Maria(new member) from Greece

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King

King

Member Since 2023
Hello.. I have a diabetic cat.. His name is King.. he is 9 years old and he was diagnosed this month with diabetes. at first we did 0.05 units but because his sugar does not drop I inject him 2 times a day. his insulin is caninsulin.Veterinaty instructed me to use 100 units syringes for caninsulin and
initially he prescribed Purina diabetes dry, but I have now switched to Purina diabetes canned food
 
Hi and welcome!

I think Purina diabetic wet is still too high in carbs. Also, caninsulin is called that because it was created for canines who have a much slower metabolism and is not the best insulin for cats. Having said that, I believe it’s harder to get a gentler longer acting insulin prescribed outside of the US. With caninsulin, you need to make sure your cat has food onboard at least 30 minutes before the shot because it hits fast and hard.

Regardless, of the insulin, it’s best given twice a day 12 hours apart. Are you home testing or doing spot checks at the vet? And was a fructosamine test done?

With a diabetic cat you need
  • A low carb wet diet that is 10% carbs or under. Most of us use around 4-7% carbs
  • A suitable insulin such as Lantus or Prozinc which are long acting, more gentle insulins than the old insulins.
  • We recommend hometesting the blood glucose with a human meter…it is not necessary to use a pet meter which is expensive to run and is no better. It will keep your kitty safe and you will know how the dose is working for your kitty. Only testing every so often will not tell you what is happening in between those times and an awful lot can happen in even a day.
  • HELP US HELP YOU has information about the spreadsheet, signature and hypo box which you will need to be able to look after your beloved kitty properly
A word of warning though…don’t change the food you are feeding at the moment over to the low carb food until you are testing the blood glucose because a change over can drop the BGs by up to 100 points and we don’t want you to have a hypo on your hands.

We are happy to help you with setting up the spreadsheet, sorting out what food to buy, how to transition safely to a low carb diet, how to learn to home test and much more. This is an excellent site for diabetic cats…it has been around for more than 25 years and has very experienced people to help you.

Keep asking lots of questions.
 
King said:
Hello.. I have a diabetic cat.. His name is King.. he is 9 years old and he was diagnosed this month with diabetes. at first we did 0.05 units but because his sugar does not drop I inject him 2 times a day. his insulin is caninsulin.Veterinaty instructed me to use 100 units syringes for caninsulin and
initially he prescribed Purina diabetes dry, but I have now switched to Purina diabetes canned food
Click to expand...
You are using U-100 syringes for Caninsulin? You should be using U-40 syringes for Caninsulin
How many units are you giving? Just saw on your SS you are giving 5 units of caninsulin using U-100 syringes. I would note that on your spreadsheet up top
Can you add to your signature that you are in Greece
Tap in your name up top then tap on signature and add it then tap save or done

You can see if this place ships to Greece for U-40 syringes that are used for Caninsulin
https://www.viovet.co.uk/SOL-V-Insu...u-bmMgyt3OomMGToKpkmtKE0G7ktXXvhoCklAQAvD_BwE


Did your vet use the conversion chart to tell you how many units to give using the _U-100 syringes
http://www.felinediabetes.com/insulin-conversions.htm
Looking at the conversion chart it looks like you are actually giving 2 units of caninsulin is this correct?

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The Purina DM wet is 6% carbs which is fine . Is this what you are feeding, there really is now reason you have to feed prescription food
I did a search on our site and another member posted the same amount of carbs which was 6% carbs
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This is the list of low carb foods available in the UK and most of EU. Maybe you can find some of them in Greece. We do have members in Greece feeding low carb wet food.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1J5JpMe6TDXrHq_aTl9hUtHy6Gs9oRBqlz4nPGKxtySA/pubhtml
Anything under 10% carbs is considered low carbs
Did your vet tell you that with caninsulin you first test , then feed, then wait 30 minutes to give the insulin , you want food on board because caninsulin hits hard and fast

You may want to read about caninsulin here
https://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/beginners-guide-to-caninsulin-vetsulin.231587/

You also want to have a hypo kit ready, the food list I gave you look for medium and high carb food in the house and honey
11% -15 is medium carbs.

16- 24 is high carb.

If you can't find any high carb wet food on the list I gave you I found this posted on the UK information link for food I gave you it says
Get a few little tins of Gourmet Gold 'in gravy' food. High carb palatable treats are good too, such as Webbox 'Lick-e-licious' salmon cat treats.

Posted by another member
The small cans of Gourmet Gold in gravy which is 27% carbs
https://www.purina.co.uk/cat/cat-food/product-gourmet-gold-chunks-in-gravy
Also i use Webbox lick e lix, which is about 20% carbs
https://www.webbox.co.uk/webbox-lick-e-lix-chicken
 
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Purina Analysis: Moisture 76.5%, Protein 13.0%, Fat content 5.5%, Crude ash 2.2%, Crude dietary fiber 0.9%, Starch 0.4%, Total sugars <0.5%, Taurine 1350mg/kg, ME 0.99 kcal/g
 
I use 100 unit syringes and give 2.5 units. they told me that the conversion is ok
 
King said:
I use 100 unit syringes and give 2.5 units. they told me that the conversion is ok
Click to expand...
Looking at the conversion chart if you are going 5 units using the U-100 syruges you are actually giving 2 units

We also adjust doses by 0.25 unit at a time
Can you please note you are using U-100 syringes on your spreadsheet also it's important
Are these the ones you are using half unit markings?
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King said:
I use 100 unit syringes and give 2.5 units. they told me that the conversion is ok
Click to expand...
Hi Maria and welcome
If you are using a U 100 syringe and giving 2.5 U, the dose of Caninsulin you are giving is 1 U.
Looking at your spreadsheet you are giving 5 units.
Can you tell me if that is 5 units drawn up of the caninsulin on the U100 syringe.?
If you look at the conversion chart below you can see that 5 units of a U40 insulin drawn up in a U100 syringe is 2 units of Caninsulin.

Can you tell me if the U100 syringes are the U 100, 3/10ml, 30 or 31 gauge, 6 or 8 mm insulin syringe please?

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Can you tell me if the U100 syringes are the U 100, 3/10ml, 30 or 31 gauge, 6 or 8 mm insulin syringe please?

Sorry, I don't understand. Syringes write only 100units/1ml and I give half 10 units
 
King said:
Can you tell me if the U100 syringes are the U 100, 3/10ml, 30 or 31 gauge, 6 or 8 mm insulin syringe please?

Sorry, I don't understand. Syringes write only 100units/1ml and I give half 10 units
Click to expand...

Hi Maria, there are three different sizes in the U100 syringes:
The 1ml size
The 0.5 ml size
The 0.3ml size
They all can measure U100 insulin.
The 1ml and the 0.5 ml syringes are best for humans because they are so much bigger than cats and need much larger doses..
The reason the 0.3 ml size is much better for cats is because they can measure smaller amounts more safely.

If you need to go up in dose, it can become problematic when you need to measure amounts less than 1 unit on the 1 ml syringe you are using at the moment. It is much easier on the 0.3 ml syringe.
We recommend going up in smaller increments of insulin than most vets.
Have a look at the syringes Diane posted in post 9 above and that shows you the 0.3 ml syringes.
Does all that make sense?
 
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@King
Maria can you please add to your signature from Greece so members know
Thank you :cat:
One favor when you read a reply from a member can you tap the work like that is to the right of each members reply, just so we know you have read it
 
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