New Member with newly diagnosed 8 year old Maine Coon needs help!

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EricaB

Member Since 2020
Hello everyone,
My 8 year old Maine Coon Cat was diagnosed last week with diabetes. She had been losing weight and drinking/urinating a lot. I expected it to be kidney failure and was relieved at first that it was diabetes. The vet prescribed 2 units of prozinc twice a day. She was OK with the shots the first two days but now I cannot get near her. When I tried to give her the injection this morning she impaled my ear and I had to give up. She's now completely gun shy and I'm a wreck. She has always been a friendly and happy cat, but has never been a lap cat or enjoyed being brushed or picked up. I'm falling apart thinking I won't be able to keep her stable and healthy. I want her to be healthy, but I do not want her to spend her days frightened of me and traumatized. I would be grateful for any advice. Thank you!
 
WELCOME TO FDMB! Dont worry we got your back!
2 unites is a large dose for a newly DX'd cat. Unless your kitty has other issues its a lot of insulin. That could be why shes fighting you.
NUMBER ONE QUESTION...Are you home testing her blood sugars??? If not I IMPLORE you to go down to the nearest drug store and pick up a diabetic meter. (MANY here use the ReliOn ), some extra strips and lancets. We can teach you how to do this. I wont lie and say it will be easy at first especially with how your kitty is acting at the moment but it is the ONLY way to know if its safe to give that 2 units. Having that number is a life savor.

PLEASE KNOW you have landed in a SAFE place! We WILL get you sorted!

jeanne
 
Thank you! When I asked the vet about home testing she said not to in the beginning. We are supposed to bring the cat back on Wednesday for her levels to be rechecked. I will look for a home testing kit. We are in northern Maine - it's an hour drive just to get to the vet. We also have two other cats both of whom love to be picked up. Of course it's the other one who needs shots. I can't imagine how I will ever get close to her ears to test her, but I will try to learn to do whatever is necessary so that she is healthy and happy. Thank you for writing back.
 
EricaB said:
Thank you! When I asked the vet about home testing she said not to in the beginning. We are supposed to bring the cat back on Wednesday for her levels to be rechecked. I will look for a home testing kit. We are in northern Maine - it's an hour drive just to get to the vet. We also have two other cats both of whom love to be picked up. Of course it's the other one who needs shots. I can't imagine how I will ever get close to her ears to test her, but I will try to learn to do whatever is necessary so that she is healthy and happy. Thank you for writing back.
Click to expand...
I forgot !!! Hope your still reading For lancets you want a 28 gauge lancet!
 
While you are in wait mode I'm going to direct you here:
New? How You Can Help Us Help You!
In this forum theres a Profile/ Signature section PLEASE pay particular attention to it
All that info they ask you to fill out is VERY important to ANY helper that responds. It will appear at the bottom of ALL your posts in light gray letters (see mine below this post)
This info can be life saving in an emergency situation. Your respondents wont have to ask all those question they can SEE them for themselves.
jeanne
We are dedicated to helping anyone who asks. We have ALL been there!;):coffee:

Oh and btw my signature doesnt have that info. You see the (GA) in my screen name? That means my Troubles has passed away(Gone Ahead). Take a moment and notice all the GA's you see here. Yet...We are STILL here :bighug:
j.
 
More info...Your vet may insist on you using the Alpha Track system. He /She would be remiss if they didnt. Its the latest(besides the Libre) in technology for feline diabetes. They are excellent monitors each, with their own drawbacks. The AT is a GOOD system. Many here use it. :coffee:
If money is a concern you may just want to go with a regular old human meter. This whole site is built around using human meters. It has worked WELL since the 90's. ;)

The drawback with the AT is the cost of the strips. In the beginning you will go through an exorbitant amount of strips. I believe the AT system strips are a dollar apiece. Thats a lot of dollars. :(

The Libre is a device thats glued to your cat and works just like the human version. You just swipe it with your phone OR the reader they sell. Its costly AND its suppose to last for something like 14 days. The drawback (besides the initial cost) is that many cats somehow get them off. Once they are off they are done. If I understand it correctly you have to PAY for another sensor. In the Libres defense...Ive found that if you are having a hard time learning to manually test your cat, the Libre will afford you the time to get testing down pat . That is testing WHILE the Libre is monitoring.

So theres decisions to be made. I just wanted to give you the skinny before hand. If you have ANY questions about any of these options PLEASE Start a new thread with that as the subject. I am SURE you will get responses on this subject.

