Newly diagnosed

R

ronrenay

Member Since 2025
Hello,
I hope this is the right place to start as a new member.
We have an awesome tabby named Monkey (don't judge us} he came with that name and threatened to sue if we changed it.
He was suspected of diabetes a month or so ago, but due to some conflicting test data our vet wasn't willing to start insulin. Our vet initially had us put Monkey on Senvelgo, but due to some high ketone values we had to discontinue it after 2 doses She said that once insulin is administered you cannot use Senvelgo.

Off to the races...........

Our vet suggested using FreeStyle Libre which I never heard of but so glad we don't have to get blood for the many curves that have been obtained by simply letting my cell phone scan data into an app named FreeStyle LibreLink. We ran it for 2 days without any insulin administered to get some "baseline" data on his BG levels before beginning the insulin.
Our vet recommended ProZinc with UB40 syringes. Our vet came to our house (on a Sunday) and explained how to mix insulin properly and fill the syringe to 2 unit to start with. Monkeys bg was 440 just prior to first dose. We took about 20 readings as we were paranoid and stressed to the max. BG was 440 then dropped fast to 332 in 1.5hrs. At 2.5 hr mark it was 127. We really got paranoid and started checking every 10 mins. Values descended as follows: 101, 105, 84, 67, 65 we gave Karo syrup (2ml suggested) His BG began to increase to 75, 98, 109, 130 slowly back up to 351 12 hrs. later.

So time for me to give insulin.....

I injected 1 unit at 351 12 hrs. apart. Curve went very well reaching nadir of 79 at 5.5hrs. (had Karo ready just in case).
My next, second time ever I push the needle thru the skin tent and injected insulin outside the skin. So we did not try again immediately, his bg was 439 so we decided (without texting our vet to wait for 2.5 hrs and see if his glucose was still high. So 3 hrs later his bg was 440, we tried again 1 unit (I know our vet had a fit when we told her we repeated insulin again. Lesson learned). The second insulin injection resulted in a nadir of 233 5 hrs later.

I will stop here so this post doesn't get to long. Thanks for having a place to vent and to be able to ask questions. We are still working on consistency with our curves (if that is possible). WE are now day5 of administering insulin. We have a wonderful vet who texts us 24/7 to keep up with our curves and advising on insulin dose. WE are now at 2 units. It seems to me that the curve works better for AM injections curves as opposed to PM injection curves.

I hope this makes sense as my wife and I are both dead tired checking bg levels 1-3 hrs apart 24/7.

I look forward to much needed advice to come.
 
Last edited:
Welcome to FDMB.

It sounds like you have a wonderful vet!! Prozinc is one of the "good" insulins for managing a cat's diabetes. The fact that your vet came to your home is also a big plus. It likely means you got reasonably good blood glucose data because your cat wasn't stressed by being at the vet's office. (And the vet having "kittens" over your giving a second shot also suggests she knows about feline diabetes.) In addition, we've seen vets ignore the issue of ketones and Senvelgo so you found a good vet!!

It does get easier and you won't need to be getting up in the middle of the night (unless you really want to or there's a clear reason to do so). Most of us were very cautious and terrified of hypoglycemia at the beginning of our cat's diabetes journey.

We tend to be a bit more conservative than your vet when it comes to dose changes. We adjust doses by 0.25u increments. With increases, if you bump up the dose by larger amounts, you risk whizzing by what could be an effective dose for your cat. With decreases, we look to provide as much support for a healing pancreas as possible. This is a link to the Prozinc forum. The sticky notes at the top of the forum will provide you with information about the insulin as well as how we approach dosing. I'm also tagging one of our members who is very experienced with using Prozinc: @Suzanne & Darcy

What are you feeding Monkey? We recommend a low carbohydrate, canned food diet. We consider low carb as under 10% although most of our members feed their cat a diet that's in the neighborhood of 5% carb. We have food charts that list nutritional content if you need them since carbs are not on the food labels (and you'll be surprised at how high in carbs some of the supposedly "diabetic" foods are).

If you're planning on sticking around, we encourage members to create a signature and spreadsheet. The signature will give some basic information about Monkey so we don't keep asking you to repeat the information. The spreadsheet is where you can keep track of your blood glucose test data. It also allows us to follow along and offer input. The information is in this post on helping us to help you.

Please let us know if you have questions. We're here to help.
 
