Honeymoon over. UK insulin advice please

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Ruth and Rhinog

Ruth and Rhinog

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Hi.

Rhinog had been off caninsulin for over a year. On Friday he drank a whole bowl of water in one go. This rang alarm bells.
Moments later a neighbour told me that whilst she is having some building work done to the house she is feeding her cats outside and that Rhinog might not be hungry because he has been helping himself. When I asked her what kind of food she feeds them I knew the answer before she said it. DRY FOOD!!! :evil:

He has been up in the 300s over the weekend. Today we started insulin again.

My vet only uses caninsulin. When I asked her if she'd heard about the problems with it she had no idea. I suggested Lantus and Levimir but she has no experience of them and is concerned that giving small doses (we're starting on 0.2iu) would be too difficult as they are 100iu insulins. She said the only 40iu insulin available in the UK is caninsulin. Is this true? I'm sure I saw something on another post about UK users switching to ProZinc but I can only find a US website for it. If I can find enough information my vet is willing to listen.

Any suggestions?

Thanks
Ruth
 
Lantus and levimer are human insulins and have worked wonders in many cats. There is information on the lantus board that you can print and give to the vet, demonstrating the protocols followed and how these two insulins are used in a cat. You can find it here: http://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewforum.php?f=9

U100 are the correct syringes for these insulins - you want them 3/10 cc (30 units) with half-unit scale - any brand is fine.


Prozinc is another insulin choice (one I don't know much about), you can read about it here: http://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewforum.php?f=24

Push the vet to write a script for one of the L's and the syringes and come to the board, read, learn and we will help guide you on this journey.

Oh and you may want to consider making Rhinog an indoor only cat, so he doesn't get into the neighbor's food any longer.

For information about the problems with caninsulin go here, you can read about the FDA warnings and recall as well as the lawsuit against the company: http://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewforum.php?f=19
 
She said the only 40iu insulin available in the UK is caninsulin. Is this true? I'm sure I saw something on another post about UK users switching to ProZinc but I can only find a US website for it. If I can find enough information my vet is willing to listen.
Click to expand...

Hello,

I live in Greater London and my cat is on PZI - it's not a problem to get it here, why do you need 40iu only?

My cat is better on PZI than on Caninsulin. I also have lovely little syringes, BD micro fine demi 0.3ml U-100 with half iu graduations. Cattro gets as little as 0.4iu up to 1iu as she throws some low pre-shot numbers.

Feel free to email me off-list if you wish.

Good luck,
Kay
 
UK insulin advice please

Hi Ruth,

I saw your post the other day and wondered how Rhinog was getting on. This is a shame-however, it may , May! :-D be temporary if you can get your neighbour to stop putting out dry food (or keep Rhinog in until her building work is finished).
The dry might have just tipped him over again and he needs a little help.

There is no problem using a u100 insulin on such a small dose. In Lantus, the last dose before trying OTJ is .1u.
I think I remember you like your vet? But I would go with Lantus or Levemir in terms of research studies and such a large group of users (so more info,help, advice available)

The Prozinc is by Insuvet. Sally Brighton posted pics of the box in Angieb's thread or vice versa (I think both have only had one thread i the last 10 days so if you scroll through health you should be able to find it. Sorry I haven't copied it). It looks as if it is a PZI insulin, but also uses u100 syringes.

Reports are varying thus far as it looks as if this form has only been on the market 6 months (ish). I can't give you any info on it as it's new to me and no experience with it.

If you can get Vet to prescribe Lantus or Lev, I'm more than happy to talk you through and get you signed up in the Lantus group.

Someone posted the other day, sure it was Caninsulin and no explanation for a sudden flux in numbers-I wouldn't trust the stuff to be on the safe side myself. Your call. You can print off the FDA warning (in Vetsulin isg) and take to show vet. The company itself has recommended vets transition cats to other insulins. I c'm sure if the problem is with Vetsulin it's going to be with Caninsulin too (the only difference is the name).

Good look and scritched to Rhinog from me :mrgreen:
 
Thanks everyone.

My neighbour has agreed not to leave any dry food outside which is really good of her. I think I scared her when I told her how bad it is. Hopefully she won't be giving it to her cats anymore!

The only reason my vet wants a 40iu insulin is because she thinks it is too difficult to give small doses with a 100iu insulin. I will be reporting back to her that there are plenty of people here that manage it. I've got some BD microfine demi 0.3ml 100iu syringes to show her.

Thanks for all the links to info on insulins. I will be going armed with it on our next visit.

I do like our vet. She certainly is willing to listen. I just think that vets in the UK have very little experience and that their expectation of cat owners ability to treat their cats successfully is very low. You should have seen her face when I showed her Rhinog's spreadsheet. She was amazed. If I can educate her who knows prehaps it will help some other sugar cats.

Kate - I've only been back on the site for a couple of weeks now so was really sorry to hear about Lucky. So glad you are still here helping people like me. Thank you.

Thanks again everyone.

Ruth
 
Hi Ruth,

Thanks for your kind words about Lucky. It was a shock (and has given me a very distorted view of most vets!) and I miss her terribly. At least I know she's whole again. It was the Pancreatitis that 'took' her because vets wouldn't listen to what she needed.
I'm only just starting to sell test strips on ebay as it took me so long to get round to it!

As for the u100 vs u40. The u100 syringes are much easier!! I actually used u100 syringes for her Caninsulin, that's how I was able to increase in increments of .2u.
Have you got the ones with 1/2 unit markings?I think you can only get BD in UK. The ones from USA much nicer and smoother-I was fortunate that Heather bought me a huge box back.

You could print off the convert a vet sticky if you think they may be info in there to convinvce her. It's reassuring you have one that actually listens to you! :mrgreen:
I still like the longer acting insulins-Lantus and Levemir. If you do go for these make sure you get the 5 x3ml vials. That way the shelf life on the insulin is something like 2 years for unopened.I was on a 5th vial when Lucky passed so that lasted the best part of 9 months for 82 euros-which at the time was about £70-75.

The insulin several UK newbies have tipped up with in recent weeks is Prozinc by insuvet.Seems to be a version of PZI.That's the extent of my knowledge. Gator in PZI advocates positively on it's use, so you could pop in that isg and ask for some feedback or do another post here about insulin choice.

Hope we see you around.

Scritches to Rhinog :mrgreen:
 
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