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leena & bobby

leena & bobby

Member Since 2020
Hi everyone!

My name is Leena and I just started fostering a diabetic cat name Bobby Flay on Saturday. I've had cats my whole life, and I have Type 1 Diabetes myself, but I've never dealt with feline diabetes before.

I don't know much about his history, but I'm his third foster, he's 10 years old, and he gets 2 units of ProZinc every 12 hours and eats Wellness Complete Health grain-free canned cat food. He recently had a glucose curve done at the vet and they did give me his follow-up paperwork, but it didn't really give much details. Being a diabetic myself, I would like to know what his sugars actually are and have better information than i got - hence why I'm here! I use a dexcom cgm, but i just ordered some freestyle libre sensors, so I'm hoping to get him setup with those ASAP - they should be here by the end of the week.

I don't really have any specific questions - i've just been reading the forums and learning. But any tips or advice are greatly appreciated! Feline diabetes is a lot more complicated that I originally thought - even as a diabetic lol

A big thank you to everyone on here!

Leena & Bobby
 
Larry and Kitties said:
What are you feedy Bobby Flay?
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He gets 3 oz of Wellness Complete Health Pate Chicken Entree Grain-Free Canned Cat Food at breakfast and at dinner (6 oz total a day), and then they've been letting him free feed on Wellness CORE Grain-Free Original Formula Dry Cat Food throughout the day, although he doesn't eat much of it. I haven't changed anything from what his previous foster was doing yet. The vet said he should get about 250 calories a day. He looks like he used to be a pretty small cat, but he's overweight now.

Thank you for the Libre info - it looks like Badgers numbers were pretty good! I'm really curious where Bobby is at. I might do an ear prick before dinner tonight just to get a rough idea - but I'm a little hesitant since I haven't had him long and I don't want him to dislike me :joyful:
 
The Wellness canned is a good low carb food. I wouod ditch the dry since it is relatively high carb. Being grain free does not mean low carb. Also, free feeding dry can mess up fing a dose if the cat eats a different amount each day.
I never had any cats hate me for getting blood from their ears. A few of mine even jumped up on may lap for testing since they get fed right after.
 
Hi and welcome Leona and Bobby! That is wonderful you are fostering a diabetic kitty.
You are very wise to want to know what is happening with the blood sugars.
After using the freestyle Libre you might like to do the home testing yourself. You don’t need anything different to what you already use for yourself as far as testing goes. A human meter is fine and what we recommend here.

The dry food he is getting will be high carb but I would not change any of the food until you know what is happening with the blood sugars as changing to a lower carb food can drop the BS as I’m sure you already know. We recommend feeding before the shots and again a couple of times during the cycles....just smaller snacks, usually during the first half of the cycles when the insulin is strongest.

Here is a Link to useful information
https://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/new-how-you-can-help-us-help-you.216696/

Ask lots of questions. We are very happy you found us!
 
Bron and Sheba (GA) said:
I would not change any of the food until you know what is happening with the blood sugars as changing to a lower carb food can drop the BS as I’m sure you already know. We recommend feeding before the shots and again a couple of times during the cycles....just smaller snacks, usually during the first half of the cycles when the insulin is strongest.
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I just did my first ear prick and he was 77 - before dinner... i feel like that's too low to be giving insulin, even if he eats... so I'm going to wait a couple hours and see.. I hope he doesn't go too high either, but I know I'd rather be high than passed out from a hypo..... I was thinking since his sugar is good right now i'd take away the dry food and maybe he can regulate himself better without it, but maybe that isn't a good idea? I'll feel a lot better when the Libre gets here - its in the mail now. Has anyone tried dexcom on cats? I haven't seen that but will try to search
 
leena & bobby said:
Well I just checked him before dinner and he was 77! So i didn't give insulin and will test again in 2 hours... I also took away his dry food.
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I am not a Prozinc user but I would reduce the dose with that 77.
If you are taking away his dry food you need to be aware that the BG could drop up to 100 points so you will need to be monitoring closely. It might be better not to remove the dry food until you have the freestyle Libre attached so you can monitor closely.
I’ll tag @Deb & Wink and @JanetNJ to help with the prozinc.
 
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I couldn't get his ear to bleed for the life of me last night so I just gave up and tested him this morning and he was 328, so i gave him his breakfast and regular prozinc dose and will try to test throughout the day to get an idea of what how much the insulin drops him.. hopefully i can get better at the ear pricks.. I won't change any of his food until the libre gets here.. i guess his food and dosing has been working for awhile - i'm just surprised he was so low, and that was 4 hours after the insulin peaked so I would imagine he was even lower earlier.
 
Critter Mom said:
Really, really, really warm the ear. Helps blood flow. Mogs.
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Especially when the weather is cold. A rice sock works well, old sock with a bit of rice in the bottom, briefly warmed in the microwave, and held against the ear to get the blood flowing.
Other ideas for you to try:
1. Lancets that are labeld "for alternate site testing" are larger gauge, so will poke a little bit of a larger hole until you get the hang of poking your cat's ear. 26-28 gauge is a good place to start. Lancets that are a smaller gauge, like 30-31 gauge are harder to use in the beginning, until more capillaries form in the ear in the "sweet spot."

2. Different meters need different sized blood drops. So you should check how large of a blood drop your own meter needs and perhaps switch to a different one for your cat.
3. Try a double poke, right next to each other.
4. This thread has some great tips, and has a diagram of the "sweet spot". Marje and Gracie's Testing and Shooting Tips

That 77 BG reading you got would mean an automatic dose reduction of 0.25U, per our dosing protocols we use for Prozinc (and other insulins). So reduce the dose from 2U to no more than 1.75U would be my recommendation.

You say that 77 was 4 hours after his nadir, or as you put it, after the insulin peaked? We express time in a + hour format, with each hour after the insulin being one of those + hours. So 1 hour after the shot, is +1, 2 hours after the shot is +2, etc. So how long after the shot was that BG of 77?

How do you know when the insulin peaked? Was there another test done earlier in the 12 hour cycle?

Sticky New? How You Can Help Us Help You!
Has info on how to set up our standardized format SS for recording the test data and doses.
 
Deb & Wink said:
How do you know when the insulin peaked?
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So the 77 would have been +11, and I've read that ProZinc generally peaks around 7 hours so I was just assuming.. that was my first test ever though so I can't confirm when the peak is for him.

Today was:
7:00AM 328 BG, 2u ProZinc and breakfast
12:00PM 96 BG, lunch
7:00 PM, 136 BG, .5u ProZinc and dinner
10:00PM about to give him a snack
 
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