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Stressedcatmom

Stressedcatmom

Member Since 2017
Yoshi is always in the 300s when I test him pre shot with the exception of +5 when his at mid 200s. I'm starting to feel like the insulin isn't working. I don't see the vet for a week and she is really no help.

This is so stressful for the both of us. I'm doing all that I possibly can and his numbers are still high. It's been 2 weeks. I'm sad.
 
Is he still on 2 units of ProZinc twice a day? If the numbers drop from the 300s to mid 200s then insulin is definitely working but the dose is likely too low. If you set up a spreadsheet with all the data you've accumulated to date we can what's going on and offer more advice. At 2 weeks you've barely scratched the surface in finding his good dose.
 
Prozinc is a good insulin and works well with many kitties.

These links give good information on Prozinc:

http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/...prozinc-pzi-insulin-for-diabetic-cats.164995/

http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/protocol-for-prozinc-pzi.165103/

http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/...ion-for-experienced-prozinc-pzi-users.166057/


One of the best things you can do to get a better picture on how well the insulin is working is to set up a spreadsheet and enter the data from all your tests.

This link has the instructions:

http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/fdmb-spreadsheet-instructions.130337/

Since you are currently using a pet meter you would want to use this spreadsheet:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1tJGUgovPVu6ddmQZRcJAenda_9XG7xPuX6Xtp7ed-M0/edit?usp=sharing

Being able to see the preshot test and other tests in between shots on a colour coded spreadsheet can really help to reveal the "big picture". There are a good number of very experienced Prozinc users on this forum that can give suggestions/advice once you have a spreadsheet set up. Many things can affect how the insulin is working...sometimes more insulin is needed, sometimes less, but with data available it makes it easier to see which way things are going.
 
That's actually a nice gentle drop and means the insulin is working but he probably is due for an increase :). Excuse my bad memory :oops: but was there a reason for no spreadsheet? Also, it's only been two weeks. I had Maury on the same starting dose for over a month and his numbers barely changed. Unfortunately, I was not able to test him for the first month so I have minimal data for that dose. He probably developed a little insulin toxicity (I think) so when I got to 3U it was a breakthrough :). I completely understand about the Vet and that's why I look to the Prozinc group here for help before calling the Vet :D
 
Kris & Teasel said:
Is he still on 2 units of ProZinc twice a day? If the numbers drop from the 300s to mid 200s then insulin is definitely working but the dose is likely too low. If you set up a spreadsheet with all the data you've accumulated to date we can what's going on and offer more advice. At 2 weeks you've barely scratched the surface in finding his good dose.
Click to expand...

Yes, 2x per day. I have everything written down but have been too busy to transfer. I'll set it up soon. Right now we are just getting used to testing. I'm just summarizing the data I have and it's consistent. I was just really hoping he wouldn't need a higher dose.
 
Tuxedo Mom said:
Prozinc is a good insulin and works well with many kitties.

These links give good information on Prozinc:

http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/...prozinc-pzi-insulin-for-diabetic-cats.164995/

http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/protocol-for-prozinc-pzi.165103/

http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/...ion-for-experienced-prozinc-pzi-users.166057/


One of the best things you can do to get a better picture on how well the insulin is working is to set up a spreadsheet and enter the data from all your tests.

This link has the instructions:

http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/fdmb-spreadsheet-instructions.130337/

Since you are currently using a pet meter you would want to use this spreadsheet:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1tJGUgovPVu6ddmQZRcJAenda_9XG7xPuX6Xtp7ed-M0/edit?usp=sharing

Being able to see the preshot test and other tests in between shots on a colour coded spreadsheet can really help to reveal the "big picture". There are a good number of very experienced Prozinc users on this forum that can give suggestions/advice once you have a spreadsheet set up. Many things can affect how the insulin is working...sometimes more insulin is needed, sometimes less, but with data available it makes it easier to see which way things are going.
Click to expand...

Thank you. I'll set up the spreadsheet soon. I'm not a spreadsheet person. I prefer the old school, but I'll set it up. I understand it's important for guidance, but he's never too low and always in the 300s. I think what's most important right now is that I'm testing and looking at trends. I'm still honestly overwhelmed by this and I have to wk (a lot) try to find a husband etc...
 
