New diagnosis - need reassurance...

Status
Not open for further replies.
B

Buff-puff

Member
Hi everyone. My sweet Buff was diagnosed last week, and her mom (that's me) is a complete and useless wreck! nailbite_smile I can't tell you how glad I am to have found this board, although I'm feeling overwhelmed about everything I need to learn in order to care for her.

Already I've discovered that there's a better place to inject other than her shoulder/scruff area for effectiveness (although this is what I was instructed to do), and now I'm afraid to change midstream due to not knowing what her BG will do. That's another thing, I don't have a meter yet and really not sure what kind to get. I'm really looking forward to learning how to test her, as she was sooooo stressed the day of her curves and I'm afraid that pushed her high - she was at 300 after a week of 1 unit twice/day of ProZinc. Her dose was upped to 2 units twice/day.

Also wanted to mention that I purchased a bag of Purina DM and then read I should not feed her this -- but I'm not clear exactly why! High carbs? Is Fancy Feast a good choice of wet food, or not? Her vet said this was bad for her, but if I'm understanding some of the comments I've read here, that may not be the case at all. I was also told to feed twice a day, but this is really difficult as she has been pleading with me to feed her more often. :cry:

I just have to add, while I was trying to type this, Buffy was acting more like her old self than she's been in a good while...actually jumping onto her chair beside mine (she's been hiding under the desk, and under the bed). She patted my arm to get my attention like she always does, crawled onto my lap and then onto my left shoulder, wanting me to love on her - and I have to say, I had to stop for a few minutes to savor the moment. :mrgreen:

Right now I'm in a little bit of panic mode as I just realized the insulin should be stored upright, and to keep it from sliding out, I laid it over. Please tell me I haven't ruined it!

Thank you. I appreciate everyone on this board and your willingness to help! :-D
 
hi there and welcome!

my understanding is that insulin will be just fine unless you shake it, drop it too much, let it get too hot, etc.....storing it upright vs. on it's side i don't think will effect it's effectiveness. perhaps they say to do that to avoid any odd leaks that potentially could happen?

as far as the food goes, it's not that what you got is gonna kill kitty or anything but you can do better as far as foods go. dry is dry and that alone causes problems, i.e. diabetes, obesity, dehydration, kidney issues, etc.....and dry, even that stuff, tends to be higher in carbohydrates than ideally you want to feed a diabetic kitty. the best thing i can tell you to do is check out http://www.catinfo.org for the best info on feline nutrition.

honestly it sounds like you are on the ball with this already so just remember to breathe and keep reading and asking questions.
 
Morgaine was just diagnosed Mon. 5/3 and I took her off of Hill's prescription diet r/d and put her on FF tender beef and her sugars are down over 100 points. She never went on insulin but I just got her actual labs and she was at 292 when diagnosed and was 162 yesterday. I was advised to keep going without insulin and I actually did a couple of phone consults with Lisa Pierson, DVM. She wrote the article linked in the post above and she is available for phone consults. She can help you and is extremely knowledgable. If you can't afford to do this and it was hard for me but I decided to pay for this now rather than wait for things to get worse, then keep reading here and read what she has to say. The reason I trust her so much is that I have had type 1 Diabetes for 46 years and she helped me understand how it all works in a cat.

I was really afraid to test Morgaine but I jumped right in there with my own meter and she let me do it the first time. Be patient because it is all new to you. For me it was just a matter of transferring what I do to myself to her as far as testing goes. It may seem overwhelming but with good control and a little luck you may be able to get your cat off of insulin. I am still not sure if Morgaine will need any but if she does I will deal with it. Taking it all one day at a time. This is really new for me too. I'm okay with doing this for myself but it is so hard to do this for the kitty. Remember, control is what keeps them healthy so testing is going to give you the tool you need to gain control over this insidious disease. Best wishes from me and Morgaine.
 
Hi and welcome to FDMB :mrgreen:

Sound like you've got off to a good start.2u withouttesting is a tad high, the ethos here is start low, go slow and would have been inclined to increase by .5u

Dry foods as Cindy said tend to be very high in carbs. The Hills stuff is not very good for cats either (not to mention your purse!) Fancy Feast and Evo seem to be 2 popular varities used on the board and both are low carb.

