Hello I’m a Newbie!

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PS: fed and shot 1U Prozinc, no BG taken (about 8 pm CT)
+1.5: 103 (9:30pm CT)
+3.5: Alphatrak 71 (fed dry kibble mixed with Nutrish & karo) (midnight CT)
+4.5: 129
+5.5: 97 (fed 2 whiskas dry treats)
 
xefthimiax said:
He’s at 97 now
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Happy to see Ganon is still above 70. We are about six hours after his shot time (I think) and that is also good.
Now, we need to see some rising numbers without the influence of any dry food or karo etc. before we can safely go to bed
Please give Ganon a couple of teaspoons or so of the low carb wet food only and test in another hour. You can set an alarm if the Dating Game is putting you to sleep
We'll stay up for the next test
 
Barbara & Uncle (GA) said:
Happy to see Ganon is still above 70. We are about six hours after his shot time (I think) and that is also good.
Now, we need to see some rising numbers without the influence of any dry food or karo etc. before we can safely go to bed
Please give Ganon a couple of teaspoons or so of the low carb wet food only and test in another hour. You can set an alarm if the Dating Game is putting you to sleep
We'll stay up for the next test
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Ok gave him a spoonful of Nutrish. Thank you for staying up with me. It means a lot.
 
Effie, tomorrow get your hypo toolbox together with a couple of cans of high carb gravy type food/and medium carb food. Then, if this ever happens again, and I hope not, you can squeeze that gravy out and give him a tsp at a time, if needed. It's best to give small amounts at a time and not fill them up so you are actually steering him up carefully. I know you are going to be tired tomorrow, but if you can, get the spreadsheet up so you can enter the testing and shot data. With the time zone differences, it's easier to check the spreadsheet for the data.
This too shall pass, and Ganon is probably wondering what all the fuss is about. You are doing great!
 
So I won’t be giving him anymore insulin until I talk to the doc...or maybe just see a different one. I drastically changed his diet. I think I’m going to do this for a few weeks first and see if his numbers improve. I caught this very early on so I hope that this by itself will help.
 
Idjit's mom said:
Effie, tomorrow get your hypo toolbox together with a couple of cans of high carb gravy type food/and medium carb food. Then, if this ever happens again, and I hope not, you can squeeze that gravy out and give him a tsp at a time, if needed. It's best to give small amounts at a time and not fill them up so you are actually steering him up carefully. I know you are going to be tired tomorrow, but if you can, get the spreadsheet up so you can enter the testing and shot data. With the time zone differences, it's easier to check the spreadsheet for the data.
This too shall pass, and Ganon is probably wondering what all the fuss is about. You are doing great!
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Thank you Lou!
 
I had tremendous help also, we were so confused and bumfuzzled with conflicting vet instructions and advice. Idjit went OTJ in a month and not because we knew what we were doing. It took this board, the advice and information here to help us learn what to do and not do.
 
Idjit's mom said:
Effie, tomorrow get your hypo toolbox together with a couple of cans of high carb gravy type food/and medium carb food. Then, if this ever happens again, and I hope not, you can squeeze that gravy out and give him a tsp at a time, if needed. It's best to give small amounts at a time and not fill them up so you are actually steering him up carefully. I know you are going to be tired tomorrow, but if you can, get the spreadsheet up so you can enter the testing and shot data. With the time zone differences, it's easier to check the spreadsheet for the data.
This too shall pass, and Ganon is probably wondering what all the fuss is about. You are doing great!
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Fancy Feast "gravy lovers" are what a lot of people use for high carb gravy food
I think the beef gravy lover is the highest carb at 20% but I would double-check that

Here's a link below of a sortible food chart
You can see the carb % of the different brands are and also the carb % of different varieties within the same brand

http://catinfo.org/chart/index.php
 
xefthimiax said:
So I won’t be giving him anymore insulin until I talk to the doc...or maybe just see a different one. I drastically changed his diet. I think I’m going to do this for a few weeks first and see if his numbers improve. I caught this very early on so I hope that this by itself will help.
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I have definitely seen a couple of cases where the cat ended up not needing any insulin because the caregiver changed their cats diet to an all low carb wet diet.
This may be the case with Ganon. If you talk to your vet about this possibility they may or may not support you so just arm yourself with as m hopefully they will be supportive
 
He is a cute little dickens! Yes, the Neosporin or Equate (Walmart brand) pain relieving ointment works well. Be sure to use a cotton ball or cosmetic pad to gently compress the "poke" area to reduce bruising.
 
