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occhi

occhi

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Today is my 1 week anniversary with a diabetic cat and the main board suggested I come here to ask about dosage for my Dude. We have an appointment with the Vet tomorrow and I'm hoping they will lower Dude's current dose which I believe is 3u BID. I say I hope they lower it because he seems to be totally fine in between his shots and as soon as we give him one he goes into sleepy mode. Hubby hates poking him when he's running around and playing because he seems to be quite happy at that point and he slows right down as soon as the Insulin is given. We're thinking if he had a lower dose he'd be more even as far as his energy goes but I guess we shall see.

I don't know anything about what a normal dose is but I bet someone here does. What do you all think?

tmjn
 
My title is in the wrong format isn't it? sorry I didn't notice everyone elses til after I submitted this. I'll be better next time!
 
Your subject is fine ..... if you want to change, go to your first post and hit edit, then change.

Are you testing at home? Are you testing for ketones? have you changed over to canned food?

Okay, 6u a day is a lot of insulin for a newly DX kit, do you know why he was started at that dose? He had ketones in the beginning? was the vet afraid of DKA? USUALLY, a cat is started on a lower dose, say 1u b.i.d. and it is moved up slowly if needed. When a cat is started on a higher dose there is usually a reason, I would ask your vet. It is also a lot of insulin to be giving if you aren't home testing.

Since you are seeing your vet tomorrow, maybe you could ask why the higher dose, and if no reason maybe going down and starting again, it does sound as if he is not responding well to the higher dose .....
 
Just saying "Hi" back!

Glad you have come over to join our group. We are small group, but we very much like helping each other.

I agree with Nancy, 3 Units is a lot of insulin for a newly dx kitty--a normal starting dose is 1 Unit bid, unless there is an underlying condition--like ketones. Hopefully you can get some answers from your vet tomorrow.

I am assuming you hometest. If you can set up a spreadsheet, it would allow us to see Dude's test results and provide you some feedback based on our experience.

Once again Welcome to PZI!

Kim and Kitty
 
Welcome to PZI land!

I am in agreement with the girls ..on all aspects..
3 units is high to start..
this is a great sight with lots of great knowledgable people
and home testing is really important
I know it can be scary at first but I highly recommend it

good luck with the vet
and hopefully we can talk soon

Denise and Shakes
 
Hi y'all,
I took the liberty of copying the link from his original post in Health a few days ago. If you read the original posting, you'll see kitty had ketones, but it sounds like the vet hasn't been all that terrific about communicating specifics since his original stay at the clinic. I'm thinking the 3u starting dose was related to the diagnosis overall, but not sure why that high. Maybe this will help you all have a better feel for the total picture?

viewtopic.php?f=28&t=50110

Carl
 
Sorry for the delay.

Dude did have ketones, however, according to the emergency Vet that took care of him, those were gone by the time we got Dude back home and apparently they have not resurfaced.

The visit to the vet on Saturday was good. She also said that 3 units was unusually high and moved us down to 1 unit. There are a couple of new issues that have popped up though. 1) Dude was really good about getting his shot at first but now he's decided he doesn't like it and runs away a bit. He doesn't hide or anything (yet) but he makes hubby work a bit to give him the shot. The Vet on saturday said that maybe we should give him the shot while he's eating which leads to, 2) we gave him the canned food last night (he does love it) and gave him the insulin as soon as he started eating. The second he was finished eating though he threw up everything that was in his stomach. I don't know if the insulin made him nauseous or if it was a one time occurence but he sure didn't seem to feel very good after that. (My house sure does smell bad now too :P) We put out some dry MD for him to graze on so he did eat a little bit after that but he seemed just a little 'un dude' the rest of last night and this morning. I'm hoping he's back to himself tonight.

We aren't hometesting yet though I'm going to get the stuff to do it tonight. We'll have to watch the vids etc to figure out how to do it. I will let you know how that goes too.

Thanks again for your help.

tmjn
 
Hmmm. The insulin shouldn't make him sick. Especially not that fast. Remember insulin isn't a drug. It's a hormone and it shouldn't set off insta-barfing.
Did he keep the dry food down?
Carl
 
Hi Carl!

