New member - any advice?

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Tcats

Tcats

Member Since 2024
Hello, my name is Ana and I’m (sadly) a new member here, but I was reading this forum since the beginning of Trece’s (my black cat) diagnosis, I want to thank you for all the information that all of you post and share, it was really helpful.

First of all, I want to apologize for my bad English (I’m from Spain), I will try to do my best to explain myself.

I have two cats of 6 years and one of them (Trece) is recently diagnose from diabetes (11th january).

Both cats ate the same: at the beginning they ate nature’s selection dry food and applaws wet food, but a year ago we changed to urinary dry and wet food from hills (because Trece also start to having kidneys problems) - the vet told me to used this brand but I wasn’t a big fan of it because of the composition.

This January Trece lose a lot of weight in one month (from 6 kilos to 5.1 kilos), and on January the 11th was diagnosed from diabetes. The fructosamine was 519.

Also they think that he has a problem in one tooth so in the next week he will have a teeth cleaning and some radiography to check it out.

We started with 1.5Ul of prozinc every 12 hours. The vet put him a freestyle and monitor some curves, thanks to that the vet could adjust the dosage easily (I put my spreedsheet on my signature), but Trece took off the freestyle.

Now that the freestyle is not an option anymore we bought a human glucometer (freestyle lite) to monitor the BG levels at home (but Trece is not a big fan of it so we do it less than we would like). We follow your recommendations to make things easier but… is still complicated.

5 days ago the vet change the dosage from 0.5 every 12 hours to 0.5 every 24 hours because the fructosamine was 272, and i read here that is better to reduce to 0.25 than to skip a dose, so I’m a bit worried. The vet told us to make today another BG curve to see how everything is going.

We also do urine glucose test and since this last dosage change the results are worst than before (from normal to 50)

Regarding the food, he eat around 50gr of Farmina Vetlife diabetic dry food, and around 65-70gr of wet food (Nath diabetic mixed with a little bit of Catzilla made by salmon and tuna because they don’t like the meat, they prefer fish). I know that is better to give them only wet food but I think that is impossible for now.
I tried “food for Joe” but they don’t like it. And I’m trying to change it to smilla diabetic wet food but is out of stock.
So any recommendation regarding the food is very welcome.

Everything is so overwhelming and I think that I’m making everything wrong with any decision I made.

Any advices to make things better?

Thank you :)
 
Your instincts are correct. Judging by the spreadsheet, .5 is too much since he went under 90 twice on 2/20 so he earned a 1/4 unit reduction according to our dosing methods here. But since the dose is already small, I believe .25 would be okay. Let’s see what @Suzanne & Darcy thinks. I agree with you and I wouldn’t follow your vet’s advice to only give insulin once a day. All insulins only work for 12 hours so it’s always best to split the dose so your cat is not unprotected 1/2 of the day

his numbers are pretty good for a recently diagnosed cat and I wonder if they won’t be even better after the tooth issue is resolved. You’re doing great, hang in there!

do you have any data for the days in between 2/20-2/25? And while we’re waiting for the others to chime in, it’s a good idea to check out the prozinc forum and read all the yellow sticky notes, especially the one on the dosing methods: https://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/forums/prozinc-pzi.24/
 
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Your kitty has earned a reduction down to .25 units. Let me read through your entire post and provide more information if needed.
 
The insulin should be given every 12 hours. Please update the spreadsheet when you can. I worry about our kitties. When is the dental procedure going to be performed?
 
Hello, the dental procedure is the 5th of march.
Is there any syringe to charge 0.25 easier than the one that I used now?
Regarding the food is something that I could do to help him? Catzilla salmon and tuna is ok as wet food?
Thank you so much for your advice
 
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If you are using the syringes like the ones on the left in the picture above, then draw the plunger back to right in between the zero insulin mark and the .5 units mark — so halfway between that first half unit mark and the zero mark. Unfortunately, you have to just do what we call”eyeball” it, which means just do your best to get halfway between those lines.
 
Sorry about the italics above. Don’t know why it typed in italics. But if you are interested in using U-100 syringes to do smaller doses, I can provide you with some information on that. This would be especially helpful if your sweet baby needs to have a dose that is less than .25 units.
 
Tcats said:
Hello, the dental procedure is the 5th of march.
Is there any syringe to charge 0.25 easier than the one that I used now?
Regarding the food is something that I could do to help him? Catzilla salmon and tuna is ok as wet food?
Thank you so much for your advice
Click to expand...
@Diane Tyler's Mom can you link that European food list here? I think you did it the other day for someone. I have to run out of the house for another vet appointment right now and will check back in later. I believe @Elizabeth and Bertie is the one who published the European food list (maybe a UK food list but many of the brands are the same?)
 
I’m going to read it more about that in the forum in order to make it as best as possible.
Don’t worry I will search everything
You were very helpful, Thank you!
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
@Diane Tyler's Mom can you link that European food list here? I think you did it the other day for someone. I have to run out of the house for another vet appointment right now and will check back in later. I believe @Elizabeth and Bertie is the one who published the European food list (maybe a UK food list but many of the brands are the same
Click to expand...


This link UK Cat Food List lists foods also available in Europe. You want foods with carbs less than 10%.
 
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@Suzanne & Darcy
Suzanne I did a search on our site and found this post about U-40 syringes with half unit markings
I wonder if these would be ok for her to use instead of 3/10 cc
Here's the post I found
  1. Mar 18, 2023Report
    #29Like


  2. Shelley & Jess
    Joined:
    Jan 23, 2020
    @@Diana & Martin used Prozinc and lives in Spain, haven't seen her around lately though.

    Here's a picture of the syringes from the thread that her vet in Spain told her to buy - 0.5ml with half unit markings - better than the 1mls

    img_2219-jpg.65243



Or these
https://www.petdrugsonline.co.uk/sol-m-u40-insulin-caninsulin-syringes-0-5ml
86913a1382ecad82fe318c3580e1792e0fdd07cc4ba7fd2f06c05b4c083c95ee.jpeg
 
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Hi Ana
Your kitty has earned a reduction down to .25 units for tonight
Did you reduce , I don't see your spreadsheet filled in
@TCat

I see you have your spreadsheet set up can you also do your signature
See mine about Tyler ?

Here is a link helping us to help you link. If you noticed, our members have some basic information about their cat's in their signature. This helps us to not pester you by asking the same questions (your cat's name, insulin type, date of diagnosis, etc.) repeatedly. We also have a link to our spreadsheet in our signature. We are very numbers driven. The spreadsheet is a record of your cat's progress. By linking it in your signature, we can follow along and provide feedback should you need the help
 
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