18-year-old cat switching to ProZinc today; need advice on meters

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Simon's human

Simon's human

Member Since 2021
Much has happened since my last posting and I have lots of questions. First, Simon's vet did another basic lab panel and fructosamine test July 8. His BG was 37 and the fructosamine was 286. We know that a trip to the vet can bring anxiety and higher BG readings so the vet had recommended Simon have a Gabapentin a couple hours ahead of testing. The test was done 4.5 hours after 1.5 U Vetsulin. He had had a "snack" 1 hour after injection. He showed no signs of having this extremely low BG. We are now giving him 1 U and today, July 13 are switching to ProZinc. I understand that it is a straight substitution so we will give him 1 U.

We will start testing this week, as soon as I get the equipment. I have been doing some research and am befuddled. I know lots of you use Relion. But there are 4 kinds: Prime, Premier Compact, Premier Classic, etc. There are also lots of other brands. We got Simon's prescription at Costco, and they also have one. Some of the meters mention their lancets are more pain-free. I don't know what they're comparing them with, though. Some people have mentioned having to wait to get the control solution which I had never heard of before. I'm just not familiar with the ins and outs of all this.

I think we've solved the eating issue. We start offering food about 40 minutes before the injection. He eats as much of that one choice as he wants. Then he gets the rest via syringe to make it 1/4 can (5.5 or 6 oz.) Then he has the injection 30 minutes later. Per some earlier advice, we give a "snack"- maybe 1-2 teaspoons - at 1 hour and 2 hours past and then another at 4 hours past. This seems to work. He doesn't like the same thing twice in a row.

Since Simon was already down to just 1 Pred every 7 days, we have discontinued even that. He is still drinking and peeing a lot, so I know he is far from regulated. That low BG was a wake-up call that we really have to know what's going on with him.

Your advice? Thanks!

We had a long thread with 49 messages before and know I am suppose to link to it. How do I do that? I just copied my last message from my thread about "18-year-old cat diagnosed after long-time steroid use" onto here. Looks like I need to redo the signature too.


Nancy & Simon; 18 y-o Balinese; dx 5/21; Vetsulin 6/12/21; IBD: Prednisolone 2.5 mg every 7 days/acid controller, Ashwagandha, Tylosin Tartrate once a day; LC: Merrick beef, turkey, chicken, L.I. Chicken & Turkey; FF classics; Wellness Core Chicken/Turkey/Chick Liver; Instinct Chick, L.I. Turk; more
 
https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/thr...-long-time-steroids-help.248351/#post-2817758

Previous post for continuity
Just go to your previous post and all the way at the top above where you see the pic of the cat and tap it copy , then paste it on your new post.
I just did it for you
Most of us use the Relion Prime , or Relion Premier
Get 26 or 28 gauge lancets any brand
Cotton rounds to out behind the ear, when done testing fold it over the ear to stop the bleeding about 15- 20 seconds
There are lancing devices but most of us just hold the lancet and poke, you can see better where you are poking
 
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Always aim for the sweet spot warm the ears up first, you can put rice in a sock and put it in the microwave, test it on the inside of your wrist to be sure it's not to hot, like you would test a babies bottle. You can fill a pill bottle with warm water and roll it on the ears also.Just keep rubbing the ears with your fingers to warm them up
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6. As the ears get used to bleeding and grow more capilares, it gets easier to get the amount of blood you need on the first try. If he won’t stand still, you can get the blood onto a clean finger nail and test from there.
When you do get some blood you can try milking the ear.
Get you finger and gently push up toward the blood , more will appear
You will put the cotton round behind his ear in case you poke your finger, after you are done testing you will fold the cotton round over his ear to stop the bleeding , press gently for about 20 seconds until it stops
Get 26 or 28 gauge lancets
A lot of us use the lancets to test freehand
I find it better to see where I'm aiming
 
Simon's human said:
His BG was 37 and the fructosamine was 286. We know that a trip to the vet can bring anxiety and higher BG readings so the vet had recommended Simon have a Gabapentin a couple hours ahead of testing. The test was done 4.5 hours after 1.5 U Vetsulin. He had had a "snack" 1 hour after injection. He showed no signs of having this extremely low BG.
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Some cats drop during a vet visit and especially after. My Rover was one of them.

Glad you are getting a meter. (I cannot help you with that as I'm in Canada.) And so glad you caught that 37 — that is far too low on any of the insulins but vetsulin especially. Get at least 200 strips. Some pred induced cats go racing down the dosing scale and into remission. If this is the case, you will be going through a lot of strips (even though prozinc is a gentler insulin).

In the future, it would be a good idea to take a reading before you leave for the vet and as soon as you come home.
 