I feel we will be friends for a long time :)

He didn't barf again that I know of, but I also am not sure how much dry food he ate. He did keep his breakfast down so he has had a good meal since then. Hubby said that he's acting pretty down today (hubby goes home for lunch), quite alot like he was before we found out he was diabetic but not as extreme (he did want to play this morning when we broke out the toys). The insta barf may really have just been a freak occurence and hopefully won't happen again.

tmjn
 
Hello & welcome to our group! Please get the supplies you need to hometest & start asap. I didn't read your other thread but just in case you don't already know you can get a Relion Confirm meter from Wal Mart for around $9.00 & the test strips are around $36.00 for 100, they also sell 50 strips for around $20.00 if you don't want to put out that much money at one time. Has anyone told you about the rice sock? That really helps to get the ear warm then it bleeds better. :smile: I was sure I couldn't do any of this when I started in April but here I am...it does get easier. The barfing of his food could possibly have been a "scarf & barf". If he's not used to getting wet food it might have been so good to him that he just ate too quickly & it just came back up. Keep an eye on that though. You want to make sure he has food in his stomach so the insulin doesn't cause him to drop too low. You will also want to get some strips to test his urine for ketones. I'm sorry for repeating if you already have all this info. He could possibly be going too low which would account for him seeming a little off.
 
Hello Barbara,

I've read a bit about the rice sock technique. I figure I can make one of those from stuff I have at home. I've never microwaved dry rice. That will be new :P As for scarf and barf that is entirely likely. My dog watches Dude eat so he can lick the bottom of the dish when he's done so I wonder if that might be making Dude nervous. H'es never minded the dog watching him before though so that would also be new.

You don't need to worry about repeating anything. If someone has alraedy said it that just means its super important and I need to really pay attention. So repeat at will, everybody.

I'm a little nervous about this hometesting thing. Dude doesn't really like to be pet that much so petting him a bunch when its time to test isnt going to make him feel better I dont think. He's not really a snuggly cat and he really doesn't like it when we touch his ears so i'm worried.

tmjn
 
Hi and Welcome to our group.

I'm glad to hear that you reduced your dose to 1 unit. Also glad to hear that you will be getting your testing supplies and starting to test. We will be able to see how he responds to the insulin that way and will be able to help you more. Besides once you are testing his bg's you will have the power of knowledge on your side.
 
occhi said:
Hello Barbara,

I've read a bit about the rice sock technique. I figure I can make one of those from stuff I have at home. I've never microwaved dry rice. That will be new :P As for scarf and barf that is entirely likely. My dog watches Dude eat so he can lick the bottom of the dish when he's done so I wonder if that might be making Dude nervous. H'es never minded the dog watching him before though so that would also be new. tmjn
Click to expand...

The rice sock is easy...mine might be a little large but it works. :smile: I've got a civvie that's a pig & he does the scarf & barf a lot! :lol:

occhi said:
I'm a little nervous about this hometesting thing. Dude doesn't really like to be pet that much so petting him a bunch when its time to test isnt going to make him feel better I dont think. He's not really a snuggly cat and he really doesn't like it when we touch his ears so i'm worried.

tmjn
Click to expand...

My cat has never let me do anything to her. I was pretty worried at first about testing & shooting, I figured it wasn't going to happen. She's also not into treats at all so I knew I wasn't going to be able to convince her of anything with a treat. Much to my surprise she has not minded all the ear poking! She does every once in a while gripe about getting her shot & has tried to bite me a few times but we work through it! There are some syringes you can get with a shorter needle (I assume you are using the ones from the vet? with a red cap?) don't worry with that right now though...you've got enough on your plate already! :smile: Also, as far as difficult cats, go read some of Ginny's posts...her boy Alex is a handfull...but a cute handfull! :smile:
 
occhi said:
I'm a little nervous about this hometesting thing. Dude doesn't really like to be pet that much so petting him a bunch when its time to test isnt going to make him feel better I dont think. He's not really a snuggly cat and he really doesn't like it when we touch his ears so i'm worried. quote]

As many on the board already know, my Alex is quite the feisty kitty, but oddly enough, he doesn't seem to mind the ear poke too much unless he's extremely hungry. DH does the morning pokes and must be calmer than me and has better success. The shots are the part Alex hates. DH travels some for work and early on in our dance, I was trying to give the shot alone and was having very little luck. Finally, someone on the board recommended that I just not worry about whether I was tenting properly or not, but to just shoot, the quicker the better. No sweet talking either. Just show him who's boss and get the job done.

Good luck! And welcome to the world of ProZinc.
Click to expand...
 
Good Morning!

So the trip to the store didn't work out like I'd hoped. Hubby isn't ready for testing yet so we're gonna have to wait til he is. I can't do it myself or I would. I haven't read through all the articles or watched all the videos yet so I'll finish that today hopefully and then get to work on making Hubby more comfortable. Boys! :P

Dude seems a little more chipper today and he hasn't had the barfing happen again so I'm gonna write that off as a one timer.

Thanks again for all the help and advice so far. I really appreciate it.

tmjn
 
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