1 week into prozinc and my cat is now hates the shot's what do i do?

hello!
I'm very new the whole feline diabetes and I'm still learning along as i go so bear with me here haha...

ill try to paint as best of a picture here.

so around June 1st 2024 fidget (cat) was found to have a very high GLU ( 16.7 ) and high keytones. After a fructosamine test the vet concluded that she was diabetic and needed to start insulin to prevent a risk of DKA.
they provided 2 options prozinc and some oral stuff that was like $500 a bottle...so Prozinc it was...

the vet tech showed me one time how to inject my cat by the scruff on the neck and look for a feeling a slight "pop'' ( this was done with saline solution)
then I was told to start the first dose of insulin the following morning when she not so stressed out from her vet trip.

6 days went by and the injections was as smooth as butter! after day 7 things went south fast...at around this time my Gf had wanted to part ways with me and naturally that brought ALOT of stress on me.
and i have no doubt my Kitty could feel on that emotion. but none the less the shots needed to get done.

the first time i screwed up her shot i was stressed i think i may NOT have tented her skin properly and hit her muscle...so i pulled pack fast gave her Lots of treats and said sorry a million times and tossed the needle since i didn't push the plunger. So tried a new syringe drew a new dose and went SLOW as a turtle with her and made sure she was nice and calm and i made a perfect tent skin and NOPE! she freaked right out!....so i skipped the dose because i was stressed and she was stressed and i felt i was doing more damage then good...

i had spent all day watching every video on insulin injections for cats on Youtube to see what i was doing wrong...the things i notice that i didn't have was: A. second person to help keep the kitty busy B. smaller syringe. however learning to change inject locations was something they didn't tell me and had to learn from a 9yr old video....hmm

4 more days of injections went by i tried shaving a small patch to see better and not hit the same area and i tried CBD oil to help calm her down...and she would growl/hiss/run/jolt... even when i was very confident i was doing everything right it was becoming a 50/50 shot i was succesful (ie.furshots,poke n run)

its day 12 now and my stress levels are feeling more ''normal'' from ''parting way's'' but not perfect since fidget is still hurting from the shots.

so after some digging i called up my vet and asked if they could order me some U-40 31G 1/2'' 0.3ml syringes to see if this would help....well my vet didn't want to order them and told me it would not make any change to the pain aspect of it...and nor did they give me any help how to deal with her injection pain.
since my vet is being "silly'' to say in a polite way...id like to try with U100 31G syringes anyway since everyone on here seem to use them and say its better then 29G.

so here is the question/s

what can you guys advise to help with her pain/fear before its a ''too late'' kinda thing and just always fearful of the shots? should i just try the U-100 syringes and see if it helps and dose her as accordingly to the charts? or is there a numbing cream? or is she just being a drama queen and just not used to all the pokes and prods and will get used to it over time..?

any kind of help would be wonderful as im running out of ideas and my vet is acting kinda seedy...

 

First thing I want to say is that you can use the U-100 syringes BUT you must use the conversion chart in order to get the correct dose. The U-100 and U-40 syringes are not equivalent (there are more differences than just the needle size.) I just wanted to get that out there first because I don’t want any harm to come to Fidget.

Since ProZinc is a U-40 insulin, most people using ProZinc use U-40 syringes. It’s the Lantus and Levemir users that use the U-100 syringes — and a few ProZinc users who need to make very small changes to insulin doses.

 

I found some U-40 syringes in 31 gauge size with half unit markings. They are made by PetTest. Chewy.com sells them (do they ship to Canada?) and it looks like PetTest sells them directly at shoppettest.com. You definitely want to have half unit markings regardless because you will need to make small adjustments in dose based on blood glucose numbers. If you can get a spreadsheet set up, I can help you with that.

 

https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/how-to-create-a-spreadsheet.241706/

 

Have you tried giving her treats before and or after the shot? You could try deconditioning her to the shots — maybe give food and treats and get an empty syringe with the cap still on the syringe and pull up a small amount of skin and pretend you are going to give her the shot - even touching her skin gently with the capped syringe— and keep the treats coming. Every time she’s calm about it, praise her and reward her. Either way just keep it positive and let her figure out that it’s not going to hurt her. Some low carb all meat treats would be good here — like Pure Bites freeze dried chicken pieces or just boil up a little chicken breast yourself and cut it into cubes for her — any pure meat treat would do.

 

I sometimes used to shoot while my cat was eating. He was very compliant, yes, but he never flinched or stopped eating.

 

hey and thank you for getting back to me!

