? Can’t get cats BG do go down he is on 2 insulin proszinc twice a day

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David Brown

David Brown

Member Since 2024
He was in hospital with keatones in his blood for five days. He is now home with a Libra 2 to track his BG levels but the last two insulin he has stayed high at 27. Please can you help with advice as I don’t want him to get ketones back it’s a bank holiday he is on filix as good as it looks +7 years old and a small amount of diabetic cat food royal cann. As we want to slowly change him over. Please advise on food insulin and it’s bank holiday weekend in England the cat is eating and drinking fine but we can’t get his BG to come down.
 
Welcome to FDMB.

In all likelihood, it is the Royal Canin food that is keeping your cat's numbers in a higher range. Even the canned Royal Canin is 14% carbohydrate; their diabetic dry food is even higher in carbs. Keep testing and transition your cat to a lower carb food. This is a list of canned cat foods available in the UK. All of the foods are low in carbohydrates.

For a cat that's recovering from DKA, you want to be feeding your cat 1.5 times the usual amount of calories. Ketones develop as a result of an infection or inflammation, not enough food, and not enough insulin. Making sure your cat is eating enough is essential. In addition, adding water to your cat's food can also help to dilute any ketones.

You can test for ketones at home. There are urine test strips that are available at most pharmacies/chemists. Follow the instructions on the package to make sure that your cat isn't developing ketones.

It would be helpful for us if you followed the instructions in this link on helping us to help you. There are instructions on setting up your signature and spreadsheet. The signature will give us some basic information about you and your cat. The spreadsheet is a way to keep track of your cat's progress and it allows us to follow along and make suggestions.
 
Had his 2 of prozinc insulin at 8pm and had half a pack of his normal cat food (as good as it looks felix + 7 years) at 7:30pm just before his insulin. His blood glucose levels are still high 27+ on his Libra 2 at 10pm
 
What insulin are you using? It's good to know what his pre-shot blood glucose level is but it's also important to know how low the dose is taking your cat. You need more than a readings prior to giving insulin in order to have a better picture of what's happening.
 
Sienne and Gabby (GA) said:
What insulin are you using? It's good to know what his pre-shot blood glucose level is but it's also important to know how low the dose is taking your cat. You need more than a readings prior to giving insulin in order to have a better picture of what's happening.
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he is on prozinc and 2 units twice a day his levels are HIGH 27 on his Libra 2 blood glucose tag he has on his skin. He is still high so it’s the same before and after it hasn’t dropped now in 3 insulin jabs. It dropped before to 12.3 but the last 3 insulin jabs it hasn’t dropped.
 
David --

You may want to take a look at the information we have about Prozinc. This is a link to the Prozinc forum. I'd suggest that you read over the sticky notes at the top of that Board. Most of us can't give you suggestions about dosing without more information regarding your cat's blood glucose test data. We are very numbers driven. If you are providing information about the pre-shot readings only, you don't know how low the insulin dose is taking your cat levels. As an example, my cat could have a cycle where her pre-shot test was over 400 (or over 23), then dropped into the 40s (around 2.2) and then bounced back into the 400s. If I had only been testing at shot time, I would have increased the dose. The mid-cycle test indicated that I needed to reduce the dose. This is why we need more information. We would not want to recommend anything that could potentially harm your kitty.
 
To test for the ketones that Sienne mentioned above, you need a bottle of Ketostix or Dia-Ketostix from Walmart or a pharmacy. It’s important you test every day for ketones at the moment as your kitty recovers from DKA.
 
Agree with the comment on Royal Cannin! Almost killed my cat. Try Weruva pate or Fancy Feast pate. My cats breath would immediately smell like acetone after eating Royal Cannin dry food. Switching to the low carb/0 carb wet food recommended here along with Lantus insulin stabilized after a couple weeks

Good luck. Sending prayers and well wishes
 
Morning on his levels before shot it was high at 27+ it stays the same it’s only dropped to 23.8 after 5 hours after his shot (this is on 2 u of prozinc) and will be the 4 time he has had 2u.
On the 2u of prozinc the lowest he has dropped is to 12.1 he spikes down quick and then it goes back up quickly. The lowest number he has has is 3.1 that was on 1.5 u it dropped at 00am and went back up to 27 by 4am ( they told us to drop his does to 1u. That wasn’t dropping him down so they put it back to 1.5 he was only dropping to 17 or 18 so they put it up again to 2u the first day we got him down to that 12.1 but now he is staying high again. All this is recorded daily 24/7 on his Libra 2 but it’s bank holiday in England and the vets are closed until tomorrow I have sent her all the information as she requested she wants to see the cerv. High/low. He is eating fine (always hungry) and he is drinking water. I hope this is not confusing and would love to send all the charts but I only have a iPhone 7 and don’t know how to send you it over. Thank again for the advice kind regards david
 
I’m going go to ask @Bandit's Mom to help you set up a spreadsheet so we can help you with dosing. She will contact you. It sounds as if he is bouncing and you are chopping and changing the dose.
Make sure you get the Ketostix or dis-Ketostix and test for ketones daily. Very important. And keep up feeding lots of food.
Information on bouncing
  • Bouncing - Bouncing is simply a natural reaction to what the cat's system perceives as a BG value that is "too low". "Too low" is relative. If a cat is used to BGs in the 200's, 300's, or higher for a long time, then even a BG that drops to 150 can trigger a "bounce". Bouncing can also be triggered if the blood glucose drops too low and/or too fast.The pancreas, then the liver, release glucogon, glycogen and counter-regulatory hormones. The end result is a dumping of "sugar" into the bloodstream to save the cat from going hypoglycemic from a perceived low. The action is often referred to as "liver panic" or "panicky liver". *Usually*, a bounce will clear kitty's system within 3 days (6 cycles).
 