Right now kitty can not process all the food you are giving her. Give her what she wants, forget what vet has said (sorry don't mean to sound blunt) Once you start testing (hope you do) you just need to make sure kitty hasn't eaten in the previous 2 hours. Food raises bg you see and then you might get a falsely high bg reading and think it's ok to shoot or that she needs an increase when in fact she doesn't. In the early days it's good to get a spot check test after 1 hour and 2 hours-then you will be able to see how carb sensitive your cat is.Every Cat is different (ECID-You'll see this written sometimes)

As for meter-taking a guess your US or Canada?
Walmart do an own brand that have heard beans are happy with. Cheap and strips aren't too expensive either. You don't need the alpha tru track one (specific foe animals, very expensive and so are the strips). Human one fine.
There's a number on the market. 2 I have used are the Accu check aviva and one touch ultra. Accucheck needs slighty less blood.

If you look at the top you can ask Cindy for a hometesting kit and there are also a sticky on hometesting tips. It really is easy once you get into it.

As for scruff V's flank-it really doesn't matter. It's what is easiest and most comfortable for you both. There has been some debate over whether slower absorption f insulin if injected in the scruff, but I think the outcome was negligible. If your using a long acting insulin (believe Prozinc is supposed to be) then you want slow absorption anyway!
It won't affect bg/ What you will find, is if say you tested both ears you'd get 2 slightly different readings. There ios generally a 20% variance. This is acceptable, hence stick with same place (alternating ears for example) and same meter. Then you go by your numbers and your being consistent.

Good luck :mrgreen:
 
Good luck with everything! My cat Vesta was diagnosed in early April- less than a week before a planned 10 day vacation... Stressful!!! I know how you must be feeling, with getting a whole crash course in diabetes. Good times... but it will get better, promise!

We're using a Bayer Breeze 2 meter that I was able to get free after coupons. The testing strips are around 52c each (lowest price I've found online), and the lancets around 11c. I haven't priced other meters so I'm not sure how much they run.

Not sure if you coupon shop, but CVS has a pretty good deal starting Sunday on some of the meters, the Bayer Counter in particular. The deal is buy a meter (the contour is $19.99) and get $15.00 extra care bucks back. (Extra care bucks can be used just like cash on any future purchase in the store). If you happen to save your coupons, the red plum insert from the sunday paper on 4/25 had a coupon for $10 off a contour meter... Which would make your net cost of buying this one -$5 :) PM me if you need help understanding this....

Whatever you do, buy your testing strips and lancets online- they're MUCH cheaper. Or buy your first set in the store to get you through until ones arrive via online purchasing. You'll really save money that way.

Hope this helps... and good luck!
 
Hi again! Thanks everyone for your replies and your welcomes! :-D Yes, I'm still very overwhelmed, but I'm not quite as stressed as in the beginning.

Cindy: Thanks for posting the catinfo link. I read a little and will study more thoroughly as I'm able. The medical problems caused by dry food stuns me, as the vet is the one who suggested the dry Purina DM. Why!! I do realize they make $$ from it, but I naively thought they would not put profit ahead of my baby (considering I've spent well over $300 there in the last week). However, Buffy has always gotten wet food, along with her sisters, but I've also left a bowl of their all-time favorite, Whiskas dry. For several months the canned food she's mostly gotten has been FF that they sell at Sam's Club. She's also had some of the Friskies, but the ones she loves have gravy and I'm sure it's loaded with carbs. Anyway, she also gets the Friskies Flaked with tuna in sauce and the vet said that was on her "okay list."

skybar: I'm sure you're grateful for not being on insulin, but at BGs near 300, is it common to try diet first? I'm gonna get some of the FF tender beef. Buff would love that. Lately she's been getting FF Ocean Whitefish & Tuna Feast, Cod, Sole & Shrimp Feast, and Savory Salmon Feast, and the vet said it was not good and I just assumed not enough protein and fiber and too many carbs, but she didn't go into detail and I didn't think to ask. Anyway, she wants me to keep carbs below 7%, but I would think as long as they were all at about the same level of carbs, protein, etc., it shouldn't mess with regulation. That's another thing, what is a serving?!! Buffy has never been a big eater, but rather eats small amounts here and there. Congrats, by the way, for getting Morgaine so low on diet alone. And thank you for your encouragement regarding diet control. My goal is to get her off insulin, if possible, but I'm ready to do whatever is necessary as long as she doesn't suffer.