Barbara & Uncle (GA) said:
I have definitely seen a couple of cases where the cat ended up not needing any insulin because the caregiver changed their cats diet to an all low carb wet diet.
This may be the case with Ganon. If you talk to your vet about this possibility they may or may not support you so just arm yourself with as m hopefully they will be supportive
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Idjit was one, he had insulin for 11 days, and we were doing it all wrong, following vet's instructions. I think if Effie has eliminated the high carb food and snacks, and just provides low carb wet food, she may find similar results. But..Effie, be sure to test and record, he may just need less insulin for a bit longer, to enable the pancreas to completely heal.
 
xefthimiax said:
Ok an hour after giving him that Nutrish, he’s up one point to 98. What do you think?
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He's doing great and I hate to say but I am not comfortable sending you off to bed without another test that shows a rise in his BG level
To be clear, we want him to show upward momentum so we know that when you go to sleep he won't drop back into unsafe numbers.
My recommendation is to withhold food and check again in an hour. Hopefully by then the insulin will be waning.
 
I am not able to advise you about giving or not giving the insulin, not enough knowledge. You had said that you were not going to give him any, at least until you talked to the vet. I just want you to keep testing to be sure of what his blood sugar is going forward. It may be that he can be diet controlled, I hope so. But testing is going to tell you what's going on and if he does need insulin.
Oh cripes..I responded to Effie, when Barbara posted..it's late and my brain turned into a pumpkin!
 
Barbara & Uncle (GA) said:
He's doing great and I hate to say but I am not comfortable sending you off to bed without another test that shows a rise in his BG level
To be clear, we want him to show upward momentum so we know that when you go to sleep he won't drop back into unsafe numbers.
My recommendation is to withhold food and check again in an hour. Hopefully by then the insulin will be waning.
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Ok that makes sense.
 
Idjit's mom said:
I am not able to advise you about giving or not giving the insulin, not enough knowledge. You had said that you were not going to give him any, at least until you talked to the vet. I just want you to keep testing to be sure of what his blood sugar is going forward. It may be that he can be diet controlled, I hope so. But testing is going to tell you what's going on and if he does need insulin.
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Yes I understand you are not advising me. I will not give him anymore and I will keep checking him to make sure he’s not in the “danger zone”.
 
Hmmm, just found some interesting info.
I checked out Dr Pierson's Food Chart and I found out according to her Nutrish is actually medium carb and not low carb
Here's a screenshot I took
Screen Shot 2019-02-10 at 1.14.07 AM.png
 
In a way, that may actually be good news. If you remove that food from Ganon's diet theoretically it may be able to help him get into better numbers as well.
Everything under 10% carbs would be ideal
 
Good night then, ladies. Idjit's going to be waking me up in 4 hours, so I'm going to grab some sleep. Take care.
 
Before we go, I just want to mention that if you start testing tomorrow (no insulin) you MAY see Ganon be in high numbers tomorrow
If you do, it is a result from having lower BG than his body is used to tonight and it's like an overcompensation that we refer to it as a "Bounce".
It's too late for me to go into it right now but I don't want you to be too worried about it if you get any high test numbers tomorrow
 
THANK YOU, Barbara and Lou!

And glad that you and Ganon did so well, Effie! Today I would suggest going back to those Prozinc links to the stickies that I gave you. Having read through the protocol that is usually used here before talking to your vet will arm you with some good information.

And I think that you got the link to the food chart so that you could try to pick some lower carb food, and then fingers and paws crossed, let's hope that he goes into remission and stays diet-controlled without needing any insulin at all!