Yong said:
That's actually a nice gentle drop and means the insulin is working but he probably is due for an increase :). Excuse my bad memory :oops: but was there a reason for no spreadsheet? Also, it's only been two weeks. I had Maury on the same starting dose for over a month and his numbers barely changed. Unfortunately, I was not able to test him for the first month so I have minimal data for that dose. He probably developed a little insulin toxicity (I think) so when I got to 3U it was a breakthrough :). I completely understand about the Vet and that's why I look to the Prozinc group here for help before calling the Vet :D
Click to expand...

Thanks for all your guidance. I appreciate it tons.
 
You can try Zobaline for his neuropathy. Once he gets into better numbers it might help too. I agree with Yong that he might be due for an increase. There are some people on here that might be able to help you start up your spreadsheet. I can't remember their names-- maybe someone has already tagged them somewhere for you.
 
Stressedcatmom said:
I think I'm trying to heal him too quickly and his neuropathy breaks my heart.
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I know how frustrating it is, and I feel for you. I think we've all been through the same doubt and heartbreak. We have a saying here that you'll probably get tired of hearing, but it's very true: this is a marathon, not a sprint. I know we tend to think of insulin as medicine that will treat our kitties' diabetes but, really, it's not. Insulin is a powerful hormone that we use to try and bring back to balance a system that's gone awry. Unfortunately it's not as simple as giving a med to treat an ailment. Don't become discouraged, you are doing a great job, and you will start to see results, you just may have to dance around a bit to find the perfect dose. Are you treating the neuropathy with anything? I've never used it but a lot of folks on here use Zobaline.
 
StephG said:
You can try Zobaline for his neuropathy. Once he gets into better numbers it might help too. I agree with Yong that he might be due for an increase. There are some people on here that might be able to help you start up your spreadsheet. I can't remember their names-- maybe someone has already tagged them somewhere for you.
Click to expand...

I ordered the zobaline and he's on day 3 of it. He's also on gabopentin which knocks him out. I'll try to get the spreadsheet soon
 
Squalliesmom said:
I know how frustrating it is, and I feel for you. I think we've all been through the same doubt and heartbreak. We have a saying here that you'll probably get tired of hearing, but it's very true: this is a marathon, not a sprint. I know we tend to think of insulin as medicine that will treat our kitties' diabetes but, really, it's not. Insulin is a powerful hormone that we use to try and bring back to balance a system that's gone awry. Unfortunately it's not as simple as giving a med to treat an ailment. Don't become discouraged, you are doing a great job, and you will start to see results, you just may have to dance around a bit to find the perfect dose. Are you treating the neuropathy with anything? I've never used it but a lot of folks on here use Zobaline.
Click to expand...
Thank you. Yes, he's on day 3 of zobaline. I guess I just need to be patient. Gah.
 
I'm sorry to just get to you tonight about setting up a spreadsheet. My kitten had two surgeries on Monday and so I've been focused on her.

I'll be glad to do a SS for you...it will take just a couple of minutes. In the upper right corner of this page, you'll see "inbox". Click on that and I'll send you a message in a few minutes to get some info from you to do the SS.

@Rachel Thank you for tagging me to help! :)
 
Stressedcatmom said:
I think I'm trying to heal him too quickly and his neuropathy breaks my heart.
Click to expand...
Hi
Just wanted to stop in to give you some encouragement regarding the neuropathy. My Gussie had severe neuropathy before I started him on the Zobaline recommended here. He was literally unable to walk, and by walk I mean just move himself on all four hocks one or two steps before having to fall or lay down. People were telling me I should be considering QOL decisions.
I gave him the Zobaline religiously twice a day. It took a good two months before I realized he was actually coming up from his hocks and was starting to walk on his pads like he should.At 5 months he was able to jump up onto the couch and his favorite furniture again without any assistance. I cried the first time he did.
The neuropathy piece is a piece that requires patience, but I just wanted to say hang in there and don't get discouraged if the results take time. Gussie s neuropathy did resolve and to watch him move you would never have thought he had had a problem
Hugs.
 
Stressedcatmom said:
Yes, 2x per day. I have everything written down but have been too busy to transfer. I'll set it up soon. Right now we are just getting used to testing. I'm just summarizing the data I have and it's consistent. I was just really hoping he wouldn't need a higher dose.
Click to expand...
It took me two months to find the right dose and see blue number. He will get there. It's time to up the dose a little and see what happens.
 
