New member introduction dec 11th 2021

[Carrie D]

Hello!
I finally made the jump to the website. My sugar kitty was diagnosed November 8th of this year. (Ella-Rose) She’s still running high as we work through it. She’s on prozinc, just increased from 1 unit to 1.5 units twice a day. We’re using the freestyle meter, although I’m only having luck getting blood from her left ear. The right doesn’t want to bleed for me. We will be switching to lantus soon. Happy to be here! Thanks to all you wonderful volunteers

 

[Bron and Sheba (GA)]

Hi Carrie and Ella-Rose and welcome to the forum! Glad you have found us.
Sounds as if you are well organised having started hometesting …terrific!
Would you like to tell us a bit more about Ella -Rose…..what you feed her, how often, what she weighs, any other health problems.
Also if you would like to set our spreadsheet and enter all the data you have so far, that would help us greatly. We need to see the data on the SS before we can really help you…and we are very happy to help all our diabetic kitties. If you have any trouble let me know and someone will help you set it up.
Keep trying with the right ear, it will eventually bleed. Are you warming the ear first?

HELP US HELP YOU is a link that has information about the spreadsheet, setting up your signature, setting up a hypo kit and other useful information.

PROZINC BASICS LINK

PROZINC DOSING METHODS

Ask as many questions as you like, we are very happy to answer them all.
Bron

 

[Carrie D]

Hi Carrie and Ella-Rose and welcome to the forum! Glad you have found us.
Sounds as if you are well organised having started hometesting …terrific!
Would you like to tell us a bit more about Ella -Rose…..what you feed her, how often, what she weighs, any other health problems.
Also if you would like to set our spreadsheet and enter all the data you have so far, that would help us greatly. We need to see the data on the SS before we can really help you…and we are very happy to help all our diabetic kitties. If you have any trouble let me know and someone will help you set it up.
Keep trying with the right ear, it will eventually bleed. Are you warming the ear first?

HELP US HELP YOU is a link that has information about the spreadsheet, setting up your signature, setting up a hypo kit and other useful information.

PROZINC BASICS LINK

PROZINC DOSING METHODS

Ask as many questions as you like, we are very happy to answer them all.
Bron

I’m working on the spreadsheet now! I don’t have much info so far for numbers. I feed her fancy feast vegetable medley twice a day 8am and 8pm. She weights 10.1lb. She’s 9 years old, no other health problems up until now. She does graze on hard food I switched her from friskies to purina for now as I wasn’t sure which one was best!
Thanks for the advice onlinks to check out

 

[Bron and Sheba (GA)]

I’m working on the spreadsheet now! I don’t have much info so far for numbers. I feed her fancy feast vegetable medley twice a day 8am and 8pm. She weights 10.1lb. She’s 9 years old, no other health problems up until now. She does graze on hard food I switched her from friskies to purina for now as I wasn’t sure which one was best!
Thanks for the advice onlinks to check out

Just add whatever information you have to the SS.
We recommend feeding before giving the dose of insulin and then again a couple of times during the first half of each cycle…eg at +2 and +4 or +3 and +5 or whatever times suit you.
Almost all dry food is high carb. Purina is not low carb. You need to look for wet/canned food that is 10% or under carbs. Most of us feed around 4 to 7% carbs.
Have a look at this link for information on suitable foods. I think FF veg medley could possibly be higher carb.
If you swap to lower carb you need to be careful as it can lower the BG quite a bit so monitor more closely. The insulin may need to be adjusted.
FOOD CHART

 

[Carrie D]

Just add whatever information you have to the SS.
We recommend feeding before giving the dose of insulin and then again a couple of times during the first half of each cycle…eg at +2 and +4 or +3 and +5 or whatever times suit you.
Almost all dry food is high carb. Purina is not low carb. You need to look for wet/canned food that is 10% or under carbs. Most of us feed around 4 to 7% carbs.
Have a look at this link for information on suitable foods. I think FF veg medley could possibly be higher carb.
If you swap to lower carb you need to be careful as it can lower the BG quite a bit so monitor more closely. The insulin may need to be adjusted.
FOOD CHART

I can’t figure out what carb means on cans. It doesn’t say carb so I stuck with what I know. She’s use to grazing should I just cut that out and only do two cans a day?

 

[Bron and Sheba (GA)]

I can’t figure out what carb means on cans. It doesn’t say carb so I stuck with what I know. She’s use to grazing should I just cut that out and only do two cans a day?

Manufacturers do not list carbs on the cans. You need to look on the list I gave you.
If you look at the Weruva website you will see they list the carb content of all their products.
It’s important that you find suitable low carb foods to feed, otherwise you are giving a high carb (sugar) diet to your diabetic cat. It would be like feeding a diabetic person junk food and ice cream and expecting them to get better because they are having insulin,
You can leave canned food down for her if you like to graze on, but you need to remove it for the two hours before the preshots are due as we don’t want the preshot BG to be food influenced.
Have you thought about a timed automatic feeder.? A lot of us have them and find them invaluable.

 

[Chris & China (GA)]

Hi Carrie! Happy to see your first post on the board!

The pet food manufacturers don't put the carb percentage on the cans unfortunately which is why we use the food chart that Bron posted above. Depending on the specific variety and flavor, the Fancy Feast Medleys have a wide range of carbs.

The "Classics" are all under 10%. Friskies pates are also under 10% carbs (as well as lots of other foods...just look for under 10 in column C on the chart.

 

[Carrie D]

To clarify she gets a can of wet food in the morning which she eats and is gone. Grazes on hard food and then a wet can at night. Both cans get insulin afterwards. Should I just cut out hard altogether even though she’s use to grazing ? The vet said to just keep letting her graze but others say hard is bad altogether

thanks for clarifying that Chris!

 

[Katherine&Ruby]

I would remove dry food entirely if you can, because unless you are feeding one of the three low carb dry foods available on the market for diabetic kitties, they are all like feeding a diabetic a candy bar. Automatic feeders are the best invention for diabetic cats. If Ella likes to graze in between shot time meals, low carb food in a feeder that has room for a small ice pack can keep food fresh for her to nibble on. If her blood sugar goes low, she might naturally gravitate towards eating something, so the feeder can be of great help, especially if you are gone during the day.

 

[Bron and Sheba (GA)]

To clarify she gets a can of wet food in the morning which she eats and is gone. Grazes on hard food and then a wet can at night. Both cans get insulin afterwards. Should I just cut out hard altogether even though she’s use to grazing ? The vet said to just keep letting her graze but others say hard is bad !

I would not cut out the snacks/grazing during the cycles because it is better for her to be able to eat or have access to food during the cycle.but I would look at cutting out the dry food and replacing it with either suitable wet food or a dry food that is low carb.
If you do that you will need to s aware that the BGs could drop initially when you swap to the lower carb foods.