Pip - Dx 11-19-2025 Prozinc dosage and weird drops

SarahJeanne

SarahJeanne

Member Since 2025
Hello everyone :)

My name is Sarah and my sugarboy's name is Pip.

He is recently diagnosed, I am just learning to home test but planning to do a curve all day tomorrow since I have the day off.

The original BG on diagnosis was 29, and he's been below 22 since he came home (using mmol canadian method).
Vet originally told me to give him 3 units per 12 hours but, after reading here, I felt it was a very high dose so I reduced to 1 unit after 2 days.

Yesterday pre shot he was at 18.6 and then at +2 he dropped to 10.8, this morning he was at 21.6.

I cut off all kibble and am feeding LC wet only (I have my kit for hypo ready)

He might have snuck in to my roommate's room and gotten a hold of kibble last night I am not sure, I try to keep him in my room all day and then remove kibble from the house at night.

Anyway I feel like that was a sudden drop and a high spike?
Does this happen often?

I am pretty overwhelmed but trying to do everything right for my Pipster!

thank tou all for existing and big hugs to your kittes!
 
Bee was like that too at the beginning, it took a while for his body to start getting used to the insulin and his drops haven't been as harsh or steep, the only thing is I wasn't actively testing per my vet advice

I noticed since switching LC wet and kibble even if he does have a small snack (table spoon) it doesn't cause as much of a spike, if my numbers are weird I try to get at least 2 readings

I know someone mentioned small snacks in between helps to stabilized the blood sugar so it helps with preventing really big drops

I'm still new here but that's from what I've observed and seen
 
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Also if you're Canadian since Pip is getting high numbers at shoppers you can buy ketostixs for I think it was $12-13 for a pack of 50 that way you can test for ketones at home.
 
xiaotangmao said:
Also if you're Canadian since Pip is getting high numbers at shoppers you can buy ketostixs for I think it was $12-13 for a pack of 50 that way you can test for ketones at home.
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He just got his DX 6 days ago at the vet and had no ketones. Should I still be testing for them at home?
 
Hello and welcome, Sarah and Pip. I am glad to be able to help you. I’m also glad you have reduced Pip to a starting dose of 1 unit. Please hold this dose for a total of 7 days so we can see how low this dose is taking Pip.

Have you read through the dosing methods? They can be a little confusing and they’re a good starting point, but it helps to have someone with experience to assist with dosing.

For my new ProZinc users, I always recommend feeding small amounts of LC wet food at +2 and +4 (perhaps also later, but I usually do not recommend feeding after nadir because it can shorten the duration of the insulin ad cause numbers to rise prematurely toward the end of the cycle.

ProZinc typically onsets at about +2 so the +2 snack is really important to help prevent steep drops. The snacks help overall to smooth the cycle. Steep drops are drops of more than 100 in an hour. We don’t want those because they can trigger a bounce.
 
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xiaotangmao said:
Im not good at explaining but I'll link the thread that explains it pretty well:

Ketones, Ketoacidosis, and Diabetic Cats: A Primer on Ketones

Also if it helps you I tested, fed my cat lunch and about an hour later I cut his nails/tested with treats and he went from 3.3 (59) to 5.4 (97) so about a 2.1 jump (38 point difference).
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Not to clutter your thread, Sarah, but this is for Eve… I am going to post on your thread because you need to reduce Bee’s dose again. Look on your thread, Eve.
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
Hello and welcome, Sarah and Pip. I am glad to be able to help you. I’m also glad you have reduced Pip to a starting dose of 1 unit. Please hold this dose for a total of 7 days so we can see how low this dose is taking Pip.

Have you read through the dosing methods? They can be a little confusing and they’re a good starting point, but it helps to have someone with experience to assist with dosing.

For my new ProZinc users, I always rec feeding small amounts of LC wet food at +2 and +4 (perhaps also later, but I usually do not recommend feeding after nadir because it can shorten the duration of the insulin ad cause numbers to rise prematurely toward the end of the cycle.

