Cosmo Alan Paw - Binghamton NY

He was a street cat in Sidney NY and lived through the 2006 and 2011 floods - so we know he is over 13 years old. Has moved with us, even while we were floating 'homeless' after FEMA bought and tore down our house in 2015. Moved to our newly built home in spring of 2016. Diagnosed Diabetic after 2017 August Eclipse watching vacation. 16 lbs neutered male on 4-5 units of Prozinc every 12 hrs. Mackerel Tabby (?European shorthair?) Jim & Elva run his errands. no spreadsheet yet.

 

He is beautiful! Welcome Jim, Elva and Cosmo.

 

He's a gorgeous boy!welcome to you all. Wonderful you now have him and helping his diabetes.
What are you feeding him?
How did you arrive at the 4-5 units Prozinc, that is a large dose?
Have you thought about home testing the blood sugars? That will keep Cosmo safe and will tell you how the Prozinc is affecting his blood sugar levels.
You might like to post over on the Prozinc page where there are people who give the same insulin as you do. Here is the link
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/forums/prozinc-pzi.24/

@Kris & Teasel @JanetNJ may be able to help you.
Bron

 

Welcome to you and your very handsome boy! He's a lucky kitty for sure!

I agree that 4-5 units of ProZinc is a high dose for a newly diagnosed kitty. Some cats get there eventually after many careful dose increases over a long time but it's still very early in his treatment. I, too, would like to know how it was arrived at.

Here's a ton of information I put together for new members. Read it through and ask a lot of questions.
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It would help us if you set up your signature (light grey text under a post). Here's how: This gives us key info at a glance.

• click on your name in the upper right corner of this page
• click on "signature" in the men that drops down
• type the following in the box that opens: kitty's name/age/date of diabetes diagnosis/insulin you're using /glucose meter you're using/what he eats/any other meds or health issues he has.

Another thing that will help us help you now that you've started BG testing at home is to set up a spreadsheet like the one we use here. We can all see it and look at it before offering advice: http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/fdmb-spreadsheet-instructions.130337/

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Here's the basic testing routine we recommend: This is the basis of how we approach dosing.

1. test every day AM and PM before feeding and injecting (no food at least 2 hours before) to see if the planned dose is safe
2. test at least once near mid cycle or at bedtime daily to see how low the BG goes
3. do extra tests on days off to fill in the response picture
4. if indicated by consistently high numbers on your spreadsheet, increase the dose by no more than 0.25 u at a time so you don't accidentally go right past a good dose
5. post here for advice whenever you're confused or unsure of what to do.

This is useful: http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/hometesting-links-and-tips.287/ ← very useful

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Here's an explanation of what we call "bouncing". It explains why a kitty's BG can go from low to sky high: This is a common phenomenon.

1. BG goes low OR lower than usual OR drops too quickly.
2. Kitty's body panics and thinks there's danger (OMG! My BG is too low!).
3. Complex physiologic processes take glycogen stored in the liver (I think of it as "bounce fuel"), convert it to glucose and dump it into the bloodstream to counteract the perceived dangerously low BG.
4. These processes go into overdrive in kitties who are bounce prone and keep the BG propped up varying lengths of time (AKA bouncing).
5. Bounce prone kitty repeats this until his body learns that healthy low numbers are safe. Some kitties are slow learners.
6. Too high a dose of insulin can keep them bouncing over and over until the " bounce fuel" runs out and they crash - ie., have a hypo episode. That's why we worry so much about kitties that have had too high a starting dose prescribed by the vet and the owner isn't home testing.

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Here are some tips on how to do urine ketone testing (VERY important if BG is high and kitty isn't eating well!): A lot easier than you think.

• put the end of the test strip right in his urine stream as he's peeing
• slip a shallow, long handled spoon under his backside to catch a little pee - you don't need much
• put a double layer of plastic wrap over his favourite part of the litter box and poke some depressions in it too catch pee.

Most test strips have to be dipped and allowed to develop for 15 seconds before viewing the colour change in very good light.