Intro for Bean

[CatBandit]

Hey, I am Bean’s mom. I have been reading advice threads on here for a few months. Bean was diagnosed in November. He is on ProZinc. He has been on 3u every twelve hours with a meal each day.

He was being fed 3 ounces of wet food each meal. He is a big cat, Maine coon mix, about 11lbs now that he put his weight back on. I reduced him to 2.5 ounces each meal cuz he was a good weight and that was how much I fed him before he got diagnosed, he also gets a dry food toy ball in the middle of the day with a quarter cup of food in it.

I home tested his blood today cuz he was looking twitchy and I am glad I did because it read low. I don’t know all of the lingo here on the forums, but I think we are ready to start testing before each injection and giving the proper dose based on the reading. Where can I go to get information on starting that?

I have an email from the vet with suggestions back when we were getting started, but last month the vet said it was unlikely we would get Bean into remission because we had lowered the dose and his bg went back up. I think this low reading may be a sign we need to lower his insulin dose and it may be because I lowered his meal size, or maybe his body might be catching up a bit, at least I hope it is.

 

[Howiesmom]

Welcome officially to the forum!! You and Bean are in good hands! I’m sure the more experienced folks will chime in soon, but I wanted to respond to bump your post farther up in the forum. If you haven’t read the sticky notes on this forum page, please do. It has info on setting up your signature, spreadsheet, etc so folks can learn more about Bean at a glance:
https://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/forums/spreadsheets-tech-support-testing-area.6/

As for testing and dosing, I would suggest checking out all the info on the Prozinc forum. That is where you’ll find the best advice and connect with experts.

 

[Bron and Sheba (GA)]

Hi and welcome to the forum.
Firstly you need to reduce the dose of the insulin after getting a low reading. I am not a Prozinc user so I will tag @Deb & Wink and @JanetNJ to help you with the dose.
Do not give 3 units any more.

Regarding the food, are you still feeding the dry food ? Dry food is not recommended for diabetic cats as it is high carb but I would not change over to a low carb diet until you are home testing because it can drop the BG by up to 100 points. We will help you with the change over to a low carb diet.
Stay with the combination you are feeding now. But I would also give him some snacks during the cycle as well as before the dose of insulin.
Suggestions.......a +2 and a +4 snack every cycle as well as the main meal. You can start doing this now.

Please always test before every shot to see it is safe to give the insulin and again during the cycle at least once to see how low the dose is taking Bean.
You vet is not correct in saying Bean is unlikely to go into remission because you lowered the dose. We don’t know if he will go into remission or not but what he said is completely incorrect.

3 units is a lot of insulin........what was the starting dose and how did you increase the dose?

here is a link to Prozinc informationhttps://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB...-the-prozinc-basics-please-start-here.164995/

Here is a link to useful links for new members......please take note of the hypo link and set up a hypo kit as soon as possible.

Bron

 

[JanetNJ]

Hi and welcome. 11 lbs is small for a main coon. Those cats are so pretty.
I'm glad you caught that low number!! Definitly test before each shot and try to get a mid cycle number every day too.

If it were my cat I would lower to 2 units but also cut out all dry food. Instead give him a small meal of wet food mid day and before bed. At 11 lbs he should be eating about 220 calories per day.

Here's info on how to set up a spreadsheet that you can add to a signature. We can help with dosing. https://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/how-to-create-a-spreadsheet.241706/