Newbie with many questions...

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seashellharbour

Member Since 2013
Hello everyone. My 14 year old cat Peter was just diagnosed 2 days ago (made for a rough Thanksgiving...). Given that our vet bill for the first appointment was just over $450, we were very worried we just wouldn't be able to make this work. Thankfully our vet was kind enough to look into some funding their hospital had, and she bought us the first bottle of Prozinc, the first box of syringes, and one large bag of Purina DM. My uncle who is diabetic had an extra Bayer Breeze 2 meter he wasn't using, and a box of test strips, so he donated them to the cause. With all the help we are going to do our best to give this a try. I have a few questions I'd love to get some feedback on.

Food: From looking around here it seems that you guys are not big fans of prescription food, and prefer the wet food. I had told the vet that I had switched him to a stop and shop version of the fancy feast wet food cans recently after we suspected the diagnosis but before we could get an appointment, but she asked me to switch back to a combo of our old dry food and the prescription food initially until we get his insulin doses figured out. So that's what we've done last night and this morning, with the 1 unit dose of Prozinc given after each feeding. So I guess my question is once we get a good dose established with the current food arrangment, when should we be thinking about switching over to wet food? Any ideas on how I can make my vet feel better about that idea? The amount of food recommended is also definitely less than he is used to eating, and he is protesting his new diet in the strongest of terms!

Prices/Supplies: The Prozinc from the vet is $130 a bottle. Any sources for a better price on this? Best price for syringes? (vet sells them for $40 for 100).

We've only done one test so far, last night before starting the insulin (453). The vet wants us to do a series of tests on Sunday and then e-mail her and she will have us adjust from there.

Thanks in advance for the advice and support.

-Chelsea
 
Welcome Chelsea and Peter! Sorry to hear about your rough Thanksgiving - maybe we can make the Christmas season easier for all of you.

ProZinc is a good insulin. If you already have a supply of it and needles from the vet, I'd wait to buy more. Maybe he will not need much after a food change. Food is one of the big factors here - when we switched Oliver from dry to wet, he dropped 100 points overnight. A vet explains why wet low carb is best here: www.catinfo.org Maybe you could share that info with your vet to get her on board. If not, my vet and I agreed to disagree. It was my budget (there is nothing "prescription" about prescription food except the cost) and she wasn't there when I fed him. After 6 months, he was off insulin and she never brought it up again. :mrgreen: You can always take ithe dry back and say he wouldn't eat it. (The manufacturer will refund the money)

Yes, if you test regularly (before each shot and mid cycle) you can switch over to wet. Some cats are fine with the change (our Oliver never looked back) and some have some stomach/litterbox issues with the switch. You can mix the two for awhile, gradually changing the ratio of wet to dry. Or you can try it and see if he does alright. Just be sure to monitor. If we hadn't been testing and had given Oliver the regular dose that next morning, he would have hypoed.

Unregulated cats are literally starving as their bodies are not using the food efficiently. We suggest giving them a little more than usual (again, your vet is not there when you feed him.) You can feed several small meals a day to help tide him over and you can mix a little warm water with the food to make a gravy so he feels like he is getting more.

Keep reading and asking questions. You are already way ahead of the game - testing at home, mild and long lasting insulin and willing to do a food switch.
 
Welcome Chelsea and Peter,

One of the important issues for diabetics is that they eat. If Peter doesn't like the food already, that won't help when you are giving him shots.
You need foods that he will eat and it's much better for him to have ever bit of moisture you can get in him. His future kidney function depends on it.

Here's a shortcut canned food list I made for my own cat. It is just a sublist from the catinfo website with all the varieties less than 8% on it. It sure helps when you are out shopping and the labels start looking alike.

I have read up on the history of pet food and I think dry foods used to be better than they are now. In the last decade, the food companies have really
ramped up the additives/filler trying to compete and the carb values have become ridiculously high.
There are a lot of canned foods with the same problem..... I laugh at Fancy Feast new breakfast line trying to entice the human to buy the food for their cat.

Ask lots of questions. We all love to help.
 
Hey Chelsea and Peter,

I'm not yet in a position to give any great advice, but I will tell you that my vet told us that we could keep Cobb on his diabetic dry food. We started with ProZinc and I believe the food made it impossible to find a correct dosage because it was so high carb. He's now on a huge dose of insulin. We switched to wet food last week, on the advice we got here, and are seeing much lower numbers.

You'll find great support here. I've learned more in the past week from here than I did since April when my Cobb was diagnosed.

Good luck!!

~Suzanne
 
Diet really is key... My Dusty went into remission after just one week on insulin and a low carb wet food diet (Fancy Feast Classic). Be careful if you switch back to wet food after starting insulin because his dosage needs will drop significantly. This Board is a godsend, you're in great hands here! :-D
 
Do you have any test results to share with us?

I usually recommend 3-4 tests a day - and here are some testing tips: https://docs.google.com/document/d/13c_CPZVKz27fD_6aVbsguadJKvjSrSAkD7flgPPhEag/pub

- always before the shot - this is mandatory as you don't want to shoot when too low. As a newbie this too low number is 200 but is reduced over time once you have the data to know if its safe.
- mid cycle - 5-7 hours after morning shot depending on your schedule. This is to see how low he is going. The low point "nadir" is what you base dose changes on since you don't want him dropping too low (under 50).
- before bed (2-3hours after Pm shot) to get an idea of what his overnight plans are. If this number is less than the pre shot test number you may want to set the alarm for a test a few hours later as this implies an active cycle.

Wendy
 
Welcome. You said :Prices/Supplies: The Prozinc from the vet is $130 a bottle. Any sources for a better price on this? Best price for syringes? (vet sells them for $40 for 100)."
The cost of the ProZinc is about norma. Yo can purchase it cheaper on-line but one you add the required overnight shipping it about the same as you are being charged.
With regard to syringes, you can get U40 syringes cheaper here:
http://www.americandiabeteswholesale.co ... es_112.htm
You can also use human U100 syringes for your U40 (40 units of insulin per ml) insulin but y have to convert the dose. Using U100 syringes makes it easier to measure small does changes especially if you use syringes with 1/2 unit markings. For example:
0.2 units of ProZinc in filling a U100 syringe to the 1/2 unit markings
0.4 is to 1 unit marking
0.6 is to 1 1/2 unit marking
0.8 is to 2 unit marking
1 is to 2 1.2 unit marking.

If yo use U100 syringes with ProZinc, alway report the actual does, not how much yo draw up to in a U100 syringe.
 
Hello everyone. Thanks for the advice so far. I think I'm going to stick with what the vet asked through the end of the weekend (dry purina DM food) and e-mail her results on Sunday and broach the diet question at that point. He's still just starting a small dose of insulin, and so I'm hoping to switch to wet food before we get a lot further down that road.

I've only done one BG test on Thursday night (that's all the vet said to do initially). She wanted one baseline number, and then 3 tests tomorrow at the 6 hour intervals. I think we are going to do an extra test tonight though, because we just got home and found he had vomited, so before we dose tonight I want to make sure he's okay. He seems to be just fine with the shots, though the first testing session was definitely a challenge. He is mainly annoyed that the vet's recommended diet is so much less food than he's used to. We just free fed dry food up until now (which I now know is terrible...)

Thanks especially for the syringe links and wet food lists... I'll check those out definitely.
 
Sooner you move to wet the better as many cats can go into remission with a low carb wet food and a good insulin. And home testing is key here as a food change will reduce blood sugar and insulin needs.

Unregulated cats are essentially starving as they aren't able to process food properly. I would watch his weight, maybe weigh him once a week, and adjust food accordingly.
 
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