Feeding Question - New to this!

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ElizQ

ElizQ

Member Since 2022
Hello,

Yesterday (Friday) my husband and I found out that our 9 yr old cat Ace is diabetic. We were taught how to inject him with insulin and some feeding rules, especially no snacking. It was overwhelming. We tried to ask many questions especially since the vet will be closed the next day (Saturday).


Today we started the process.
7:20am: Gave Ace 1/2 cup of Hills Prescription Diet (W/D Multi=Benefit) cat food.
8:10am Gave Ace his insulin shot. (U-40 syringe. 1 unit. Vetsulin)

By 3:00pm Ace was following us meowing for food. It was so heart wrenching for us since we were told by the veterinarian the next meal time will have be in 12 hours, which will be 7:20pm.

By 5:40pm my poor Ace vomited a little liquid. (Size of a quarter)
By 6:14pm he vomited again. Little liquid. (Size of a quarter)

My anxiety was high and it hurt so much to see him like this.

By 6:36pm I gave him a pinch of his Hills food. Was this wrong to do? I'm trying to follow the veterinarian's order and not to give him snacks but I felt like he needed food in his system. I'm so worried and I have questions, but again, for it being Saturday the vet is closed. I called the emergency vet but they said to continue to follow our veterinarian's guidelines.

We made it to 7:20pm and Ace ate another 1/2 cup of his Hills food. I'm currently waiting to give him is insulin shot at 8:10pm. I noticed he still has a little food (like 2 pinches of food) left from his 1/2 cup. After I give him his insulin shot do I need to put the remaining food away (the amount he didn't finish) or can he finish that later after his insulin shot?

Please, any advise will be helpful!!

I'm stressed out of my mind and don't want to make my poor fur baby even more sick.

Thank you in advanced!

A worried cat-mom,
Eliza
 
ElizQ said:
Hello,

Yesterday (Friday) my husband and I found out that our 9 yr old cat Ace is diabetic. We were taught how to inject him with insulin and some feeding rules, especially no snacking. It was overwhelming. We tried to ask many questions especially since the vet will be closed the next day (Saturday).


Today we started the process.
7:20am: Gave Ace 1/2 cup of Hills Prescription Diet (W/D Multi=Benefit) cat food.
8:10am Gave Ace his insulin shot. (U-40 syringe. 1 unit. Vetsulin)

By 3:00pm Ace was following us meowing for food. It was so heart wrenching for us since we were told by the veterinarian the next meal time will have be in 12 hours, which will be 7:20pm.

By 5:40pm my poor Ace vomited a little liquid. (Size of a quarter)
By 6:14pm he vomited again. Little liquid. (Size of a quarter)

My anxiety was high and it hurt so much to see him like this.

By 6:36pm I gave him a pinch of his Hills food. Was this wrong to do? I'm trying to follow the veterinarian's order and not to give him snacks but I felt like he needed food in his system. I'm so worried and I have questions, but again, for it being Saturday the vet is closed. I called the emergency vet but they said to continue to follow our veterinarian's guidelines.

We made it to 7:20pm and Ace ate another 1/2 cup of his Hills food. I'm currently waiting to give him is insulin shot at 8:10pm. I noticed he still has a little food (like 2 pinches of food) left from his 1/2 cup. After I give him his insulin shot do I need to put the remaining food away (the amount he didn't finish) or can he finish that later after his insulin shot?

Please, any advise will be helpful!!

I'm stressed out of my mind and don't want to make my poor fur baby even more sick.

Thank you in advanced!

A worried cat-mom,
Eliza
Click to expand...

Hi eliza welcome to the forum!
I know experienced members will weigh in and guide you with your questions.
I suspect the type of food Ace is eating will be discussed. FWIW, my guy Lando eats 6xs a day ( never less than two hours before testing).
Take a deep breath, the folks here are amazing and have tons of knowledge. Youve got this!
 
Hi and welcome to the forum.
I’m sorry you are so stressed….it is overwhelming in the beginning.
I don’t agree with your vet about not feeding in between the doses on insulin. We recommend feeding a meal before the dose and then giving a couple of snacks during the first half of all the cycles. Ace will be much more settled if he can have some food in his tummy. I had the same issues when I first started with insulin for my kitty. She was so much better when she had some snacks. The little vomits he had were probably from having an empty tummy.