Sienne and Gabby (GA) said:
Welcome to FDMB.

It sounds like you have a wonderful vet!! ProZinc is one of the "good" insulins for managing a cat's diabetes. The fact that your vet came to your home is also a big plus. It likely means you got reasonably good blood glucose data because your cat wasn't stressed by being at the vet's office. (And the vet having "kittens" over your giving a second shot also suggests she knows about feline diabetes.) In addition, we've seen vets ignore the issue of ketones and Senvelgo so you found a good vet!!

It does get easier and you won't need to be getting up in the middle of the night (unless you really want to or there's a clear reason to do so). Most of us were very cautious and terrified of hypoglycemia at the beginning of our cat's diabetes journey.

We tend to be a bit more conservative than your vet when it comes to dose changes. We adjust doses by 0.25u increments. With increases, if you bump up the dose by larger amounts, you risk whizzing by what could be an effective dose for your cat. With decreases, we look to provide as much support for a healing pancreas as possible. This is a link to the ProZinc forum. The sticky notes at the top of the forum will provide you with information about the insulin as well as how we approach dosing. I'm also tagging one of our members who is very experienced with using ProZinc: @Suzanne & Darcy

What are you feeding Monkey? We recommend a low carbohydrate, canned food diet. We consider low carb as under 10% although most of our members feed their cat a diet that's in the neighborhood of 5% carb. We have food charts that list nutritional content if you need them since carbs are not on the food labels (and you'll be surprised at how high in carbs some of the supposedly "diabetic" foods are).

If you're planning on sticking around, we encourage members to create a signature and spreadsheet. The signature will give some basic information about Monkey so we don't keep asking you to repeat the information. The spreadsheet is where you can keep track of your blood glucose test data. It also allows us to follow along and offer input. The information is in this post on helping us to help you.

Please let us know if you have questions. We're here to help.
Click to expand...
Thank you for replying to our post and for reminding us it will get easier! OOPS... Monkey's starting dose was 2u NOT 1u. We have only given 1u a couple of times at the direction of our vet. We have started feeding Science Diet m/d dry food which was recommended by our vet (5 tablespoons twice a day which equals 5/8 cup per day for a 10lb cat). Fortunately he loves the food. Where can we find the food charts that list the nutritional content?
 
One way to find out you can go to the Chewy.com web site, look for the food name click on the picture scroll down, the nutrients are where you can can calculate the dry matter carb, diabetic cats actually need to have a diet of wet can food between 0-10% carbs kibbles including the “prescribed” DM food your vet recommended are very high in carbs. So you know, vets only sell the food, making commission, they, most of the time hace no idea of the carb content in that food, cats cannot digest carbs, most members use Fancy Feast pates between 0-10% carbs
 
Thank you for all the information. We found the link on the forum but can't find it again. We will definitely check into the nutritional content of other foods.
 
Hello and welcome. What food was sweet Monkey eating before the diabetes diagnosis? No judge on names, my cousin also had a kitty named Monkey. But your vet isn't quite batting 100% on feline diabetes with recommending dry m/d which is a higher carb food than we recommend. Note, don't change his food just yet. Let's get a baseline of blood sugar numbers from him, like more than a day or so, then think about switching to a better food for diabetics. A change to low carb food can dramatically lower the amount of insulin need. You don't want to be fighting hypos along the way.
 
Just to add to Wendy's comment, the MD is roughly 25% carbs based on the guaranteed analysis. That may be somewhat of an overestimate since you need the "as fed" information in order to get the actual carb percent. However, there are only 2 or 3 dry foods that are low in carbs and none of them are "diabetic" prescription foods. Unfortunately, vets get most of their information on feline nutrition from the pet food sales reps and the vets are often unaware of how high the carbs are in a food that's marketed as diabetes appropriate.

Lisa Pierson, DVM is a vet who has an interest in feline nutrition. I linked her website if you want to do some general reading. Every so often, she's been known to pop up here. On the website she has a fairly comprehensive list of canned foods that are available in the US along with nutritional information, including carbs. The chart I referred to above is the one I just linked. (Maria/Corky also linked it in her post.) We have other food lists, as well but Dr. Lisa's is the largest. If you have an interest in feeding Monkey a raw diet, she also has information on the website with information as well as her recipe. (If you are interested in a raw diet, there are also pre-mixes that you can use that don't require buying all of the individual supplements.)
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top