Draíocht
Member Since 2026
My first vial of ProZinc for Kitty arrived at my vet and I'm not long home after picking it up. It's 9.30pm here now and I don't feel safe starting it overnight. I also want to put her on a schedule for shots at 7am and 7pm so I'm going to do her first shot at 7am tomorrow. I am really scared and I have a few questions.
1. My vet initially wanted to start her on 1.5 units and when I asked about starting lower she agreed we could start on 1 unit. I'm very nervous about it because Kitty has only recently switched to low carb food. She had been eating wet food already but not low carb wet food. I think I would feel safer starting her on 0.5 but I don't want to go against my vet. I do trust her and she is actually a friend of mine. Kitty's blood glucose was at 22 mmol/L earlier and then at 30 mmol/L after a feed. She weighs 3.2kg. I know I should follow my vet and Kitty's blood glucose is very high but I'm so extremely scared.
2. The syringes we were given don't have half units marked on them. How do you measure in increments of 0.5 or 0.25 units? I thought it needed to be measured precisely. Of course if I'm giving 1 unit it will be ok but from everything I've read on here, it seems like small adjustments are often recommended so how would that work if they can't be measured?
3. I'm obviously taking the risk of hypos very seriously. I have my kit ready and I've printed the recommended info. (Thanks so much to this forum for that.) I have a list of vets ready but I am very anxious about where I can go with Kitty if we have an emergency. I live in rural Ireland and the services are not great. My choices in an emergency are:
- a terrible vet 10 minutes away who I have had two separate extremely negative experiences with
- a couple of mediocre vets 20-25 minutes away who mostly work with farm animals rather than pets
- a choice of a couple of vets on the outskirts of the nearest city who have practices just for small animals (as opposed to farm animals), at least one with cat specific facilities, but these are 35 minutes away when there's no traffic and longer at busy times
- my own vet at 50 minutes away via a good road with no traffic so a consistent driving time - she is a small animal vet but if she's not on duty at the time of emergency I would be seeing one of her colleagues anyway, who are similar to my closer vets in that they mostly deal with farm animals
Hopefully it won't happen but I want to have an action plan ready. What would you do in this situation?
4. My husband and I usually go to sleep at around 10.30 or 11pm and get up at 6.30am. I'd like Kitty to be at the minimal risk during the overnight periods when we won't be able to monitor her. Is my plan of 7am and 7pm a good time for the shots?
5. I will do a curve test tomorrow and fill in the spreadsheet. I hope I can get Kitty to eat enough at the time of the shot because she's used to having small feeds more regularly. Will her blood glucose drop too low if I can't get her to eat a big feed? I'm so worried and I suppose I just don't know what to expect.
1. My vet initially wanted to start her on 1.5 units and when I asked about starting lower she agreed we could start on 1 unit. I'm very nervous about it because Kitty has only recently switched to low carb food. She had been eating wet food already but not low carb wet food. I think I would feel safer starting her on 0.5 but I don't want to go against my vet. I do trust her and she is actually a friend of mine. Kitty's blood glucose was at 22 mmol/L earlier and then at 30 mmol/L after a feed. She weighs 3.2kg. I know I should follow my vet and Kitty's blood glucose is very high but I'm so extremely scared.
2. The syringes we were given don't have half units marked on them. How do you measure in increments of 0.5 or 0.25 units? I thought it needed to be measured precisely. Of course if I'm giving 1 unit it will be ok but from everything I've read on here, it seems like small adjustments are often recommended so how would that work if they can't be measured?
3. I'm obviously taking the risk of hypos very seriously. I have my kit ready and I've printed the recommended info. (Thanks so much to this forum for that.) I have a list of vets ready but I am very anxious about where I can go with Kitty if we have an emergency. I live in rural Ireland and the services are not great. My choices in an emergency are:
- a terrible vet 10 minutes away who I have had two separate extremely negative experiences with
- a couple of mediocre vets 20-25 minutes away who mostly work with farm animals rather than pets
- a choice of a couple of vets on the outskirts of the nearest city who have practices just for small animals (as opposed to farm animals), at least one with cat specific facilities, but these are 35 minutes away when there's no traffic and longer at busy times
- my own vet at 50 minutes away via a good road with no traffic so a consistent driving time - she is a small animal vet but if she's not on duty at the time of emergency I would be seeing one of her colleagues anyway, who are similar to my closer vets in that they mostly deal with farm animals
Hopefully it won't happen but I want to have an action plan ready. What would you do in this situation?
4. My husband and I usually go to sleep at around 10.30 or 11pm and get up at 6.30am. I'd like Kitty to be at the minimal risk during the overnight periods when we won't be able to monitor her. Is my plan of 7am and 7pm a good time for the shots?
5. I will do a curve test tomorrow and fill in the spreadsheet. I hope I can get Kitty to eat enough at the time of the shot because she's used to having small feeds more regularly. Will her blood glucose drop too low if I can't get her to eat a big feed? I'm so worried and I suppose I just don't know what to expect.
Let me read through everything you have written and reply.