switching to Prozinc from Vetinsulin

K

kittyandme

Member Since 2026
Hi, any advice on switching? My vet doesn't know anything about it. But Vetinsulin seems to give my kitty very variable numbers. We have the prescription for prozinc, but do you need to taper one before starting the next? Thanks so much for any help!
 
Welcome to FDMB
The first thing I can say is that if your vet does not know about Feline Diabetes, you need a new vet. I am glad you switched to ProZinc, Vetsulin also known as Caninsulin is a dog insulin that hits hard and fast in a cat and does not last long, cats have a much faster metabolism than dogs, ProZinc is a 12-hour insulin gentle on the cat, when starting your cat on insulin is always good to start on a low dose, all cats reach differently to insulin, what dose were you prescribed? what is his glucose level? are you home testing? what meter are you using? what are you feeding? diabetic cats need to have a diet of wet can or raw foods between 0-10% carbs, Most members feed Fancy Feast or Friskies pates moat feed up to 5%, they need a feeding schedule feeding 3-4 small meals or snack during the day will keep the insulin in check, so no grazing, kibbles ( dry foods) they contain between 20-30% carbs, including any "prescribed or diabetic food" there's no such thing;
THE PROTOCOL FOR PROZINC IS/ TEST-FEED-SHOOT
my Corky is also on ProZinc, I do not give increase or decrease advice, but the members that do would say to start with 1 unit and work from there, it takes about 3 cycles (days to see how your cat is reacting to the dose given. are you in the US?
We are very numbers oriented, we would like to know about your cat like the questions above, We would like you to create your signature and a spreadsheet, this way we can asset your concerns better, links below also a link to a Drs approved food list, the third column contains the carb %
you should create a HYPO KIT this should have some medium carb foods between 11-15% - some medium carbs between 12 -15% - and some high carbs between 16-24% some Karo syrup or honey, a non-diabetic cats' glucose level is between 50-120 , this hypo kit comes in handy if your cat falls below 50
I know there's a lot of information to take in, but it will be good information to get your cat regulated and in good health, please keep posting any concern you may have, no concern is a small concern, we are here for you 🤗



Sticky - New? How You Can Help Us Help You!
https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/how-to-create-a-spreadsheet.241706
https://catinfo.org/docs/CatFoodProteinFatCarbPhosphorusChart.pdf
 
Last edited:
kittyandme said:
Hi, any advice on switching? My vet doesn't know anything about it. But Vetinsulin seems to give my kitty very variable numbers. We have the prescription for prozinc, but do you need to taper one before starting the next? Thanks so much for any help!
Click to expand...
No. You do not need to stop the Vetsulin before starting ProZinc. Generally it is recommended to start at the same dose you are already using with the Vetsulin (provided you are not getting number that are too low.) You should be able to start on the first morning after you get your ProZinc. There is no “wash out period” necessary. Vetsulin doesn’t usually last very many hours in a cat. What kind of BG numbers have you been seeing in your cat?

I would like to help you with your ProZinc dosing. We can get you set up with a spreadsheet and you can post over on the ProZinc forum.
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
No. You do not need to stop the Vetsulin before starting ProZinc. Generally it is recommended to start at the same dose you are already using with the Vetsulin (provided you are not getting number that are too low.) You should be able to start on the first morning after you get your ProZinc. There is no “wash out period” necessary. Vetsulin doesn’t usually last very many hours in a cat. What kind of BG numbers have you been seeing in your cat?

I would like to help you with your ProZinc dosing. We can get you set up with a spreadsheet and you can post over on the ProZinc forum.
Click to expand...
Hi Suzanne, thank you so much for your kind response; We have bought the prozinc but now we don't know what to do for the best except test perhaps. Yesterday at 8 pm with Alphatrak Kitty was 173 (no food beforehand) Today at 8.45 am she was 291 (after a little food), and at 1.30 pm she was 257 (a tiny bit of food beforehand). Her last dose of Vetinsulin (Catinsulin in France where I live) was Friday am, just over 1 unit, which we had been giving for the previous 2 weeks. These numbers compare with Friday 20 March 425 am (at the vet's, when we first discovered the level, Friday 27 March 469 at 8 pm and Friday 10 April 383 at 7 pm (no food beforehand). At the end of March we got her started on her first packet of 'diabetic' kibble. And since 2 April have been trying to convince her to eat wet food as well (or instead - we haven't totally managed that one yet!).
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
No. You do not need to stop the Vetsulin before starting ProZinc. Generally it is recommended to start at the same dose you are already using with the Vetsulin (provided you are not getting number that are too low.) You should be able to start on the first morning after you get your ProZinc. There is no “wash out period” necessary. Vetsulin doesn’t usually last very many hours in a cat. What kind of BG numbers have you been seeing in your cat?

