New to the board, dosing questions (will ask in appropriate board)

Status
Not open for further replies.
M

mariec22

Member Since 2023
Hello,

I am new here, and have a question about dosing regarding ProZinc, but since I'm new I'll start on this welcome board. Our 16ish-year-old cat was recently diagnosed with Diabetes in Dec 2023. He went in very poorly due to a mouth infection and discovered the diabetes then. We are based in the UK. His initial reading was 22 mmol. We immediately changed food that night and his glucose dropped to 16 mmol on next vet visit. He was initially prescribed .5 units of ProZinc, was stable for a about a week then his numbers began skyrocketing and haven't come down since. We are now on 4 units of insulin. We are completely inept at home testing, managing one successful glucose reading at home. We've been taking him into the vet for them to do his reading once a week or every two weeks. I know this isn't ideal. We've been on and off the Freestyle libre.

I'm working on the spreadsheet though I am confused on how to fill it in since we've been using the Libre. I'll post screenshot of his graphs on the ProZinc board. Vet has been very patient and helpful but at about four months in has advised to let Libre run its course, come back in a month if clinical signs are okay. I'm feeling increasingly hopeless about the whole situation.

I fear he is one of these anomaly cases. Since having the mouth infection treated, he has sprung back to life. He has put on weight, is playing, fur is in pretty good condition for his age, he isn't overly hungry and he isn't excessively peeing or drinking like he was. Yet, his numbers have been over 27 since January pretty much (the Libre stops reading over 27.9 I believe).

I love my cat. I don't want his last years to be like this. I sometimes wonder if he's even diabetic but what do I know. Most of his care is falling onto me and it's really difficult to commit to the shots, glucose readings, etc., with work and the financial strain is becoming increasingly difficult.

Anyway, thank you for offering this support. I've been quietly reading through all the material here for months trying to wrap my head around everything, and now feel am at a place where I'm ready to ask dosing questions. This resource is truly invaluable. Thank you.
 
Hi and welcome to the group! This may be the best place for your questions anyway as I have heard that there is not a ton of activity or eyeballs on the PZ forum.

What is your kitty's name and breed?

If you're questioning the diabetes diagnosis, you could have the vet do a fructosomine test to be sure. That gives insight into the cat's BG over a period of weeks
 
Hello! Thank you for the reply. I just posted in the other board but will share the link to that post here. https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/dosing-advice-reduce-to-3-75-from-4.276154/

He is a short-hair domestic mix of some sort, found and rescued as a kitten from the streets. His name is Nacho. I believe he had that done at point of diagnosis as vet explained it, but honestly I was so overwhelmed I can't remember the name of the test. Vet said it would look at the cat's BG over a period of time to determine it. I'm honestly probably still in waves of denial. I've never been in this situation before. It's incredibly overwhelming and lonely experience, really. My boy is really trying his hardest and he is just a trooper. He takes shots okay but the glucose readings are very hard. I've tried setting up a testing station, treats, etc., but he just won't stay still for it and cries, and it's just so hard to do this even though I know it's for his health and to help him feel better.
 
Welcome to FDMB!

If I may ask, what food did you switch Nacho over to? Not all cat food is created equal. This is a link to a food chart for our UK members. We consider low carbohydrate to be less than 10% carb although most people feed their cat food that's in the neighborhood of 5%. Also, how often are you feeding Nacho? If he's squirming at test time, it may be because he's hungry. Vets tend to tell people to feed their cat only twice a day. It's really not necessary to do so. Feeding smaller, more frequent meals may help.

I'm also going to tag one of our UK members: @Elizabeth and Bertie

Managing your cat's diabetes doesn't have to be a lonely experience. This is an entire community of crazy cat people who are here to help.
 
Thank you! He free feeds/grazes, and he's having Meowing Heads and Harringtons wet, grainfree food with Purina DM left out for him if he wants it though he only ever eats it every few days or so. I leave it out mainly as hypo prevention as I'm very paranoid about that but his numbers have been so high it probably isn't warranted.