Bron and Sheba (GA) said:
To test for the ketones that Sienne mentioned above, you need a bottle of Ketostix or Dia-Ketostix from Walmart or a pharmacy. It’s important you test every day for ketones at the moment as your kitty recovers from DKA.
Click to expand...

i just went to ASDA pharmacy and they said they don’t have any so I will have to check online.
 
David Brown said:
i just went to ASDA pharmacy and they said they don’t have any so I will have to check online.
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Hi David (waving from Surrey) :cat:

Most pharmacies should stock ketone test strips, but, I know it's a Bank Hol and so there'll be fewer places open today.
Could be worth trying tomorrow though, because that may be the quickest way to get them. Or, maybe somewhere like Amazon where you can get fastest delivery?
It's good that your kitty is eating, and drinking water. It is very important that ketone-prone kitties do eat and stay well hydrated.

I agree with Bron that it sounds like your kitty's BG is probably bouncing (rebounding). This can happen if the BG drops too low and/or too fast. ('Too low' doesn't need to be 'hypo' low, it can just be lower than the cat's body has become accustomed to).
As well as the BG bouncing up high, the body can also become insulin resistant for a time due to the release of counter regulatory hormones. It's a protection mechanism. So, the high numbers that immediately follow a bounce shouldn't be taken 'too' seriously in that they are not reliable data to use when it comes to making dosing decisions... Once the bounce wears off the body will become responsive to insulin again...

Re that 3.1 on the Libre, just be aware that at low numbers the recommendation is to test with a hand held blood glucose meter for greater accuracy. There can be something like a 15 minute delay with Libre readings; these read interstitial fluid and not blood.


Eliz
 
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Hi David. Welcome I see you have been getting some good help already. I would also like to help you with your ProZinc management. I hope you can get a spreadsheet set up soon and put some data in there from the Libre sensor. Hope you can find some ketone test strips. After my boy’s DKA, I bought a blood ketone meter that works like a regular handheld blood glucose meter except with different test strips.
 
Hi thanks everyone I just did a ketone strip test on his pee and it is negative his BG are still high and waiting for more date. The libra 2 is starting to play up as it keeps coming up glucose readings is unavailable it did this after a week last time we used one I don’t know if it has moved it as he was playing with his toys this afternoon he is also getting very clever with trying to get food as he took half a pack out the box with his mouth and put it on the bed and pushed the food out with his paws. He also got his toy mouse and put in next to his food bowl. On the BG testing we have a blood glucose monitoring system I have tried it on the dog so I will have to use it later on Gucci I will try to get a reading later as he has just had is insulin and I don’t want to stress him. And advice on the best way to get blood from his ears would be greatly appreciated. Kind regards david
 
Well, 391 is quite a high number. At what point in the cycle was that test take ? Was it a preshot test or at what +hour was it? (How many hours after the shot?) No spreadsheet yet? Sorry to harp on that, but just a single BG reading isn’t very informative. All numbers need to be taken in context.
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
Well, 391 is quite a high number. At what point in the cycle was that test take ? Was it a preshot test or at what +hour was it? (How many hours after the shot?) No spreadsheet yet? Sorry to harp on that, but just a single BG reading isn’t very informative. All numbers need to be taken in context.
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It was 10 hours after his shot and 2 hours before his next I did one yesterday about 8 hours and it was 20.
 
Does anyone know how to get them libra 2 cencers for cheaper price than the £50 they charge as they are good for getting a cerv and seeing what happens when I slowly change his food to something better that won’t spike his BG. He has had 3 libra 2 on now two have lasted a week and one they fitted wrong.
 
David Brown said:
Does anyone know how to get them libra 2 cencers for cheaper price than the £50 they charge as they are good for getting a cerv and seeing what happens when I slowly change his food to something better that won’t spike his BG. He has had 3 libra 2 on now two have lasted a week and one they fitted wrong.
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I have heard from Libre users that if you contact the company they will replace the Libre when it foals prior to 14 days. Sorry I am not sure about the prices.
 
David Brown said:
Can someone please explain the numbers I did a BG on Gucci on a pet test and it showed 391 mg/dl
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In your mmol/L numbers that 391 mg/dL would be 21.7 mmol/L. Does that help?

The way to convert between the two is to either multiply or divide by 18. So mg/dL divided by 18 will give you the mmol/L number. And to get the mg/dL number (which this group uses) we take your mmol/L number and multiply by 18.
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
In your mmol/L numbers that 391 mg/dL would be 21.7 mmol/L. Does that help?

The way to convert between the two is to either multiply or divide by 18. So mg/dL divided by 18 will give you the mmol/L number. And to get the mg/dL number (which this group uses) we take your mmol/L number and multiply by 18.
Click to expand...
Hi everyone I have just tested him again this afternoon 2pm 6 hours after his insulin and he had a high of 29 it was the second time I had tested him as the first one come up E-5 so I had to do it again and he was getting stressed can that make his number higher. And what is the best way to feed him as we are feeding him 30 minutes before his injection and then two hours after that he has a small snack and every two hours so he can get his 4 85g packs as he lost lots of kgs and I was told to feed him so he doesn’t get the ketones back. Are we doing it correctly?
 
Hi
I personally test then immediately feed and then shoot her insulin. What kind of food are you feeding
Yes stress can make the number increase
Good luck . He will gain back weight as he gets better
 
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