Newbie with questions!

Hi all! I believe i've posted here before, but the old board has gone so I'm not 100% sure.

I have a male cat named Nom Nom who will be 5 this May. He was diagnosed with diabetes almost a year ago. Currently the vet has him on 2 units of Prozinc insulin twice daily.

I have a few questions because lately he seems a little weird to me. He went to the vet to get a rabies shot and the doc pushed to have a blood curve done on him so that she could make sure the insulin dose was correct. The last time he had a curve at the vet I was called to pick him up 2 hours after I had dropped him off because 1) I give him his insulin at 1AM and 1PM because I work nights and he couldn't be kept that late 2) He is not good at the vet AT ALL. He flips his lid and tries to attack nurses and he was so stressed out his numbers were through the roof. So she told me to try at home and let her know what numbers I got. I told her the last reading I had gotten from him over a month ago was 198, before food, and the vet said that was a really low number and administering insulin would run a risk of hyperglycemia. Well shoot, so now I was worried to do anything without getting a reading on him.

I managed to get another reading pre-food and shot like she told me to do and it was 209. I gave him food and 1 unit out of fear 2 was too much and an hour later tried another reading. The number was 245 and that was the last time he let me near him. The vet suggested I try Purina Glucose Strips that you put in the box, and what really confuses me is that they turned dark purple, which according to the box means his number was over 600.

So my meter is telling me one number, the strips are telling me another. I'm pretty confused about this. I use a Freestyle Lite meter if that helps with anything.

Another thing he's doing now is meowing his head off when it's time for me to feed him. This is very strange for him, because he has always been super quiet. About an hour before it's time for him to eat he comes into my room and just howls until I get up and give him food. He gets 1 can of wet food (Friskies with Tuna in Sauce Flaked. I use to give him Beef Filets but they gave him awful diarrhea) and then if I don't put up my other cats kibble on a shelf where he can't jump he eats that, too. I feed her IAMS Proactive Health Cat Food, Indoor Weight and Hairball Care. The feeding schedule is 7/8AM both cats get a little dry kibble, 1PM Nom Nom gets a whole can of wet food, Ponyo gets a bowl of dry kibble. 7/8PM they both get a bit more dry kibble, and at 1AM He gets another can of wet food and she gets another bowl of kibble. Is this not enough to be giving him, and should I just cut out the dry kibble for him all together and give him half a can of the wet food maybe? He doesn't seem to be full after feedings but I don't know how much is too much to give him.

I could really use some guidance and I really appreciate any help!!

*EDIT* I forgot to add that twice now if I don't get up to feed him when he's howling he will poop outside of the litter box. I do not know if this is related at all but I thought I would mention it.

I test before every shot. That way I know if Chester is safe to shoot or not.
Are treats part of your testing routine? If not, I STRONGLY recommend them. Chester gets treats with every test, and he's very tolerant. You may need to go with the "kitty burrito" towel wrap if your cat is really hostile. But always give him treats with his tests. Cats are smart and they do figure it out. They can also tell when you're stressed out about testing. Chester's great about it until I'm in a hurry or worked up over something, then he becomes a squirmy greased eel...

You really should be feeding low carb wet food instead of gravy cuts and kibble. Friskies Classic Pates and Fancy Feast Pates are both good options for a diabetic cat. If you really can't do away with dry food entirely, then you should at least be feeding one with a much lower carb count like Wellness Core, Evo or Young Again Zero Carb. Do make sure you are hometesting regularly before switching up his diet too much. If you drop the carbs in his diet, he may well need less insulin and you'd only know that by testing him and watching his BG levels.

There is a section of this board especially for Prozinc users, and they could help you more with dosing.

Breathe. You can do this. Just breathe.

While I don't know your insulin (I'll round someone up that does) I can address a couple of your questions.

First off depending on what strips you are using with the Freestyle Lite it could be giving you false readings...the newer butterfly strips have been found to not read true with cats.

Second drop the dry food for both cats, it isn't doing anyone any good and is way too high in carbs for NomNom. Trust me I know it is more expensive to feed them both canned as I have 14 cats here (2 diabetics) that are all on the same canned food as my two diabetics, but what I spend on their food is still way cheaper than insulin ( 1 diabetic is in remission and the other is trying real hard to get there), plus I have less vet bills, and less in litter costs, because less garbage in, less garbage out.

Third shooting insulin without testing first is like driving a car on the highway with a bag over your head...it is dangerous! Right now without knowing what his BGs are at he could be screaming for food because his diabetes is unregulated and he is literally starving because insulin is the key that allows his body to use the food he is eating. So right now he probably needs more food than he would if he was regulated.

At the very least I believe with all insulins you need to be getting at least 3 tests a day...both preshots and one somewhere around nadir or the lowest point in the period between the two shots to see how far down his current dose is taking him.

Now let me see if I can find someone that uses Prozinc to answer your dosing questions as my one insulin dependent is on Levemir, so I'm no help on that one.

Mel, Maxwell, Autumn & The Fur Gang

The kitty burrito! I will have to try that one. I too have a difficult to test kitty!

In general, we tell new diabetics not to shoot under 200, but to wait 20 minutes without feeding and retest. We want to make sure the number is rising and is high enough to shoot. (food raises the numbers so you want a number without food). If you are getting numbers around 200 for a preshot, you can wait and shoot a little late and perhaps lower the dose a little. The other number we need is a midcycle number (around 5-7 hours from the shot) to tell us how the insulin is working and how low he is going.

You do have the option of shooting .5 units or less. We use U100 needles with a conversion chart for the smaller doses with ProZinc.

I agree with the others that feeding a lower carb wet and dry would help. If you do, however, plan to be able to monitor carefully as the lower carb can mean lower numbers.

Can we help you set up a spreadsheet so we can see your dosing history at a glance? Much needed when you need dosing advice?

Here is a big document on ProZinc with lots of links and info.


http://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=32799

It makes sense that the urine strips tell you something and the blood something else.

The blood gives you an exact number of how his blood is at that point in time (although the guys are right - freestyle is not that accurate over 200).

The urine is more of an average over time as it depends on how long the kitty has been holding it, and how concentrated the urine is etc .

I would use the urine strips to tell you only that he isnt well regulated. The blood tests tell you a lot more.. how he is trending, how low and high he is going etc.

Thanks a lot for all the information! I do have the strips with the little butterfly on them :/ I poked around a little and found some suggestions on better meters so I am going to go out today and get a new one. I do give him treats after every test, but I have yet to try the burrito. It's hard to wrap him without him biting and clawing at me, no matter how calm and sweet I am to him. He's a great cat any other time, but he does not like being poked or prodded AT ALL.

I had tried to switch both of my cats to wet food, but Ponyo (other cat) is rarely interested in eating it. Which is the weirdest thing I have ever seen. We had a lot of cats growing up, and she is the first cat I have ever seen that would rather eat dry than wet. Sometimes if I'm making tuna for me she will lick some of the juice out of the can, but she doesn't go for the actual chunks of meat. Same for any other wet food we've offered her!

I'd been going by the Binky list of food, but looking at some of the newer lists I see the carbs in the flaked tuna are higher than I'd thought. Is the carb number the only one I should be concerned with? Do I not factor in the protein or fat?

And yes please I would like help setting up a spread sheet! Thank you guys so much for all the information, i'm feeling less overwhelmed already!!

I'll help with the spreadsheet. Check your private messages (on the top of the board - 1 new message)