Recent visit with our vet

[Cecil]

Hello all!
We visited our vet for the first time in Saturday since our emergency visit in June. He is doing so well clinically we weren't 'chasing numbers' as my vet said. Recently I've noticed his numbers have been decreased dramatically. I mean, we were 400s for a very long time and now we are hovering around 200. With that being said, his fructosamine is very elevated, I do not know the exact number but I know it can increase due to stress. He is currently on 2u of ProZinc q12h. He wants to increase to 3u q12h and follow up in a month. I feel like it is a big jump in dosage, and I can't test 6 hrs later because I work so far away. I'm going to do his increase on the weekend when I can monitor him the whole time. Just looking for some opinions, and maybe a little emotional support he is on 3 cans of FF pate per day.

 

[Lisa and little]

A full U increase is way Too much. Other than saying that I can’t say what you should do but I’m sure the more experienced members here will respond. Either way remember that with any dose change whether it be increase or decrease, you should be monitored closely with as much mid day testing as possible for the first few days.

 

[AbyResq]

I agree that a full unit increase is too much. Without seeing your spreadsheet of numbers it's hard to say how your cat is responding to Prozinc. I'm not sure if bounces skew fructosamine levels but I'd bet they do. Do you test before shots or ever mid-cycle? I understand that testing at +6 might not be feasible but can you grab some mid-cycle numbers?

 

[MrWorfMen's Mom]

Fructosamine measures a different blood component (not glucose) to determine what range BG has been in over the past 2 to 3 weeks. It is not effected by stress of being in the vet's office and while the odd bounce would not necessarily skew the results, continual bouncing certainly could.

As the others have said, mid cycle testing is the only way to know how low BG is dropping and whether a dose increase or decrease is needed. Increasing by a full unit is too much as it's quite possible you could skip right over the optimal dose for your kitty but without any data to look at it's impossible to offer any recommendations other than to recommend not increasing by a full unit. We recommend increases of 0.25u at a time and at most 0.5u to ensure you don't jump right over the optimal dose.

ProZinc usually reaches peak action between +4 and +7 hours post shot so any mid cycle testing you can get in those hours will be most helpful to determine what is going on with your cat. If those hours are not possible, test when you can. It's also important to note that many if not most kitties go lower at night than they do during the day so getting a test +2 and before bed or at least before bed every night, will offer clues as to what the cycle will look like. If BG has dropped from pre-shot, it's likely to be an active cycle and it would be worth setting an alarm to test in the expected peak period on those nights to ensure your kitty is not dropping too low.

We have a very good spreadsheet available for tracking the readings you take. The instructions for setting it up are HERE.
THIS DOC explains how to use the spreadsheet. If you need any assistance setting up the spreadsheet, just holler and we can set it up for you. If we can see what your kitty's BG has been doing for a week or so, we might be able to offer some insight/support.