I'm sorry again to hear about your kitty.


PMPS was 230. AMPS was 326. I feel like this is a good thing? It's the lowest he's been preshot since I've been home testing.

Ps some kind soul is wking on the spreadsheet for me. He was not happy to test this eve. Hissing etc...
 
Marje and Gracie said:
I'm sorry to just get to you tonight about setting up a spreadsheet. My kitten had two surgeries on Monday and so I've been focused on her.

I'll be glad to do a SS for you...it will take just a couple of minutes. In the upper right corner of this page, you'll see "inbox". Click on that and I'll send you a message in a few minutes to get some info from you to do the SS.

@Rachel Thank you for tagging me to help! :)
Click to expand...
Thank you! I just sent you the info. Healing vibes to your kitty
 
Stressedcatmom said:
I'm sorry again to hear about your kitty.


PMPS was 230. AMPS was 326. I feel like this is a good thing? It's the lowest he's been preshot since I've been home testing.

Ps some kind soul is wking on the spreadsheet for me. He was not happy to test this eve. Hissing etc...
Click to expand...
a yellow preshot is a great sign. When you aren't testing and just petting, stroke the ears so he will become used to it. And always have a treat ready. I always gave cold cuts or catnip.
 
JanetNJ said:
a yellow preshot is a great sign. When you aren't testing and just petting, stroke the ears so he will become used to it. And always have a treat ready. I always gave cold cuts or catnip.
Click to expand...
His spreadsheet is updated if anyone wants to look. I'm out of test strips until tomo. I think I may have messed up when I gave the shot at 200
 
Djamila said:
Hooray on the spreadsheet! Thanks, @Marje and Gracie, and thanks @Stressedcatmom! It does take time, but we are all here to help.

Did you give a dose this morning?
Click to expand...

Sorry just seeing these. Yes I did. The spread sheet is updated but I'm out of strips till tomorrow and the last one I had for tonight didn't work for some reason. It wasn't picking up the blood. I know I need to test more but it's hardddddd. What do you think of his numbers?
 
Oh wait, yes it did. I wasn't doing pre shots in am when I first started. The reason he was at 400 was because he got into some catvtreats
 
Little hard to tell without some more mid-cycle numbers. What are you still struggling with in testing? Did you see this video made by Sieden:
 
He doesn't sit nicely and he hisses and growls and sometimes it takes a bit for the blood to flow then I try to grab the meter and it doesn't seem easy to get the blood on the strip and he hisses and growls more. Trust me if it was easier I'd do it all the time.
 
Gussie's mom said:
Hi
Just wanted to stop in to give you some encouragement regarding the neuropathy. My Gussie had severe neuropathy before I started him on the Zobaline recommended here. He was literally unable to walk, and by walk I mean just move himself on all four hocks one or two steps before having to fall or lay down. People were telling me I should be considering QOL decisions.
I gave him the Zobaline religiously twice a day. It took a good two months before I realized he was actually coming up from his hocks and was starting to walk on his pads like he should.At 5 months he was able to jump up onto the couch and his favorite furniture again without any assistance. I cried the first time he did.
The neuropathy piece is a piece that requires patience, but I just wanted to say hang in there and don't get discouraged if the results take time. Gussie s neuropathy did resolve and to watch him move you would never have thought he had had a problem
Hugs.
Click to expand...
Thank you!!
 
Ok, I was just trying to find out what part was hard. Peanut is a very good patient and I know not all kitties are that calm. Just try to take away some of the highlights: keep everything close, warm the ear, breathe, stay relaxed as you can. @Djamila I don't think her boy is like Peanut either. She might have some tips for a "testier" kitty. Hehhe, terrible pun. I apologize :D
 
Yong said:
Ok, I was just trying to find out what part was hard. Peanut is a very good patient and I know not all kitties are that calm. Just try to take away some of the highlights: keep everything close, warm the ear, breathe, stay relaxed as you can. @Djamila I don't think her boy is like Peanut either. She might have some tips for a "testier" kitty. Hehhe, terrible pun. I apologize :D
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Peanut is awesome
 
Hi there! I know it can be discouraging, but look how many tests you've done in the past few days! Remember, every test you even attempt to get, makes the next test a little bit easier. So you and Yoshi are making progress, and you can be really proud of the work you're doing to take good care of him!