***As you are using vetsulin, you need to make sure you feed the main meal and wait 30 minutes before giving the insulin. Any left over food leave out for him

I also don’t think the food the vet has given you is suitable for diabetic cats. They need a low carb (10% or less) wet food diet. That is the best way to get them regulated and hopefully into remission. HOWEVER I would not change the diet you are currently feeding until you have a few other things in place. I will send you a link for more suitable foods once you are able to home test the blood glucose . If you do the swap over now before you are hometesting the blood glucose could drop 100 points and we don’t want Ace dropping into low numbers. Once you are hometesting you will see exactly what is happening and we can adjust the dose.
I would recommend you look at hometesting Ace’s blood glucose. It sounds scared but it isn’t. Both you and he will get used to it quickly and will know exactly where you are with the dosing and how low it is taking him. At the moment it is all guesswork.
Have a look at the link below for information on hometesting.

HOMETESTING HINTS AND LINKS

When you look at getting a glucose monitor I would recommend you get a human one. They are much cheaper to run than a pet meter and our dosing methods are based on the human meters. They are just as good as the pet meters. If you live in the US you can buy a ReliOn premier meter at Walmart for $9 and 100 test strips for $17.88. You will also need a box of 100 lancets to prick the ear………ask for size 26 or 28 gauge. And also get some cotton rounds to hold behind the ear as you test.

One other link to HELP US HELP YOU https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/new-how-you-can-help-us-help-you.216696/
This link has the spreadsheet and signature and hypo kit and other useful information.Please get a hypo kit set up asap if you don’t have one as it’s better to be prepared.

I have lots of other things to tell you but I don’t want to overwhelm you. We are here to help and support you so please keep posting and asking questions. Bron
 
Welcome to FDMB!

I've been here for a long time and I don't think anyone starting out on this adventure isn't stressed out. I know I was!!

Bron has provided much of the basic information to get your started. The one thing I would emphasize is that you get a glucose monitor and start to home test. Home testing is the only way you can keep your cat safe and know that the insulin is helping. It's also the only way we can offer any feedback on your cat's progress with any confidence that what we're suggesting won't harm your cat. We are very numbers oriented so starting to home test is important and having your spreadsheet set up will allow you to track Ace's progress.

Feeding your cat multiple small meals (vs twice a day without "snacks") is fine! To put this in perspective, do you know of any human diabetics who don't snack? In fact, since humans know if their blood glucose (BG) is dropping, they eat if they need to avoid hypoglycemia. Those multiple meals actually help to keep blood glucose at a more even level rather than one large meal every 12-hours that causes the pancreas to work hard at meal time. Vetsulin tends to have a quick onset and can drop numbers hard and fast. You want to feed Ace in advance of giving insulin. Since you're not yet testing, you don't know if he's meowing to let you know that his numbers are dropping and needs the food to keep his BG propped up.
 
Hello again,

Thank you all for the warm welcome and for your input! It’s been more than a month since my last post, and I must say, the first few weeks were pretty rough. My husband and I have been working closely with Ace’s veterinarian. Unfortunately, Ace’s numbers are still very high. Last Friday Ace was taken in for his glucose curve and his lowest was 462. He’s still on Vetsulin and is on 8 units as of last Friday. (Let me add that we started with 1 unit and slowly been increasing his units.) For me, I feel 8 units is too much and I feel uncomfortable injecting Ace with it. (I’ve been monitoring him carefully but he seems okay.) I’ve expressed this to our veterinarian and we are going to switch his insulin to Prozinc. I’m very happy since this insulin is recommended for cats.

We’ll be taking Ace to the vet this Friday and hopefully he’ll be starting Prozinc by this weekend. I feel like this will be a reset since our veterinarian said we will have start again at 1 unit.

Questions:

1. What’s the best way to transition Ace from Vetuslin to Prozinc?

2. We haven’t changed Ace’s diet. We are giving him wet food but we do sprinkle some dry food on top. He’s been eating “Purina Pro Plan Veterinary Diets / DM Dietetic Management”. Pate. Now that he’s being switched to Prozinc, would this also be a good time to change his food? Any better recommendations?


One thing that has been very tough on me is his injections. Ace is not the one that’s making it difficult, it’s me. Ace sits still and waits patiently for his injection, but thoughts are racing in my head: “What if I hit a vessel, or a muscle, or worse, what if the needle hits his spine?” My hands would even shake as I was giving him his injections. There were quite a few times I would prick him good and Ace would give a painful meow. It broke my heart. But good news, I finally found a technique that works. Fourth-day in using this technique and Ace hasn’t flinched at all. But I do have a huge worry and that’s accidentally pricking myself with Ace’s needle. Has anyone here ever got pricked?


