hello and first I want to say thank for for this site and all who have responded to me in the general forum. So my “little” is newly diagnosed and have been giving 1 unit of Prozinc for 12 days. I just got an alpha track and have taken 4 readings over 15 hrs. First was last night before food and insulin and she was at 379. 1 and a half hours after food and insulin she was at 316. This am before food and insulin we got 433!! And 2 and a half hours later 385. And boy is getting blood tough. That being said the vet recommends I double the Prozinc dose to 2 units starting tonight. I am terrified of a hypoglycemic reaction. Anyone have any simlair Prozinc stories that involve what I do seiser a drastic dose increase? Thank you in advance for any help.
Hi folks, Lisa is doing a great job taking care of Little! We were talking on the Intro Forum, but I feel like you ProZinc pros could help her better. I've also directed her to the Treating Hypos and Hypo Toolbox stickies for reference, but would appreciate advice from you knowledgeable ProZinc users. (I'm a Lantus gal). If you could take the time to help her out, it would be much appreciated
Hi Lisa, welcome! The prozinc forum is a small one and sometimes it takes awhile to get an answer, but the folks here will give you great advice! In the meantime, have you had a chance to read the yellow stickies at the top of the forum page? There’s some great info in them. You mention it’s tough to get blood. What problems are you having? ETA HERES the link to your welcome post
Thank you I was not aware of the yellow stickies I thought that was someone’s name LOL. The difficulty I am having getting blood is she just does not want to sit still And now I think I’ve just freaked her out
Try some desensitization exercises with her. Take her to the test spot, but no test, just rub her ear, pet her and give her a treat then let her go. Do this as often as you can so she doesn’t think every time is a poke.
Hi Lisa and Little! Welcome to the Prozinc forum! We're a small group, so sometimes it can take a bit to get an answer, but we all try to check in several times a day (I'm doing my afternoon check in now which is how I found your post!). Sharon has given you great info on desensitization. Her advice is spot on and I would encourage you to do that as often as you can at first. She'll start to see that spot as good (and all kitties love a good bribe...er...treat!). I even had special treats that were just for testing. It got to the point in my house that if I shook the lancet box, not just my diabetic but ALL cats would come running...I always had a audience at test time! I see you're using an Alpha Trak meter. That's fine, but I would add it to your signature if you don't mind. We can read from both human and pet meters but the numbers are different so we have to be sure we know what we're talking about! Okay as for dosing I do NOT recommend jumping to 2 units. Little really isn't in bad numbers, and a 1 unit jump is too much for our little cats. We usually go no more than 0.5 units at a time. With Little's numbers, I would recommend increasing only by 0.25 at a time for now. I know you're having trouble testing, but it would really help if you get get some test in at the +5 - +7 hours (that means 5 to 7 hours after the shot). That will help us know how low the insulin is taking Little, which is part of what we base dosing off of. Any chance you could get one test in that time frame? I know hypo is scary, but Little seems to be in very good and safe numbers so far. 2 and a half hours after insulin this morning, she hadn't dropped too far. With the pet meter, 68 is what we call the take action number (this doesn't mean the cat is in hypo...it means that the cat COULD be going that way, so you want to take action to prevent it). With a number of 385, Little has over 200 points to drop before that...and that's a lot. It's not impossible, but it is less likely since most cats hit the lowest point of their cycle 5-7 hours after the shot (this isn't exact...some cats are different than that, but it's what we usually see). IF you ever have a hypo, post both here and in the Main forum so you can get as many eyes as possible. There's a 911 icon that you can use that will get your post pretty fast attention. There's almost always someone around on some forum, and we've walked people through hypos plenty of times. Okay, I don't want to overwhelm you, so I'm going to stop here for now. Please let me know what questions you have! We are here to help and we know this is a steep learning curve...we want to be sure we are giving you whatever you need!
Hi Lisa and Little! Welcome to Prozinc! First, congrats on taking the necessary steps to care for Little with home testing and reading up on stuff. I'd like to just second what everyone has written so far. Find a comfortable spot for you both and definitely do the desensitization practice. It really does help. Also, when you're actually testing, try humming or singing out loud- this tends to relax us and in return, allows our babies to calm down a bit as well. Please don't give up! I had been testing my boy Pita for over a month (time flies, don't remember exact timing) with relative ease when all of a sudden he decided he didn't like it anymore. Boy, let me tell you it was a hard time for me. I had to burrito him, which caused him to hiss and get mad. I'd be bawling...it was just bad. That being said, I did not give up! I just let him have his tantrums and we eventually worked through it. It is so possible to make testing easy and almost 'fun'. Pita literally comes running to the spot when hears me go there and immediately sits and PURRS THE ENTIRE TIME! I also agree with not jumping the dose that quickly. It seems like vets just assume that whole unit jumps are the only way cats see a change! I have seen a huge change in numbers from Pita with a 0.1 increase in insulin. That's maybe a couple drops more, but it seriously does change. So, I think doing 0.25 at a time for right now is also the best and safest way to go for the moment. Welcome again and ask a million questions! I used to number all of mine because I had so many! Not that you ever wanted to be in this situation, but you're in a great place for support, advice, comfort, venting, anything at all! I hope you and Little have a great weekend
Hi Lisa and Little! Rachel, Caitlin, and Sharon have already given you great advice, so I'm just going to say hi and welcome to our little group!
