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Danii94

New Member
Captain is 16 years old and recently diagnosed. I’m still very confused on all of this. Our vet started him out pretty high from what I’m reading. He’s on 5 units of ProZinc every morning. Still losing weight, drinking and peeing like crazy. Just found out about these groups and am working on changing his diet and getting a home reader. I’m unsure how to actually do readings and dosages accordingly. I honestly have no clue what I’m doing, but I’m ready to learn. I gave him wet food today as he ran out of his dry food, but I do plan on getting more to slowly transition him to a full wet food no carb diet. I don’t know what much means when it comes to the diabetes diagnosis. Any and all help is appreciated!! How do I change his dosage and know what’s right or wrong? Is there a chart or anything to help me learn the “language” I see that the main things are diet, insulin, and home testing, but that’s about all I know. What’s the normal range on a home tester? How often should I test? Should I only give insulin as needed instead of every single day? Thank you for reading this far!!
 
Take a deep breath. My Billy was recently diagnosed too, and he's doing awesomely thanks the the information and people on this message board. I know it's all overwhelming at first, but the more you learn, the easier it becomes.

Important stuff first. Don't change his diet until you start home testing. A low carb wet food can drop his numbers by over 100 points. Especially since he's at a high dose, you are going to have to watch his BGL carefully to see if you need to reduce the dose of skip one. Better to have a high blood glucose day that risk a hypoglycemic event, since they can be dangerous. Slow and careful changes win this race.

Some people use pet meters for testing, but many use a human meter, as the test strips are cheaper. I myself use a human ReliOn Premier from Walmart. Super cheap and works great. Folks also suggest you test for ketones on occasion. There are blood meters for this, but you can also get less expensive Ketostix, which test urine. You can find threads here on how to test BGL. It's can be awkward at first, but you will get the hang of it.

Read. Read . Read. Read all the sticky posts here, on the welcome/health forum, and the health links section. It will really help. A great place to start is New? How You Can Help Us Help You.

You also might want to start an introductory post on the Welcome/Health section of the forum, as people check it more often than the individual insulin sections.
 
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New members should start over in the Main Health Forum. Not as busy here and your posts can be overlooked.

Thanks @Juls and Billy for helping out new member Danii94. And redirect anyone you see in the ISG that is new to Feline Health - (Welcome & Main Forum)

She has a thread started there now.
Juls has learned a lot in her short journey with her cat Billy. But she has obviously picked up a lot of information along the way.

Danii94. Take a deep breath, take two deep breaths. Take as many as you need. Deep breathing exercises are a great way to help us relax and get a handle on dealing with feline diabetes. We'll help you as much as we can.

Do you live in the US or another country? How recently diagnosed? Anything else you can tell us?

Some of us are here early in the day, some are here later.

p.s. New members usually start over in the Main Forum. Not as busy here and your posts can be overlooked. I see you have a post going over in Main Health forum already. Please keep your post going over there and don't use this one anymore.
 
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