After diagnosis Vet said levels were above 400 and to give 1 UNIT of ProZinc twice daily. Not sure why I wasn't given any info to test at home but after a few days of seeing my Lily look so tired after an injection and a meal I needed to know how her body was reacting. First test 2 hrs after a meal was 71. The next day she didn't eat much so I made the choice to only give .5 UNITS. 12 hrs later prior to eating her BG was 174 so I skipped a dose. 12 hrs later prior to eating her BG is 154 accept it seems as a result of skipping the dose entirely she vomited which had not happened in 6 days. I chose to give her .5 UNITS. I was concerned so I stopped at home to check on her and was able to get a BG and it was 66 6 hours later. This evening I checked now 12 hours since her breakfast meal 7 hours since the mid day test and it was 124. I am a bit confused and concerned I risk hurting her with too much.
Hi Mike, I'm glad to see you posting here on this forum. I am not a Prozinc user, nor am I very hands on experienced with dosing like some other members. Of course you don't want to hurt Lily, and even the 1 U dose might be too much for her right now. Please get the spreadsheet set up and plug in the insulin dose and testing numbers you have so far. 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/ I am going to tag some people that have much more experience than I. Mike, very important - please read this document: New? How You Can Help Us Help You! Read through the Hypo instructions, have a Hypo Toolbox ready. I hope you never need it but if you ever do, it will be ready. You will get the help you need here, and kudos to you for starting home testing and reaching out for experienced and knowledgeable help here. @MrWorfMen's Mom @Djamila @Rachel You can begin to better educate yourself about feline diabetes and Prozinc by reading the yellow tagged stickies at the top of this forum. The beginner's guide will help answer a lot of questions.
Hello Mike and Lilith and welcome to FDMB. So glad you found us. Sounds like your vet didn't give you a lot of info and I can completely understand your confusion and concern. Kudos for deciding to home test despite no advice from your vet to do so. You may have saved Lilith's life. First of all since you are using a pet meter normal non diabetic cats generally run in the 68 to 150 range. As you can see from the readings you've taken, Lilith is often within normal range. When we are giving ProZinc insulin to our diabetic cats, we generally aim to keep them in the 90 to 150 range at least until you get more data. At that point you may be able to aim a wee bit lower but the goal is to keep BG down but not necessarily to get BG all the way to the bottom of normal range. If you can get the spreadsheet set up and plot in the readings you have taken so far, it will be very helpful for us to help you get Lilith sorted out and on the path to better health. For now, I'd suggest you reduce Lilith's insulin dose to 0.25u. You will have to eyeball that dose as close as you can. I am suggesting that reduction because Lilith went below 68 on the 0.5u dose and we don't want her going that low. Always test Lilith's BG before every shot before feeding her and after at least 2 hours without food. This will be your pre-shot reading and if it is below 200, I'd suggest skipping the shot right now until you get a bit more data and we get a handle on what she is doing. Then whenever possible, get a test mid cycle. ProZinc usually reaches peak action sometime between +4 and +7 hours post shot so concentrating tests in that time frame will catch when Lilith is hitting her lowest BG and that is the info you need to determine when and if dosage adjustment is needed. You can test at +4 one day, +5 another and so on. Also make it a habit to grab a test on the night cycle at least once. If all you can manage is a before bed test that is fine. Our extra sweet kitties have a habit of going lower at night than during the day so those night time tests are very important to ensure you have a complete picture of how Lilith is doing. Keep the questions coming. We are here to provide all the support you need or want. You're off to a great start and Lilith is one lucky kitty to have such a pro-active person caring for her.
Thank goodness you reduced the dose and learned to test. . Looks like your cat is on the way to bring just diet controlled. I would reduce that dose even further to 0.25 and not inject unless her preshot number is over 200. The vomiting is probably not sure to not getting insulin as her numbers are basically in the normal range. Sometimes it's a hairball or stomach acid.