Kate: Hi! I'm in the US - Georgia to be exact. Thanks for info, and thanks for pointing me in the direction of the home testing kit. After reading how some kitties are on very high doses, I didn't realize 2 units twice/day was high. I'd better get a meter and learn to use it soon! But then what? If I test and her BGs are in a good range, how do I lower the dose myself without vet's guidance? The vet said that once her curves were where they needed to be, she would be on the correct dose. She sounded like all would be well at that point, but I worried about what would happen if her BGs leveled out and here I am still giving her insulin. And I find myself wondering how often I need to take her in for curves. Poor Buff was so stressed that day she was even hissing at me when I went for her! :sad: Thanks for reassurances regarding giving in scruff. That really worried me. Also, I don't feel a "pop" as described, but more of a pressure. Now I'm worried about that. And the insulin is already cloudy and I couldn't see anything floating around in there from day one!!! Yep, I'm still a wreck, but I have to slap myself out of it for Buff's sake.

WG: CVS is my pharmacy, so I'll definitely take advantage of their special and get a meter tomorrow. And I'll take your advice about purchasing supplies in store first, then online. At this point I'm shocked about the $$ I'll be spending on insulin and supplies. The kit they sold at the vet included bottle of insulin, syringes, disposal box and cost nearly $150. The thing is, it looks like I'll run out of insulin pretty quickly at 4 units/day. But no, I've never done much in the way of coupon shopping as I don't get the paper, but it looks like I should buy one occasionally and take advantage. I haven't spoken to the vet about testing at home, but I mentioned it to one of the girls up front, and she seemed to think that was an odd thing to do and why would I want to. :roll: My big concern about testing at home is the difference in meters. Is the difference negligible? I don't want to do anything that would harm her.

Thanks again everyone. I must be doing okay because Buff almost seems like herself. :-D

PS: Where would I find instructions for adding a pic of Buffy?
 
Definitely come over to the PZI board! We've got a bunch of ProZinc users.

I have to say that going from 1 to 2 units for ProZinc is a BIG jump. I know it doesn't seem like much, but from what we've found (and many others using Prozinc in the last few months) is that a little goes a long way. I would highly recommend testing an hour after your shot and then again around 6 hours. Often if the dose is too high, your PS's will be very high because the cat's body is fighting the high dose. So you'd think they need more and their numbers will show high. I found that one way to see if a dose was too high was to test at the +1 hour after shooting. If it was already dropping then the dose was too high as the dose previous to the last hadn't gotten out of the system and the overlap was bringing it down.

When we first started ProZinc, we had horrible #'s at 1 unit but when we jumped to 2, she dropped way too low. Because her body fought it, she would go right into the 400-500 range. Talk about eyes bugging out of your head (mine, not hers.) We found success once we switched to the U100 needles and converted so we could move in .2 unit increments. I know that seems like such a little amount, but that was key for us to find a dose that was right for her.

There's a lot of info about ProZinc over on the PZI board in the stickies. The general onset is about 2 hours after the shot (when you'll first start seeing some dropping in #'s) and you usually hit the nadir between 6-8 hours.
 
H&A: I also felt the jump in dose was a lot. She'll get her next dose in a couple of hours, so I'm getting ready to run over to CVS and get a meter. I got a tip above that they had a Bayer Contour on sale. I've read meters can vary, so that worries me - how do you trust the accuracy of the meter whether high or low?

And what you said about your cat fighting the dose and showing high numbers really scares me. How did you figure that out, and I wonder if the vets are aware of this, as Buffy had high numbers (300) when they did her curves last week, thus the higher dose. But I worried even then, because she was very stressed and hissing at everyone, including me, and she never does that! I'm sure I'll need some guidance, so I'll post at the PZI forum after I test her. Thanks :smile:
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top