So yes i did read that if i wanted to go for the U-100 syringes to get a very particular syringe as to not ''misdose'' as fidgets is currently on 1U twice daily (from a U40 syringe). So getting the U-100 31G 1/2'' 0.3ml seemed to appear to be the most ideal and most instock local in my area (according to this link) http://www.diabeticcatinternational.com/knowledge/u40-insulin-conversion/ I wanted to buy a box of the U40 syringes off of chewy or pet test however i was just wanting to buy a pack of 10 U-100 syringes for like $3 and to''see if it helps'' before i would have to pay the $60 for the box of 100

the idea would be to get some U-100's 31G syringes at my walmart adjust the dose to the 2.5mrk(per the chart) on said syringes and if all works out for a few days then i can place an order on chewy for the U-40 31G syringes and revert back to the 1U mark on the U-40 syringes....no harm no foul ....right?

oh! i forgot the spreadsheet i will try to work on that for more info on fidget thank you!

yes! I AWALYS ALWAYS give her some of freeze her dried treats (orijen brand) and lots love and pets before and after every shot. I don't want her to think the shots have to be a negative exp every time so i try to have her thinking about the treats she gets after.
however i didn't try ''faux'' injections to try to get her used to that...ill give that a try and let her get more used to everything and i don't have purebites but i have lots of the INABA chicken fillets in broth!

currently this morning was lucky with her shot and she got it in with minimal issue....however she did flinch...
and sadly i did try to shoot while she was eating but she would growl and run away from me then took awhile to go back to eating as she was thinking it was a trap

 

Okay good you found this chart, I see.
http://www.felinediabetes.com/insulin-conversions.htm

 

How long are your needles? Are they half inch? Be sure to go in at an angle. Hopefully she is just nervous because of remembering the shot that went bad — and she will gradually get more comfortable with the shots. Or maybe she’s extra sensitive? Some people do shoot the insulin in places other than the scruff. I also used the ultra fine lancets for ear testing, and I did it free hand and did not use the noisy lancing device. I found that the ultra fine lancets really helped) once his ears were bleeding well.

When and how often are you feeding Fidget? If you have been reading this Board very long you will see me recommending feeding at about +2, +4 and maybe +6 but not anything except testing treats after nadir. You have really gotten yourself up to speed on a lot of things, which is great. I am really sorry that you had a personal crisis like that when you have a newly diagnosed diabetic cat (which is really stressful on its own.). Good job persevering through it all to help Fidget.

 

the needles are half inch yes.

ahhhh i didn't know that....it looked like in all the videos and how my vet showed they kept the syringe horizontal...ill try it at an angle next time and see now that goes.

She's being fed 3x a day @ half a can and i feed her at 10am for her morning shot then i feed her at 3:30pm for dinner and then 10pm for her nighttime shot.

and yes this website has been a gold mine of information! and helped me alot more then i ever thought in the first days i started. But every situation is unique and didn't find much on this issue so i figured it was time to start a thread on it lol

and yeahhh the timing wasn't ideal on that...but i've have fidget since the day she was born so i cant and wont give up on her as she was there when i needed her and now i got to return the favor!
thank you! 2024 is just being a weird year so far.... -_-

 

She really needs to be fed more often. If her shot time is 10 a.m. she should obviously eat then, but after that she should have a small snack at noon and again at 2 p.m. The largest portion of food is given at the main mealtimes (shot time) and the snacks are very helpful to stabilize the cycles and prevent steep drops that can trigger a bounce. A snack can be a teaspoon or two depending upon the cat and how their BG is and their weight, etc.

Don’t forget to set up a spreadsheet, please. Do you have any BG cycle numbers you can share now?

 

When was she diagnosed? How long has she been on ProZinc? How many units is she receiving?

 

hey sorry for late reply!
no worries i will bump up her main feeding to a full can and throw in a snack time in the day as well.

steep drops? bouncing? haven't learned those terms yet...i was only aware to never to give her the shot without food i didn't know it can go all wonky during the day...yikes
and i was just currently trying to figure out how to build this spread sheet...but its not like the one i've got on paper...what is the AMPS and PMPS? worst case i can scan and upload what i've written down.
and i diagnosed on may 25th 2024 i think.

 

Did you see this link I sent previously? https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/how-to-create-a-spreadsheet.241706/

Just let me know if you have any trouble setting it up because we have people who can get it set up for you in a jiffy. You do need a google account (gmail, etc.) set it up.

 

AMPS - a.m. preshot test
PMPS - p.m. preshot test

More tomorrow. I am on Eastern time and I get up at 5 a.m.

 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...ELxNoY2IovTnan2mOVE6_7BKy8tscqlqZox1S/pubhtml

here is a revised version since i kept messing up the first one lol.... how often should i be testing her on a daily basis? sorry if my testing does not give a good picture im just completely lost..