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libjennifer

libjennifer

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Hi all,

My cat Clio was just diagnosed with diabetes last week, and I wanted to post my introduction and spreadsheet for advice. In addition to the diabetes, she has food and environmental allergies and has been taking hydroxizine and getting allergy shots for a number of years. She also has hyperthyroidism that we treat with medication. She's currently eating Purina DM dry food (free feed) and a very small portion of Trader Joe's wet food twice a day (as her "reward" for testing/shot).

She's been on one unit of ProZinc twice a day to start, and her blood sugar has been coming down, and appears to be staying down more consistently. She's only been getting insulin since last Saturday, so less than a week. I think based on her numbers that I might need to try 1.5 units but I wasn't sure when to go up--do I need to give her more time on 1 unit or would it be okay to go up this Saturday? I want to do the jumps on days when I'm at home just in case she gets hypoglycemic.

I will be talking to the vet tonight and I'll obviously ask him about this, but I also wanted to get advice from FDMB, as everyone seems very knowledgeable.
 
I can't help with the dosing since my girl is on Levemir, but as far as both allergies (food) and her numbers, if you could get rid of the dry food and get her on a low carb high protein canned diet you would see her numbers go way down, in fact no higher than she is on the dry food you might find you have a diet controlled diabetic and not need the insulin at all.

I have on non-diabetic here that for years was living on pred to control his food allergies, then we adopted our first diabetic and switched everyone off the dry food and onto a diet of low carb canned food to eliminate the chances of our diabetic from getting into food that wasn't good for him, almost over night our allergy beset kitty had his allergies completely disappear and our diabetic went into remission where he has remained for a year and 5 months now and shows no signs of having to go back on insulin.

Congrats on already home testing!!! You are way ahead of the game, give yourself a pat on the back. :-D

Mel, Maxwell, Musette & The Fur Gang
 
Hi Jennifer and Welcome,

Fantastic that you already have a spreadsheet up and you are hometesting! Are you feeding mostly dry food? If so, your numbers are great! (Our Oliver went down 100 points overnight when we switched him over from dry to wet.)

I would not increase. She is getting lovely numbers at preshot. If you could get some mid cycle numbers and she is in the 100s, she would be what we consider regulated.

I would wonder if you could get her completely off the dry, if she would need insulin. If she were mine, I would be tempted to take her off insulin, change to all wet and see where her numbers are. Then, if needed, try a tiny bit of insulin and see what that does. Check out this website by a vet about the importance of wet low carb food: http://www.catinfo.org

We are big on starting low and going slow. We like to start at a low dose and increase as your numbers indicate.
 
Thanks for your replies! The information on this forum has been amazing--I wouldn't have had the confidence to do the home-testing early on without the advice I've found here. Fortunately, Clio was very patient with our early attempts at stabbing her ears!

I will definitely try to increase Clio's wet food and lower the dry. We have another cat at home who is in early kidney disease, and so we've been juggling various diets to accommodate all of our medical issues. I've come across many posts already about folks dealing with both of these problems in the same house (or same cat), and their stories have been really encouraging.

Thanks so much!
 
Be careful monitoring as you increase the wet and decrease the dry. It can drastically reduce the numbers and you want to be prepared if she suddenly starts giving you lower preshot numbers.

We generally advise new diabetics not to shoot under 200, but to wait 30-40 minutes without feeding, to make sure the number is rising. And then to shoot a reduced dose as the cycle duration has been longer and the numbers could have been quite lower the cycle before.

Let us know how you are doing. So far, she looks great!
 
We will be very careful. Our vet actually told me to start her off with 2 units twice a day, but after reading through all of the beginner's info on this board, I called him back and asked if I could start with 1 unit. I'm really glad I did. :smile:
 
Hi Jennifer & Clio.

Welcome to FDMB. Keep testing & collecting data. This will help on dosing. Unfortunately, some vets don't know how much insulin to suggest on dosing. ProZinc isn't a insulin that you just say ok give 2 units 2x day forever. It doesn't work like that. BG goes up & down & more so as the pancreas try's to heal itself. Therefor, a certain dose might not always work. You have to adjust the insulin to the BG. That's why it's very important to home test before each meal & sometime after adminstering the insulin.

You should come over to the PZI support board. There are so many wonderful experienced members there that can help you on this journey.

See you in PZI,
Jenn & Baxter cat_pet_icon
 
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