? Questions, questions, questions

[Debbie Do]

Bubba appears to have come out of his funk. We're still trying to reach an agreement on which canned foods he will eat. I say, "try it, you'll love it!" He gives me an annoyed glare and walks away. He does seem to enjoy CITK Goldilox, and he eats Double Dip with some reservation. Not interested in the Frick a Zee, of which there were eight in the variety pack I bought. Go figure.

The CITK has a lot of gums in it - what does that do to carb count? I thought I saw somewhere that CITK was around 10%. I don't see it on the Binky canned food list - does anyone have information on that? Is the regular Weruva cat food lower? If there's a link, please share and I will bookmark for future reference. I'm going to Southern Agriculture tomorrow to see which flavors of Weruva they have, and I would appreciate any recommendations.

Now - next I have a question about testing. Do you test in the same spot on the ear each time? Or do you move along the "sweet spot" and hit a different spot each time? Bubba is getting a little annoyed with me scratching open the same spot, and I am not always successful starting a new spot. I had him snuggled up and working over his ear today - he started whimpering. Not sure if I was hurting him, or if he was just tired of me holding him and messing with his ears. I tried his paw once. Tasmanian Devil.

I got a Relion micro - it runs about 10 points lower than my EasyMax glucometer. I thought I read something about a reference for Relion - does something like that exist? Something that says if the meter reads this human number, it translates to this cat number? He's holding in the 300's after 3 days of 1.5, so tomorrow I'll try poking him again and then up his dose a smidge.

Last question (for now) - if I'm not home to give Bubba his 7 p.m. dose, what is the procedure? Is Prozinc forgiving enough that I can dose him at 9 or 10? Is there a window of opportunity, and after that window passes, do I just wait for the next scheduled time?

Thanks for your help!

 

[manxcat419]

The CITK varieties are all on Dr Lisa Pierson's list here http://www.catinfo.org/docs/FoodChartPublic9-22-12.pdf The cans all appear to be fine for carbs, it's the pouches that are higher. From the flavors you've mentioned, it sounds as though you have the cans so all is good on that score...provided he'll eat them!

With testing, I always just get wherever I can. Sometimes with Rosa that's an ear, sometimes it's a paw pad. Repeated testing didn't seem to bother her too much, apart from her natural tendency to grouch a little (she's known as the chief growler over on the CKD forum after her behavior in the hospital recently). It definitely doesn't hurt her though even if I manage to get the same spot 2 or 3 times in a row. With that said, there's no reason at all why you can't move up and down the edge of the ear a little if it's bothering Bubba that you're testing the same spot each time.

The normal range on a ReliOn (or other human glucometer) is 40-120. But with a cat on insulin, we treat anything under 50 as a potential hypo number - we don't want them going under that 40 if we can help it, so we start bringing them back up as soon as they drop under 50.

If you're having to dose late, the flexibility you have really depends on your schedule the next day. If you dose late by a couple of hours, you would really need to move your shot time back to normal gradually which only really works if you have that couple of hours flexibility in your morning schedule. The other options you have are doing 2 shots at 18 hour intervals to get back on track (so if you missed your 7 pm shot, you would dose at 1 am instead and then 7 pm the following day, missing your usual 7 am shot). Or you can skip a shot completely and just get back on track the next morning. I'm more up to speed on Lantus than Prozinc, so hopefully you'll get some more responses to your question but as far as I know Prozinc lasts a full 12 hours for most cats which would make me wary of shooting just 10 hours after your previous shot time.

 

[Ruby&Baco]

About the testing : like you said, try each time another sweet spot I think Bubba wouldn't be minding it so much in the future then!

About Prozinc insulin : try to stay on 12 hours per cycle but if you really can't (because you know everybody got there own life ) you can switch it up to 13 hours. So max 1 hour before it's time for his shot or 1 hour after it's original shot time. If have done some shot even later then 13 hours but you can do that if you have A. more data or B. when you slide the next shot to a later hour. So for example you give the AM shot at 7:00 than you give the PM at 10:00. Than you can give the next AM shot at 10:00 or you could try to go 'back' to schedule and each shot you go back 30minutes. So that next AM shot can be 9:30 and than the next one at 9:00. Do you understand it?

Hope that helps.
The other questions I can't answer so there will be someone around later to answer that ones.

 

[Chris & China (GA)]

If there's a link, please share and I will bookmark for future reference. I'm going to Southern Agriculture tomorrow to see which flavors of Weruva they have, and I would appreciate any recommendations.

Here's the latest FOOD CHART....the CITK foods are listed under "Weruva"....you want to pay closest attention to Column C for the carb %. Binky's list hasn't been updated in a very long time

Do you test in the same spot on the ear each time? Or do you move along the "sweet spot" and hit a different spot each time?

You can actually move anywhere along the edge(s) of the ears....you don't HAVE to only use the "sweet spot"...you can poke anywhere that works. The benefit of staying in the same general area is that as you poke more, new capillaries will grow into that area which will make it easier and easier to get blood.

(not great but you get the idea)

I thought I read something about a reference for Relion - does something like that exist? Something that says if the meter reads this human number, it translates to this cat number?

No...you'll drive yourself absolutely insane trying to compare meters...As long as you know what numbers you're shooting for, that's what's important. You also have to remember that the FDA allows ALL meters to have up to a 20% variance between the meters we use and professional lab equipment.

if I'm not home to give Bubba his 7 p.m. dose, what is the procedure? Is Prozinc forgiving enough that I can dose him at 9 or 10? Is there a window of opportunity, and after that window passes, do I just wait for the next scheduled time?

I don't use ProZinc, so I'm not really the one to ask, but generally, we want to keep the shots as close to every 12 hours as possible. If you shoot too late, you start to effect the following dose (so like if you usually shoot at 7 and don't shoot until 10, you wouldn't want to shoot at 7 at the next shot time...that's only 9 hours and could lead to a hypo)

You might want to post over in the ProZinc Forum to get the most experienced people helping you

Hope I got them all!!!

 

[Sharon14]

Come on over to the ProZinc forum where @Rachel and @Sue and Oliver (GA)
Can give you the best info on that insulin.

 

[Debbie Do]

Thank you, thank you, thank you for the help! I do remember seeing that food list, but it got lost in the "data overload" trying to read and retain so much! I do only buy canned, no pouches.

The half-hour adjustment will work for us. Hubby and I both work from home so it's no problem to adjust times during the mornings.

I got some freeze dried chicken treats and give one to Bubba after I abuse his ears. He's learning quickly that good things follow mom's ear sticks.

 

[manxcat419]

I got some freeze dried chicken treats and give one to Bubba after I abuse his ears. He's learning quickly that good things follow mom's ear sticks.

That is by far the easiest way to train a cat to sit still for tests. As soon as they realize that they get something extra special right after test time, they soon learn to come running when they hear the meter beep on. You're doing a great job - just keep asking as many questions as you need to...we all had to learn at some point and we all remember how much of an information overload the early days really are.