I would like to help you with your ProZinc dosing. We can get you set up with a spreadsheet and you can post over on the ProZinc forum.
Click to expand...
CORKY said:
Welcome to FDMB
The first thing I can say is that if your vet does not know about Feline Diabetes, you need a new vet. I am glad you switched to ProZinc, Vetsulin also known as Caninsulin is a dog insulin that hits hard and fast in a cat and does not last long, cats have a much faster metabolism than dogs, ProZinc is a 12-hour insulin gentle on the cat, when starting your cat on insulin is always good to start on a low dose, all cats reach differently to insulin, what dose were you prescribed? what is his glucose level? are you home testing? what meter are you using? what are you feeding? diabetic cats need to have a diet of wet can or raw foods between 0-10% carbs, Most members feed Fancy Feast or Friskies pates moat feed up to 5%, they need a feeding schedule feeding 3-4 small meals or snack during the day will keep the insulin in check, so no grazing, kibbles ( dry foods) they contain between 20-30% carbs, including any "prescribed or diabetic food" there's no such thing;
THE PROTOCOL FOR PROZINC IS/ TEST-FEED-SHOOT
my Corky is also on ProZinc, I do not give increase or decrease advice, but the members that do would say to start with 1 unit and work from there, it takes about 3 cycles (days to see how your cat is reacting to the dose given. are you in the US?
We are very numbers oriented, we would like to know about your cat like the questions above, We would like you to create your signature and a spreadsheet, this way we can asset your concerns better, links below also a link to a Drs approved food list, the third column contains the carb %
you should create a HYPO KIT this should have some medium carb foods between 11-15% - some medium carbs between 12 -15% - and some high carbs between 16-24% some Karo syrup or honey, a non-diabetic cats' glucose level is between 50-120 , this hypo kit comes in handy if your cat falls below 50
I know there's a lot of information to take in, but it will be good information to get your cat regulated and in good health, please keep posting any concern you may have, no concern is a small concern, we are here for you 🤗



Sticky - New? How You Can Help Us Help You!
https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/how-to-create-a-spreadsheet.241706
/https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/dr-pierson-new-food-chart.174147/
Click to expand...
Hi, and thank you so much for your nice and very helpful message. We have started the home testing but for the moment it has been a little irregular because my son, the expert with the lance for the Alphatrak system, studies in another city. We have started on diabetic food, kibbles, are trying to convince our Kitty to eat wet food (with somewhat limited success so far), and have bought the prozinc because the Catinsulin was clearly causing numbers all over the place. I'm just going to read the link you sent about the spreadsheet, and see if I can fill in our numbers with what we have got so far. Thank you again for your really kind welcome which I appreciate so much.
 
Hello there. I took a look at your data, and I don’t understand the inconsistency in doses or the days when no shots were given. With varying doses and a lot of skipped shots, you will have BG numbers all over the place. It would be better to select a dose and give it every 12 hours and monitor to catch nadirs. Hold the dose for 7 days at this point (unless BG drops below 90 since you feed kibble) — if that happened you would reduce the dose by .25 units.
 
Hi Suzanne, thank you so much for your advice . It seems the prozinc is a lot more reliable than the caninsulin was and we are getting better with getting blood for testing and for doing the jabs too. Is that 90 for the nadir? And at what BG would you not give insulin at all? These last couple of days we have been giving somewhere around 0.3 but perhaps we can go above that? Kitty is 3.5 kilos. We have been giving as much wet food as she will eat but she is very picky. We also have an issue with our seringes. The markings are in half units only which makes it difficult to do anything accurate under that. I'm just a bit scared if giving her too much. Just over0.5 had BG drop from 398 to 165. I figured that if her BG is 274 (this evening) 0.3 ISH would be the highest safe dose. But what do you think? Thank you so much for your kind advice.
 

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