New to ProZinc, but better now

Hi there, First of all I have to say thank you to everyone whose post I have poured over, whose ss I have read line for line and all the times I have needed to read someone elses story just to compare #'s with. This website and all the sugar kittys fur families have been a life saver, thank you. This is long, sorry.

So here we go.... Putter was on Lantus starting Aug 4th and he was never quite right, he was having some huge swings in his BG's, a real roller coaster ride for him and I. He was absolutely starving all the time, PU/PD, very frantic for most of his day and into the long nights, howling, not in the best of moods and not himself by a long stretch. Well, we finally decided that Lantus (unfortunately) was not the insulin of choice for him. We switched him to ProZinc (not my choice, I preferred Lantus just because of everything I read and heard), his doc wants gentle curves even if the #'s are alittle high :shock: for awhile and after just 1 week I have noticed his #'s ARE coming down but not at that scary slam to the ground way but gently. Oh, he is hovering around the low 3's but he seems sooooo...much better. He is not scarfing his food, he is eating fairly close to his pre-diabetes days, no pu/pd, no howling at night, he is grooming his civvie friend once again, he was playing with his favorite mouse yesterday, he is once again rolling in the sun and chasing the dragon flies, he even happily brought one in the house for me the other night (lovely). All in all he seems so much better. We started him out on 1u BID. We are not so much worried about his higher #'s right now just want him to level out.

We were thinking that his liver was just screaming with the bouncing around that he was doing on Lantus and causing rebound, soooo...we are hoping with getting his #'s to level his liver will be happier.

It has certainly been a roller coaster for his dad and I (mostly me) and I am a fanatic at home testing, so the #'s freak me out. I am now looking at "the whole cat" and I am beginning to like what I see. I cannot tell you how many times I cried after seeing those crazy #'s. Looking at the whole cat is certainly the way to go. I see my kitty again as a whole not a #.

Thank you once again for all the great info and passion at taking care of the wonderful kitties.

 

It sounds like you have a good plan. How about attaching a spreadsheet to your posts so that people can see how his bg levels are doing? http://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=16 How to set up a spreadsheet.

It can take some cats several days to respond to the insulin so keep up the testing - before each shot and around nadir (+5-+6 or so) Are you sure feeding wet lo carb? http://www.felinediabetes.com/diabetic-cat-diets.htm 8-10% carbs is best, lower if you can.

You are absolutely right. It is best to consider the whole cat, not just the numbers, and in Putter's case, the whole cat sounds like he is improving.

 

Hi there. Welcome to the family. I am very much a newbie and I am just now starting to kind of get the hang of all of this. I just wanted to let you know that went through similar things with Missy. I have been very frustrated over the past few weeks because her numbers have been all over the place. Recently, she is more like herself. She's more talkative, she plays with toys I bet she didn't even realize she still had, she's been playing with the dog... So when she has 300+ BG days, it's hard to comprehend because she seems so good! I've actually gotten a little fanatic recently with her numbers. She spent a lot of time in the green and blue yesterday, so I seemed to be checking her every hour just to make sure she didn't get into the pink. Patience is not one of the virtues I inherited. We just have to remember that the roller coaster is to be expected. This is a marathon, not a sprint. I am so glad you found this board. Everyone here has been a lifesaver. They have talked me down from plenty of ledges. Good luck with everything. Hopefully Putter levels out soon.