Muscle Twitching

Simba was dx on 4/25/11. Taking 2 units of ProZinc twice daily. I have noticed lately that my poor little guy is twitching his front legs quite a bit. When he's sleeping and gets up, it's almost like his front legs give out on him (not both at the same time) it's either one or the other. He usually shakes it off. Could this be a sign of too much insulin ? - I'm really concerned about this twitching. Does anyone have any thoughts on this ?

Yes, I'm still not doing hometesting. I think I need to find another vet for Simba. Since diagnosed on 4/25, he saw the vet for his 1st BG curve on 5/9 and that's when we went up to two units twice daily from one unit twice daily. The vet now wants to see him in August, but I think that's a long time for a newly diagnosed kitty.

Winni & Simba

 

It could be from too much insulin, and maybe not. But it is soooo simple to test Simba at home and then you won't be guessing. And you are absolutely correct - waiting until August to test bg again is way too long after doubling the dose.

Do you know that the numbers were at the vet's when the curve was done? What food is Simba eating? These two pieces of information are important for members to be able to offer you suggestions for things that might help Simba. But truly, the best thing that you can do is trot over to Walmart and pick up a Relion glucometer, test strips, a box of 28 or 29 gauge lancets and a lancing device if you do not want to poke freehand. Depending on how high his bg has been, you might also want to pick up ketone testing sticks to test the urine.

Home testing is not hard. You've already mastered the insulin shots, so obviously you are competent to test. And you won't have to take Simba to the vet in August and spend more $$$. You can simply email your spreadsheet showing your daily test numbers. Say the word and you'll have lots of help learning. If you want to post your city (not address), there may be a member nearby who would offer to teach you in person if you'd like.

edited - oops - I see that you have your city posted already.

 

This post is not to scare, but to warn....nicely...... as my own experience with being too scared to test! so i did not that nite- WOW! My sugar Bean was shot with approx. 1.25 u and at +2 was only 26~~~ this whole group helped me thru bringing her numbers up and she made it through it!!! What a blessing! PLEASE PLEASE DONT SHOOT WITHOUT TESTING!
just saying it is the most important part of all of this!
Mom to sugar bean, civvie slappy and heart patient girl Gumpy

 

Took my little guy Simba for a 2nd opinion today since I was not happy with my previous vet. The new vet recommends to take out dry food completley which I did when I got home. My previous vet said ok to leave him on dry. You guys were so right about the dry food.

The muscle twitching could neuropathy. The most surprising thing is this, the new vet pricked his year and Simba's glucose was 187 at 3:30pm today which I was so amazed. I have been feeding him as much wet food as possible with just a little dry, but dry is completely OFF as of today. Yes, I have been scared about doing hometesting, but after seeing the vet do it, it doesn't seem so bad. This new vet recommends hometesting. I think I will start pricking his ear but not as much as some people do it.

She does want me to leave Simba on 2 units of ProZinc twice daily and she will see him again in two weeks as appose to my other vet who wanted to see Simba in 3 months after newly diagnosed. I work all day. So I will feed him one can of Fancy Feast, 3ounce in the A.M. another one at 6pm and just before I go to bed. I hope he does NOT starve with no dry food through out the day. Does anyone else feed their diabetic cat this way ?

Sad news thou. My poor Simba needs like 4-5 teeth pulled out. My previous vet said only a cleaning, but the new vet wants to remove his fangs which is digging into his bottom gums, plus one of the fangs is rotting at the very top. The new vet said dental disease can be serious with a cat who has diabetes; therefore I will take care of this probably by next month.... OMG, my Simba is only 9 yrs old and I feel like he's falling apart. Both my husband and I are devastated about the dental issue, but I think it will be best in the long run for Simba.. This is so hard....I love my Simba. Thank you all for your support and the excellent advice you have giving me. This is truly an amazing site.

I will continue with the new vet who said also said nothing but good about this site.

 

My cat Kitty is 15.8 and on Prozinc.

She has been very hard to regulate and is on 4 units twice a day. This is a little higher than most cats here. The good people here realizing Kitty's higher dose continually pushed me to see if there was anything "abnormal" going on to influence her higher numbers. I won't get into everything she has been through-- but, after the encouragement here I started looking at her teeth. Last week, I noticed an ulcerated place on her upper jaw above her canine tooth. I took her to the vet, who suggested a dental.

During the dental she lost 3 teeth. The canine tooth had abscessed and infection was in her bone. They had to do a bone graft. I tell you all this, so you will realize Simba will be okay! Kitty is doing better and I know her teeth have to feel better.

The antibiotics have been the worse part for her.

Good luck with Simba!

