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srk4cats

Member Since 2017
Hi,
my name is Roberta and my 14-year-old kitty is named Chloe. In November, she became very skinny and I took her to the vet. The vet gave me (well, sold me) a ProZinc kit and recommended Royal Canin hypoglycemic food. I ordered both dry and wet. Being so expensive, I asked if there were any regular foods I could give her and was told only the Fancy Feast (ff- it took me awhile to figure out all your acronyms and I'm a special ed teacher!) Tender Beef Feast Classic was acceptable. Chloe loves this, but doesn't seem to like the Royal Canin now. If I'm not careful, my kitten, Chico, gets in there and eats it. So, I've had to shut Chloe in the bedroom to feed her. I have another cat, Fuzma, who is also on a special diet for skin problems. This week, I'm on Spring break, so I can monitor everything. Chico is now called Chico Grande, and he is so fat now that he actually lies down when he eats. I've had many cats, but I've never seen this before! All of this diabetes stuff is new to me. I bought an Everpaws glucose monitor and tried it once. It took me awhile to get some blood from her ear and she did not like it, not one little bit! Also, I ran out of syringes, and I think I read here that you can use u-100 syringes so I bought those from WalMart and made the conversion. Yesterday, I took Chloe to the vet for a glucose monitoring and they refused to do it because I was using the wrong syringes. They said they weren't as accurate. I finally read the directions on the ProZinc (doing things backwards, as usual) and it did say to use only u-40, so I ordered some from Alivet that were half as much money as what the vet sold them for. Back to the glucose monitor-- I'm going to give it another shot (no pun intended) today. Boy, do I need help! The vet told me that cats with diabetes usually only live less than 2 years. They also said that I would kill her by using u-100 syringes. Anyway, I would appreciate any tips or encouragement you can spare me.
 
The vet told me that cats with diabetes usually only live less than 2 years. They also said that I would kill her by using u-100 syringes.
That is preposterous! Sorry for the outburst, I have been frustrated by a few Vets but at least I never heard that. As for using ProZinc with U-100 syringes, as long as you use the conversion chart, you won't kill her with just a different syringe to administer the insulin. We have a couple ProZinc users here that use U-100 syringes.

Home testing is one of the best tools to manage Chloe's diabetes. For pet BG meters, majority of us are familiar with the AlphaTrak / AlphaTrak 2 but use a human meter for daily testing due to pricing of AT strips. Popular brand is Walmart's ReliOn Confirm or Micro.

Food chart, low carb options are 8% or less. Most of us use Fancy Feast pate and Friskies pates: http://catinfo.org/docs/CatFoodProteinFatCarbPhosphorusChart.pdf

The SpreadSheet (SS) we use here, instructions link: http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/fdmb-spreadsheet-instructions.130337/
If you need help setting it up there are people who can do that here. Otherwise it's just entering numbers, dose, and notes.

Little bit of info in your Signature helps with a quick glance for those of us with bad memories: http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/editing-your-signature-profile-and-preferences.130340/
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/editing-your-signature-profile-and-preferences.130340/
Do not hesitate to ask any questions here, the only dumb one is the one you don't ask ;). This is a support group for your kitty and YOU!
 
Hi,
my name is Roberta and my 14-year-old kitty is named Chloe. In November, she became very skinny and I took her to the vet. The vet gave me (well, sold me) a ProZinc kit and recommended Royal Canin hypoglycemic food. I ordered both dry and wet. Being so expensive, I asked if there were any regular foods I could give her and was told only the Fancy Feast (ff- it took me awhile to figure out all your acronyms and I'm a special ed teacher!) Tender Beef Feast Classic was acceptable. Chloe loves this, but doesn't seem to like the Royal Canin now. If I'm not careful, my kitten, Chico, gets in there and eats it. So, I've had to shut Chloe in the bedroom to feed her. I have another cat, Fuzma, who is also on a special diet for skin problems. This week, I'm on Spring break, so I can monitor everything. Chico is now called Chico Grande, and he is so fat now that he actually lies down when he eats. I've had many cats, but I've never seen this before! All of this diabetes stuff is new to me. I bought an Everpaws glucose monitor and tried it once. It took me awhile to get some blood from her ear and she did not like it, not one little bit! Also, I ran out of syringes, and I think I read here that you can use u-100 syringes so I bought those from WalMart and made the conversion. Yesterday, I took Chloe to the vet for a glucose monitoring and they refused to do it because I was using the wrong syringes. They said they weren't as accurate. I finally read the directions on the ProZinc (doing things backwards, as usual) and it did say to use only u-40, so I ordered some from Alivet that were half as much money as what the vet sold them for. Back to the glucose monitor-- I'm going to give it another shot (no pun intended) today. Boy, do I need help! The vet told me that cats with diabetes usually only live less than 2 years. They also said that I would kill her by using u-100 syringes. Anyway, I would appreciate any tips or encouragement you can spare me.

