? Need Advice

[Carole Dgan]

Hi Folks, Buddy has been diabetic since July. He's been very high, and I had been giving him 8 units of Prozinc, which kept him in the 300's every 12 hours. About a month ago, I think he started responding better. Now I don't know what to do. Should I start backing down slowly or drastically? Nothing has really changed, food wise. He seems just fine.

 

[BJM]

ProZinc doses are adjusted based on the nadir, the lowest glucose post-shot.
This usually happens about +5 to +7 hours after giving insulin.
The nadir should remain safely above 50 mg/dL on a human glucometer and above 68 mg/dL on a pet glucometer.
Based on your recent test data with values below 50 mg/dL, the dose of 8 units is too high.
Please do not shoot if he is below 200 mg/dL on a human meter.
Please come over to the ProZinc area and also have a good read of our guidelines for ProZinc.

 

[Mogmom and Goofus]

Can I ask what you're feeding Buddy? Because 8 units is quite a high dose. With ProZinc, the dose is usually dropped or increased by no more than .50 at one time. UNLESS you're home testing (and I hope that you are) and the BG is quite a bit lower at test time or you'll have a hypo kitty!

 

[Carole Dgan]

Wet food off the lists that are low in carbs <8. Young Again, Epigen. Yes home testing all along.

 

[Sharon14]

Hi Carole, I remember you used to post on ProZinc forum. Maybe check in there to see if Sue, Robin or Rachel have any insight to Buddy's dosing.

 

[Larry and Kitties]

Does Buddy have a chronic infection? Like bad teeth or ear problems?
I ask because my Badger had erratic BG with a high dose. He had polyps in his left ear and that ear was always oozing. I finally had the polyps surgically removed and now I can keep his BG under 150 with less than one unit of Levemir.
Also, I would try another insulin like Lantus or Levemir. Month after Badger had his surgery I changed from ProZinc to Levemir I wanted to eliminate an insulin. I already had another cat, Patches II on Levemir.

 

[Julia & Bandit (GA)]

Some diabetic cats can handle the lower carb dry foods, but some cats are very sensitive to them, even if they are the lower carb ones. This is because they are still high glycemic because of the manufacturing process (all dry food must use a starch to bind it together, or it would be powder). Bandit can eat 9-10% carbs in canned foods with no effect on his BG, but if he eats a handful of EVO dry it shoots him up into the 200-300 range.

Is he also eating canned food? You could try eliminating the dry and see if it helps bring him down. Also, I agree that you might see improvement with Lantus or Levemir. Prozinc is a good insulin and works for a lot of cats, but Lantus and Levemir are a bit better in terms of remission rates and effective control of BG. If you haven't had good control with the Prozinc since July, I'd say you've given it plenty of time to work and it's just not happening.

 

[Carole Dgan]

Does Buddy have a chronic infection? Like bad teeth or ear problems?
I ask because my Badger had erratic BG with a high dose. He had polyps in his left ear and that ear was always oozing. I finally had the polyps surgically removed and now I can keep his BG under 150 with less than one unit of Levemir.
Also, I would try another insulin like Lantus or Levemir. Month after Badger had his surgery I changed from ProZinc to Levemir I wanted to eliminate an insulin. I already had another cat, Patches II on Levemir.

He does have a goopy ear most of the time. The vet saw it, and didn't say anything about polyps tho.

 

[Carole Dgan]

Some diabetic cats can handle the lower carb dry foods, but some cats are very sensitive to them, even if they are the lower carb ones. This is because they are still high glycemic because of the manufacturing process (all dry food must use a starch to bind it together, or it would be powder). Bandit can eat 9-10% carbs in canned foods with no effect on his BG, but if he eats a handful of EVO dry it shoots him up into the 200-300 range.

Is he also eating canned food? You could try eliminating the dry and see if it helps bring him down. Also, I agree that you might see improvement with Lantus or Levemir. Prozinc is a good insulin and works for a lot of cats, but Lantus and Levemir are a bit better in terms of remission rates and effective control of BG. If you haven't had good control with the Prozinc since July, I'd say you've given it plenty of time to work and it's just not happening.

Buddy can't eat EVO, it does shoot him upward. I have 2 other cats that aren't diabetic. I think it will be very hard to get rid of the dry all together.

 

[Julia & Bandit (GA)]

Buddy can't eat EVO, it does shoot him upward. I have 2 other cats that aren't diabetic. I think it will be very hard to get rid of the dry all together.

EVO is only 8% carbs, so if EVO shoots him up that may be an indication that he may be sensitive to carbs in dry food. Also, all dry food is dehydrating for cats regardless of it's carb content, so you'll also be helping to prevent kidney and urinary tract issues down the road. Diabetic and senior cats especially need special attention paid in keeping them as hydrated as possible to help reduce the load on their kidneys.

You can feed the same canned food to all three cats! Some people free feed the canned just like you would the dry, and put out a number of meals to leave out for all the cats multiple times a day, sometimes adding a little water to keep it moist. My best friend does this with her four cats. Mine are a little more food crazy, so we have to do scheduled feedings (we have scheduled meal times every 6 hours). When I'm not there to feed or sleeping, I freeze portions of food and release them in auto feeders. If your cats aren't terribly food crazy like mine, you can also just leave out the frozen portions to be eaten later when they unthaw. Mine will both sit and gnaw at the meatsicle the moment I put it down, which is why we use the feeders.

For three cats, you could look into larger cans to save money. Friskies and Special Kitty (Walmart) have low carb foods in 12 oz cans, as do Wellness and EVO if you want a premium food. There's also a Petsmart brand similar to Friskies and Special Kitty, but I can't remember what it's called.