Am I giving shots right?

2/3 of the time, the shots sting and the cat meows unhappily. She settles down after. Is that normal? We tent up the skin and go in pretty fast. She's been getting insulin about a week now.

Thanks!

 

Same happened to me this morning. Her first two shots in the flank went fine last morning and last night, but today she hissed at me. Is your cat skinny? Mine is and I’m finding it difficult to make a good “tent” on her sides.

 

No, but she's young and the skin doesn't pull up like in a lot of videos.

Should I go ahead and give shots closer to the scruff until she becomes accustomed to this? I don't want to have a problem later.

 

Previous post
https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/giving-insulin-to-cat-who-insists-on-tiny-meals.266997/

 

I've always given the shots in the scruff, between the shoulder blades
It would be helpful to set up your signnature
To set up your signature which you will see is at the end of everyone's post in gray, click on your name up top and then tap on the word signature and add this information

• Add info we need to help you:
  • Caregiver & kitty's name
  • DX: Date
  • Name of Insulin (do not include dose or frequency)
  • Name of your meter
  • Diet: "LC wet" or "dry food" or "combo"
  • Dosing: TR or SLGS or Custom (if applicable)
  • DKA or other recent health issue (if applicable)
  • Acro, IAA, or Cushings (if applicable)
  • Spreadsheet link. Please put the signature link on the bottom line of your signature information, on its own, so it is easy to find.
  • Please do not put any information about your location in the signature for security reasons. If you wish to add your country location, please add it to your profile.

Be sure to click the 'Save Changes' button at the bottom. If you need help urgently it is important we know these things at a glance. We don’t want to waste valuable time finding out information.

Take a look at mine

 

Did you get the freestyle libre yet? I see you mentioned this in your previous post
When you do you need to set up your spreadsheet so you can enter your cats BG numbers on it in case you need help with dosing
Here is the link
https://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/how-to-create-a-spreadsheet.241706/
If you need help setting it up just ask we have a member that will help set it up for you

What insulin is your cat on?
What syringes are you using?

 

Here is another video shooting in the scruff, Ignore everything else she's says this is just to show you how to shoot in the scruff. You will feel an indentation with your finger when you pull the skin up

 

Thanks!!! I'll work on all this tonight. I don't have any data for a spreadsheet yet. I think she will get the Freestyle Libre this week, or if the vet is real busy, next week.

A very positive thing with this kitty is that I was able to back off on the phenobarbitol dose, and her seizures are no worse after 3 weeks. She's much more active now as her phenobarbitol level slowly dropped, like even 10x more, and that should help her diabetes. That med is a confounding factor, and can be raising her sugar. The vet said, she needs the seizure control and we will have to just deal with it. The vet still isn't sure my 2 cats are out of the woods yet with the toxoplasmosis brain damage.

This kitty is only 6. I hope she will go into remission from the diabetes. The vet thinks the seizures will probably be permanent. Hers are only facial twitching. The other kitty has some front limb motion and his jaw snaps sometimes. He will need another dose increase.

 

Have you thought about injecting in the flank? I had both our cats lay down on their side and slid the needle in almost parallel to their bodies just below what's called the flank in the below illustration. I was taught to use the scruff but in the beginning they would fidget and I didn't like waving something sharp near either their eyes or so close to the spine. Where they laid down in their baskets was also where I tested them so the whole procedure got so much easier.
You won't know unless you try.

 

I'm glad you were able to lower the phenobarbital that's good news
When you have a chance can you set up your signature so we have some information on your kitty
By the way she's a gorgeous kitty

 

Ok, I didn't make much progress on the diabetes stuff, just kept up with promoting wet food to her. She likes the freeze dried pure chicken treats a lot, so I gave her 5 today (10 cal). I have her up to 1 can of Fancy Feast pate per day, pretty consistently, and then the rest is LC Proplan dry and some Young Again zero carb dry. I heard that the guar gum can cause stomach upset, so I'm gradually changing the mix since the Proplan is too high in carbs.

I stuck myself with the needle a little bit this morning. I assumed the needle was contaminated from my skin and disposed of it. My husband prepped another syringe and gave that.

Is that correct that I needed to dispose of the dose because the needle touched my skin?

I ordered a super accurate scale today so I can do a better job with the phenobarbitol pill splitting. It's impossible to be accurate with the tiny pills. The scale will solve that problem. She spit up her pill and I'm glad I saw that and gave it to her again.

She growled and hissed over the shot tonight.

 

With my newly diagnosed kitty who was an angel the first couple of days but is getting sick fast of all the poking and needles, I started having my partner hold a spoonful of chicken baby food (the pure meat stuff, no veggies or onions) in front of her face while I’m giving her the shot - so far so good, she was too busy to hiss!

 

Ok, I'll see what I can come up with! I'm glad it's going well so far for you.

 

Have you been grooming yourself excessively? Sniffing the other cats butts? Scratching the furniture?
I had a friend who reused her syringes three times so don't be too hard on yourself.

 

Is it TMI if I admit I was sniffing cat butts?

I really don't know how fussy contamination issues are for sub Q so I've been treating it like going directly into the bloodstream. I forgot to alcohol the rubber top of the vial once and was upset about that. I put my alcohol wipes in front of the syringes in the cat kit so that can't happen again.

 

Never put alcohol on top of the insulin vial

 

You are so funny Dickson thanks for the laugh
@Noah & me (GA)

 

The last two years I have not been grooming myself excessively. I'm not wearing fuzzy slippers and pyjamas to the market (I've seen this) but the beard and old man hair really don't suit me. And I've been wearing socks with sandals. Oh the shame! I do have Raynaud's syndrome so that's my excuse.
I once had tan lines on my feet from sandals and asked my doctor if that was cancer. She actually fell for it for three seconds until she remembered it was me.
Under the 'B' is 9! Your tumor is benign!!!