I assume you're referring to your regular vet and not the cat vet you consulted? You'll find ProZinc to be quite similar to Vetsulin in many ways. ProZinc tends to be slower in onset than Vetsulin and can be a bit longer in duration for some kitties. Like Vetsulin, it's in and out in a cycle and there's some flexibility around dosing times if you need that occasionally. I believe it's quite a bit more expensive than Vetsulin though.
Is he seeing your regular vet or the cat vet on Nov. 28? I'm asking because I thought your regular vet wasn't going to do those tests. They're a good idea though.
Overall, Lisa, you'll probably feel better about taking Smoky to the cat vet and his diabetes will get more informed treatment. Her "pushy" personality is the down side but just smile and nod in agreement and say to yourself, "I'm doing this to get the best for Smoky." Someone suggested a while ago that you get an AlphaTrak pet meter and a vial of strips and use it when the new vet wants you to do a curve at home for her. The rest of the time you can keep doing what you're doing with your ReliOn meter.
at $80 a week that's not an option for me.
I'm hoping that will work with the pet meter and she doesn't want to see how his spreadsheet looks the rest of the time. She is likely to want me to bring him in for weekly curves if she finds out about the " human" meter I'm using.
Once she has you on her routine, she'll probably want you to do a curve at home periodically. There's no reason for her to want to do a curve in clinic every week from now on. You could certainly be very up front and say your finances don't allow that. You can use the pet meter for at home curves. Don't even bother showing her the SS - that's for you to know how he's doing.
I bought mine at my vet clinic. I'm not sure if you can buy them elsewhere.
Yes. I use FS strips in my AT meter. I do a few comparison tests (AT strip and FS strip) on the same drop of blood to get an idea of how the readings differ. So far my FS strips read 4% - 7% higher in my AT meter than AT strips do.
No need to use AT lancets - more expensive for no reason. You can use your ReliOn lancets in their holder to prick Smoky's ear.
Hi Lisa,
Yes, ProZinc is like liquid gold in cost! Good idea to have the AlphaTrak for your new vet but for sure use your ReliOn in between. The AT strips plus the ProZinc is very hard on a person's wallet.Smoky only ate twice today, morning- 5 oz and night- 6 oz. I wanted to try it and see how it affects his BG along with starting him on prozinc. Boy, is that a big price difference: Vetsulin: $40, Prozinc: $120
I also ordered an Alpha Trak starter kit to compare results on occasion with my Relion meter. Also, to do a curve once a week to make the new vet at cats only clinic happy. I couldn't afford to use it all the time though.
I think the numbers are telling you that 2 u isn't a high enough dose. You could try 2.25 u tomorrow morning and stay at that dose for a couple of cycles. You'll likely end up in the same dose range as you were in with Vetsulin and, from there, need to make careful increases to get him down into better numbers.
The general recommendation is to hold a dose for three cycles. Sometimes we deviate from that once we have more experience with kitty's response to the insulin. You could give 2 u for a third cycle if you're more comfortable with that. I suggested trying 2.25 u this AM because of your previous experience with dosing Vetsulin.
I'd try 2.25 u again tonight. This morning's number was from too low a dose. Raising his dose this AM caused the drop - to be expected and it doesn't look extreme to me. Bouncing is a possibility even with ProZinc so don't be alarmed if it happens. Over time you'll learn to work with/around it or maybe it'll be much less of a problem for Smoky.
plus smoky always seems to be hungry even when he eats 12 oz of wet food a day
Yes, you could try 2.5 u tomorrow morning. He's had 4 cycles of 2.25 u and the numbers say it's not enough. Don't stay too long at an ineffective dose if there's insulin resistance possibly complicating things. His UTI put him in high numbers for quite a while and resistance could well be at the heart of his failure to budge. Slow, careful increases are the way to get over that.I don't know if I should raise his dose after 3 cycles of the 2.25 or not? I'm getting very frustrated and want to just cry right now.
Lack of sleep makes it really hard to stay calm and function properly. I'm sure you feel as though you're on high alert after all you've been through with your boy. It's best to proceed with a mindset that you'll give ProZinc time, carefully make whatever dosing changes are needed, track all the data, do curves at home when you can and not overreact to strange numbers or runs of strange numbers.OK I just hate seeing him being so sick for a few months now. I'm trying hard not to rush the process. I am home tomorrow and Monday plus he has his bloodwork, urinalysis, and other tests on Monday. I'll wait and see what the results are from that. Sorry if I'm going into panic mode a little, I'm a bit sleep deprived.
I'm trying to learn as much as I can about FD, it's a lot of info.
Smokys old vet did phone consults with me at no cost. I will have to remember to ask about that when talking to other vets.
I suggest the same dose for tonight and maybe again tomorrow AM if AMPS is in this range. I think you'll need small increases (0.25 u) every 3 cycles or so until you get some action. It's likely that he has insulin resistance right now after being high from the UTI and whatever else might show on his blood work.
I don't like this vet, there is one experienced with FD three miles from me. I am just waiting for the test results from vet at cat clinic. I will have to go down there and ask to talk to one of their vets. The staff at cat clinic are not very friendly and seem quite impersonal. I get the feeling she will not adjust his insulin w/o my doing things her way.
I did pick up my alpha track starter kit from post office this morning. A very good friend of mine gave me the money to buy it. She also gave me a box of 50 freestyle light test strips.
Generally the AT meter reads higher than a human meter does but the difference depends on whether the BG is low or high. We can help you with that when you do a curve with the AT meter.You know, I mentioned that to the vet at cat clinic. I'm talking about how his old vet told me to slowly increase in .25 increments for 3-4 cycles at a time. I did give him the 2.75 tonight and will wait to see what his BG is in am before dosing.
She looked at me like I had two heads.
I will do a curve with the AT2 meter on Sunday. How can you tell how to dose based on the numbers this meter uses?
The most important difference with the AT meter is that you have to set the correct cat code number foe each vial of AT strips you use. Many will have the same code number and there aren't a lot of different codes. The manual tells you how to set the code.