still drinking like crazy. Walking flat footed and having trouble jumping onto things. I have no idea what to do. I plan on cutting out the dry completely but I'm afraid that if he doesn't have something to bulk it up he will eat way too fast and vomit. Then he will also eat me out of house and home because he's going to be starving. He's lost so much weight.... idk what to do. Should I up the dose of insulin? I'm not a vet... I hate to try to make these decisions. This has been a very expensive and frustrating adventure. I love my cat but he seems uncomfortable. He's very lethargic... Doesn't even cuddle like he used to and only purrs right before feeding times anymore. Advise would be appreciated. Sorry if this is a rant...

 

I know it's only been a little less than 3 weeks... I hope I'm not jumping the gun or anything. He just seems to be getting worse and worse no matter what I do.

 

Sorry you are struggling. We can definitly help with dosing and other advice. So glad you are home testing, that will make a big difference.

Of you will set up a spreadsheet for us to see the numbers, or post a log of his readings that will really help us to help you with dosing advice. we need to see both the preshots, and how low he's going. If the lowest he's going mid cycle (around 6 hours after shot) is still in the 300's, then it's time to raise the dose a bit.

He is starving because unregulated diabetic cats need more food. You can feed as often as he needs it, esp. since he's underweight... just not two hours prior to the preshot test.

If you aren't already giving Zobaline for his leg neurapathy, order it TODAY. That along with a more regulated bg level is what's going to help him heal.

it does take a while to regulate. remember it's a marathon, not a sprint. We can help you.

 

Most vets have NO CLUE how to dose. Pretty sure you will get better advice here then with your vet. With time you will get more confident in how to dose, and until there we will help. You can post your numbers here or on the prozinc board for specific dosing advice. I don't want to say for sure "yeah, give 1.5u now" without seeing your numbers, ya know?

 

here's the instructions for setting up the spreadsheets like the one's you see in our signatures. It can be a little tricky, so if you need help just let us know and someone can set it up for you and then you can just plug in the numbers. http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/fdmb-spreadsheet-instructions.130337/

 

Hey there--

So sorry to hear you and Cubby are having such a rough time!

@JanetNJ just posted pretty much everything I was about to write, lol, so I guess I'll just say "ditto!" to everything she said!

I will emphasize how critical putting the numbers you've already got from home testing into spreadsheet form so others can see it is. From what you've said it certainly sounds like Cubby does need more insulin, but most of us here aren't willing to give specific advice without seeing a fair bit of data. Weirdly enough, it's possible for too much insulin to look like too little, producing high BG numbers-- so to be safe we'd have to see the pattern over several days before making a judgement on the dose.

Good luck, let us know if you have problems with the spreadsheet instructions or have other questions!

 

Thanks everyone... I will work on the spreadsheet. It's a little tough for me right now because I'm without a computer... but I have been working on paper. He is okay with letting me test him but I still struggle to get enough blood. I warm his ear, use oil and all the tips and tricks I've found on youtube and here. I just hate to poke him more than 3 times since it just makes him mad. Then his numbers go up. I'll try my daughter's tablet for the spreadsheet.

 

M

make sure to use big enough lancets