Not having a good start.

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TempestsMum

So not a good day. :banghead::banghead::banghead:

I spent last night injecting a soft toy the way the vet showed me with water, about a zillion times (exaggerating) It's completely different to all the other ways I've watched on videos and not how I thought it was going to be.
So this is how he told me to to it.

(No injecting air into the vial and no taking a bit extra and then putting her rest back)
Pull up scruff of neck, prod side/top of shoulder beside the pulled up scruff and inject there - not into the fur you pull up?

I went to the prozinc site and loaded the shot this morning the way they show in their videos in injecting air into the vial but gave the shot the same way the vet showed me.

I know it's my anxiety but after trying twice nice to test for bg I can't, now leaving it for a bit as Tempest is getting annoyed with me stabbing her ear. So taking a break to try to calm down. Kitty is fine if a little pee'd off with me. :mad:

I've to give one shot in the mornings for a few days (because of my concerns so that I feel confident I'm not going to kill her) so will start 2 shots on Saturday morning, really frustrated as I want to see how it reacts with her bg levels. We are starting on 1 unit twice a day come Saturday.

She's to go back in two weeks for a fructose check.

Also not recommended to do curves. :eek:
 
I recently started as well.

I was very anxious and nervous too. My Sitnky is an older cat (about 17 now) that I adopted last year. He's a very loving, but skittish cat. The first week was hell and I was sure it would never work out. But it has gotten much easier. Generally, he does not run and hide and either sits there for me or lets me grab him under the futon and give him his shot. You will both get better at it with time.

My needles are very small and he does not even seem to feel them.

All I can say is that it does get better and you will both calm down and it almost becomes routine. At least it has for me.

Now, this Sunday when I try a curve........
 
Thanks Tom.
I went away and spent an hour with my horse and the donkeys and came back finally got a reading.

She does seem to feel it when I jab her with the lancet, and injections well I get growls. I just hope it improves and she gets to not mind it.

Lol good luck with Sunday! Right now I'm going to b happy with before injections and if I can +3 and +6
 
With the ProZinc vial, you have to inject air, equivalent to the amount of insulin you plan to draw out as there is a vacuum in the vial so you need the air to displace the insulin you are removing. Not injecting air will eventually result in difficulty or even an inability to draw up the insulin. As long as you do not remove the needle there is no issue pushing any extra insulin back into the vial.

Not sure what the vet was showing you as far as injecting. Most of us use either the tent method or a "roll" method so we can see some skin when injecting. I thought there were some videos here but I can't seem to find them right now.

Here is a link to a video on You Tube showing how to use the scruff of the neck with the tent method. In this case they shaved a patch to show the skin. You might consider doing likewise until you get comfortable injecting but you don't need to shave quite as much as they did in this video. ;)

The rolls method is described elsewhere on FDMB pages. Here is the text describing the technique.

The technique is to pinch some of the skin (for me using my left hand) between your thumb and forefinger (trying to avoid grabbing muscle underneath) and ROLL your hand sideways (for me, rolling my hand over to the left)pulling the skin over your finger...this makes the cats skin MUCH TIGHTER than pinching it up into a tent, and the tighter the skin, the easier the needle penetrates without pulling.

Hope that helps but don't hesitate to holler if you need more help. We've all been beginners so we understand! :D
 
MrWorfMen's Mom said:
With the ProZinc vial, you have to inject air, equivalent to the amount of insulin you plan to draw out as there is a vacuum in the vial so you need the air to displace the insulin you are removing. Not injecting air will eventually result in difficulty or even an inability to draw up the insulin. As long as you do not remove the needle there is no issue pushing any extra insulin back into the vial.

Not sure what the vet was showing you as far as injecting. Most of us use either the tent method or a "roll" method so we can see some skin when injecting. I thought there were some videos here but I can't seem to find them right now.

Here is a link to a video on You Tube showing how to use the scruff of the neck with the tent method. In this case they shaved a patch to show the skin. You might consider doing likewise until you get comfortable injecting but you don't need to shave quite as much as they did in this video. ;)

The rolls method is described elsewhere on FDMB pages. Here is the text describing the technique.

The technique is to pinch some of the skin (for me using my left hand) between your thumb and forefinger (trying to avoid grabbing muscle underneath) and ROLL your hand sideways (for me, rolling my hand over to the left)pulling the skin over your finger...this makes the cats skin MUCH TIGHTER than pinching it up into a tent, and the tighter the skin, the easier the needle penetrates without pulling.

Hope that helps but don't hesitate to holler if you need more help. We've all been beginners so we understand! :D
Click to expand...

