Teddy diagnosed May 12, 2016

Discussion in 'Feline Health - (Welcome & Main Forum)' started by Heidi Korkosz, May 27, 2016.

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  1. Heidi Korkosz

    Heidi Korkosz New Member

    Joined:
    May 12, 2016
    I'm Heidi and I have three indoor cats, Teddy (age 9), Wasabi (5) & Bentley (13), and a neutered, ear-tipped feral family I care for in my backyard. Teddy was drinking a lot of water, and knowing this was not good, I took him to the vet for tests. I had a diabetic cat Kiki who died at age 20 in 2011 so I'm somewhat familiar with this. Sure enough, Teddy's BG was 415, although everything else was fine, including his kidneys (yay!!!).

    The vet started me on 3 units of ProZinc (protamine zinc recombinant human insulin) 2x per day. I used to test Kiki before each shot but this different vet said it's not necessary. My instinct told me that would be a mistake (not testing)... He was eating Fancy Feast grilled (high carb - I didn't know) and dry grain-free free-feeding (I also didn't know that even grain-free dry is bad). So I changed his food right away to only canned low carb (FF Classic chicken, Soulistic). After 7 days of 3 units 2x per day, my husband and I could not be home one evening for his shot, so the pet sitter vet tech administered his 3 units right after he ate as I instructed her. When we got home at around 11:30 that night (shot was at 9 p.m.), I could tell he wasn't "right" and his BG was probably way too low. He wasn't really crashing, so I gave him some FF Classic Chicken which he gobbled down and soon was ok again.

    The very next morning, I bought a glucometer (Relion Micro) and started testing him (ear). No wonder he almost crashed with 3 units! Since I started testing 2-3x per day on Saturday 5/21, his BG has only been over 200 twice. And that was 209 and 224. There have been a few times his BG was less than 150, so I didn't give him insulin those times. The next time I tested, he was still in the mid to upper 100's. Acting normally. Not lethargic. I log every test, and any other notes about his food, and how much insulin I give him.

    First of all, is ProZinc the same as PZI? I thought it was, but now I'm not sure. Also, what is the lowest BG you get where you don't give the shot?

    Thanks for everyone's support. I wish I saw this group when Kiki was alive. This is helping SO much.
     
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  2. Tuxedo Mom

    Tuxedo Mom Well-Known Member

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    Dec 2, 2014
    Heidi ...Welcome to FDMB :bighug:

    Thank goodness you didn't listen to the vet and chose to do home testing. And good job switching away from dry and high carb food to a low carb wet. Just the switch alone could definitely cause his numbers to drop quite a bit and totally change the insulin requirements.

    There is an excellent support group for Prozinc at this link:

    http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/forums/prozinc-pzi.24/

    It would be very useful to set up a spreadsheet to track the data on how well Teddy is responding to the Prozinc. Instructions are here:

    http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/fdmb-spreadsheet-instructions.130337/

    If you have any trouble setting it up just ask and someone will be able to help you.

    If you pop over to the Prozinc forum and include the link to this post then the people there can be of great help in helping you figure out a good dose that will work safely for Teddy. :)
     
  3. Sharon14

    Sharon14 Well-Known Member

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    Aug 16, 2015
    Hi Heidi, welcome to you, Teddy and your whole crew. I'm so glad you bought that meter! 3 u is a very high starting dose, we usually start at 1u, and along with the food switch, was obviously too much. Come over to the ProZinc forum and we can help you with dosing.
     
  4. scoobydoox

    scoobydoox Member

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    Mar 21, 2016
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