Do you mean ups and downs with testing or with the results? Yes, definitely either way. When I first started, I couldn't do it at all, after days of trying and trying. Then I would get a couple of tests and think I had it figured out..and then nothing would work again. At some point we got past it and it became routine, although still not nearly as routine as sweet, sweet Peanut in the video. Sam has never ever laid down for a test, and it takes some finesse with him, but we get them done.

One rule I had was that if he fought or hissed I let him go. A low quiet growl I would ignore, but a low deep growl, I let him go. That was a level of distress that wasn't good. So I would let him go, but immediately put a treat down for him. I would put them in my sweatshirt pocket before we started so I could pull them out super fast and not have to mess with a package. Kind of gross to put food in my pocket, but I had a "special" sweatshirt I wore just for testing (I started that after the first time he shook his head and got blood on my dress). So I would let him go, take a slow deep breath to calm myself, and then talk softly to him, and try again. Staying calm and determined got us through the hard beginning of this whole thing. I think ultimately my fear of killing him with a hypo was greater than my fear of testing.

Honestly, I'm really proud of how much you've done already! Do keep at it though! That 200 pre-shot you got yesterday shows that Yoshi is quite capable of throwing you some lower numbers, and you'll want to keep an eye on those to keep him safe.
 
I meant ups and downs with the neuropathy, but your answer helped a great deal with other things. Thank you! I think you're right, I should let him go when he growls. I don't want to give him a treat after because I'll probably attempt to shoot right after, and they are supposed to not eat 2 hours prior, right?

Thank you for your encouragement!!!
 
Oh! No, definitely give him a treat! He shouldn't eat two hours before in order to get an accurate test, but it takes about 20 minutes for food to hit the bloodstream, so you have some time to try again on the test before the treat will have an impact. I give a treat after every poke, whether it worked or not. That consistent, positive reward is what convinces Sam to stick around for all of this! His treats are just freeze-dried meats, so no carbs.

Then once you get the test, you feed and then shoot. The two hour rule is no food two hours before the test. They should eat before the shot.
 
Whoops. Got it. I'll try the treat ploy next time! Off to bed. Nerve wrecking because I'm out of strips until tomo. He's sleeping and I gave him some snacks just in case
 
I like giving low carb treats liberally all around the testing/shooting procedures. If your kitty is food oriented it can help quite a bit.
 
Stressedcatmom said:
He doesn't sit nicely and he hisses and growls and sometimes it takes a bit for the blood to flow then I try to grab the meter and it doesn't seem easy to get the blood on the strip and he hisses and growls more. Trust me if it was easier I'd do it all the time.
Click to expand...
As soon as you see the spot of blood scoop it onto the back of your nail and test it from there. That way he doesn't have to sit as long.
 
Hi there
Just a couple of things I learned with Gussie that might help..
Sometimes he would really not like the test strip, I could never quite figure out what that was until I ran across some info that alerted me to the angle of the test strip. The edge can feel sharp when we are trying to get it to wick up blood! Sure enough, once I started paying attention to that little detail I realized the times he gave me his negative two cents on the process was when I was trying too hard to scoop up that blood drop and it touched his ear in the process! I realized that it was best to let that blood drop come up and then let it wick onto the strip rather than trying to "scoop" it.
Sometimes I had to go back to the warm rice filled sock to get a good blood flow, or choose a bit different spot to prick. And believe it or not one of his ears was more forthcoming than the other! ( and also his left ear consistently read lower than his right! Go figure!)
Hope that's another little piece of info that might help:bighug::bighug:
 
Kris & Teasel said:
I like giving low carb treats liberally all around the testing/shooting procedures. If your kitty is food oriented it can help quite a bit.
Click to expand...

Oh, totally! I justified it by saying, well, at least I didn't give her as many treats as the catsitter apparently does (seriously; I can go away for two days and an entire large bag will be emptied!), but on days when Amber got tested a lot, wow, she made out like a bandit! Probably why, after almost a year OTJ, she still scampers hopefully to the testing spot, just in case!
 
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