ProZinc dose advice please

JanetNJ

JanetNJ

Very Active Member
I usually shoot a half hour ago. I'll be home for +4 today

but then have plans for a few hours. I have a feeling 7.5 may take her low today but you guys know more about how ProZinc works then me. Shoot 7.5? 7.25? Something else? She was flat last night but I think she was working upstream against a bit of a bounce.

Starting a new thread because my other one was getting a bit long.
 
Ok no one is awake this early (I'm in the eastern time zone.) made an executive decision to err on the side of caution and did 7.25 for the fact of not being home mid day and I don't want to cancel the fun activity planned for my son because of low numbers. She probably would have been fine art 7.5, but not being home today I was being cautious. :) let's see what happens.

Its nice to not see her RAVENOUS for food. She looks much more relaxed and purring the
past couple days. Her fur is also much nicer the past couple weeks than it has been in a few months.
 
JanetNJ said:
Ok no one is awake this early (I'm in the eastern time zone.) made an executive decision to err on the side of caution and did 7.25 for the fact of not being home mid day and I don't want to cancel the fun activity planned for my son because of low numbers. She probably would have been fine art 7.5, but not being home today I was being cautious. :) let's see what happens.

Its nice to not see her RAVENOUS for food. She looks much more relaxed and purring the
past couple days. Her fur is also much nicer the past couple weeks than it has been in a few months.
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Good call, Janet. It's great that you're finally seeing action. :smuggrin:
 
BTW - I'm in the same time zone but get up at 7 AM and am occupied with Teasel's t/f/s and his sibs' feeding, etc. and don't usually check in here until almost 8 AM.
 
I'm usually up around 4:30, but I'm on the west coast, so around the same time as Kris. We often double post in the mornings. ;)

It's always hard to know what to do when you can't be home to monitor. She could well be headed to an active cycle, but given the mid-cycles you've been getting, I would still expect it to be a safe cycle. Of course, we know our cats love to do the unexpected. Given the high dose, lowering by 0.25 is unlikely to cause you any trouble or lost momentum. And who knows? it might have been exactly the right thing to do!
 
Kris & Teasel said:
BTW - I'm in the same time zone but get up at 7 AM and am occupied with Teasel's t/f/s and his sibs' feeding, etc. and don't usually check in here until almost 8 AM.
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I know I'm an early bird. It's summer so I'm up at 5:30... When schools on I'm out of bed at 5 (usually awake by 4:30). My partners school starts early and she has a 45 min commute so she's out the door at 6am so I get up with her in the morning.
 
Djamila said:
I'm usually up around 4:30, but I'm on the west coast, so around the same time as Kris. We often double post in the mornings. ;)

It's always hard to know what to do when you can't be home to monitor. She could well be headed to an active cycle, but given the mid-cycles you've been getting, I would still expect it to be a safe cycle. Of course, we know our cats love to do the unexpected. Given the high dose, lowering by 0.25 is unlikely to cause you any trouble or lost momentum. And who knows? it might have been exactly the right thing to do!
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Thanks! Guess we'll see. You're an early bird too. Lol
 
PS If she does go lower than you're comfortable with, and you need to leave for your son's activity, just carb her up and go. Family time is important, and aborting the cycle isn't the end of the world.
 
I was a teacher for 20 years. I work at the district level now, but after so many years in the classroom I can't break the habit. :D
 
I'm a retired teacher (30 years) and was always up at the crack of dawn so I could be at work early to get organized before all the chaos started. Once I retired, I said to hell with that, I'm going to keep the schedule I want to keep!! ;):D
 
I'm a former teacher too, and once I moved on to another job, I was so used to being early that I just chose an earlier work schedule. I'm usually up around 4:30 CT, but I've been ill this past week so I haven't been able to go to work or be of much help on here (my brain was so foggy I couldn't make sense of anything). Starting next week I should be back on my normal schedule, so I'd be here around 5:30 your time, Janet.
 
Rachel said:
I'm a former teacher too, and once I moved on to another job, I was so used to being early that I just chose an earlier work schedule. I'm usually up around 4:30 CT, but I've been ill this past week so I haven't been able to go to work or be of much help on here (my brain was so foggy I couldn't make sense of anything). Starting next week I should be back on my normal schedule, so I'd be here around 5:30 your time, Janet.
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Feel better!
 
Rachel said:
I'm a former teacher too, and once I moved on to another job, I was so used to being early that I just chose an earlier work schedule. I'm usually up around 4:30 CT, but I've been ill this past week so I haven't been able to go to work or be of much help on here (my brain was so foggy I couldn't make sense of anything). Starting next week I should be back on my normal schedule, so I'd be here around 5:30 your time, Janet.
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I’m hope you’re feeling better, @Rachel.

And really glad to see CC’s blues!

(I work with college students and firmly believe that one of their finest collective qualities is that they think anything before 10:00am is uncivilized. :D )
 
Hi Janet - I usually don't spend time on this forum. Just came back to check on C.C. Looking good. Some nice blues. i'm glad you were able to safely come up to a good dose for C.C.. And I'm glad to see Prozinc working out as well. I hope you enjoy the 3 day weekend.
 
