Trinity diagnosed 3 years ago

Trinity had a huge scare yesterday. I almost lost her due to an incompetent vet that increased her dosage too much. One more shot would have killed her.
She is back from emergency vet and going to regular vet for 3 days of continuous monitoring to get a new baseline dose.
She eats Purina DM and likes dry food. She is 17 years old and weighs 9.01 pounds. She was getting 2 units of Prozinc twice daily. Vet increased to 3 units and ONE day later, she crashed hard.
I’ve ordered the supplies to start home testing but am feeling extremely overwhelmed right now.
I have another 17 year old in chronic renal failure and has a brain tumor and 3 new kittens running around.

 

Hi and welcome Angie, so very sorry to hear about Trinity's hypo. That is very scary and I'm so glad you are going to home test. It's one of the best ways to help prevent a hypo and track how the insulin is working real time.

I am sure you are very tired and overwhelmed at the moment, you have A LOT going on in your home. But we can help very much with learning to test, information about Prozinc, proper diet plus a very supportive community with members experienced in feline diabetic treatment and the usage of that insulin. You can take a deep breath or two and know that you are in the right place.

A little housekeeping to get started and help us help you better, create a signature and set up a spreadsheet to record insulin and testing data.

1. Setting up your signature (light grey text under a post). Here's how:
click on your name in the upper right corner of this page
click on "signature" in the menu that drops down
type the following in the box that opens: kitty's name/age/date of diabetes diagnosis/insulin you're using and dosage amount /glucose meter you're using/what (s)he eats/any other meds or health issues (s)he has. You can add your name, and a geographic location (sometimes the country/time zone matters) Be sure to SAVE when you are finished.
2. Another thing that will help us help you when you get started BG testing at home is to set up a spreadsheet like the one we use here. You will see how the trends and patterns emerge, and members can review his/her progress before offering suggestions or advice:
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/fdmb-spreadsheet-instructions.130337/
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/understanding-the-spreadsheet-grid.156606/

If you have problems or are unable to set up the spreadsheet, we have members who can help or do it for you. Let us know. Sometimes it's hard if you are working from a cell phone or a tablet that doesn't play well with Google.

Going forward with questions, concerns and issues please post in the Main Health forum HERE so that more members can see and respond. This forum is only the welcome mat, and doesn't get as much traffic. I also encourage you to read the information in the yellow tagged stickies at the top of the Prozinc forum page. I see you have been treating Trinity for 3 years, but there might be information that you haven't encountered yet.

Looking forward to a pic of Trinity and getting to know you both better.

 

Welcome to a fabulous community. I'm so glad you found us, this forum is the best place to be when you have a diabetic cat. It's so wonderful to have the support and advice of the caring individuals while trying to find your way on this journey.

One comment I have, the DM prescription food is not the best choice for diabetic cats and is expensive. Most folks here feed Fancy Feast classic pates or Friskies pates but there are several others as well. There is a wonderful list of food by Dr. Pierson here on the forum that I would advise you to read/check out. Dry food is also usually too high in carbs so this is something you may want to try to eliminate from the diet. Diet changes can have a really big affect on BG so should be done slowly. It is very important though that you don't change the diet until you start home testing.

Best of luck and look forward to seeing your posts on the boards.

 

Angie, I see that picture of Trinity, wow, what a beautiful girl. Lovely color and face mask. How is Trinity today? And how are you
today? Hope your heart has stopped beating so fast and things are a bit better. I took a look at the FOOD CHART from www.catinfo.org for the carb % of Purina DM and it's at 6%, which is good. We do recommend that dry food be gradually eliminated from a sugar cat's diet as it is too high in carbs and just increases the need for insulin. However, with the other kitties in the house, probably all eating the same dry food, that might be a challenge. We will try to help you with that going forward if you like. There are a few dry varieties that are lower carb, but they are expensive and one of them is reported to sometimes cause some GI upset in some kitties.

In any case, we don't recommend changing diet until you are testing and you can see just what's going on.

Hope to see you again soon, it's always good to confer with others dealing with the same issues, and seeing if perhaps there is something shared that you can use.

 

Trinity has a really nasty upper respiratory. She can’t smell anything- even warmed food so I am syringe feeding warmed chicken baby food. Thankfully she is cooperating. Vet recommended no insulin until she’s eating and drinking on her own again. She was given 250ml Sq fluids today.
I bought all my home testing supplies and Chris made a spreadsheet for me to use. I won’t start giving insulin until Trinity is eating and drinking on her own again. Then my testing adventure will begin.

Trinity has a really sensitive stomach, but Chris recommended a dr elseys dry food and I ordered a small bag to see if she likes it once she can eat again. And Yes, every cat eats the same and all free feed. ‍♀️

I’m still trying to learn how this message board works. Thanks for your patience.
Angie

 

Thanks for the welcome! At first I felt like taffy being pulled in opposite directions as Emergency vet differed from FDMB advice.
Saw regular vet today and she TOTALLY agrees with FDMB on EVERYTHING. It was such a relief. As a parent, I want what is best for her. Now I know I can find all that here and I feel so blessed that a friend of a friend, who happens to be a vet tech, referred me here.
Also got my testing supplies today.

 

Oh dear, I'm sorry to hear that she's sick. Poor little darling.
Healing energies to Trinity and calming vibes for you. It's never easy when one of our babies is sick.

I hope Vet told you to test for ketones in the urine to be watchful for DKA, diabetic ketone acidosis. It can happen when there is infection/inflammation, not enough food and not enough insulin. I am concerned about vet recommending you suspend insulin so abruptly. It's a very serious condition.

I would like to tag in a more experienced member for input on this.
@Bron and Sheba (GA)

 

We are stopping insulin after her hypo event and she’s been running at 350 BG without insulin since Sunday.She was tested twice Aunday and once today. Vet feels it’s safe to give the Clavamox a few days to work before restarting insulin. Urinalysis on Sunday showed zero ketones. I don’t have those strips to test her at home yet. Many thanks for healing and calming vibes.

Her

 

How do link my spreadsheet to my signature like you have yours?

 

You did it, I can view it. Super
Or if you want "Trinity's Spreadsheet" go here http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/fdmb-spreadsheet-instructions.130337/
down to #7, and follow directions for that process.

 

I need to apologise, I read Dm prescription food and not Purina Dm.
Sorry to hear little Trinity is not well. Hope she heals quickly. Great that you are all set up and have the support of your vet and this community.

 

Many of people her have years of experience dealing with diabetic cats. Unfortunately, most vets do not have any experience, and as a result, often provide less than ideal advice. Diabetes is a complicated disease. I'm sorry you have a lot on your plate. You've come to the right place for help with Trinity. I know how exhausting, physically and emotionally, it is to deal with older, sick kitties.

 

Angie, how is sweet Trinity doing? Are you coping fairly well? I checked the spreadsheet and don't see any testing results yet. I know you are very busy taking care of all the kitties there, but it would be good to see some data and see how she's doing blood sugar wise, even if you aren't using insulin presently.

Take care of yourself too, please.