Changing from Prozinc to Novolin N

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njlarry

Member Since 2016
Poor Chessie has been on Prozinc for about a year with little effect. His blood sugar was over 400 when diagnoised. He was started on Prozinc 1u twice a day but is now up to 4u twice a day. All that time his levels stay in the 300 range throughout the day. Now his vet feels that he does not respond to Prozinc and wants to change to Novolin. She recommends going to 3U twice a day but I worry that this might be to high. How should I make the transition from Prozinc to Novolin?
Fortunetly his ketone is low but he is losing weight despite eating 11 oz or more of wet food every day. He is always hungry. I was giving him Friske Pate but have switched him to Best Feline Friends gravy. He also has Young Again Zero Mature dry to free feed but rarely eats it.
He also has developed high blood pressure and gets med for that too.
Thank you.
 
njlarry said:
Poor Chessie has been on Prozinc for about a year with little effect. His blood sugar was over 400 when diagnoised. He was started on Prozinc 1u twice a day but is now up to 4u twice a day. All that time his levels stay in the 300 range throughout the day. Now his vet feels that he does not respond to Prozinc and wants to change to Novolin. She recommends going to 3U twice a day but I worry that this might be to high. How should I make the transition from Prozinc to Novolin?
Fortunetly his ketone is low but he is losing weight despite eating 11 oz or more of wet food every day. He is always hungry. I was giving him Friske Pate but have switched him to Best Feline Friends gravy. He also has Young Again Zero Mature dry to free feed but rarely eats it.
He also has developed high blood pressure and gets med for that too.
Thank you.
Click to expand...

Welcome! I'm in nj too. :)


Bff pouches in gravy is like 15% cab. Not a good choice for a diabetic cat. Bff in the cans is ok. Most of us feed fancy feast classic or Friskies pate.

Are you testing at home? ProZinc is considered a better insulin than novalin, I'm surprised they would recommend the switch. I think more likely you just haven't found the ideal dose... Or raised in whole units and skipped the ideal dose (too much insulin can look like not enough). How was the dose adjusted? In 0.25-0.5 increments or whole units? So either you haven't found the ideal dose yet or you are giving too much. The only way to really find the ideal dose is too test daily at home. We can help you learn to do that if you are willing to learn. Also we help each other by keeping track of the numbers in a Google spreadsheet like the one you see in my signature below.
 
Hello,
Can you tell us if you are testing your cat's blood glucose at home at the moment?
And how did the vet determine that the Prozinc wasn't working? (Curves at vet? Fructosamine test?)

Prozinc is generally much easier to work with than Novolin. That's because Novolin can drop the blood glucose very fast in some cats, and the duration is typically less than 12 hours (some cats only get 8 - 10 hours duration or less).
If you do decide to switch then I'd suggest that you start out with no more than 1 unit, and monitor Chessie's blood glucose very carefully until you've got some idea of how Novolin works in his system.
Also, if it turns out that Chessie has a condition that requires a high dose of insulin there are other insulins, such as Levemir, that are very much gentler on the cat's system, and will ensure he has insulin in his system for much more of the time...

If you are hometesting, is it possible that you could put some of Chessie's most recent test data onto one our spreadsheets? If you need help setting it up there are smart techy people here who will be very happy to help you do that.
It would just be good, if possible, to try to work out what issues Chessie is having with Prozinc.
.
 
Thank you.
I have been home testing as frequently as every two hours using an Abbott Freestyle. I test before feeding and give the insulin while feeding then check levels about every two hours. He was stated on 1u Prozinc by another vet in the practice. I have him seen by the senior vet in the practice now as the most recent vet claimed his emanciated appearance was "his metabolism". The senior vet said she has found better response in cats with Novolin. was also the first to check his BP and found it 234/129.
I have not been able to load/use the spreadsheet so here's the next best.
7-30-2016
112?-feed-327-330-276-feed-4 hrs later 246 (was learning how to ear prick and all numbers are suspect)
8-1-2016
351-2u-286-265-2u-
9-12-2016
358-3u-297-140-287-3u-315-302
10-26-2016
209-3u-137-275-295-358-3u-302-315
6-8-2017
346-5u-290-311-349-356-5u-346
6-17-2017
396-4u-409-333-261-373-4u-344
7-12-2017
373-4u-311-251-299-371-361-4u-x-359

It looks like he is always around 300 no matter the dose?
Thank you again.
 
njlarry said:
I test before feeding and give the insulin while feeding then check levels about every two hours. He was stated on 1u Prozinc by another vet in the practice.
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Hi, have you been doing these tests every day? Or only periodically?

You are certainly getting drops in blood glucose on some of those days... The question is, 'why some days and not others...?' Hmmm....

JanetNJ said:
Bff pouches in gravy is like 15% cab. Not a good choice for a diabetic cat.
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@njlarry, as Janet says, that carb level is not helpful for a diabetic kitty, and may keep the blood glucose high. We recommend that diabetic cats eat only foods that have below 10% calories from carbohydrates, and some cats do best at much lower levels, say, 4 - 6% calories from carbs.
Would you be willing to switch to a lower carb food..?
.
 
I understand a spread sheet would be helpful but for now this is what we have. I test his levels only randomly. He eats canned BFF and canned Friskies patte. I have two cat so I am trying to use reasonably priced products.
If Novolin would not improve his numbers is there nothing to do? Do different insulins have different effects for different cats?
 
njlarry said:
Do different insulins have different effects for different cats?
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Yes, they can have different effects. Your best bet might be a switch to a depot insulin like Lantus or Levemir instead of to another in and out insulin (ProZinc and N are of this type).
 
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