Thanks for the advice! I still don't know what the difference is between a Relion Prime or Premier. I'll go shopping tomorrow for all this stuff, but I guess I have to order the control situation. Thanks, Diane, for posting my previous thread for me on this new one. I read on another thread that Neosporin is no longer advised for putting on cat's ears after poking, but coconut oil is. I have no idea how Simon will react to it but I'm not looking forward to it. We give him fluids sub-Q sometimes and he doesn't even flinch. I'm the holder, my husband is the injector. Simon's ears are always pretty warm as is but will have the suggestions of ear warming ready. We would all be so happy if he did race into remission!
 
Simon's human said:
Thanks for the advice! I still don't know what the difference is between a Relion Prime or Premier. I'll go shopping tomorrow for all this stuff, but I guess I have to order the control situation. Thanks, Diane, for posting my previous thread for me on this new one. I read on another thread that Neosporin is no longer advised for putting on cat's ears after poking, but coconut oil is. I have no idea how Simon will react to it but I'm not looking forward to it. We give him fluids sub-Q sometimes and he doesn't even flinch. I'm the holder, my husband is the injector. Simon's ears are always pretty warm as is but will have the suggestions of ear warming ready. We would all be so happy if he did race into remission!
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Really no difference between both Relion Meters, the prime is more money, just seems we all use the prime
I just googled the other Relion meters some have Bluetooth, alarms , you don't need all that
Just get the prime meter
You really don't have to put anything on the ears after poking, only if they start to look a little beat up.
I never used the control solution, if I remember correctly you would just use that if you got a reading that was really way off.
Even if you wanted to order the prime test strips Walmart ships pretty fast
 
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Tagging @JanetNJ
@Deb & Wink
She is familiar with vetsulin and prozinc
Thank you Janet and Deb
She is going to buy a meter tomorrow and start testing
Can you please read her post
She's switching from vetsulin to Prozinc today
 
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Glad you lowered the dose and are switching insulins. The meter will come with lancets that are most likely too thin. Make sure you get 28 gauge ones. Be patient with testing... It can be tricky to get a drop until the capillaries grow in. Don't give up.
 
We are finally ready to start testing tonight and I have questions. Which setting do you use on a lancing device (if you use one)? Seems like it could go through Simon's ear if it sticks out too much. My husband tried it on himself first to see how it works. We got a Relion Premier Compact Kit which had the device and 10 #28 lancets and 50 strips. I also bought #26 lancets and more strips and cotton rounds. So...test before main 1/4 cup feeding which is 1/2 hour before the injection? And try the inner ear? Simon doesn't like messing with his ears - shakes his head if you do - but he'll just have to deal with it. I'll try warming one first tho his ears are usually warm. He has light ears and we tried looking with a flashlight to see if we could see veins. Also ordered some control solution today but it won't arrive for several days. I know I am very tardy with starting home testing. I hope this will get easier since I know most everyone here tests a lot every day.
 
Simon's human said:
Which setting do you use on a lancing device (if you use one)?
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Each lancet device is different. I will say though that going through the ear really isn't a big deal. I tried using a device the first week and quickly have it up. It was too hard to aim precisely.
Simon's human said:
So...test before main 1/4 cup feeding which is 1/2 hour before the injection? And try the inner ear?
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Test then feed then shoot. No need to wait a while half hour.
Simon's human said:
And try the inner ear?
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Anywhere on the edge.
 
I've watched several videos. It looks like both inside and outside of the ear is used by different people? I thought I was told to wait a half hour after eating before injecting in case the cat vomited.
 
Done! Device wasn't working so husband winged it. First time got error #4 which probably was low volume rather than viscosity. Second time got plenty of blood which Simon flung around when he shook his head. Was 132. I think that's pretty good. Will now test more frequently. Wound up testing on outside of ear. Did the sock with warm rice first and then used it to poke against. I'll add the device to my signature. Still need to get Simon's photo up here.
 
It was about 45 minutes before the shot. This morning it was 172 in the same time frame. I'll try to set up a spreadsheet.
 
At 3 hours past it was 91. Making me nervous. Will test again at 6 hours? For some reason I had thought that 90 was the magic number to decrease and that's why I wasn't worried about the 132 pre-shot number last night.
 
Simon's human said:
At 3 hours past it was 91. Making me nervous. Will test again at 6 hours? For some reason I had thought that 90 was the magic number to decrease and that's why I wasn't worried about the 132 pre-shot number last night.
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Did it go down more? If it went under 90 I'd reduce that dose by 0.25
 
Hi Janet - I started a new thread - "testing low, new to testing, worried". At 6 hours past it went to 73. At 8 hours up to 102. Testing again in a couple of minutes pre shot which should be in less than an hour. We have 1 U syringes but husband says its easy to do .5. Not sure if recommendation is .25 lower how easy that would be.
 