ProZinc typically onsets at about +2 so the +2 snack is really important to help prevent steep drops. The snacks help overall to smooth the cycle. Steep drops are drops of more than 100 in an hour. We don’t want those because they can trigger a bounce.
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Thank you so much for this advice

I am home tomorrow and will do a full curve every 2 hours, I will give him snacks at +2 and +4 tomorrow

On week days I wake up at 6am, check his BG, feed and shoot then I'm off to school and I don't come home until 4pm which is +9.5 after his 6:30am dose.
I can ask my roommate to give him a snack when she gets up and she is willing to give insulin but not do the blood tests so it's been really stressful to go to school TBH.

I hope I can figure out his drops and when they occur, I wont be raising his dose until he's a bit more stable.

Needless to say this has been an exhausting week for both of us, I had 2 exams today but I got to come home an hour early and now I will be with him till Thursday morning, yay!

thank you so much for the kind advice, this forum is amazing!
 
SarahJeanne said:
Yesterday pre shot he was at 18.6 and then at +2 he dropped to 10.8, this morning he was at 21.6.
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I don’t see the 18.6 in the preshot cell. If that was actually his preshot number (right before you shot the insulin) then please put the 18.6 in the PMPS cell.

If he did drop from 335 to 194 in two hours it isn’t a horrible drop, but the insulin really did start to work quickly and, again, he will need the snacks by at least +2 or a little earlier and another one at +4 at least. It can be a tablespoon of wet LC food or two if needed.
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
I don’t see the 18.6 in the preshot cell. If that was actually his preshot number (right before you shot the insulin) then please put the 18.6 in the PMPS cell.

If he did drop from 335 to 194 in two hours it isn’t a horrible drop, but the insulin really did start to work quickly and, again, he will need the snacks by at least +2 or a little earlier and another one at +4 at least. It can be a tablespoon of wet LC food or two if needed.
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oops sorry I had entered it in the wrong box on my spreadsheet!
 
SarahJeanne said:
Thank you so much for this advice

I am home tomorrow and will do a full curve every 2 hours, I will give him snacks at +2 and +4 tomorrow

On week days I wake up at 6am, check his BG, freed and shoot then I'm off to school and I don't come home until 4pm which is +9.5 after his 6:30am dose.
I can ask my roommate to give him a snack when she gets up and she is willing to give insulin but not do the blood tests so it's been really stressful to go to school TBH.

I hope I can figure out his drops and when they occur, I wont be raising his dose until he's a bit more stable.

Needless to say this has been an exhausting week for both of us, I had 2 exams today but I got to come home an hour early and now I will be with him till Thursday morning, yay!

thank you so much for the kind advice, this forum is amazing!
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If you can, you should invest in an automatic feeder to dispense snacks for Pip at +2 and +4. Many of our members use them.
 
SarahJeanne said:
oops sorry I had entered it in the wrong box on my spreadsheet!
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We need to get your spreadsheet fixed. It should have a US tab and it should open up to the US tab when I open it. I need to find out who’s around that can help with it. It takes me too long to multiply everything by 18.
 
I have a cat named Pip, too! He’s just a young cat though (not a year old yet.)

You do know about the “no food for two hours prior to the a.m. and p.m. tests, right?

And Pip is on all low carb wet food now?
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
I have a cat named Pip, too! He’s just a young cat though (not a year old yet.)

You do know about the “no food for two hours prior to the a.m. and p.m. tests, right?

And Pip is on all low carb wet food now?
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Yay for Pips! :)

Yep I feed him after I test him, while I'm giving his shot and not for at least 2 hours before the tests.

He has been taken off kibble as of Thursday the 20th, and currently eats blue wellness and DM wet food which are both low carb :)

I did get a few cans of 13% carb and a few of 22% carbs which I labeled as such for his hypo kit, he has not eaten them.

There are other cats in my home, one of which must eat gastro kibble for his tummy problems so I seperate them when feeding.

My roommate feeds her cat purina kibble which I am very afraid he could get into so I asked her to feed in her room but I am afraid Pip managed to sneak some. He did LOVE his kibble but he loves all food so he's been fairly happy with the LC wet thus far.