I hope I have made this all clear and understandable.
jeanne:coffee:
 
Welcome to the FDMB family - you have found the best place for advice and moral support- we all need a virtual hug every so often while dealing with all this be it old or new to us.
I have the Alphatrak2 & really like it as it takes only needs the tiniest drop of blood. But Jeanne is right the strips are not cheap (over £1 each here) - I'm lucky in that Mac has pet insurance that pays for them & also paid for the meter itself which appears to be more expensive than the human ones. So it is just a choice of what is best for you really but whatever you choose people here will still be able to help you.
Best wishes to you both
Gill
 
0BC2DA1B-DC33-4436-9C7A-E131482C8CC4.jpeg
Before we get to home testing, let’s try and figure out what’s going with the shots since that’s the top priority. Were you unable to give the shot this am then?

How are you giving the injection and what part of the body are you aiming for? Also, what size syringe needles are you using? The longer the needle the more likely it is to hurt if you push it all the way through into the skin. It should be going into her body but more parallel at an angle. Is that what you’re doing? I’d also try to give a treat right after to try to build a positive association with the injection. Above are the areas you can try. Prozync is not an insulin that tends to sting, but if it did she wouldn’t start to feel until a much higher dose. Also, is the insulin cold out of the fridge when you shoot? Can you try to leave it out for about 20 minutes and/or warm up with your fingers to see if it helps?
 

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Hi. I was not able to give her the shot this morning. I will try again this evening. I will try warming the insulin up as well before giving it to her. The vet had only showed me how to give it to her in the scruff oh her neck, so now any time I try to touch her there she bolts. I can’t find her skin very quickly because she has such long fur, plus she is so skinny that there’s not much to grab. The needles the vet gave us are 29 gauge. I will try a different spot on her body and to make sure to have it more parallel. Any advice on how to hold her still? I’m scared I won’t be able to figure this out and that I’ll lose her.
 
Hi Erica! Its going to be ok. Try putting something she loves in front of her her most favorite food while shes eating then gently pet her let her know your hands are there. Then try to give her warmed up insulin it may mean you need a finer needle. My Trouble was a bear to shoot until I got finer needles. (Its been so long ago I cant remember the gauge. BUT FEAR NOT SOMEONE WILL. ;)
 
Thank you so much. It is overwhelming. I will call tomorrow to see about smaller needles. I live in a very rural area and there are only a few vets (none closer than an hour away) and they are all overwhelmed. There is no local emergency coverage either. How did you manage the shots before you got the smaller needles? And your cat’s picture is beautiful.
 
The larger the number, the smaller the needle. I used 31 gauge needles.
Shoot with the bevel facing upwards. Like this:
bevel needle.jpg


I've copied the below from a post by @Chris & China (GA)

Another technique you might try is the "roll" method....instead of making a tent, you grab a handful of fur in your less dominant hand (left hand if you're right handed) between the thumb and forefinger....then "roll" your wrist to pull the skin away from the muscle

Where the fur has a "break", aim and shoot....it's worked a lot better for us than the tent method ever did.

It's kind of hard to describe, but hopefully this picture will help illustrate the idea
china-shot-area-jpg.21695
 

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EricaB said:
. I will try warming the insulin up as well before giving it to her.
Click to expand...

Hi. What I do is to prepare my syringe and then let Mac start eating his food whilst I just hold the tube of the syringe right where the insulin is between my thumb and first 2 fingers for a couple of minutes to take the worst of the chill off.
For him I use the front shoulder blade area, right side in the morning and left side in the evening as that works best for us. Also I have never needed to part the fur to find the skin so I'll leave the tips on that to others - I just push the needle gently into the tent and can tell when I am there but I guess that is very different with a kitty with very long fur.

I got a few fur shots (by going straight through the tent) so swapped to a shorter needle and have found that much better.
A few other tips that helped me : always give a low carb treat & lots of fusses after whether you were successful or not. I found that it helped keep Mac calm to talk to him through out telling him what a good kitty he is and give him a few strokes and time to settle before going in for the shot. If you keep your thumb well away from the plunger then if they move you can stop and try again once they settle again (learnt this the hard way as Mac is a fidgeter!)
Don't worry you will get there - it just takes a little while to sort out what suits you both. As they say on here ECID (every cat is different!)
:bighug:
 
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Many of us give a shot while our cat is eating. If you're kitty is food motivated, hopefully, the shot will go unnoticed

You want to look for a 30 or 31 gauge needle. Here's some additional information on syringes. You may need a prescription for syringes.