That I don't understand. I did send one right away. Don't know why you didn't get it. I really do appreciate your help. I think I sent it from my phone. I will resend in a little bit. Thanks! We decided not to dose Simon tonight. His pre-shot test was 132, same as last night same time.
 
Chris, I replied to your email via my phone and copied to my computer around 5:30 p.m. But it wasn't on this, so that is probably why you didn't get it. I'm still learning, obviously! I'm sorry you didn't get it. Here is the info:
Simon, diagnosed May 2021, Vetsulin 6/12/21, ProZinc 7/12/21, ReliOn Premier Compact, U.S.

I will put the spreadsheet on my computer. I think it'd be impossible to see on a phone! Thanks so much for helping with this.

Simon was at 169 at 14 hours after. He had eaten 2 hours before this test. Will test again before any shot and may decide to lower from 1 U.
 
Just gave him some of his old Natural Balance Pea and Duck dry food that he hasn't had since May because too many carbs. He is a happy cat. Hope we can stay that way. I'm nervous about the next test.
 
Tested at 4.5 hours after shot after giving a little higher carb dry food and bit of FF gravy. 86. Now go back to low carbs, I guess. I am trying to keep track of 2 threads which can be confusing.
 
Tested at 6.5 hours after shot, 113. Had thrown up some of the dry food. I may not have access to wi-fi till Thursday since we are going camping and taking Simon, of course, with all his equipment and also fluids and a list of the limited vet clinics in the area. Many thanks to Chris for doing Simon's spreadsheet! I should be able to get email via my phone with messages. Thank you, everyone!
 
Good job getting your spreadsheet link in your signature too! Your meter should have a memory and if you can go back and enter at least some of your test numbers, it'll really help.

Here's "How to use the spreadsheet" if you need it

Have a good time on your camping trip (if I don't see you before you leave!)
 
We’re camping and so far don’t have wi-fi for laptop so haven’t entered numbers for spreadsheet. I thought you’d be interested in what’s happening with Simon’s testing, tho. Last night, at +10.5 after .5 u, BG was 174 so didn’t shoot. This morning at +23, it was 172. Didn’t shoot. At +27 it was 145. He hadn’t eaten since breakfast. He seems to feel better, moves better and eats better without so much coaxing. We’ll keep testing. I guess I don’t need to worry about hypo if he hasn’t had insulin.
 
We are back home. I've looked at the spreadsheet and don't see where to edit it so I can add numbers. I will spend time on this tomorrow. Simon has not had any insulin since before we left on Monday. His highest BG has been 193 which was yesterday morning before breakfast. This morning's was 189. We will test again later tonight so he has a 2-hour space with no food. As I said a couple of days ago, he seems to be feeling better. He was jumping some in the trailer as well as walking with more stability. His appetite has improved.
 
Simon's human said:
We are back home. I've looked at the spreadsheet and don't see where to edit it so I can add numbers. I will spend time on this tomorrow. Simon has not had any insulin since before we left on Monday. His highest BG has been 193 which was yesterday morning before breakfast. This morning's was 189. We will test again later tonight so he has a 2-hour space with no food. As I said a couple of days ago, he seems to be feeling better. He was jumping some in the trailer as well as walking with more stability. His appetite has improved.
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If you're logged into Google that it was set up with, you just click on the box and type the numbers. I'm glad he seems to feel better!
 
Dropped to 97 after 3 hours. Updated spreadsheet. Will keep testing. Simon's ear seems to bother him after this last test. Probably should get 28 lancets rather than 26? Should I start a new thread?
 
Simon's human said:
Dropped to 97 after 3 hours. Updated spreadsheet. Will keep testing. Simon's ear seems to bother him after this last test. Probably should get 28 lancets rather than 26? Should I start a new thread?
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I've always used 28 gauge. Move to a different part of the ear or the other ear.
 
Hi just a suggestion I see you got a BG of 74 and above it you put 4.5

You can do it this way in the +4 cell you would enter it like this 74 @+4.5 all in the same cell and then color it dark green manually, you would do the same for other ones when you want to enter 30 minutes :cat:
 
Thanks, Diane. I fixed it! Now the next thing is to figure out how to post a picture of Simon. His numbers stay mostly in the blues, and he's off Prednisolone, so maybe we're about done. Will keep testing. And Janet, bought a package of 28 and that seems to be better. Thanks!
 
You are welcome, good job, believe it or not I totally forgot how to post a pic of a kitty. I'll tag a few members
One question your PMPS cells have no tests in them , and you have NS did you test Simon and forgot to enter it?

I'll tag @Chris & China (GA)

@JanetNJ


@Panic
about how to post his picture
Maybe they can give you some advice also so you don't have to keep skipping shots
 
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