It's a lot but we will get the hang of this, Pip deserves it :)
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
We need to get your spreadsheet fixed. It should have a US tab and it should open up to the US tab when I open it. I need to find out who’s around that can help with it. It takes me too long to multiply everything by 18.
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I deleted the US tab I can get the template and make a new spreadsheet and leave it in will it calculate by itself?
 
It looks like Pip may be bouncing from last night’s lower numbers so it's a good time to talk about bouncing. High numbers do not always mean more insulin is required, and we must be careful.

A bounce is where the cat's body reacts to lower numbers that he is not used to being in anymore... since becoming diabetic. It's a protective mechanism where the cat's central nervous system perceives either a steep drop in blood glucose or simply the cat being in lower numbers - and releases adrenaline, cortisol, glucagons and growth hormone, all of which create insulin resistance and can keep numbers high for up to six cycles (the bounce). Bounces don't have to last that long, but in some cats they will. Over time, many cats will start to clear the bounces more quickly. When the bounce does clear, the BG numbers will come back down and give us an accurate picture of what a dose is doing for the cat. I think his pink numbers today are a reaction to the blue of last night — and he could have gone down further after that.
 
Since tomorrow is my only day off until Saturday, I want to do it right!

So a few questions:

1- When you do a curve at home, do you test at every hour or every 2 hours?
2- Are there moments that are more important to test often (ie like the first 4 hours)?
3- confirming schedule: wake up, test blood, feed, shoot, snack at +2 and +4, free to eat until +10 then no food until test, meal, shot, and more snacks at +2 and +4?
4- How many treats can I give him per test? (my treats are 100% dried liver)?

thank you so much!
 
SarahJeanne said:
Since tomorrow is my only day off until Saturday, I want to do it right!

So a few questions:

1- When you do a curve at home, do you test at every hour or every 2 hours?
2- Are there moments that are more important to test often (ie like the first 4 hours)?
3- confirming schedule: wake up, test blood, feed, shoot, snack at +2 and +4, free to eat until +10 then no food until test, meal, shot, and more snacks at +2 and +4?
4- How many treats can I give him per test? (my treats are 100% dried liver)?

thank you so much!
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Test every two hours.
Most important hours to test are all the way until nadir and then confirm he is going back up (only way we will know if it is the nadir.)
Feed at +2, +4 and don’t feed after +6 (a typical nadir although in newbies the nadir is frequently earlier. This doesn’t include testing treats. Always give the testing treats no matter what time it is in the cycle. You can give him a couple of treats with each test.

You only have to test during the daytime cycle for the curve, but of course you would test at PMPS anyway and at least +2 before bed. You will be tired of testing by then.

So you won’t be with him on Thursday?
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
Test every two hours.
Most important hours to test are all the way until nadir and then confirm he is going back up (only way we will know if it is the nadir.)
Feed at +2, +4 and don’t feed after +6 (a typical nadir although in newbies the nadir is frequently earlier. This doesn’t include testing treats. Always give the testing treats no matter what time it is in the cycle. You can give him a couple of treats with each test.

You only have to test during the daytime cycle for the curve, but of course you would test at PMPS anyway and at least +2 before bed. You will be tired of testing by then.

So you won’t be with him on Thursday?
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Thank you so much, this is so very helpful!

I will be with him from 6 to 7am and from 4pm to bedtime, same for Friday :)
 
Pip is at 22.1 (398) pre shot :(

It very much seems like he's boucing from his low numbers last night.

Anything i can do to make it easier on him?

I will test at +2 hopefully he goes down a bit before bed.
 
You're just starting out, and as one of the sayings here goes, "this is a marathon, not a sprint".
As Monsieur Pip gets more used to low numbers, he'll spend more time in them. Right now his body isn't used to them, and that's how the bounces happen.
So love him lots, give him low carb food that's good for him, and tell him you're in this together, always.
Tomorrow is another day.
 
