? Feeding/Test Scheduling - Newbie

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[CharlieCat]

Member Since 2024
Greetings, and apologies in advance if this has already been posted and answered...

My cat, Charlie, was recently diagnosed and I am vaccinating him with 1.5 units of Prozinc at 8:10AM and 8:10PM. I feed him a dry mix at 7:40am and 7:40pm.

QUESTIONS:
  • Can I feed him at all during the day? (he used to be a grazer...)
  • What would be the ideal times/windows to test to see if he needs a does adjustment?
Many thanks in advance,
Lisa, for Charlie

  • Caregiver = Lisa & kitty's name = Charlie. DX: April 2024. Name of Insulin = Prozinc, 1.5 units Name of your meter = PetTest Advocate. Diet = Dry mix including Wyson Epigen 90 and Purina indoors mix
  • Spreadsheet link.
 
[CharlieCat] said:
Can I feed him at all during the day? (he used to be a grazer...)
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Absolutely, we have lots of cats that are grazers. Ideally, when you are new, you'd take up his food for a couple hours before the next shot. Food can influence the preshot numbers and you want to make sure it's safe to shoot, so withhold food for that period of time.

Have you though of moving Charlie to a low carb diet, preferably an all wet food diet. The best diet for a diabetic cat is under 10% carbs. That will reduce the amount of insulin he needs too.

[CharlieCat] said:
What would be the ideal times/windows to test to see if he needs a does adjustment?
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You want to always test him before the shot, to make sure it's safe to give the shot. With Prozinc, when you are giving dry food, you want to make sure he doesn't go below 90 on a particular dose. That means testing somewhere mid point after the shot when you can. I recommend reading the yellow starred Sticky Notes at the top of this forum for more detail: Prozinc / PZI
 
Thank you for your helpful comments! I am hoping to stay on dry food, if at all possible since I work and depend on the auto-feeder. I will read further in the Prozinc list.

-Lisa
 
Wet food can be dispensed in an automated feeder. Many of our members who work use them for low carb wet food — and also for dispensing LC wet food at night at certain points in the cycle.

We can help you get your cat into better numbers safely. What is your work schedule like— I mean, on days when you are working, how long after his shot will you still be at home to get a test before you leave the house? If you leave right away after the shot, you may want to consider moving his shot time to an earlier time, although I realize you need to consider when you are home to give the evening shot as well. I am just trying to get an idea of how we can manage to collect testing data in order to safely make dose adjustments.
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
Wet food can be dispensed in an automated feeder. Many of our members who work use them for low carb wet food — and also for dispensing LC wet food at night at certain points in the cycle.

We can help you get your cat into better numbers safely. What is your work schedule like— I mean, on days when you are working, how long after his shot will you still be at home to get a test before you leave the house? If you leave right away after the shot, you may want to consider moving his shot time to an earlier time, although I realize you need to consider when you are home to give the evening shot as well. I am just trying to get an idea of how we can manage to collect testing data in order to safely make dose adjustments.
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I appreciate the input very much, but I'm holding off on a wet food dispenser for now... I am feeding him a combination of Wysong Epigen 90 and Iams indoors weight/hairball mix, which are both relatively good dry foods.
I work away from home, leaving home at @8:30am, a few days a week, and can be home by 7pm.
 
[CharlieCat] said:
I appreciate the input very much, but I'm holding off on a wet food dispenser for now... I am feeding him a combination of Wysong Epigen 90 and Iams indoors weight/hairball mix, which are both relatively good dry foods.
I work away from home, leaving home at @8:30am, a few days a week, and can be home by 7pm.
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From a diabetic cat standpoint, there’s not really any such thing as a “good” dry food. The lowest carb dry foods are Dr. Elsey’s Clean Protein chicken flavor or the Young Again Zero Mature foods. All others are way too high in carbs for a diabetic cat and will cause high blood sugar and make it much more difficult to get a cat regulated in better blood glucose numbers. A higher insulin dose will be needed for a cat eating high carb food. Sorry. But we can still try to help. It may be a little more challenging, but it’s worth it.
 
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Sigh...Thank you for that clear explanation. I'm not in a good place to make the switch at this moment. I hope to be soon. So many changes, demands with the diagnosis... I love my guy, Charlie, but we're both slowly adjusting.
 
[CharlieCat] said:
Sigh...Thank you for that clear explanation. I'm not in a good place to make the switch at this moment. I hope to be soon. So many changes, demands with the diagnosis... I love my guy, Charlie, but we're both slowly adjusting.
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It really can take time. These things don’t always happen quickly. We can still help. Don’t beat yourself up. We’ve all been newbies at some point. I cried for a week or so while learning to home test. Fortunately, I had already switched my cats over to low carb wet food before Darcy was diagnosed or that would have been a nightmare (many cats to feed). You can do this, and I am not saying it’s im or anything like that. Even on the current diet it’s important to home test blood glucose to keep your boy safe and to keep trying to achieve better numbers for his health. It’s just that if you can make changes toward low carb food in the future he will need less insulin and we would need to be careful about making food changes slowly and monitoring to reduce insulin as needed. You might be surprised how much better blood glucose numbers he would get with low carb food. But we can take small steps, right? Don’t give up.
 
Try to get some tests over the next few days and I would like to take a look at his numbers and make a dose recommendation. He’s very high right now from the few tests on your spreadsheet. We want to get that down as quickly as we can do in a safe manner. Okay? Test for ketones, too.
 
Thank you for offer to assist. I'm doing what I can, including testing as possible. I am just learning the testing, and trying multiple times without getting enough blood. So, I stop, and will return when possible. With appreciation...
 
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