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Darci & Ringo

Member Since 2020
I hope I’m doing this right. We adopted Ringo a week ago. We were aware he was a newly diagnosed diabetic. We did a curve yesterday and I will turn in the results to our vet today. I’m assuming we’ll start insulin at that point.
 
Oh Hi!

Such Big Hearts you have!

Can you post your very first curve here too, just for a quick glanze.

Do you know what insulin you will be using?
 
I hope I’m doing this right. We adopted Ringo a week ago. We were aware he was a newly diagnosed diabetic. We did a curve yesterday and I will turn in the results to our vet today. I’m assuming we’ll start insulin at that point.
Hello and welcome to FDMB - you'll get lots of support for you and Ringo here!
I'm a tad confused - you say you did a curve yesterday and will probably start on insulin today? Did I read that right? A curve is usually done when a kitty is already on insulin, with the aim of finding out how a particular dose is working at certain points in the cycle. Or maybe the vet asked you to get some bg numbers at different times of day for another reason?
 
Hello and welcome to FDMB - you'll get lots of support for you and Ringo here!
I'm a tad confused - you say you did a curve yesterday and will probably start on insulin today? Did I read that right? A curve is usually done when a kitty is already on insulin, with the aim of finding out how a particular dose is working at certain points in the cycle. Or maybe the vet asked you to get some bg numbers at different times of day for another reason?
 

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Ringo is new to our vet and we only had bloodwork from his most recent appointment at his previous vet. When I brought him in for his new patient appointment at our vet the doctor tested his blood glucose and it was 219. I am guessing that he felt it was a borderline number to start him on insulin right away. Additionally, he thought that Ringo may be stressed because he was just moved to another home with new people a couple of days prior and he was in an unfamiliar place. He asked that I do a curve to confirmed that he needed to be on insulin first. I just got off of the phone with our vet and he would like to start him on .5 units of prozinc twice a day .
He said he would like me to do another curve in two weeks but, to watch for any signs of hypoglycemia in the meantime.
 

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Hello Darci and Ringo! Your vet sounds on top of it. Ringo's BGL is high, but not super high. So, your vet has started you on a low dose of a good insulin for cats.

What has Ringo been eating? The best diet for a diabetic cat is low carb, high protein canned food. There's a great chart here with choices. The thing is, it might be very worth it to try to change Ringo's diet first, before beginning the insulin, if you feel comfortable delaying the insulin for a few days. It's possible for the diet switch alone to drop his BGL over 100 points.

Be aware that if you do start the insulin, and you change his food at the same time, you will need to monitor his blood glucose level carefully, to avoid a dangerous hypoglycemic event. In either case, home testing Ringo's BGL is the safest way to monitor him and keep him safe. There's no need to buy an expensive pet meter (the meter is cheap enough but the test strips are more pricey.) Many members here use an inexpensive human meter, such as WalMart's ReliOn. Very cheap test strips.

You are on a great site to find out more about feline diabetes, with some very experienced members ready to help. A great place to start is this thread: New? How You Can Help Us Help You!

Edited to add: Diana is right about starting the insulin. I was going by the number in your post, and had not seen the numbers in the attachment. Some people do decide to switch the diet completely before starting insulin, to protect against hypo events, but starting immediately on insulin is also perfectly advisable, as long as you home test the cat's BGL to be safe.
 
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Actually some of these numbers are quite high and definitely warrant insulin. (If you hadn't said you weren't giving insulin yet, I wouldn't have guessed - your numbers are showing a classic curve!)
Your vet is right to start on a low dose, and you can see how Ringo gets on with that. Definitely don't wait for two weeks to do another curve - we like to see a test before every insulin shot and then at whatever intervals you can afterwards, to make sure the dose hasn't taken a kitty too low.
When you start to test regularly, it is really helpful to set up a spreadsheet so that both we and the vet can see what the dose is doing.
There's a link here somewhere to explain how to do it - I'll go and look for it. If you have problems setting it up, just say - we have techy people here who can do so easily for you.

http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/fdmb-spreadsheet-instructions.130337/
 
And information in your user profile with some little tidbits of data are very useful.

We call it the Signature. Look at the bottom of our posts to see examples. How to instructions are included in this post, as well as some useful information to get your started.

New? How You Can Help Us Help You!

Good info in what Juls and Billy and Diana&Tom already told you.:)

It's a lot to get your head around. Keep asking questions. And welcome to you and your cat.

We highly recommend BG testing before every insulin shot. It can save your cat's life.
 
I went to the vet today and picked up Ringo‘s insulin and syringe is and also a technician gave me a tutorial and practice of how to administer the insulin. We used sterile water instead. I just took his blood glucose and it is 229 on a alpha track monitor. Do I give him his .5 units of prozinc?
 
Your vet suggested .5 units, twice a day, yes? That's a perfectly good place to start. Depending on how he does, you may need to increase it. It's recommended with ProZinc to increase or decrease slowly, by .25 at a time. If you can get a spreadsheet set up, more experienced members can help you decide when you need to increase or decrease.
 
I just took his blood glucose and it is 229 on a alpha track monitor. Do I give him his .5 units of prozinc?

Yes, that's a good safe starting dose. You want to get in the habit of Test/Feed/Shoot. The Pre-Shot tests (the one you get immediately before feeding/shooting) tell you if it's safe to give insulin at all and then testing in between doses will show you how low this dose is taking Ringo.

It'll help us to help you if you'll go ahead and fill out your "Signature" too (you'll see ours below our comments). That give us lots of information we need to know without wasting time asking the same questions over and over again.

Just go to the top right and find your sign on name. There's a drop down menu. Choose "Signature". A new box will open for you to enter some basic info like:

Your name/cat's name, age, sex, date of diagnosis, type of insulin, type of meter, type of food, any other health problems or medications?, and a general location.

Once you get your spreadsheet set up, you'd put the link to that into your Signature too. I'd be happy to help you set up your spreadsheet if you need it! Here's the Instructions on getting the FDMB spreadsheet.

Hang in there! We'll be with you every step of the way!
 
Thank you! I called the vet and they said shoot. I just took his bg again. 165 I will try to navigate the site to create a signature
 

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