New Member - Introduction
- Thread starter MarleyMoo
- Start date
- Status
jt and trouble (GA)
Member Since 2009
Nice to me you Jane and MarleyMoo WELCOME TO FDMB!
You've landed in a safe place for Marley we are glad you found us. How long has Marley been on four units of Prozinc and when was he DX'd? We have very competent people using Prozinc. I believe you will have all your questions answered and we hope you join us!
You've found the best place on this planet to learn everything you need to know about feline diabetes. But first to get you acquainted with how things work around here please check this link out.
New? How You Can Help Us Help You!
Please pay particular attention to the Profile/ Signature section. This information will appear at the bottom of each of your posts.Filling out your profile will give our helper all the information they need to give swift accurate help.
WELCOME TO OUR FAMILY
We look forward to getting to know you and your extra sweet Marley.
Are you home testing Marleys blood glucose? We avidly promote this practice as it is the only way to keep Marley safe. We love questions so ask away!
jeanne
You've landed in a safe place for Marley we are glad you found us. How long has Marley been on four units of Prozinc and when was he DX'd? We have very competent people using Prozinc. I believe you will have all your questions answered and we hope you join us!
You've found the best place on this planet to learn everything you need to know about feline diabetes. But first to get you acquainted with how things work around here please check this link out.
New? How You Can Help Us Help You!
Please pay particular attention to the Profile/ Signature section. This information will appear at the bottom of each of your posts.Filling out your profile will give our helper all the information they need to give swift accurate help.
WELCOME TO OUR FAMILY
We look forward to getting to know you and your extra sweet Marley.
Are you home testing Marleys blood glucose? We avidly promote this practice as it is the only way to keep Marley safe. We love questions so ask away!
jeanne
MarleyMoo
Member Since 2020
Thanks! He's been on 4 units since I believe mid-August. He was diagnosed end of May. We went through an overseas move, though, so it took a little to get him settled in the new home with a new vet.
Last home curve I did was on Monday. I posted in the ProZinc section about a couple concerns
Last home curve I did was on Monday. I posted in the ProZinc section about a couple concerns
Nan & Amber (GA)
Member Since 2016
Hello and welcome!
Replying here, but referencing info in your other thread in Prozinc: Still unregulated. And terrified
I'm not a prozinc person, but I can make a few observations based on what I know in general about feline diabetes and reaction to insulin.
I'm worried about this:
Can you explain what you mean by "crashing" and getting 'flushed'? Was this a hypoglycemia event or DKA (diabetic ketoacidosis/ketones)?
Now, onto dose. Marley has been started on a reasonable starting dose (1.0U) and has increased by 0.25U, so that lessens the chance that he's skipped his perfect dose and is currently too high. The only concern I would have about the dose changes is that I don't know how it was decided that he needed to increase-- did the vet do curves, or were you able to get some data out of the Libre before he scratched it off? We can't really judge his dose without the BG data.
If you've just started the testing, don't worry (and congratulations for home-testing!), we'll just observe from here as you collect data. We are very data-driven here, and use a common spreadsheet format to record BG: FDMB SPREADSHEET INSTRUCTIONS. If you could get one of those started and put in any data you have, it would be very helpful for us in helping you. Give a shout if you have any trouble setting it up, we have folks who can help with that as well!
Now (finally!) on to your questions:
Once you are collecting BG data regularly, the dosing methods we use PROZINC DOSING METHODS may make more sense to you-- they assume a certain amount of data collection. Since you're already up at 2U, though, there are some things we can look for in BG patterns (once you have some more data) that might hint at whether you are at too high a dose.
First of all, of course, if he goes really low and you catch it, that's an indication that it's too much insulin! But even if you don't happen to catch the low number itself with testing, sometimes we can infer that one occurred based on his numbers afterwards. Often, when cats go low, their body responds by dumping sugars into the blood (in a protective measure), trying to raise BG. So, you'll get a single dip under 100, say, then within a couple hours shooting up into the 400's, 500's, even higher. We call this phenomenon "bouncing," and the tricky thing about it is that a brief dip into lows that last minutes can trigger a bounce that lasts for days. If you're only testing infrequently, or you do a full curve but it's on a "bounce" day, you'll see all high numbers, and increase the dose when what the cat really needed was a dose decrease. This is why we say we need a lot of data to help with dosing, it's hard to be sure from single numbers or even single days.
From MarleyMoo's curve numbers, he might be in a bounce, or he might just need more insulin. It's hard to say right now, but don't worry, we will help you figure this out and get him on his perfect dose!
The other piece to this equation is food. As you transition from the Royal Canin Glycobalance, especially away from the dry, his insulin needs may drop a lot, so it's great that you're testing at home while you are doing this!
I hope this is helpful. Please let us know if you have more questions!
Replying here, but referencing info in your other thread in Prozinc: Still unregulated. And terrified
I'm not a prozinc person, but I can make a few observations based on what I know in general about feline diabetes and reaction to insulin.
I'm worried about this:
Can you explain what you mean by "crashing" and getting 'flushed'? Was this a hypoglycemia event or DKA (diabetic ketoacidosis/ketones)?
Now, onto dose. Marley has been started on a reasonable starting dose (1.0U) and has increased by 0.25U, so that lessens the chance that he's skipped his perfect dose and is currently too high. The only concern I would have about the dose changes is that I don't know how it was decided that he needed to increase-- did the vet do curves, or were you able to get some data out of the Libre before he scratched it off? We can't really judge his dose without the BG data.
If you've just started the testing, don't worry (and congratulations for home-testing!), we'll just observe from here as you collect data. We are very data-driven here, and use a common spreadsheet format to record BG: FDMB SPREADSHEET INSTRUCTIONS. If you could get one of those started and put in any data you have, it would be very helpful for us in helping you. Give a shout if you have any trouble setting it up, we have folks who can help with that as well!
Now (finally!) on to your questions:
Once you are collecting BG data regularly, the dosing methods we use PROZINC DOSING METHODS may make more sense to you-- they assume a certain amount of data collection. Since you're already up at 2U, though, there are some things we can look for in BG patterns (once you have some more data) that might hint at whether you are at too high a dose.
First of all, of course, if he goes really low and you catch it, that's an indication that it's too much insulin! But even if you don't happen to catch the low number itself with testing, sometimes we can infer that one occurred based on his numbers afterwards. Often, when cats go low, their body responds by dumping sugars into the blood (in a protective measure), trying to raise BG. So, you'll get a single dip under 100, say, then within a couple hours shooting up into the 400's, 500's, even higher. We call this phenomenon "bouncing," and the tricky thing about it is that a brief dip into lows that last minutes can trigger a bounce that lasts for days. If you're only testing infrequently, or you do a full curve but it's on a "bounce" day, you'll see all high numbers, and increase the dose when what the cat really needed was a dose decrease. This is why we say we need a lot of data to help with dosing, it's hard to be sure from single numbers or even single days.
From MarleyMoo's curve numbers, he might be in a bounce, or he might just need more insulin. It's hard to say right now, but don't worry, we will help you figure this out and get him on his perfect dose!
The other piece to this equation is food. As you transition from the Royal Canin Glycobalance, especially away from the dry, his insulin needs may drop a lot, so it's great that you're testing at home while you are doing this!
I hope this is helpful. Please let us know if you have more questions!
- Status