? Attempting to convince vet - Quick Question

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Tom & Snickers

Tom & Snickers

Member Since 2020
I'm about to send an email attempting to convince my vet to switch Snickers from Vetsulin to either Prozinc or Lantus. I'm sending him a list of sources to prove my case, but I wanted to cover all my bases before I send the email.

One of the reasons he gave me for prescribing cats Vetsulin was that cats "respond better" to porcine based insulins over human-based ones because cats are more genetically similar to pigs than humans. Has anyone heard anything about this? I have not been able to find any sources online supporting this claim. Additionally, has anyone had any experiences where their cat responded better to Vetsulin over Prozinc/Lantus?
 
(2018) AAHA Diabetes Management Guidelines for Dogs and Cats might help you out.

Which Insulin in Cats from the (2014) 39th WSAVA Congress

(2018) Whats New In Canine And Feline Diabetes Mellitus .pdf

How long has Snickers been diabetic?

You might want to mention to your vet that most cats don't get 12 hours duration from the Vetsulin/Caninsulin. Even the Merck website https://www.merck-animal-health-usa.com/vetsulin/about-vetsulin, mentions that the duration in cats is normally 8-12 hours. The study they quote is kind of old, from 2001. Most cats we see here only get 8-10 hours duration.

How long of a duration has Snickers been getting?
 
I've been on the board for a long time -- over a decade. While it's anecdotal, I've never seen a cat do better on Vetsulin than Lantus or Prozinc.

You might want to take a look at this link, in addition to the information that Deb provided. In the section on Choosing an Insulin, the author notes, "Given the high rates of diabetic remission in recent studies using long-acting insulin, low-carbohydrate diets, and protocols aimed at achieving normal or near-normal blood glucose concentrations, insulin should be chosen to maximize the probability of diabetic remission. Glargine and detemir are the only insulins reportedly associated with remission rates of >80% in newly diagnosed cats when combined with a low-carbohydrate diet, and hence, these should be the first choice when choosing insulin for a newly diagnosed diabetic cat"
 
Tom & Snickers said:
cats "respond better" to porcine based insulins over human-based ones because cats are more genetically similar to pigs than humans. Has anyone heard anything about this?
Click to expand...
Yes, I have heard that but more in the context of bovine insulin being closer to a cat's insulin. Next would be porcine insulin and last human insulin. However, I have never found and studies that really showed the either bovine or porcine insulin actually worked better. Before Lantus or Levemir was introduced, PZI Vet was the preferred insulin for cat and was 90% bovine and 10% porcine and was was formulation previously used in humans. BCP PZI was also and is still used. It is 100% bovine. I haves both.
https://www.drugs.com/vet/pzi-vet.html
https://bcpvetpharm.com/products/bcp-pzi-bovine-insulin
 
Deb & Wink said:
(2018) AAHA Diabetes Management Guidelines for Dogs and Cats might help you out.

Which Insulin in Cats from the (2014) 39th WSAVA Congress

(2018) Whats New In Canine And Feline Diabetes Mellitus .pdf

How long has Snickers been diabetic?

You might want to mention to your vet that most cats don't get 12 hours duration from the Vetsulin/Caninsulin. Even the Merck website https://www.merck-animal-health-usa.com/vetsulin/about-vetsulin, mentions that the duration in cats is normally 8-12 hours. The study they quote is kind of old, from 2001. Most cats we see here only get 8-10 hours duration.

How long of a duration has Snickers been getting?
Click to expand...

Snickers was diagnosed last month. Unfortunately, I have not been able to perform any successful home-tests so far because of how difficult it's been to get him to sit still, so I don't know what his duration is. He doesn't like his ears being touched and he usually tries to walk away from me after a few seconds me trying to hold his ear. When I do manage him to prick him, there either isn't any blood or he runs away before I can get any blood onto the strip. I've only been attempting to test him once or twice a day.

After a week or two of giving Snickers insulin shots, he would run away from me and hide under the bed for most of the day. Fortunately, he eventually stopped hiding from me (mostly). I know testing is very important, but I'm afraid if I start being too aggressive with my testing he will begin to hide from me again, making testing even more difficult. That's why I've been trying to go slow. I'm not good at this though, so I haven't been able to get a successful test and I've been trying for ~2 weeks.

When I got his BGC tested at the vet, it was 155mg/DL, 6 hours after insulin administration. We started off at 2 units, but I don't plan on increasing his dosage until I can test him more thoroughly because I'm afraid of hypoglycemia.
 
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