Hi! My 11 year old cat has just been diagnosed with diabetes. The vet has prescribed 0.02mls prozinc. Does anyone know how many units this is? I’ve ordered some 40iu syringes, but the prescription is in mls, not units, so I don’t know how much to give her?! Also and dietary advice would be greatly appreciated- we are on a strict budget and can not afford the expensive diabetic food. Thanks!
Hello and welcome!! You’ve found a great place. While I do not know what that dose translates to in units I can tell you that you don’t need the expensive diabetic vet food. Most of us here use some of the lower carb Fancy feast pates. They are actually lower carb than the vet food and carbs are a big factor in regulating BG levels. I do not know how to attach the food chart here but I can say that the fancy feast chunky turkey feast is very low in carbs at 4% and has a pretty good balance of protein and fat. Perhaps you can try that first. My girls love it. I’m sure someone else will be along to better advise you on the dose and perhaps attach the food chart so you have choices. I’m sure you are overwhelmed right now. We all were in the beginning. I promise it does get easier.
Hi Anyasmum, and welcome to FDMB. I can point you to a wonderful informative website about feline nutrition by Dr. Lisa Pierson, who has created that wonderful food chart Lisa and Little has referred to. www.catinfo.org. The food chart is there and here is the link to it here: https://catinfo.org/docs/CatFoodProteinFatCarbPhosphorusChart.pdf We recommend a wet diet with carbs less than 10%. The Fancy Feast classics and Friskies pates all qualify and are available in grocery stores. Of course the flavor selections will depend on Anya's particular likes and dislikes. One important note, changing the diet to a low carb diet will lower the blood sugar (blood glucose -BG) and if you are giving insulin, you should be testing the blood sugar while transitioning gradually from what Anya ate to what she should be eating. This will help you prevent a hypoglycemic event, which can be life threatening. Please visit the FAQs forum http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/forums/health-links-faqs-about-feline-diabetes.14/ Testing Anya's blood sugar is the best way to keep her safe, to know if it's safe to inject that Prozinc and to see how it is affecting her. We can help you find an affordable glucose meter, strips and lancets, plus help you learn to test. There is a lot of information here, please read the yellow tagged stickies at the top of this forum about Prozinc. I am sorry I can't offer information about finding out how many Units of Prozinc to give Anya, mls to units. There is information in the Beginner's Guide to Prozinc that a good starting dose is one Unit, but I am certain an experienced Prozinc user will be along to advise. Very best wishes and we will all help you while you are learning how to best care for Anya.
First of all welcome to FDMB. Insulin syringe markings are based on units not mls. so giving you the dose in those terms makes no sense to me. That dose would be miniscule and impossible to accurately measure with a U40 insulin syringe or even with an alternative insulin syringe that requires a conversion chart. I suggest you get in touch with the vet and clarify his intentions. Normal starting dose would be 0.5 to 1u twice daily. Did the vet give you syringes to use until yours arrive? If so what colour is the cap on the syringe? Normally with u40 syringes in the US/Canada it would be a red cap. If you are located elsewhere the cap might be a different colour. If you can load a picture of the syringes provided we might get a better idea of what the vet's intention is.
