I agree on the fluids. There is a calculation online and his dose was 80 max. I don't think he will let me prick his ear that many times a day. I am going to have to try to get a Libre on him but he's skin folds and bones left. They did give him some fast-acting insulin. But he was on ProZinc at the time. They were only feeding him every 12 hours. Tell me more about how you work with caregivers and Humulin R? That means I need to find a vet that aligns with all this has been my biggest challenge. The first one wouldn't even give him any fluids that's how he got so bad so quickly. Maybe someone in the group knows my area.
I'm sorry to hear his ketones are so high!
I am super new here too so I don't have a ton of advice as I am learning a lot myself as well, but can tell you to take your time, you don't have to know it all at once.
My vet was very conservative as to the information he gave me, he didn't even want to tell me what to do if he went into hypoglycemia. I had to research and research, and he also only told me to test the pre-shots. But then researching, I found this forum and it has been invaluable for my experience managing Zero's symptoms. You will get there too, so take one step at a time, even though everything feels like it is unmanageable right now, I promise it will become easier as you learn.
Zero was very avoidant of letting me prick his ears for a very good chunk of time. we struggled and had really difficult days, and his ears, even though at the beginning i was only testing the preshots, so just 2 times a day before his shot, were extremely sensitive and bruised. He has always been very mellow and chill, never attacking even when his sister slaps him early in the morning but with the simple morning and night testing he was becoming very aggressive. i was very nervous of having to test him more than the preshots because it was already being so difficult. I tried to learn and research as much as I could to see what could work and found
these videos that worked for us for a bit. then, they didn't. i had done a ritual of placing him always at the same spot at the same time, play some of his favorite music, warm up a rice sock and massage his ears with it, and then test, but i noticed he knew what was coming and was building stress through the whole ritual. he was definitely feeling my anxiety. then some nights or mornings i would prick him and he just would not bleed. (this usually happens if his ears are too cold and mostly at the first weeks, while his ears learn to bleed, so don't panic if this is you, it's normal.)
At those times I had to prick him more than 3, 4 times until he just couldn't handle it anymore and attacked. I guess he didn't quite understand why I was doing that to him, but his numbers were consistently high for over 5 weeks with little to no improvement, so sometimes I just had to shoot blind. And giving insulin was yet another fight. Some night i could manage a test but not the insulin shot. It felt too much, I got really frustrated which got me depressed, we got into horrible fighting moments, it just demands soooo much patience on your side. So if this happens to you, I recommend you go out, have dinner with friends, go to the movies or to a concert, really get it our of your system, once I did that I found out that my mood improved and that usually meant next test would be successful.
He is also an extremely picky eater and through the years every time I wanted to switch him to canned food or give it to him as a treat I ended up throwing it out because he just left it in the plate without even a taste. So thinking about managing his glucose ONLY with kibble just felt impossible.
And then, one day, things just started getting better. out of nowhere, without a sign, maybe i got better at the prick, maybe his ears finally learned to bleed, maybe he started feeling so much better after each shot that he finally understood the purpose of the pricking, maybe i just relaxed and took it as it comes, or maybe a compound of all those things, but then i was able to sneak in one more test in the middle of the cycle, 2 tests, and now up to the point where i can sneak in 4, 5 and 6 tests a day.
That has helped me manage him better, and one day he finally started eating the wet food- all this story to say, every cat and every journey is different, for some its easier than others, for me certainly it was maddening at the beginning and it felt like a long time with no progress, but one day you'll see it. it all compounds and things don´t feel as unmanageable anymore.
You can do this!!! You already took the most important step which is being here. This forum, honeslty changes everything and will support you through anything.
You got this!
