? New Here - So many questions

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Jessica + Bo

Jessica + Bo

Member Since 2023
Hi All!

I made a post on the Prozinc board but I was directed to try here instead. Here is my original post:
https://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/newly-diagnosed-with-questions.283555/#post-3124308

I mainly have the same questions. How do people deal with "grazers"? Its really hard to anticipate if he will have an appetite. The vet is suggesting I take his food away, but I saw on another post that its important they have access to food incase their BG goes too low.

This morning he has no interest in food whatsoever, so I haven't dosed him. I'm hoping he eats something later so he might get a half dose.

I just bought an automatic feeder and planned to have it "feed" him an empty section about 3 or 4 hours before breakfast so hopefully he will consistently have an appetite. Is this even necessary?

On a less serious note. Anybody know how to calculate the carbs in wet food? I'm in Canada and don't want to assume our Fancy Feast has the same recipe/macros as the American one. But the Purina DM is so expensive, I'd love to find an affordable one to switch him to, especially since he will not eat leftovers. Once it goes in the fridge he wont touch it, even if i warm it in the microwave. So I'm throwing away up to $4 worth of wet food every day :(

Any advise is helpful. I just really want to do what's best for him.

Ps: please let me know if my spreadsheet permissions are correct. thanks!
 
Also to add to this. Has anybody else had a terrible time trying to get BG numbers? The first test was so easy. He was relaxed and I got blood on the 1st prick. But ever since then it's been impossible. I tried this morning for about 30-45 minutes and got nothing. I pricked him at least 10 times! Only once I got blood and of course it was not enough to test, so it was just a waste of a strip. At that point he was probably stressed as well, so the reading probably would have been useless.

I tried the rice sock trick, and using a flashlight to see the vein. I even tried manually pricking it. But he hates when people touch his ears or paws. So its really difficult. The other day I got one nice big drop of blood after trying for about 15 minutes, only to have him shake his head as I was grabbing the reader and we lost the blood.

I feel like such a failure. I know I should be testing his BG more often but it just feels impossible.
 
Warm up the ear more. I think you’re not warming it up enough if you’re not getting blood out. I make sure the spot is hot before I prick. The one tip that was a game changer for me, because nothing worse than getting a perfect size droplet and having them flick their ear, is immediately scoop up the blood droplet onto your clean mail then you test from there so if they move it doesn’t matter because you have the blood on your nail. Most of the time I’d have enough to even retest and not have to prick them again

I was going to ask if you can try to get more tests in, but I understand your struggling with testing right note. We recommend 4 a day at least. The preshot tests as well as a midday and an evening test. With prozinc, you’d most likely be following SLGS. Have you reviewed the dosing methods in the prozinc forum?

Bobo is a bit finicky with food too. What I do is give him a midnight snack around 1-2am when I get up to go to the bathroom, then nothing till I wake up so that he’s hungry and eats at shot time. I could set up the auto feeder, but the problem for me is that I won’t know when he ate exactly. Prozinc is a gentler insulin and I believe it takes about 2 hours to set in like Lantus so if you know you can get him to eat in an hour or so after the shot, I wouldn’t skip it
 
I’ve always only done free hand. I felt I had more control on the pressure I needed to apply and you learn quickly what that is. Have you tried free hand on your finger?
 
Jessica --

What gauge are your lancets? You want to use a wider gauge lancet in the beginning. Anywhere from a 26 - 28 gauge is best when starting out. It takes a few weeks for the capillary bet in your cat's ear to build up and once that happens, his ear will bleed more easily. At that point, you can switch to a thinner lancet. I typically used a 30 gauge.

There is no need to feed your cat only 2 meals a day. You can let Bo graze or provide several small meals during each cycle. The only thing to remember is to pick up the food 2 hours prior to shot time so your pre-shot test is not influenced by food. Many vets will tell you to feed only twice a day. That suggestion is based on the shorter acting insulins where you must have food on board before giving insulin.

Do the best you can to always get a pre-shot test. It's the only way you will know if it's safe to give insulin. You're also not a failure!! The majority of people here have struggled with home testing at the outset. If you have any diabetic friends, I suspect they struggled with poking themselves in the beginning. It's not easy to poke your cat with sharp objects!

Generally, if you skip the shot you don't want to then give insulin several hours later. If you are stalling, you have about a 2 hour window. The headache is that if you are stalling, your next shot is due 12 hours later. You then have to walk the shot time back gradually. In other words, it throws your entire schedule off and if you work outside of the house, that can pose a problem.

This is a link to a Canadian food chart. Most manufacturers list the guaranteed analysis on the can of food or on their website. These values are minimums or maximums. What is in the linked chart are the "as fed" values which are more accurate. If you need a ballpark estimate, there are cat food carb calculators on the web and you can plug in the guaranteed analysis numbers.
 
Ale & Bobo & Minnie (GA) said:
I’ve always only done free hand. I felt I had more control on the pressure I needed to apply and you learn quickly what that is. Have you tried free hand on your finger?
Click to expand...

I haven't tried it on myself. I have a fear of needles. Not bad enough to be considered a phobia, but I couldn't even bring myself to try the lancet on myself more than once. Every time I worked up the courage to push the button, I couldn't stop myself from pulling away right as I pressed it.

I tried free-handing his pokes, and I have felt a "give" that I thought was breaking the skin. But I've never been able to get any blood at all with free-handing. It's possible I need more pressure, I just can't quite bring myself to do it. I'm normally trembling a bit after attempting to free-hand it. I haven't given up yet though. I'm sure the "snap" of the lancet device isn't a fun sound for him, so I'd like to be able to free-hand if it will make it more comfortable for him.

