New and overwhelmed

Hi all. I have been reading a lot of things this past week. My 9 yr old Kitty, Izzy was diagnosed with diabetes when we visited the vet for sudden inappropriate urinary behaviors. Her urine was clear, and coincidently we have had a leaky bathtub so I didn’t realize the “water” wasn’t water at all.
Vet gave us Prozinc and was told to take her off dry food, put all the furbabies on scheduled feeds and give Izzy 2units, every 12 hours after food.
She said to come back in a month for recheck.
The nurse quietly told me I can test her at home and push that visit to 4 weeks.
I purchased a human meter yesterday and would like to check her but I am not sure WHEN to do it? Before she is fed? After? How long after?
I see that some people use the rear foot pad to test or the ear... the ear makes me fee uncomfortable because it is so thin. Maybe I am being ridiculous but I’m not trying to give her pierced ears I bought some disposable lancet devices so I’ll probably use those over the lancet pen that will likely be what I use. Am I being realistic with this concern?


Be didn’t tell me what her numbers should be, it seems she wants to depend on the recheck instead. Are numbers weight specific?

 

Welcome! I know it all seems overwhelming at first. There's so much to learn, but it really does get easier.

Have you seen the Beginners Guide to Prozinc yet?
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/...prozinc-pzi-insulin-for-diabetic-cats.164995/
There's a lot of useful info there. Cleo was diagnosed in March, but I still refer to that thread regularly.

 

Thank you! I haven’t stumbled across that yet. I will take a look.
Your kitty is very cute!

 

Thanks! Cleo thinks she's cute too.

If you post your questions in the Main Forum, you'll get more responses.
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/forums/feline-health-the-main-forum.28/

 

Welcome, and it really does get easier. We all started out in the same place and you will have lots of help and support here. Congratulations on home testing already. The testing definitely gets easier with practice and time. A treat for kitty each time, successful or not, and a treat for you too!

 

Cleo gets a treat before and after each test or injection. She knows it and, if she thinks I've forgotten to give her insulin, she'll remind me. She's very persuasive.

 

Welcome! 2 units is a large starting dose for ProZinc. The starting dose is normally 1 unit. Testing is very important to keep her safe. So, it is great that the nurse suggested it. Two hours before your shot time, you will want to remove any food to which she has access. Then, at shot time, test her glucose level first then feed her and give her the shot (a lot of people give the shot while the cat is eating and distracted). The point of testing before the shot is to make sure the glucose level is high enough to warrant the insulin dose. Any tests you can do during the cycle (hours between shots) will help you see what impact the insulin dose is having. With ProZinc, you should expect her glucose level to be highest right before shot time then go down until it hits it's lowest (called nadir) then head back up by the next shot time. Nadir occurs at different times, but generally is somewhere between 4 and 8 hours after the shot.

It is good that the vet told you to take her off of dry food. A high-protein, low-carb wet food diet is best. There is a link in my signature to a cat food database that can help you pick foods to try. Carbs should be kept under 10%, preferably much lower than that even. It is not necessary to feed only twice a day. So, if that ends up not working for you, do not feel like you have to do it. You do want to make sure she has no food access two hours before her pre-shot glucose test so that the results will not be impacted by food, but beyond that, it is fine for her to have access to the wet food throughout the day. Many of us feed three or four times per day and leave the leftovers out for grazing.

If you have questions related specifically to Prozinc, like dosing questions, please post them on the Prozinc forum. If you have questions about other things, please post them on the main health forum.

 

OH, and I forgot to say.. Testing on the ear is best. You want to hit between the edge of the ear and the vein, not directly on the vein. This is the least painful place to do it. I do not use the lancing device I hold the lancet and free-hand the poke. Do not worry about going all the way through the ear. That is probably going to happen on occasion, but it is fine. It will not leave her with a pierced ear... no diamond earrings for her!

 

Thank you very much for the reply, I was wondering about how often people usually feed She used to be a grazer but her appetite was never that big. She had taken to eating the dog's food so now we pick up the bowl after her "rest" as my kids call it. I feed her first, then put her in a cat carrier that my 12 yr old has fluffed up with pillows etc for the other animals to eat because she will push the dog right out of her bowl to get to the kibble. I'm learning lots here, and want to thank everyone for their input and support. I love my Izzyboo and want it all right, but I'm finding out there IS a learning curve. However, I am switching all my kitty's over to a wet only food diet. I am looking for a suitably priced brand that I can give to all 3 of them, without the kids having to go hungry in the process!

 

HAHAHA No BLING?! She would look so purdy though LOL

 

When we were starting out, I only feed Cleo twice a day. That's what the vet recommended. She had always been a grazer though and it just didn't work out for us. She gets four meals a day now. Breakfast, lunch (I'm fortunate to be able to come home during my lunch break), dinner, and bedtime. I feel like I scrape a lot of crusty, old canned food into the trash, but at least I know they aren't going hungry.

 

Since reading a little bit, I realize now that the prozinc is a long acting insulin and it's ok to feed without a dose The vet wasn't very clear unfortunately.
Last night I had to work late and my oldest daughter fed Izzy but she couldn't give her the shot (she's got a needle phobia) but I gave her a little food when I came home at 2am and gave her the insulin then. She was a couple hours off schedule but hopefully that wont need to happen often. We've got a lot going on and 3 of us CAN dose her but now I want to check her levels before doing so at least every few days. I checked her tonight before I fed her, it had been a long stretch since she had last eaten (I fed her when I got up at 10am, after going to bed at 3am cause I worked my 2nd job last night) so it had been 10 hours since she had been fed. her number was 348. I have her 2 units as prescribed.

 

I urge you to test before EVERY shot and to get mid-cycle tests in any time you can. It is dangerous not to test before a shot. If her level is lower than expected and you give her 2u of insulin, you could cause her to become hypoglycemic. That is very dangerous. A lot of people come here not understanding how important the testing is, but the first time their cat has a bad hypo episode, they learn and do not make that mistake again. Also, the only way to know the impact of the insulin dose is to get in mid-cycle tests, too. Otherwise, you may end up giving too high a dose of insulin and not realizing it for a while because too much insulin can sometimes look like not enough... meaning the pre-shot glucose levels may go up so you think the insulin is not enough, but actually, the cat has gone too low and 'bounced' up into high numbers as their body's response to it.

 

Please be aware that changing to a low-carb food can significantly lower the blood glucose (BG) -- sometimes 100 points or more -- so it's important that you get those pre-shot BG values as well as tests midway through the cycle when possible. My Chip was diagnosed as diabetic and as soon as I switched to low carb food, his BG dropped dramatically and he didn't need insulin. It doesn't happen for all cats but it does happen. Had I been shooting "blind" I could have put his life at risk.

Testing will also help you determine whether 2u is too high of a starting dose. With the food change, it just might be.

As for testing sites, I've always found the ears to be the easiest. They have a lot of blood vessels but not a lot of nerve endings so it really doesn't hurt them.