 

OMG, PLEASE hometest before each shot! PLEASE! If you're taking him completely off dry food, AND keeping the insulin dose the same, it's very likely he'll dip dangerously low w/o the carbs he was used to with the dry food. If you're going to keep him on 2 units of insulin, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE test before each shot!!! Please start a new thread too, once you start hometesting & dosing.. so that people that are familiar with your insulin can help you reach the right dose.

PLEASE consider dropping the dose, or asking for others' opinions in a new thread here though... when you take dry food out of the equation, the insulin needs usually drop drastically! My Cuddles went OFF insulin altogether w/o dry food!

P.S. I think most of our cats do completely fine with 2-3 daily (wet) feedings with no dry left out for them.

 

How much dry food was Simba eating in a day? Steph's concern is very valid in that if you are keping the insulin at the same dose but removing a significant source of carbs, it could drop his bg too low for safety. I don't use Prozinc, so I'm not sure how long you have to hold each dose, but I'm wondering if you should drop the dose to 1 unit and remove all the dry food when you start hometesting. Perhaps someone else can offer suggestions on this aspect.

If you want to leave food out for Simba to graze on during the day, a suggestion is to mix some of his canned food with a little less than an equal amount of water to make a slurry and then freeze it in ice cube trays. You can leave some frozen food out for Simba to eat as it thaws.

I'd also like to point out that dental infection is one of the things that sometimes pushes a cat into a diabetic state. Once the dental is done and infection cleared up, Simba's insulin needs may drop considerably.

Have you watched the hometesting videos? It really isn't that difficult as you have seen. Like everything, a little practice and you'll be a testing wizard in no time.

 

Winni, If Simba were your human child, would you shoot insulin in him without knowing what his number is ? If you really love Simba YOU MUST TEST!! We have had so many kitties hypo lately, mostly from changing food and not testing. Go back through the posts and search hypo .... read the all night vigils people did to try and keep their cats alive, it is heartbreaking.

It is not that hard, if you can give shots, you can test. My Payne gets three shots a day and I would never put insulin in her without knowing if it was safe .... testing lets you know if its safe to shoot, why would you not do it? Plus you have a whole community to help you. ;-) and for now feed him as much as he wants.

Nancy and Payne

 

I hope my post didn't come across as harsh, but I noticed it was posted earlier this afternoon... so not sure if your kitty got the nightly shot, and then tomorrow morning's shot before you check in here. Just worried about your kitty getting too much insulin. :sad:

Please check in & update when you can!

 

To both Winni & Kse

I hope both of you are hometesting. After a dental, many diabetic cats end up needing less insulin. If they are in any pain or have an infection, that will affect their BG levels. Once the cause of the pain or infection is removed, their BG levels also drop. I am concerned for both of you that you may cause your cats to become hypoglycemic by giving too much insulin. That is one reason that hometesting is so important.

 

My cat was diagnosed at Easter and I started homes testing him a couple of days after starting him on Lantus. I'm not going to lie - it can be quite a pain in the butt, but it MUST be done. I have sevarl diabetic friends and they all test before taking insulin.

Cedric ate both canned and dry, 2x daily. I work 7 days a week, and am gone at least 9 hours a day. On May 19th, this group finally convinced me to take the dry food away (even though it was grain free, high protien and low carb) and Cedric's numbers dropped about 100pts (see spsh). Two days later his numbers have been normal, and remain so. He has not had insulin since may 21st.

My cat is almost 6. he's 17.6 lbs. He's getting some more exercise (we moved into the townhouse I bought a week before his diagnosis) along with his diet change. I now feed him all canned (Wellness and Evo, both grain free, high protien & low carbs) and I give him 1/4 of a 5.5oz can 4 times per day: 6am, then I leave a frozen 1/4 that I put in the freezer the night before, as it will thaw during the day; then around 4:45pm or when I get home from work, and then a final 1/4 between 8 and 9pm. I am waiting on the Cat mate 2 meal auto feeder to come in the mail. It comes with ice packs and I am hoping to set this up so his mid-day meal is eaten late morning ish, and then another one maybe around 3ish instead of when I get home.

I have a relion micro meter that I bought at Wal-Mart for around $10. It comes with a lancing device that I have never used. I heat up Cedric's ear, which he doesn't like, then prick him - sometimes once, sometimes 10 times - he doesn't care for that either, but loves the grain free cat treat he gets afterwards, so he puts up with it. I still test, surrently every other day. Please home test, especially since you are not home during the day.

 

I'm brand new to this also (as of May 30th)... just removed dry food over the weekend and started home testing...

Over the weekend i YouTubed glucose testing in diabetic cats and there are a ton of video's on there. The vid's really make it look easy... and to my surprise... it IS EASY! i don't even think he feels it.

Just dive in! don't hesitate!