Hello

My cat, Koal--a 12-year-old solid black American short-haired cat--was diagnosed with diabetes nearly two and a half years ago. He nearly died with ketoacidosis, after being misdiagnosed by his vet. After spending nearly a week in the small animal clinic at Auburn University's school of veterinary medicine, he was able to come home and has been on 1-3 units of Glargine twice daily. His bg was stabilized (generally between 150-250) until about three months ago, when suddenly they hit the mid- and upper 300's, with some readings in the 400's. My present vet and I decided to change his insulin about a month ago to Pro Zinc, which is not working well at all. His numbers have gone from 4oo+ to 60 in about 4 hours or less. (I had to get out the Karo syrup a few days ago!) He has had a UT infection for about a month and is taking 25 Mg. of Zenequin daily for it. This antibiotic makes him sleep most of the time, and, being a finnicky eater anyway, he refuses to eat when on the Zenequin. I've reduced the dosage to 12.5 Mg., and he's eating better. I am looking for another kind of insulin--one that lasts longer and doesn't produce the highs and lows that I'm getting (home testing) with Pro Zinc. I've seen the various insulin groups that are posting comments. I look forward to exchanging information and ideas with others about feline diabetes.

missanne

 

Hi there,
Welcome to the message board.

I don't really have any insulin advice, but I was curious - could Koal have had an infection of some sort when his numbers started to go up initially? And will his current infection be okay with a reduced dose of antibiotic?

Hopefully others will have advice for you. Glad to hear you're already hometesting. One of the things people will ask you to do is to set up a Google spreadsheet with his numbers so that people can get a better idea of what's happening. Here's a link to instructions on how to set one up:
http://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=16

Odiesmom

 

Welcome to our board! For the glucose to drop that much in 4 hours on ProZinc means that the dose is way way way too high - that is not a normal response at all for ProZinc. I know other users will chime in soon - but I wanted to make sure you knew that it is not a normal occurrence at all! How many units of ProZinc is your kitty getting at each shot?

 

Hi there,

I agree with Kelly, my guess is that the Prozinc dose is too high. In any case, dropping from 400 to 60 on any insulin is too far too fast. I also wonder if maybe something else was going on when his BG suddenly rose a few months ago. Was he thoroughly checked out at that time?