How does Prozinc compare to Catsulin?

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Alexi

Alexi

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Doh - not catsulin - caninsulin!
I am visiting my vet tomorrow to discuss progress and want to have an informed conversation with them, I understand that Prozinc has just been licensed in the UK. My kitty is recently diagnosed and after a high stress curve at the vets where she went on hunger strike and I had to take her home to feed her and give her a shot, I did a home curve over the weekend under strict conditions. She had an impressive bounce after a major drop and by the end of the cycle was into the 30's. I tried a snack yesterday evening and her +3 did seem better. I would struggle to give a snack in the mornings and I have a multicat household where another cat is a bully if food is around and I am not there to watch them. I know she is not under control as yet but my dilemma is that I work long hours and am very anxious about the effect of dose changes and the risk of her going hypo when I am not there. She started on caninsulin 2 iu bid and is now on 2.5 iu bid. I am not convinced this is the right insulin for her and I'm struggling to stick to a 12 hourly regime for her as my usual working day can be 12 hours plus. My options I think would be to consider lantus or prozinc but I am interested to hear from prozinc users who switched from caninsulin about their experiences. Does it cause such a big drop on curves and what is the duration of action? Would I be better to consider lantus given some of the constraints of my work?
 
I didn't switch from caninsulin. I can tell you that Prozinc is much gentler that caninsulin...as is Lantus. Prozinc doesn't cause such giant drops usually. It's a 12 hour insulin, but it is an "in and out" insulin which means it doesn't have a depot buildup like Lantus or Levemir. We dose based on preshot and mid cycle numbers.

I can't tell you for sure if Lantus would be easier to work with. Have you posted over there? There are several folks who recently switched to Lantus from Prozinc. They might be able to give you more information on whether Prozinc or Lantus is better for you to use. They can give you info on how Lantus works too and you can take that info under advisement. :)
 
Hi there. Your decision to switch off of Caninsulin is a good one as it has harsh fast drops and the duration isn't as long as ProZinc or Lantus. I originally started on ProZinc and used it for 6 months then switched to Lantus. It was easy to work with as it has a lot of flexibility as you shoot based on the Pre shot number and considering the nadir. You can use a sliding scale for dosing where as Lantus you hold the dose for a certain amount of time before changing it ( of course if the kittie goes to low, you reduce the next shot) I only switched to Lantus because I was not getting a good result with ProZinc. It turns out that my kitty is a late nadir cat and Lantus allows me to shoot lower numbers that help to keep his numbers more consistent.

Lantus is a depot insulin which means that each shot you give some of it is stored for use later. You base the dose on the nadir and with consideration of the pre shot number. There is an established protocol for Lantus so you have more definitive direction in my opinion.

And all this said, there is an expression here that the best insulin for your cat is the one that works. But, I would definetly switch from caninsulin.
 
Alexi said:
I'm struggling to stick to a 12 hourly regime for her as my usual working day can be 12 hours plus.
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In that case, Alexi, you may be better opting for Prozinc. Prozinc is much more flexible when it comes to the timing of the shots. (It's not a depot insulin).
It also did well in the RVC's feline remission trials.

Folks here find that Lantus works best when given 12 hours apart, so that the insulin depot stored in the body remains as constant as possible. A Lantus shot given early can act like a dose increase; a shot given late, a dose decrease.

Bertie started out on Caninsulin and then we switched to an insulin with a similar duration to Prozinc (there was a veterinary PZI available in the UK a few years back). His BG levels certainly improved on the veterinary PZI; it didn't drop the blood glucose so fast and we got better duration from it. So, that was a definite improvement.
However, the veterinary PZI was discontinued and we then went on to (human) Hypurin bovine PZI. (We didn't go for Lantus because my schedule was such that it would be difficult to always give shots 12 hours apart).
The Hypurin has worked really well for us, seeming to have some of the flexibility of PZI but also a very long duration. But that long duration (sometimes longer than 12 hours) has occasionally caused headaches for people...
As Bobbie says above, "The best insulin is the one that works best for your cat." But unfortunately, we have no way knowing in advance which insulin that will be, ha-ha!

My best guess is that Prozinc could be a good choice for you at this point. And there are quite a few Prozinc users on the forum who can help with advice on using it.

Really hoping you find something that works better for Cappuccino. :bighug:

Eliz

Oh, PS. I love the idea of 'Catsulin'! :cat:
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I am so glad Elizabeth weighed in as she has used "catsulin" (love it) and can really give you a good comparison between it and ProZinc. She made a good point about your schedule and ProZinc being more flexible and not as crucial to shoot 12/12/

Good luck with your decision and we are hear to help you. Oh, and Welcome!! :)
 
I had a visit to the vet today and had a chat about insulins, she is going to investigate ProZinc with a view to trying Cappuchino on it. She did say they had no experience of it so it would be a learning experience for them as well if they did switch her, but I said that was fine. Meanwhile she is happy for me to experiment a bit with her feeding regime to see if that will even out her sugars a bit. She is happy for me to do another home curve and email in Cappucino's spreadsheet. She was happy with the numbers so far but agreed that she was bouncing around a bit and would have expected the drop a bit later on. Good that they are open to discussion and trying a switch. She said she will get back to me when she has found out a bit more information.
 
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