Newly Diagnosed with high numbers today

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Bokitty

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Bokitty (age probably in the teens) was diagnosed with diabetes on 8/5/2011 with glucose of 399 and fructosomine of 450. I brought her in because of increased thirst and urination. She was diagnosed with CRF in 9/2010 and her creatinine was 2.5 and BUN was 39 on 8/5/2011. Her thyroid is very low because of radioactive iodine treatment she had in March 2009. I feed her canned Science Diet Gourmet Turkey Entree and the Savory Seafood Entree because they're low in phosphorus and sodium. She also gets the Hill's K/D dry food. She was at the vet a week earlier (7/29/2011) because of an ear infection (weight then was 11.4--It's now 10.8 on my scale but vet says it's 10.3). She was on Zymox and then I switched her to Tresaderm. But I stopped the Tresaderm because if contains hydrocortisone.
I started giving her 1 unit of ProZinc every 12 hours starting Friday evening. Today's (8/7/11) glucose numbers are very concerning because they're so much higher and insulin doesn't seem to be doing anything, but she is eating her wet food. She pretty much wants to just sleep.

DATE Time Glucose
8/7/11 7:00 AM 510 shot given She ate her wet food but isn't peeing very much. Is pretty lethargic.
10:18 AM 540
11:03 AM 559
12:30 PM 499
8/6/11 6:55 AM 258 shot given Started peeing less and is lethargic.
9:52 AM 323
1:00 PM 304
4:01 PM 347
6:30 PM 394 shot given
10:30 PM 395
8/5/11 6:30 AM 420
1:14 PM 475
6:30 PM 385 shot given 1st Shot given
 
Welcome Bokitty, (and your Bean!)

Sorry to hear you're having a tough time of it.
I also used PZI with Bob, so I am somewhat familiar with it, and the 1u starting dose is the norm.

I do have a few questions about diet -
You're feeding both wet and dry. One thing that might be keeping his BG high is the dry food. Too many carbs and carbs and diabetes don't mix.
How much of his diet these past 3 days consists of dry vs. wet food?
Are you feeding in between the BG test and the shot?
Is he eating throughout the day besides breakfast and dinner?

It's odd that his numbers continue to rise after dosing, and I'm wondering if food is playing a bigger than normal role in that.

If you can lay out his schedule for the past few days, that might help in making sense of his BG numbers.

Carl in SC
 
She's been getting 1/3 can of the canned Science Diet right before her morning shot and 1/3 can before evening shot. I took away the K/D this morning thinking the carbs in it was the problem. The vet did say that she would probably end up with 3 units twice a day, but, of course, you need to start out with 1 unit. Obviously, 1 unit is not doing anything. I wonder if the ear infection may be increasing the numbers. One thing which surprised me when I was at the vets was him saying that a new protocol for diabetes is having an ultrasound done to rule our cancer--I guess to the pancreas. Have any of you heard this before? I've already decided I'm not going to have it done. But it is amazing how quickly she got diabetes. Her glucose in January was 75 and prior to that it was in the 30's. I monitor her urine output so I could tell when it started to increase. I'm going to call the vet again tomorrow but it's very difficult to sit here today and watch her numbers be so high. By the way, where do you give your cat its shot? I was giving it between the shoulders which she doesn't mind. I did pinch some other parts of her body but she turned around and bit me.
 
Welcome Welcome Bokitty & bean owner,

You have found the best place to ask questions and get answers, advice and lots of tlc!

I had Gumpy girl that needed low phos. and salt for her heart condition and had to keep it low carb cuz of Sugar Bean..... Friskies special diet does both! I would mix Gumpy's with fancy feast - figured some low phos and salt was better than none! Have you tried any phosphorus blockers that you sprinkle on food???

I know where I shopped, Petco, Petsmart, Walmart, it was hard to find a varity of this - however the website showed much more....I did not get to far into the phosphorus blocker issue as my Gumpy girl went to the Rainbow Bridge 7/15/11!!!! We still miss her sooo much! I might be able to find the sites for it if you want me to. Just let me know!

The K/D dry is probably what is making her numbers crazy if you are grazing during the day...MY Sugar Bean was using PZI at 1u. She is in remission!!!! mostly due to no dry, and fancy feast or 10 or under carb food. If Bokitty is already on canned, that is a great thing as you will not have to try to 'convert' her!

Welcome and glad to see you home testing! you go girl! \M/
 
One thing I forgot to mention in my original reply was that I don't know if any of her other meds, or her hypothyroid numbers would also be affecting her BG reading.

I am assuming you are home testing her BG since you have several days worth of test results? I was going to suggest that you reduce the dry food, but it sounds like you've already removed that menu item. Sometimes if you go from some dry to no dry, it has a dramatic effect on dropping BG numbers, so you have to be careful and moniter closely once her numbers start to drop.
With Bob, his nadir with PZI seemed to happen around 5 hours after dosing, then he'd climb back up. It took some weeks until I finally started seeing pre-shot numbers below 300, but after that, he improved rapidly.
You asked about shot location. Most folks shoot in the same spot as you are using, between the shoulder blades below the scruff. That's where I did too, until I was instructed to shoot Bob with IM injections rather than sub-q ones. DON'T TRY THAT. Apparently it isn't done normally. I didn't know that at the time, but I just know that's what I was told I needed to do, and I did so. There are others who shoot in other sub-q locations, but you aren't the first one I have seen that said you got bitten when trying someplace other than the scruff area.

I am sure that before long, others will add to what I have said so far. Hopefully they will have experience with some of the particulars you've mentioned.

Carl in SC
 
Hi Bokitty! I just wanted to chime in that the onset of prozinc is usually around +2 or +3 (2-3 hours after the shot is given). Every cat is different, though. It's really not unusual for the numbers to continue going up after a shot. The food that you give with the shot combined with the time it takes for the insulin to kick in will make the numbers keep going up for a while. They may not go as high if you switch to a low-carb food from this list http://binkyspage.tripod.com/CanFoodNew.html You should aim for a food with less than 10% carbs. You may want to read through the prozinc sticky http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=32799 There's tons of useful information there about how the insulin actually works, and some other good tips! It's a bit overwhelming to see it all laid out in one post, but just look at a couple of the links at a time and hopefully it won't be too much all at once! On prozinc, a dose is usually held for at least 5 cycles (5 shots) to see how the cat is reacting to it. Then they increase by NO MORE than 1/2 unit. Most prozinc users use U-100 syringes and a conversion table http://www.felinediabetes.com/insulin-conversions.htm Those syringes are cheaper, you can get them at any pharmacy, and you can measure out much tinier doses. You can get 100 at walmart for I think around $15.

I think the most important thing right now is getting rid of the dry food. That is driving the numbers way up. A low-carb, high-protein diet is best for diabetic cats, just like in diabetic humans.
 
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