I use prozinc and yup my vets has my cat on D/M hills prescription to actually thin down smooch, we have been using prozinc for 10 days now and smooch is being a madam so much better.
 
I use prozinc and yup my vets has my cat on D/M hills prescription to actually thin down smooch, we have been using prozinc for 10 days now and smooch is being a madam so much better.
Smooch has beautiful markings. Cute name, too.
 
Thank you for responding. When your vet gave you the diagnosis, did he or she also mention euthanasia as a choice?
At diagnosis my vet said it's very treatable and they can live along healthy life and some even go into remission..... Sometime for months or years. She never mentioned euthanasia. my cat went into remission in four months, and many others on here have as well. This forum has cats that are living happy full lives for many years on insulin.
 
When your vet gave you the diagnosis, did he or she also mention euthanasia as a choice?

My vet didn't say a word about euthanasia and he's not even UTD on feline diabetes care...but he also knows we treat all kinds of medical 'stuff' with our many rescues. He also didn't say anything about testing, feeding, care, etc and prescribed poor choice of insulin...we treat the diabetes, he treats other stuff...
 
When your vet gave you the diagnosis, did he or she also mention euthanasia as a choice?
Euthanasia is not a choice, it's what happens when an animal has lost all sense of dignity and lives in pain. I know there is no answer to this but how can using (properly of course) a different syringe kill a cat? This makes me so angry, exactly what are they teaching in veterinary colleges? "Food goes in here, comes out there, customer normally keeps wallet here." My tech friend told me that diabetes is rare in cats so not a lot of time is spent on this. I'm too pissed to go on as I'm sure all of you are.
 
Euthanasia is not a choice, it's what happens when an animal has lost all sense of dignity and lives in pain. I know there is no answer to this but how can using (properly of course) a different syringe kill a cat? This makes me so angry, exactly what are they teaching in veterinary colleges? "Food goes in here, comes out there, customer normally keeps wallet here." My tech friend told me that diabetes is rare in cats so not a lot of time is spent on this. I'm too pissed to go on as I'm sure all of you are.
Yes, I'm thinking of getting a different vet just to do a glucose curve. I'm upset that I put Chloe through all the stress of going to the vet and they didn't do the glucose curve because I used a u-100 syringe.
 
My vet didn't say a word about euthanasia and he's not even UTD on feline diabetes care...but he also knows we treat all kinds of medical 'stuff' with our many rescues. He also didn't say anything about testing, feeding, care, etc and prescribed poor choice of insulin...we treat the diabetes, he treats other stuff...
I think she mentioned euthanasia because she knows I'm working. I once knew a woman whose cat was diagnosed with diabetes and she had it put down because she didn't want to deal with it. Some people do make that decision unfortunately.
 
That is preposterous! Sorry for the outburst, I have been frustrated by a few Vets but at least I never heard that. As for using ProZinc with U-100 syringes, as long as you use the conversion chart, you won't kill her with just a different syringe to administer the insulin. We have a couple ProZinc users here that use U-100 syringes.

Home testing is one of the best tools to manage Chloe's diabetes. For pet BG meters, majority of us are familiar with the AlphaTrak / AlphaTrak 2 but use a human meter for daily testing due to pricing of AT strips. Popular brand is Walmart's ReliOn Confirm or Micro.

Food chart, low carb options are 8% or less. Most of us use Fancy Feast pate and Friskies pates: http://catinfo.org/docs/CatFoodProteinFatCarbPhosphorusChart.pdf

The SpreadSheet (SS) we use here, instructions link: http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/fdmb-spreadsheet-instructions.130337/
If you need help setting it up there are people who can do that here. Otherwise it's just entering numbers, dose, and notes.

Little bit of info in your Signature helps with a quick glance for those of us with bad memories: http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/editing-your-signature-profile-and-preferences.130340/
Do not hesitate to ask any questions here, the only dumb one is the one you don't ask ;). This is a support group for your kitty and YOU!
I couldn't figure out how to do the signature yet. Or the spreadsheet. I'm also dealing with a cranky old man who crashed into my car and is saying it's my fault. His insurance won't claim responsibiltiy, but mine (Geico) is doing an investigation and will support me to get my deductable back.
 
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