Newbie still trying to figure this all out

Discussion in 'Feline Health - (Welcome & Main Forum)' started by LauraMcK, Jun 15, 2018.

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  1. LauraMcK

    LauraMcK Member

    Joined:
    Jun 4, 2018
    Hi All, I'm Laura and Finn is my recently diagnosed sugar baby. I'm glad to have found this forum and have been reading through some posts and getting my feet wet but wanted to wait until I had some numbers before posting. I think I've finally figured out the signature and spreadsheet today so here we go.

    Finn has a history of urinary blockages (he has had two, the last October 2016). He was eating prescription urinary s/o dry food and Hills Science urinary wet. He was diagnosed diabetic after I had taken him to the vet for wheezing and they wanted to give him steroids but checked his blood glucose first to ensure it was not high. It was high and they confirmed with fucosamine testing and diagnosed him with diabetes. The vet was not able to do an insulin curve (he would not allow them to touch him after the first check). He had originally been on 2 units prozinc but after the failed curve (10 days later and still had not successfully changed his diet at this point) they upped it to 3 units. The vet had prescribed Royal Canin glycobalance dry and Purina DM wet. While he was never lethargic, he was generally not acting himself. I found the facebook group then this forum and decided to step back and start over. Ordered the alphatrak dropped the prozinc to 1 unit with pre-shot testing and he's now eating mostly wellness core with some (greatly reduced from what he was used to) Dr. Elsey's dry.

    Some things to understand about my Finn - Finn was from a litter of kittens abandoned outside an apartment complex and he was the last of his litter to be captured. He was about 4-6 months old when I adopted him and had not really been socialized up until that point. I say this because there are limitations in how much I can handle him. Even after nearly 7 years, I am still the only person he allows to pet him and while I can pick him up he doesn't appreciate it and since his diagnosis he has been very skeptical of me coming near him. I can get pre-shot blood glucose but if I try to do too much he'll go into hiding (and also start hissing/growling/ and trying to bite me which he never did before). Suffice it to say while I appreciate all the cats that come and politely wait for testing and injection that is not my cat and I really doubt it ever will be but do hope it will get easier than its been.

    Sorry for the long preamble but advice from other semi-feral cat parents is particularly appreciated. He doesn't react to feliway, some improvement with the Jackson Galaxy scaredy cat. He was very food motivated but I have not found a compliant treat he responds to yet (tried various dehydrated treats but he's not interested) I can usually entice him out of hiding at shot time with the Dr. Elsey's dry food.

    My main question right now is how do I know if I should up his dose when I cannot really do a curve. His numbers have been pretty steady in the 200s in the morning and low 300s in the PMPS. I've tried to take some midday meters but they're not really significantly lower than AMPS. Should I go up to 2 units?
     
  2. Callie & Patches

    Callie & Patches Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jun 18, 2016
    Welcome, Laura. We have a Prozinc forum where you will be able to get good advise on how to change Finn's dose. We try to keep changing doses small. .25 or .5 is a safer change than going up or down a whole unit.

    My Callie is on Prozinc and her numbers are lowest about 7 or 8 hours after her shot. Every cat is different, so you might try testing at different times of the day on different days if necessary, since he doesn't like to be tested.

    Also, there is nothing special about what food the vets recommend. Just read the ingredients. Their not good. It helps to add water to the wet food to keep kitty well hydrated.
     
  3. Zoey & Carol

    Zoey & Carol Member

    Joined:
    Jan 4, 2015
    Laura,
    Welcome! There are a lot of great people with a ton of knowledge and experience here. My kitty Zoey has been on ProZinc for 3 1/2 years, so I have some experience with that. It looks like you would be fine increasing his dose a little. Maybe .5 units? Check with others on the ProZinc forum.
     
  4. LauraMcK

    LauraMcK Member

    Joined:
    Jun 4, 2018
    Thank you! I will try to get more midday tests thiscoming week and see if I can catch a drop
     
  5. LauraMcK

    LauraMcK Member

    Joined:
    Jun 4, 2018
    Thank you! I’ll post to the prozinc forum after I get some more numbers this week
     
  6. Idjit's mom

    Idjit's mom Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Apr 3, 2018
    Welcome to the board Laura. We also tried the freeze dried chicken treats and Idjit really like them at first but kind of lost interest. I found that baked chicken breast chunks really work. I just bake my chicken w/o seasonings, slice one breast into cat bite sized chunks, freeze them on flat cake pan and then store them in a zip lock bag in the freezer. We use them for ear pokes and ear cleaning, and so far he has not tired of them. I just pop a few in the microwave and warm them 10-15 seconds at a time, until they are thawed and juicy. Finn might like.
     
  7. Chris & Lucy

    Chris & Lucy Member

    Joined:
    Mar 5, 2017
    Hi Laura and Finn. Welcome. I can sympathize with you two, Lucy was a feral kitten just like Finn. She was the hardest to catch out of her 2 sisters and that's how I ended up with her. She doesn't really like other ppl and doesn't like to be picked up or handled much. It's made treatment challenging but we've found ways to get through it. You guys will have to find what works for you, or what works for Finn. Lol. Once you find a routine that will work it will get much easier to get done what you need to do. Feral cats are always hard to work with, but they do understand your trying to help them, sometimes it just takes a little longer, and you have to do things in a different way. It really takes amazing patience to take in a feral and you've already done that. :)
     
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