I would like to start home-testing Ace but I’m a bit intimidated. My husband and I come from a small family and we have no one in our families that’s diabetic, so we really have no one to teach or guide us. What’s a good glucose monitor that’s accurate and easy to use for beginners? @BronandSheba, you mentioned a “ReliOn premier meter” at Walmart? Is this it?

https://www.walmart.com/ip/ReliOn-Premier-CLASSIC-Blood-Glucose-Monitoring-System/552134103

Thank you all for your help!

===============
*Here’s the technique I’m using to inject Ace his dose:
https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/i-stink-at-shots-i-think.166796/#post-1803836
I pull up his fur, not too hard, and it will cause a break in his hair. This is where I aim.
(I’ll sometimes have to use my finger to help part the fur.)
I inject him underneath his shoulder blades, I switched sides.
Video:
 
ElizQ said:
Hello again,

Thank you all for the warm welcome and for your input! It’s been more than a month since my last post, and I must say, the first few weeks were pretty rough. My husband and I have been working closely with Ace’s veterinarian. Unfortunately, Ace’s numbers are still very high. Last Friday Ace was taken in for his glucose curve and his lowest was 462. He’s still on Vetsulin and is on 8 units as of last Friday. (Let me add that we started with 1 unit and slowly been increasing his units.) For me, I feel 8 units is too much and I feel uncomfortable injecting Ace with it. (I’ve been monitoring him carefully but he seems okay.) I’ve expressed this to our veterinarian and we are going to switch his insulin to Prozinc. I’m very happy since this insulin is recommended for cats.

We’ll be taking Ace to the vet this Friday and hopefully he’ll be starting Prozinc by this weekend. I feel like this will be a reset since our veterinarian said we will have start again at 1 unit.

Questions:

1. What’s the best way to transition Ace from Vetuslin to Prozinc?

2. We haven’t changed Ace’s diet. We are giving him wet food but we do sprinkle some dry food on top. He’s been eating “Purina Pro Plan Veterinary Diets / DM Dietetic Management”. Pate. Now that he’s being switched to Prozinc, would this also be a good time to change his food? Any better recommendations?


One thing that has been very tough on me is his injections. Ace is not the one that’s making it difficult, it’s me. Ace sits still and waits patiently for his injection, but thoughts are racing in my head: “What if I hit a vessel, or a muscle, or worse, what if the needle hits his spine?” My hands would even shake as I was giving him his injections. There were quite a few times I would prick him good and Ace would give a painful meow. It broke my heart. But good news, I finally found a technique that works. Fourth-day in using this technique and Ace hasn’t flinched at all. But I do have a huge worry and that’s accidentally pricking myself with Ace’s needle. Has anyone here ever got pricked?


I would like to start home-testing Ace but I’m a bit intimidated. My husband and I come from a small family and we have no one in our families that’s diabetic, so we really have no one to teach or guide us. What’s a good glucose monitor that’s accurate and easy to use for beginners? @BronandSheba, you mentioned a “ReliOn premier meter” at Walmart? Is this it?

https://www.walmart.com/ip/ReliOn-Premier-CLASSIC-Blood-Glucose-Monitoring-System/552134103

Thank you all for your help!

===============
*Here’s the technique I’m using to inject Ace his dose:
https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/i-stink-at-shots-i-think.166796/#post-1803836
I pull up his fur, not too hard, and it will cause a break in his hair. This is where I aim.
(I’ll sometimes have to use my finger to help part the fur.)
I inject him underneath his shoulder blades, I switched sides.
Video:
Click to expand...
Hello Eliza, i just wanted to give you come extra confidence and encouragement regarding testing and dosing Ace. I am a single person who faints at needles and had zero diabetes experience. My hands shook and i was extremely anxious one year ago when i began this journey with my cat Lando. All I can say is that powering through your fears and following the advice of members is the best thing you can do and Ace will benefit from it for sure. Im happy to cheerlead and encourage you anytime you need it! Feel free to lean on me if you feel overwhelmed. Best of luck
 
Ps yes ive pricked myself 3-4 times with the insulin needle and maybe 20xs with the lancet for testing. It was no biggie. I just tested my own BG ;) — congrats on making progress with the injections!!!
 
Also here to say I have pricked myself with both lancets and insulin needle (the needle was after I’d already injected my cat, not during). Definitely happened more in the beginning of things, though 6 months in my cat flinched during an ear poke and I got myself instead of him just a week ish ago.
 
Hello Lando and Cali! It definitely eases my nerves to hear you've been pricked and everything turned out to be okay. Thank you so much for replying and I appreciate the support! :)
 
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