JeffJ said:
Hi Janet - I usually don't spend time on this forum. Just came back to check on C.C. Looking good. Some nice blues. i'm glad you were able to safely come up to a good dose for C.C.. And I'm glad to see Prozinc working out as well. I hope you enjoy the 3 day weekend.
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Ty. :). I just wish the dose didn’t need to be so high! My vet would freak out. She specifically said do NOT go over 4 units. I am nearly at 8. :oops: So I made a copy of my ss that I linked in my signature so she doesn’t have a link to it and can’t check up on me. Lol. I have two more refills. Hopefully by the time I need to talk to her again the dose will go down.
 
JanetNJ said:
222 preshot this morning!!! :). Stick with 7.75 or lower a little?


Update. Did 7.75 since I'll be home today if I need to steer.

So exciting!!!!
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I think that was a good call because you can monitor. One good thing with ProZinc is that it isn't a depot insulin (although it can sometimes have depot-ish effects maybe from extended duration) so you're not dealing with a big 7.75 u depot in these situations. That can be a little unsettling at times ...
 
Kris & Teasel said:
I think that was a good call because you can monitor. One good thing with ProZinc is that it isn't a depot insulin (although it can sometimes have depot-ish effects maybe from extended duration) so you're not dealing with a big 7.75 u depot in these situations. That can be a little unsettling at times ...
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Yeah I think I'm getting 12-14 hour duration now so just as it's wearing off the next dose is starting to kick in. :)
 
Did you already shoot the reduction? I know it can be nerve wracking, but my hunch is you could have kept the dose tonight. That green was lovely today, and you want more of those. Keeping the dose may have given CC longer duration in the greens (assuming she reached them again tonight). Dives do happen, but so far CC has shown some pretty typical responses to prozinc, not dramatic responses, so the odds are that she could get to greens and then surf along for a few hours, without hitting the limes. Again, no guarantees, but that's my hunch as to how she would respond. When a cat is doing well on prozinc they will flatten at the bottom instead of just doing a steady dive. It takes time to figure out if your kitty is going to do that or not.
 
Yep I agree that you probably could have kept the same dose. It's okay that you shot a reduced dose, since that will give us some good data (and you know all data is good data) but depending on what tonight shows, next time you might try to keep the same dose and see if that works. :)

I have to tell you Janet, it does my heart SO MUCH GOOD to see CC hitting those pretty yellows, blues, and greens! I know how stressed out and worried you were, and I know these numbers must just make you feel so relieved! I'm THRILLED to CC coming down and I know she's got to be feeling so much better.
 
It's hard! You're so used to seeing those high numbers that when they start to lower, it freaks you out (or at least, it would freak ME out!). I totally get why you did what you did...it's like you really WANT them to reach that dose and start getting beautiful numbers but then you realize that it means you have to shoot on them...and that is scary! I think tonight's data will be great since you'll have that to fall back on next time this happens so you will have a better idea of what CC does. We've all been there where we needed to be braver, and I always found having an idea of what was going to happen was helpful for me in those situations. :)
 
I've been using Prozinc for a long time and it still makes me nervous sometimes. It's got just that little bit of UN-predictablity that makes it hard to trust it's going to behave the way it's always behaved. Like when Sam gets into the 50's early in the cycle, trusting that he's going to surf and not just keep going down and down and down.

Since you and CC are on your second rodeo, it's a little bit about trusting yourself, even more than trusting the insulin. You have the knowledge and the skills to keep her safe, and even if she dips a toe into the limes, you know what to do and she'll be fine.

If you look through the notes on my spreadsheet, there are tons of places where i reduced and then left myself a note reminding me not to do that again. And then of course, i do it again. :rolleyes:
 
Ok so glad I reduced. +4 she is 43!!! Very low for an Alphatrak. She's eating high carb food now
 
Sigh. Hate it when they do that. ;) Remember not to go overboard with the carbs. Just enough to get her into safe territory.
 
You've got this. Do be careful though -- too many carbs at once and she could end up just throwing it up.
 
JanetNJ said:
She specifically said do NOT go over 4 units. I am nearly at 8.
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Well that is just silly for any vet to specify a limit to the amount of insulin. As we all know on this forum, one has to keep increasing the dose until we see successful (blue/green) nadirs. How would anyone, including a vet be able to predict that....well they can't.

That is too bad C.C. hypo'ed out and hit 43. Yes, that is scary low for an Alphatrak. I'm glad you were able to handle it as normal. Situations like this really highlight the importance of daily testing.
 
Please ensure C.C. is soaking up some carbs. If you can't get C.C. to soak up carbs orally, then I would prep a blunt "food" syringe for anal application of honey/glucose.

I never had to do it, but I have a food syringe for this situation.
 
JeffJ said:
Please ensure C.C. is soaking up some carbs. If you can't get C.C. to soak up carbs orally, then I would prep a blunt "food" syringe for anal application of honey/glucose.

I never had to do it, but I have a food syringe for this situation.
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She's still eating very willingly. Right now she's got 20 carb food with honey in it.
 
Oh my! C.C. found her breakthrough dose and added a dose of drama! 33 is a scary number but you are doing all the right things to keep her safe. As long as she keeps eating that’s a good sign!
 
I'm really concerned about how much it sounds like you're feeding her. I understand you are feeling anxious about this, but too many carbs really can make her sick - not just vomiting but feeling awful. If she gets over full or starts to feel nauseous it will be much harder to help her over the next few hours. It takes awhile for what she's already eaten to show up in her BG, so please be careful how much you're giving her. Let her body have some time to catch up with what she's already consumed.
 
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