Sounds like the roll method then as he wanted me to press to make sure the skin was tight before pushing the needle in. He did offer to shave her neck but I declined I don't think I could cope with seeing it go into bare skin. It's easier to trick my brain (and get round my phobia) by making myself believe it's just 'fur'. So that makes sense now. Thank you, it just seemed to go against what seemed the 'norm'.
 
Personally I find with the roll method, you can roll the skin and hold back the fur with your thumb so a tiny line of skin is visible and gives you a landmark to aim for. Does your stuffed animal have loose "skin" or is it well stuffed? If it's loose at all, you could practice the technique on the toy rather than on Tempest because I think most cats get more annoyed at us messing their fur than they ever do with the actual shot! ;)
 
Oh that's a great idea I can do that. I will try it in the morning. I felt her bg went very low so going to do another just before I feed her, he recommended 2 feeds a day and leave a few biscuits during the day while I'm at work if she does go too low.. I will be leaving a bit of extra wet food and checking her at lunch as Friday will be the first day I do 2 shots.

He seems very experienced with dog diabetes. And attended a seminar a couple of months ago on the prozinc for cats which is why he was happy to order it for me. Apparently it's only been licenced for use here very recently. (Weeks)

The toy (I'm not a fan of toys lol) is fairly well stuffed but it was good to practice on as I was able to inject the water last night and was ok with the prozinc this morning. I could feel the jab going through the material of the toy so was able to 'Feel' the easiest way to slide it in and it felt very realistic as I tried different angles to see which slid in the easiest and with the least resistance. For anyone new I'd recommend this.
 
Tara, can you get a test at around +3 or +4 tonight? That was quite the drop Tempest had today on 1u and you don't want her dropping too much lower than that. Our kitties sometimes have a tendency to go lower at night so I would urge a bit of extra caution tonight just to be safe. If she is down a significant amount at +3 or +4 I would give her some more food to try to steer her a little higher and retest to see if she is holding steady and then leave out some biscuits so she has something to snack on if she starts dropping. I'm not sure if you gave insulin last night (there is no PMPS or insulin amount on SS so perhaps you didn't) but if you did, I am wondering if the higher AMPS was a bounce from going low last night and it looks like that 335 tonight at PMPS could be a bit of a bounce too from the 94 earlier.

I am going to tag a couple of the very experienced ProZinc folks to get them to give you an opinion.
@Sue and Oliver (GA) @Rachel Can you please have a look at Tempest's SS and provide your opinion on dose. Tempest had an extreme drop today and I'm wondering if a dose reduction would be advisable. Thanks!
 
MrWorfMen's Mom said:
Tara, can you get a test at around +3 or +4 tonight? That was quite the drop Tempest had today on 1u and you don't want her dropping too much lower than that. Our kitties sometimes have a tendency to go lower at night so I would urge a bit of extra caution tonight just to be safe. If she is down a significant amount at +3 or +4 I would give her some more food to try to steer her a little higher and retest to see if she is holding steady and then leave out some biscuits so she has something to snack on if she starts dropping. I'm not sure if you gave insulin last night (there is no PMPS or insulin amount on SS so perhaps you didn't) but if you did, I am wondering if the higher AMPS was a bounce from going low last night and it looks like that 335 tonight at PMPS could be a bit of a bounce too from the 94 earlier.

I am going to tag a couple of the very experienced ProZinc folks to get them to give you an opinion.
@Sue and Oliver (GA) @Rachel Can you please have a look at Tempest's SS and provide your opinion on dose. Tempest had an extreme drop today and I'm wondering if a dose reduction would be advisable. Thanks!
Click to expand...

Yes :) I've posted on the prozinc thread now. I've given her the dose the vet told me to.. I will leave her food out and will likely not be sleeping much. I'm low on test sticks the ones I ordered haven't arrived yet. So only 5 left. I could probably get some from the chemists tomorrow but they wouldn't be the right type.

I thought I'd updated the ss?

The ones from today are for me today I.e 8am this morning and it's 10.45 now so not into the next day.
 
Tara, with that lowish reading this afternoon, I wouldn't want you to be without strips just in case. When do you expect your strips to arrive? I know you don't want to use the Freestyle strips but in a pinch they certainly are better than none.
 
MrWorfMen's Mom said:
Tara, with that lowish reading this afternoon, I wouldn't want you to be without strips just in case. When do you expect your strips to arrive? I know you don't want to use the Freestyle strips but in a pinch they certainly are better than none.
Click to expand...

Hoping tomorrow but will see if the chemist has the freestyle lite ones just in case.
 
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