Seeing all of the care and dedication you all have put into the knowledge here and the support is really appreciated. Thank you so much. It means a lot!
 
Hi Marie @mariec22 ,
Waving to you from Surrey! :bighug:

A couple of thoughts... At the time of the diagnosis was a fructosamine test done? (That gives a sort of average of blood glucose levels over the preceding couple of weeks). Or was it just diagnosed on a spot check blood test and urine test...?
Just really wondering to what extent the infection was raising blood glucose at the time of the diagnosis... (Very occasionally cats with infections are mis-diagnosed with diabetes...)

mariec22 said:
He was initially prescribed .5 units of ProZinc, was stable for a about a week then his numbers began skyrocketing and haven't come down since. We are now on 4 units of insulin.
Click to expand...
It sounds strange, I know, but sometimes high blood glucose can be caused by an insulin dose that is actually too high. But it can be hard to tell whether it's too much or too little insulin without getting some mid-cycle blood glucose tests to see how low the BG drops at the peak of the cycle...
...What are the lowest numbers that you've seen with the Libre? Any indication of steep drops in BG at any time...?

Hugs to you,
Eliz
 
Hiya! Nice to meet you. He had the fructosamine test at point of diagnosis. He had a dental done two years prior where he had a bunch of teeth extracted. His glucose at that time was 13 mmol. No one flagged anything about diabetes to us. His glucose at point of vet this time (again, for another infected tooth) was 20 mmol.

His libre is finishing today. He had a couple lows over the past 2 weeks around 4 and 5 mmol so I reduced his dose to 3.75 instead of 4 and that seemed to be giving him longer periods in green but would go back up to 27 nearing shot times (presuming insulin wearing off then). I opened a new bottle of insulin on Saturday gave 3.75 mmol in the morning and he had his first hypo that afternoon around 3pm at 2.9 mmol. I gave him some syrup and food, he came back up quickly to region of 5 mmol. He was at 23 at PM shot time so I reduced dose to 3 out of hypo fear. He never got into the green that evening after 3 unit shot. Since then, I've kept him at 3.5 but now he's sky high again (lowest number has been 14, highest over 27). We are having a new libre fitted this week at which point I'm changing him over to raw food only to watch his numbers closely and reduce insulin as needed. But im honestly losing hope at this point. His hyperglycaemia symptoms are coming back and I'm fearing we are rapidly running toward the inevitable.
 
mariec22 said:
I opened a new bottle of insulin on Saturday gave 3.75 mmol in the morning and he had his first hypo that afternoon around 3pm at 2.9 mmol. I gave him some syrup and food, he came back up quickly to region of 5 mmol. He was at 23 at PM shot time so I reduced dose to 3 out of hypo fear. He never got into the green that evening after 3 unit shot. Since then, I've kept him at 3.5 but now he's sky high again (lowest number has been 14, highest over 27).
Click to expand...
Oh, that must have been scary for you. Well done for dealing with that. :bighug:
Regarding the high numbers following the low ones, that may just be rebound, or what we generally refer to as 'bouncing'. If a cat's blood glucose drops too low, or too fast (or both) the body can respond to this 'threat' by releasing its own stored glucose to raise the BG level. It can also release hormones that cause temporary insulin resistance, and that keeps the blood glucose from dropping for a while. The effect of that that may last up to a few days. So please don't read too much into this period of high numbers... If it's rebound, the body will become responsive to insulin again when the effects wear off...
It may be that the BG would settle down and even out on a reduced dose...
 
Thank you so much for your help. I have been wondering if it's a rebound. It's just so confusing. He started on .5, was amazing for about 1.5 weeks then suddenly sky rocketed and we haven't been able to bring him down since. Vet has incrementally increased dose by .5 units at a time (so he went to 1, then 1.5., etc). I have added the info from the libre to the spreadsheet. Hopefully it's visible.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top