Not improving greatly with treatment

[hitchens]

Just posted an introduction in the other forum. My cat, Hitchens, is not doing great on his insulin treatment. I don't have time to check his blood sugar a lot because I have a (very demanding) 8 mo old baby. When I do check, he is almost always at about 350 pre shot. I give .75 units of prozinc. When I check 6 hours in, he is around 150. I have tried .5 units and 1 unit and his pre shot levels climb to over 400. He free feeds on Young Again zero carb dry cat food. We have to free feed or he cries all day, which I cannot tolerate on top of the stress of having a baby. He was on low carb wet food, but he was constantly begging for food and it was causing too much mess and smell for my husband to deal with. My husband hates this cat, so basically any extra inconvenience is not handled well. His blood sugar levels were not any better on wet food. His body composition is terrible. He is skin and bones and has barely put on any weight since he started insulin therapy 1-2 months ago. He is constantly trying to eat anything we have and has started getting on counters looking for food and will eat anything he finds. He tore open tortillas today and ate some. Not a great choice for a diabetic cat lol. He seems ravenous and has a feral look in his eyes around food at times. I'm concerned that he is suffering. His urine is also very yellow. I believe this may be liver damage from his bout with hepatic lipidosis right before we started insulin therapy (stopped eating after his vet visit).

 

[Sue and Oliver (GA)]

It sounds like you have your hands full. I hope we can help. From your numbers, it sounds like the insulin is working. It is bringing him down. But he is still unregulated and they do feel like they are starving.

If he were mine, I would try to give him wet low carb for his meals twice a day. Sometimes it helps to add some warm water and make a kind of soup mixture - they feel like they are getting more to eat. Then maybe leave out some of the dry food for him to snack on. That would mean less smell for your husband, but still give the kitty enough to eat.

If you can check before giving each shot (test, then feed and shoot) and make sure he is over 200. Then anytime you can, check sometime 5-7 hours after the shot to see how low he goes with the dose. Once you see how well the dose is working (maybe start with one unit twice daily) then you can see whether he needs a little more or a little less. We would be happy to help you with his levels and dosing.

We put together a protocol for ProZinc that might help. It is in my signature in blue.

It becomes easier (promise) and you are clearly doing the best you can for him. Maybe we can help you finesse the dosing and get him stabilized.

 

[Mogmom and Goofus]

Congratulations on the new baby! I'm sorry you're having such a rough time, but it WILL get better. Really! We went thru this same thing with Goof, he constantly cried for food. He's still very food motivated, but he doesn't sit by the fridge and cry anymore. Sue's idea of feeding the canned twice daily and then giving the dry for a snack is a good one.

As a ProZinc user, I can tell you it takes some time and patience to get kitty regulated, but the little bit of flexibility you have with dosing is really worth it. Because PZ is considered an "in and out" insulin, you don't get "holdover" that you'd need to take into account when dosing some of the other insulins. With PZ you need to remember that it takes about 3 cycles (72hours) for the kitty's body to learn how to handle the dose, so don't change the dose every time. UNLESS, of course, you get a low test number!

 

[hitchens]

We started wet food again this morning. Is it normal for him to not regain a normal body composition? He is so skinny that we have to explain to guests what's going on so they don't think we're starving our poor cat! He also lost all the hair under his chin. Is that a sign for anything?

 

[Sue and Oliver (GA)]

When they are unregulated, their body is not processing the food efficiently and they are literally starving. You can feed more than you usually would - I fed Oliver 3 cans of the small Fancy Feast daily until he was regulated, then I was able to cut it back to two.

There could be some underlying thing that is making him drop weight, but I would try to deal with the diabetics first and see if getting into better numbers and eating more helps.

 

[jayla-n-Drevon]

I just wanted to say welcome.... your getting great advice here.
When I saw your post I had to smile because I have a Hitchens !! Never heard another kitty named Hitch!
Hang in there.... it really does get better...