Lara & Luciole (Lu) said:
You're just starting out, and as one of the sayings here goes, "this is a marathon, not a sprint".
As Monsieur Pip gets more used to low numbers, he'll spend more time in them. Right now his body isn't used to them, and that's how the bounces happen.
So love him lots, give him low carb food that's good for him, and tell him you're in this together, always.
Tomorrow is another day.
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Thank you so much me and Monsieur Pip needed this pep talk :)
18.8 at +2 and calling it a night for testing.

He is suuuch a good boy, he does not enjoy the ear pricks but he lets me do it like a champ (the treats help a lot)

Wishing you a good night and thank you again so much for the kind words!
 
It definitely takes some time I remember a month ago when Bee was diagnosed it felt like there was so much going on/I was feeling super helpless and overwhelmed but it does get easier!

Bee fights me a lot but now when he hears me setting up his testing station he comes running to be tested (although it takes 2 people; 1 to distract and 1 to test).
 
He may still be bouncing when you are trying to do the curve ☹️ which won’t give us much helpful information. If you are able to het tests done at different times on different days, that will be helpful information.
 
Well, if you find he is staying in pink then you may want to just give yourself and Pip a break and skip a few tests. Or just get a +3 and +6. If he’s still still pink then don’t test until +10. The +10, if it’s lower, will give us an indication of whether he’s clearing the bounce.
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
Well, if you find he is staying in pink then you may want to just give yourself and Pip a break and skip a few tests. Or just get a +3 and +6. If he’s still still pink then don’t test until +10. The +10, if it’s lower, will give us an indication of whether he’s clearing the bounce.
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Ok I will follow your advice and do +3, +6, +10, and +2 or +3 after evening dose.

I realize I never tested between +2 and +6 at home so I have no clue 🙃

Thank you for the wonderful advice!
 
Hello 👋

I see a lot of recommendations for fancy feast paté and I got questions :)

I got some dm paté from the vet that Pip doesnt love, some blue wellness duck, chicken, salmon, and turkey that he's ok with but the fat content is real high, some mini cans of boreal which is a low carb french canadian brand which he LOVES but is even more expensive than the DMs lol

Even though I've never been rich, I always put the kitties first and feed them better than I feed myself.

My Mister Max had bad diarhea and they found feline coronavirus in his tummy so he gets gastro food from the vet (kibble) which I fed to everyone, except Tiny, before Pip's diagnosis.

My Tiny man is allergic to so many things and had a bad reaction to a previous all chicken no grain food that had too much salt (3 weeks ago) so he gets royal canin selected protein paté from the vet. (I kinda had to switch the others to that wet food as well before DX)

Luna is all good and eats Max's kibble and Tiny's paté happily and has no health or weight issues.

Pip is and has always been a BIG boy... like oh lawd he coming type boy... his healthy weight for his size is probably around 12lbs but he weighs about 20. I know many diabetic cats are losing weight and not eating, Pip is still humongous and loves food.

All this to say, and sorry for the tangent, high protein low carb is often high fat and I am a totally vet indoctrinated food snob but also I tend to apply Dx food to all my cats and find the right in between which I just cannot do for Pip. I admit it, but I am willing to change :)

Should I just give him the fancy feast as a treat because he's a good boy and adjusting to LC wet and insulin and his weight will probably drop anyway?

Had too much coffee just waiting for +3 to test thank you for being there <3
 
A lot of people use Fancy Feast classic pates here because they’re relatively low cost and low carb. Some of them are quite high in phosphorus so I never fed them to my cats due to high phosphorus putting extra workload on the kidneys. Many people also feed Friskies pates for the same reason and they’re even less expensive.

I feed most of my adult cats Weruva pates because they’re pretty low in phosphorus for a non-prescription food. We have food lists that can help. Perhaps you have already seen them?
 
Some of the Rx foods are well-formulated foods and some are not. They certainly are marketed to vets, big time, by the companies, who sponsor their conferences, pay students way through vet school, etc. You kind of have to do your own due diligence when deciding upon which food to feed. It’s certainly true that we only have three major component variables to play with— protein, fat and carbohydrates… so if we must reduce one (carbs) the other two must increase. Most cats do fine on a high fat diet (except perhaps if they have pancreatitis) and protein is expensive, so many times you get more fat and less muscle meat. Many people on this Board also make their own food using a meal completer to make sure it’s nutritionally complete.
 
