Chloe's vet visit (WITH mama, this time!)

She's so well behaved at the vet now, it's almost unbelievable. Good thing I brought my meter, as he drew blood to send to lab, and then we tested with my meter. FIRST, he didn't wait for the countdown on the meter and put all this blood on the test strip. Had to throw THAT strip out and use my LAST ONE (*cries* I was going to use the last one this morning, then when my Hocks order arrives tonight, start with the new vial). Her BG at the vet was 97 (97 and OTJ for a whole week!!!). He said to call Thursday at noon to see how it compares with the lab.

He gave us a bit of info. Her liver was slightly affected by the diabetes, but her creatinine (sp?) levels were ok with her kidney. Her WBC and RBC were all good. He also said that if Chloe goes into remission, she will be the first FD cat he's ever treated who's done this (and he's been in practice for almost 40 years). He also said that out of everyone, maybe 1 or 2 have ever been as dedicated with me as far as hometesting and researching. He even patted me on the shoulder and said that I helped educate him.

He said that Chloe can either be going into remission (I brought this up by asking if taking her off her crappy dry food and giving her just a few drops of insulin could have kicked her pancreas into gear) OR that we gave her too much insulin to start off on (1 unit of ProZinc 2x a day). He said that her numbers might start creeping up and creeping up and if that happens, then we start her on half that dose to regulate her. I asked if we'd do .5u 2x a day, and he said no, 1u once a day. But isn't ProZinc a 12 hour insulin? That made no sense to me. AND he said to only shoot if she goes over 200. Ah HAH, that's a little different than at first saying if she goes over 70 to shoot, and then amending that and saying 150. 200 is a number I can agree with (thank to you all).

Peter said that last time he brought Chloe, the vet was incredulous that he was there, because he thought Chloe was doing well, and Peter said he almost seemed exasperated that we didn't give her the insulin. Now he understood why, because MAMA came and mama showed all the numbers and talked up a storm. No one's gonna tell me to give my cat insulin if she doesn't need it. NO way, NO how.

That's it for now. She's doing well. She's up to 11.5 lbs now (she had lost a bit of weight prior to her DX) and is looking healthy. Thank you SO MUCH for all the advice, guys!! :thumbup

 

That's great news :mrgreen:

It would seem any insulin used in feines should be administered BID as they 'metabolise' the insulin much faster than humans (and dogs), so I'd say you are correct.
People with OTJ kitties tend to check a few times a week initially and then drop off, but monitor food and water intake and peeing.

You could check in with the honeymooners group-learn more as you go.

As you mention Prozinc, I don't suppose you could put your thoughts on this insulin on another thread on here. It should be somewhere in the last 10 posts or so. Someone was asking about the different insulins, but no-one knows much about Prozinc. Thanks :smile:

 

Good for you in being such a good advocate!

As for 1 unit once a day? Sheesh, silly man

Jen

 

Found it-this one

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=4978

 

I'm half tempted to print out the information from the ProZinc website and show that it has a duration of effect in cats from 10-14 hours. Derf, once a day isn't gonna cut it, doc. Come on, now. Would it be terribly insulting if I brought this up? It's better that he knows.

 

I'd bring up the info for sure, respectfully. And you can back it up with testing data if she goes back on....do note though that for some cats, SID (once a day) dosing does work when they are borderline needing insulin or not...but then you'd likely be doing 0.5 units once a day...maybe...