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Hi everyone - I am here because I will be fostering a diabetic kitty hopefully starting next week via a local shelter. His name is Andy, about 6 yrs old. I don't have too much info on him yet, only know they originally tried him on Lantus but could not get him stable so just switched him to some type of PZI and he is doing much better. I was a member here about 10 years ago when I had a wonderful diabetic boy who lived over 15 yrs, 8 of which he was diabetic. I give a lot of credit to the wonderful people on this forum for helping me over those trying times. So I am back again - thank you for having me!

 

Welcome back, Yvonne, and bless you for fostering Andy. You might check out the protocol we put together for ProZinc (or PZI - they work the same) it's in my signature in blue. Also, be sure to check out the threads and spreadsheets in the PZi forum to see how others are doing with the insulin.

 

As someone who works for an animal center, I know how hard it is to get fosters, especially a foster for a diabetic kitty. Thank you so much for helping Andy!

 

Welcome back to FDMB.
Check out my signature link Secondary Monitoring Tools for some assessments, besides blood glucose testing, you may find helpful in managing Andy's health. (I suspect you're already familiar with many of these if you volunteer with ashelter!)

 

I picked up Andy yesterday. They put him on ProZinc 6 units 2 x day. Last night he tested at 240 - gave 6 units. This morning he was 401 - gave 6 units. This evening he was 459 - gave 7 units but he jerked and I missed a little. A friend thinks 6 units is really high. I am not familiar with this newer ProZinc as my experience was 10 yrs ago. I was given Purina DM wet and dry and told he eats 1/2 5.5oz can plus abt a heaping Tablespoon dry. He is not a large cat. I don't feed my other cats that much volume but I never used the DM product so in the dark here. Any gut reaction on all of this? At this point, I am following drs orders ........

 

Hi Yvonne. Its wonderful that you are fostering Andy. He's a lucky kitty. 6u 2x/day is pretty high. Are you getting any tests in the mid point of his cycle, around +6 or so? That will tell you if he's dropping low and bouncing back up at preshot time. You may want to post in the ProZinc forum too. The people there are great and a big help!

 

Hey Yvonne! Sharon is right; that is a very high dose of ProZinc. We suggest to Start Low and Go Slow approach. Most cats start at about 1 unit and then the insulin is raised in increments of .20 - .25 %. Can you find out what his BG is and are you home testing because that will be a more realistic idea of what his numbers are. Once you find out that info, post again and the members here can help you with dosing. You are a wonderful person to take on such a job as a diabetic kitty. Bless you!!!

 

Just rereading this, yes, I think your friend is correct. My cat's preshots are a little lower than 401 and he is on 2 units. I think I would scale back a lot and work up if you need to. With a dose that high there could be a lot of bouncing and you might miss what the correct dose should be. Also I am going to give you a link for a food chart so you can look up the foods you are giving him. We recommend that you keep the carbs under 10 %. 8- 10% is best. Dry food is usually way to high so if you can get him to eat just a low carb wet, that would be best. Also, if you change his food to a lower carb one, please make sure that you are testing him preshots as he could lower up to 100 points just from going to a lower carb food. You don't want to shoot insulin if he is 200 or below being a newly diabetic cat. Here is the link foodchart


Could you post in the ProZinc forum tomorrow morning for some more experienced eyes to help you with dosing. Like I said, I really think 6 units is way too much for him He could be experiencing bouncing from the high dose and if you keep raising his dose, he s going to keep bouncing.

 

OK - will do that.