Lara & Luciole (Lu) said:
You're just starting out, and as one of the sayings here goes, "this is a marathon, not a sprint".
As Monsieur Pip gets more used to low numbers, he'll spend more time in them. Right now his body isn't used to them, and that's how the bounces happen.
So love him lots, give him low carb food that's good for him, and tell him you're in this together, always.
Tomorrow is another day.
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hi Lara :)

Could you send me the info for your vet?

Mine has not replied to me at all since I sent her the spreadsheet 2 days ago and she's just too busy and doesnt have much experience with feline diabetes.

Thank you kindly and have a nice evening :)
 
SarahJeanne said:
Pip is in the red pre shot... it's been an eventful day, he had a fairly good low point but also the highest pre shot since DX day :(
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It’s okay. It takes time for their bodies to adjust to the insulin and to be able to use the insulin. It definitely is a marathon. Just be happy that he saw some yellows today. Things definitely won’t turn around over night (or in a week). I remember when my cat was first diagnosed. I thought…. Oh, this is going to be easy. I just give him his insulin shot twice a day… and his blood sugar will go down… and that’s that. Easy. How little I knew.
 
SarahJeanne said:
hi Lara :)

Could you send me the info for your vet?

Mine has not replied to me at all since I sent her the spreadsheet 2 days ago and she's just too busy and doesnt have much experience with feline diabetes.

Thank you kindly and have a nice evening :)
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Do you two live in the same area? @Lara & Luciole (Lu) ?
Many vets don’t know much about managing feline diabetes on a day to day basis. It can actually be better if they just let you do your own thing with regard to the diabetes management of daily dosing — then if another health issue arises you can get their help with that.
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
Do you two live in the same area? @Lara & Luciole (Lu) ?
Many vets don’t know much about managing feline diabetes on a day to day basis. It can actually be better if they just let you do your own thing with regard to the diabetes management of daily dosing — then if another health issue arises you can get their help with that.
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Yes we are both in Montreal, Canada :)
 
i tested at +2.5 and he's back in the yellows

long day of testing done Pip got some treats for being a good boy and a little paté snack before bed time.

I'm proud of Pip for letting me test him 7 times in a day and proud of myself :)

good night everyone!
 
Bonjour SarahJeanne et Pip ! I'll send you an email with the details of the vet I go to, who is wonderful.

He has a deep knowledge of internal medicine in particular, and imaging, and quickly diagnosed what is going on with my diabetic cat, Luciole, and has helped her get her glowing health back.

However, as @Suzanne & Darcy mentioned, "Many vets don’t know much about managing feline diabetes on a day to day basis. It can actually be better if they just let you do your own thing with regard to the diabetes management of daily dosing — then if another health issue arises you can get their help with that."

And this is true for my vet as well. He's not a diabetes specialist but he knows that I'm using the protocols here, and thinks this is great. He's fully supportive, and respects what I'm doing, what we're doing. You & Pip are in good hands here, and you're going to get daily advice here, or even more frequently than that.

But if you want a general veterinarian who is extremely caring and knowledgeable about Pip's overall health, this is a wonderful vet to have. He's well aware of how pancreatitis plays into diabetes.

And, best of all, they do not charge an arm and a leg. Luciole's ultrasound was half the price I've paid elsewhere, and no fuss, no drama, no waiting 2 weeks for an appointment. And he knows who to refer you to, who is best in the city, and cheapest, for dental issues.

It's taken 20 years of living here to finally find a veterinarian who doesn't freak out about home testing or insist that I feel dry "prescription" food.
 
Good morning friendly people and cats :)

So the good news is Pip seems out of the red on his preshots... the bad news is I got my first fur shot this morning so I hope he got a lol bit of his dose.

Happy Thanksgiving to all the American members :)

Have a great day!
 

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