I just got a reading by wrapping him like a burrito and rubbing his ear for 1.5 minutes with a warm rice sock. I got it on the 2nd prick with the lancet and gave him lots of rubs and catnip afterwards. I need to do a BG curve tomorrow so fingers crossed I'm able to replicate this method tomorrow as well.
 
Are you nuking the rice sock for about 30 seconds? I always made sure it was super warm. It’s easier to let it cool if needed than to not have it be hot enough.
 
Sienne and Gabby (GA) said:
Jessica --

What gauge are your lancets? You want to use a wider gauge lancet in the beginning. Anywhere from a 26 - 28 gauge is best when starting out. It takes a few weeks for the capillary bet in your cat's ear to build up and once that happens, his ear will bleed more easily. At that point, you can switch to a thinner lancet. I typically used a 30 gauge.

There is no need to feed your cat only 2 meals a day. You can let Bo graze or provide several small meals during each cycle. The only thing to remember is to pick up the food 2 hours prior to shot time so your pre-shot test is not influenced by food. Many vets will tell you to feed only twice a day. That suggestion is based on the shorter acting insulins where you must have food on board before giving insulin.

Do the best you can to always get a pre-shot test. It's the only way you will know if it's safe to give insulin. You're also not a failure!! The majority of people here have struggled with home testing at the outset. If you have any diabetic friends, I suspect they struggled with poking themselves in the beginning. It's not easy to poke your cat with sharp objects!

Generally, if you skip the shot you don't want to then give insulin several hours later. If you are stalling, you have about a 2 hour window. The headache is that if you are stalling, your next shot is due 12 hours later. You then have to walk the shot time back gradually. In other words, it throws your entire schedule off and if you work outside of the house, that can pose a problem.

This is a link to a Canadian food chart. Most manufacturers list the guaranteed analysis on the can of food or on their website. These values are minimums or maximums. What is in the linked chart are the "as fed" values which are more accurate. If you need a ballpark estimate, there are cat food carb calculators on the web and you can plug in the guaranteed analysis numbers.
Click to expand...

I'm using the Accu-Check Softclix lancets. I don't see the gauge written anywhere on the package, but according to google, I think they are 28 gauge.

I called my vet to ask about a late dose previously (Bo wouldn't eat breakfast, but was interested 3 hours later) she said it would be okay to give a half dose in this case.
Is it better to just skip the dose in that case? And for example if I give him breakfast at 8am, but he doesn't touch it by 10am. Is it better to just skip that dose and take the food away? Or should I leave the food for him to graze at later when his appetite picks up?

Thank you for the food chart! The PC brand is pretty affordable and some of their flavors look like a good choice according to that chart (fingers crossed he eats them!)
 
Jessica + Bo said:
Hi All!

I made a post on the Prozinc board but I was directed to try here instead. Here is my original post:
https://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/newly-diagnosed-with-questions.283555/#post-3124308

I mainly have the same questions. How do people deal with "grazers"? Its really hard to anticipate if he will have an appetite. The vet is suggesting I take his food away, but I saw on another post that its important they have access to food incase their BG goes too low.

This morning he has no interest in food whatsoever, so I haven't dosed him. I'm hoping he eats something later so he might get a half dose.

I just bought an automatic feeder and planned to have it "feed" him an empty section about 3 or 4 hours before breakfast so hopefully he will consistently have an appetite. Is this even necessary?

On a less serious note. Anybody know how to calculate the carbs in wet food? I'm in Canada and don't want to assume our Fancy Feast has the same recipe/macros as the American one. But the Purina DM is so expensive, I'd love to find an affordable one to switch him to, especially since he will not eat leftovers. Once it goes in the fridge he wont touch it, even if i warm it in the microwave. So I'm throwing away up to $4 worth of wet food every day :(

Any advise is helpful. I just really want to do what's best for him.

Ps: please let me know if my spreadsheet permissions are correct. thanks!
Click to expand...

Hello, we used to have a grazer as well, but FortiFlora seems worked will, just put a bit in the food.
 
Ale & Bobo & Minnie (GA) said:
Are you nuking the rice sock for about 30 seconds? I always made sure it was super warm. It’s easier to let it cool if needed than to not have it be hot enough.
Click to expand...
I think this might just have been my issue. I was warming his ear as long as he tolerated it. Which wasn't long enough. I just had a 2nd successful BG test today by wrapping him like a burrito and massaging his ear with the rice sock for about 90 seconds before pricking. He put up less of a fight this time and was rewarded with dinner so this might become our routine for the time being.

I'll have to try out some low carb treats to find what he likes so that I can bribe some mid-day BG tests as well
 
Hey congrats. If it’s working, take the win! Every cat is different and it sounds like you found what works for both of you. It can be a bit of trial and error. I hope it’s smooth sailing now. Look into PureBites and VitalEssential. They make lots of different flavors. Bobo is a fan of chicken liver and I also found a venison he loves.
 
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Ray_williams said:
Hello, we used to have a grazer as well, but FortiFlora seems worked will, just put a bit in the food.
Click to expand...
My cats LOVE Forti Flora. Just a tiny bit from a packet sprinkled on top will usually get them started eating! It's not a great probiotic for diarrhea or anything, but I will use it as an appetite stimulant. Good tip. Thanks for chiming in.
 
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