Hi All - tonight will be my first time giving a shot and it's with ProZinc. The vet prescribed 2 units twice a day, but I'm planning to start low. The question is - how low should I go? Assuming that she tests in the 250 range tonight, should I go with .5 or 1? Appreciate any and all advice - thanks!
Hi Kris and welcome! I see from your signature that you're already hometesting, have set up our SS, and have changed food to a low carb wet food. It looks like you've been tracking to see if the food change alone would be enough and now you're ready to start insulin. So I feel sort of...unnecessary Just kidding! That's all the stuff we usually recommend in the beginning, so EXTREMELY well done! Now it looks like Kitty is doing well overall! Those preshots in the yellows are lovely. One thing I want to ask...are you using a human meter or the pet meter? I assume human meter but I want to be sure. If human meter, I'd recommend starting at 0.5 if over 200. If pet meter...same dose but if over 220. We often recommend 1 unit, but since Kitty's numbers are already VERY good, I think a bit smaller of a dose is a good plan. Then if needed, you can raise the dose pretty easily. I'd get a +2 (that means 2 hours after the shot in case you don't know that already) tonight so you can see where she's headed. A few other questions. Does Kitty have any other health problems? About what time will you be giving this shot? What time zone are you in? We can try to check in on you better if we know roughly when you'll be shooting and since we're in all different time zones, we just need to know which one you're in too! Please feel free to come by and ask questions whenever you want. Diabetes is tough and though you've done amazingly well already, the dosing part is hard to do on your own. Even when I got comfortable deciding my own dose, I still stopped by daily and reported numbers and asked for advice when I was unsure!
Thanks, Rachel! We're using an AlphaTrack2. Kitty is otherwise healthy, her appetite is good and she's drinking way less water than she'd been drinking prior to changing over to wet food. I'll be checking her BG at 5:30 CST and assuming that it's 220+, I'll start with .5 as I'd rather start low and move to a higher dose if necessary.
Sounds great! If you don't mind, would you add that you're using the AT meter to your signature? If you put it in red, that'll help draw our eyes to it so we'll remember.
BG came in at 241 so I drew up .5u and injected. I practiced and my goodness, that's really only a few drops, so I hope that I did this correctly. There was no wet spot on her when I pulled the needle out. She really hates to have her blood taken, so I'm not sure if I'll subject her to a two hour check, will monitor her behavior and see if there's a change. Thanks for all of the positive vibes!
Great start there KrisQ! Just chiming in real quick about injections. If you ever do feel wet fur at the injection site, this is known as a "fur shot", do not re-inject. Just let it be for that cycle because we never know how much actually went in the system. Also, never rub the injection site, it can effect the absorption rates of the insulin. Just give chin or ear scritches after test and a low carb treat. Many use the Freeze dried one's like PureBites. She might get used to the extra attention and love that comes with the testing. A few members here had semi feral kitty's at the beginning of treatments .
Not sure if I should be happy or concerned that she'll start bouncing, but kitty's BG was 101 when I tested her PM, so I didn't dose her. We shall see what tomorrow morning brings. Fingers crossed!
Wow! Well that's quite a low number. Definitely right not to shoot. Is there any way you can get some mid cycle testing in? It's the only way we know what's really going on. It doesn't have to be exactly at the midpoint...even a +2 or +3 at night before bed can help us! Not today, but next time you shoot, any additional data you can get will help us fill in the picture and see what's going on.
Extra data would be nice to have, but it's difficult to obtain as I work a lot. My plan is to try and do it over a weekend. Appreciate the advice!
