Hello again

[Annie77!]

I joined this board about a year ago when my Romeo was diagnosed with diabetes. About a month after he was diagnosed he went into remission but now he's diabetic again. The first time around I found it impossible to test him because he just wouldn't stay still. This time I got a cloth cat carrier that encloses everything but his head and I'm having better luck with testing. His numbers have been high. Yesterday at the vet he was 589 and this afternoon when I tested him he was 508. My vet put him on 3 units in the morning and 2 units at night. He's currently eating FF pate and Purina dietetic dry food. He gets the pate three times a day and he always has access to the dry food.

My question is about timing his shots in relation to his glucose numbers and how much he's eating. I've been giving him shots at about 6:45 am and 6:45 pm because my understanding is that they should be given 12 hours apart. So, say I test him at 3:00 pm and the number is in the 500's, should I try to feed him and give him the shot then or should I wait until 6:45 pm as usual? I'm worried that he'll go into ketosis.

 

[Ailish’s Brother]

Hi Annie!

Congrats on spacing the shot every 12 hours, that’s exactly what you want to do. Is he in ProZinc like last time or Lantus this time? As you probs remember from last time ProZinc has a little wiggle room, but Lantus does not.

I’m so glad to hear that you found a better way to test Romeo this time, I hope that makes both your lives a lot easier! Standard practice is to test at very least twice a day right before the shot. This is called the “Pre-Shot” or “PS”. When starting out it’s best not to shoot if the cat is under 200. That number comes down as you got a clearer picture on how your cat responds to insulin.

The test you got at 3 PM would be what’s called a mid cycle test, that’s a test that lets us know how the cat is responding to insulin as the day on. This is really useful, but for administering insulin, we need to know their number right before we give it.

In terms of dry food, the Purina DM still has a lot of carbs. The three dry foods folks around here like cause they’re the closest to 0 carb are Dr. Elsey’s Clean Protein, Wysong's Epigen 90, and Young Again Zero.

My cat Ailish got in remission on Young Again Mature Zero LIE.. Other people reported a rough transition with loose stool, so needing to do a slow introduction to the new food, I didn’t experience that she loved it from the beginning.

I’m still newer at this, but I just wanted to say welcome back and some of the more experience folks will probably be around soon to give you more detailed answers.

One thing you can do to help them help you is create a spreadsheet so they can see how Romeo’s doing over time. Where’s the info on how to do that: https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/how-to-create-a-spreadsheet.241706/ If you can do it that’s great, but don’t stress it too much, we’ve got folks who can help you set it up if you need.

Hope all that helps and you find a groove again!

 

[squeem3]

Ask the vet about using a CGM to monitor blood glucose levels. It sticks onto your cat's shaved skin and reads levels for up to 2 weeks. It can fall off or malfunction before then, though. A CGM is more expensive than manually testing but for cats who don't tolerate manual testing well, it's worth the cost. You do need to manually test if the CGM malfunctions or reads LO. Here's info on using it: Getting Started With Continuous Glucose Monitors (CGMs) for Diabetic Cats

If your cat is eating canned food, there's no reason at all to also feed dry food. If your cat needs crunchies, a few freeze dried treats usually satisfies the craving. Or feed freeze dried raw or air dried raw instead of dry food.

 

[Annie77!]

Thank you @Ailish’s Brother and @squeem3. Romeo is still on ProZinc. Sometimes Romeo is a very picky eater. I'm worried that if I test him right before he eats, he'll get upset and not eat and then, of course, I won't be able to give him his shot. While he was in remission, I only gave him FF pate. When he got sick again, he would eat nothing but the dry food, then he gradually started eating pate again but not nearly as much as he used to. I will try the dry food suggestions you gave. I may try the CGM but it sounds expensive and I'm on a very fixed income.