Great job! Oh, and nice meeting you Effie :) You've had quite the first day! Ask as many questions as you need to.

The Main Health Forum would be a good place for any general questions like about food, and then the prozinc form if you end up needing a little bit of insulin to help advise you on dosing, which you can do literally before every shot if that's what you end up having to do.

But for now just see how he does for a few days without insulin and maybe post an intro to yourself and Ganon with your test numbers over in Prozinc to see what they think. I'd suggest testing him still like before his breakfast, before bedtime, and maybe once in the middle of the day if you are home. That will show us how he does without food, and then how his body reacts to the food to know if he is producing his own insulin.

Big hugs to everyone!

:bighug: :cat: :bighug:
 
Sandi & Whisper said:
THANK YOU, Barbara and Lou!

And glad that you and Ganon did so well, Effie! Today I would suggest going back to those Prozinc links to the stickies that I gave you. Having read through the protocol that is usually used here before talking to your vet will arm you with some good information.

And I think that you got the link to the food chart so that you could try to pick some lower carb food, and then fingers and paws crossed, let's hope that he goes into remission and stays diet-controlled without needing any insulin at all!

Great job! Oh, and nice meeting you Effie :) You've had quite the first day! Ask as many questions as you need to.

The Main Health Forum would be a good place for any general questions like about food, and then the prozinc form if you end up needing a little bit of insulin to help advise you on dosing, which you can do literally before every shot if that's what you end up having to do.

But for now just see how he does for a few days without insulin and maybe post an intro to yourself and Ganon with your test numbers over in Prozinc to see what they think. I'd suggest testing him still like before his breakfast, before bedtime, and maybe once in the middle of the day if you are home. That will show us how he does without food, and then how his body reacts to the food to know if he is producing his own insulin.

Big hugs to everyone!

:bighug: :cat: :bighug:
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I have read most of everything sent to me including the Prozinc/Insulin page I also read up on that food list, whomever did that, you’re a true hero.
He was NOT letting me prick him this morning and I thought he had been through enough so I just let him eat. He’s still full of energy and purrs. Business as usual. Thank you for EVERYTHING!!!
 
xefthimiax said:
He’s still full of energy and purrs.
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YAY :cat::bighug::)
xefthimiax said:
He was NOT letting me prick him this morning and I thought he had been through enough so I just let him eat.
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That's perfectly fine, since at this point you don't need to test for insulin influenced safety anymore.
xefthimiax said:
I also read up on that food list, whomever did that, you’re a true hero.
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Yes, that food chart is an incredible resource and it must have taken many many hours to compile. Dr Pierson has a great website on cat health in general!
My vet (who is awesome) told me about her website and I actually found the FDMB through that.
I know it was extreme;y late, but did you see my post regarding the carb% of NUTRISH?
 
Good morning, Effie and Ganon! :bighug:
I hope you've recovered sufficiently from what we call a "PJ party" :)

Just curious how Ganon's numbers have been doing? And are you on the same food, or did you use Dr Pierson's chart to switch to something else?

Wanted to let you and hubby know that we're still thinking about you. Let us know if there is anything we can do for you.

Hugs to you and chin skritches to Ganon :p
 
Hi! Thanks for checking on me!!
I gave him the day off from testing yesterday. We relaxed, he got a nice long brushing, and played...then he fell asleep on my lap then switched to my husbands lap, then back to me. He has a hard life, that cat.
I switched his diet about 5 days ago and I am noticing a decline in water intake and urination already though - like back to what it was before the trouble started. I am going to test him before I feed him dinner (that will be about 12 hours from his last meal).
I decided to go with the SHEBA pate - it was on sale AND it was on the low carb end of the scale.
I told a few people about this message board and how helpful and kind you all are. I really appreciate all of you that helped me through a quite stressful time. I don't have any children, he's the closest thing that I have to one...

I'll fill you in on his numbers later tonight.

Thanks again!!
Effie
 
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