  • U-100 3/10cc syringes with half unit markings are the best
  • BD Ultra-Fine, CarePoint Vet, Monoject, GNP, UltiCare Vet Rx, Sure Comfort, and ReliOn are just some of the brands available with half unit markings.
  • Syringes come in ½ inch or 5/16 inch needle lengths. Needle gauges are 29, 30 or 31 (31 being the thinnest)
 
EricaB said:
Hi. I was not able to give her the shot this morning. I will try again this evening. I will try warming the insulin up as well before giving it to her. The vet had only showed me how to give it to her in the scruff oh her neck, so now any time I try to touch her there she bolts. I can’t find her skin very quickly because she has such long fur, plus she is so skinny that there’s not much to grab. The needles the vet gave us are 29 gauge. I will try a different spot on her body and to make sure to have it more parallel. Any advice on how to hold her still? I’m scared I won’t be able to figure this out and that I’ll lose her.
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The gauge is the size of the needle tip not the length. It can go from 6 to 12 with 12 being the longest. I use 6. I think I got lucky with Minnie she never minded the shots and at first I’d do it while she was eating but eventually it didn’t seem to matter and she stays put and doesn't even flinch. But I could tell that sometimes with the 12 length needles, she react like she felt something. Once I switched over to the smaller ones it never happened again.

Thank you I love my sugar baby :bighug:
 
EricaB said:
Hello everyone,
My 8 year old Maine Coon Cat was diagnosed last week with diabetes. She had been losing weight and drinking/urinating a lot. I expected it to be kidney failure and was relieved at first that it was diabetes. The vet prescribed 2 units of prozinc twice a day. She was OK with the shots the first two days but now I cannot get near her. When I tried to give her the injection this morning she impaled my ear and I had to give up. She's now completely gun shy and I'm a wreck. She has always been a friendly and happy cat, but has never been a lap cat or enjoyed being brushed or picked up. I'm falling apart thinking I won't be able to keep her stable and healthy. I want her to be healthy, but I do not want her to spend her days frightened of me and traumatized. I would be grateful for any advice. Thank you!
Click to expand...
We are kindred spirits and I’m so happy to have come across your post. My Nico was diagnosed with diabetes a month ago, vet put him on 1.0u of Prozinc but it wasn’t enough— we are now up to 2.0u (and still not enough). He will be rechecked in two weeks. Right now his blood sugar levels are sky high, so testing at home is a must! We use a ReliOn Prime (human) monitor which takes a little getting used to — for everyone— but once you get the rhythm it’s super quick, easy, and painless. We test on his ear, using a flashlight to find a good spot with lots of blood supply. Warm the ear (I rub his but others use a rice sock), put a little Vaseline or Neosporin on the target area to help the blood bead, grab a cotton ball/pad to apply a bit of pressure with (resistance on the inner part of the ear while you poke too, double duty), point and shoot. We use a lancing pen because I was hesitant to poke super hard without, but a lot of folks do, it provides better dexterity. And we use 28 gauge lancets. Originally we got “ultra thin” 30 gauge and it wasn’t yielding enough blood for the strip, switched and it made ALL the difference! Since we switched him to a completely wet food diet I use Dr Elseys Cleanprotein dry kibble as his “poke-poke treats,” it satisfies his need for crunchy (I give about 8-10 pieces post poke) and now he even asks for them! That didn’t happen overnight though. We spent two days without pokes just getting used to the testing spot and equipment and preparing as if we were going to test then treats(!!). We used a similar approach to insulin injections. Nico doesn’t like to be surprised so we tried desensitizing the needle with him. Set it in front of kitty, touch kitty with caps on, let them smell it, feel it, brush up against it, that way they know it’s coming and don’t take off like a shot. That takes patience as well. I’m super new to this journey as well, but I hope for the best! Be well, take care of yourself, and BREATHE. We got this!
 

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EricaB said:
Hi. I was not able to give her the shot this morning. I will try again this evening. I will try warming the insulin up as well before giving it to her. The vet had only showed me how to give it to her in the scruff oh her neck, so now any time I try to touch her there she bolts. I can’t find her skin very quickly because she has such long fur, plus she is so skinny that there’s not much to grab. The needles the vet gave us are 29 gauge. I will try a different spot on her body and to make sure to have it more parallel. Any advice on how to hold her still? I’m scared I won’t be able to figure this out and that I’ll lose her.
Click to expand...
When LB was initially diagnosed, the vet offered to shave “safe” spots to inject the insulin. The vet tech came to our house (out of the goodness of her heart!) to shave spots because he has long fur, but he urinated all over me because he was so frightened. So, the next best thing I’ve found is to fold a paper towel into quarters and get it damp. I use that to “break” the fur where I intend to give his insulin. The damp towel allows you to move fur out of the way long enough that you can see skin and ensure no fur shots. Hope that helps!
 
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