Insulin switch from Lantus to PZI - High Dose condition

[taffysmom]

Hi all...it's been a few weeks since I have posted..life has been busy and there has been no real change with the cat. The Lantus doses have been increasing (we are up to 7 units) and no change in her BGs..still hanging in the 300s. I had another panel run on her the past Monday and everything came back clean so going to try a different insulin to see if that makes a difference. I will get the PZI on Monday.
she is eating FF pates and gets freeze dried chicken for treats. She is healthy, grooms, plays, and maintaining her weight, not peeing to much (anymore) - and she is mean most of time and only nice some of the time which puts a fun spin on things.
So in addition to switching the insulin, I also just discovered a pet store down the street that sells the raw diets. I brought a container home to try.
I know the food can make a difference and she will let me test her if she is distracted by eating (once again...this is not a nice cat and I have been badly bitten more times than I care to count - but if she has food she will let me do what I need with her)
Since I will be switching insulin and going back down to a lower dose to start off with thought this would be a good time to see if she will eat the raw. But I also don't want to send a shock thru her system.

Wanted to know if others have similar experiences on going from Lantus to PZI and if a switch to raw was made what the BG change was.

Would love to know where the reboot button is on this cat but her manual has been lost

Thanks!

 

[BJM]

Re: Insulin switch from Lantus to PZI

Actually, at the dose you are shooting, have you discussed these high dose conditions with your vet (acromegaly, Cushing's, and insulin autoantibodies)?

Because the dose you're giving suggests that maybe those need to be ruled out too.

Note: When I had Spitzer on just ProZinc, it did not last 12 hours for him and the curve was very steep between pre-shot - nadir - pre-shot. Each cat is different, though, so yours may do fine.


You might edit your subject line to include "High dose condition?"

 

[taffysmom]

Yes we have discussed them. She and I agreed to try the insulin switch first. If there are no signs of better BGs in a few weeks will look into testing for other. She is familiar with the other conditions and tells me Taffy has zero signs of any of them - I realize that doesn't mean that she definitely doesn't have them..just not likely.

 

[Wendy&Neko]

When I switched my Neko to a raw diet, I didn't see much of a change in numbers. The carbs in the raw I'm feeding are between 3-5%, depending on the protein, so it wasn't much different from what she was getting in cans.

Neko has acromegaly, and didn't have any real signs. She's a big cat, always has been, but probably has some Maine Coon in her. The main clue for me was her spreadsheet. As long as the cat has no signs of infection, no dental is needed, is getting low carb wet food or raw, we suggest getting tested for high dose conditions once you hit 6 units. My vet was way more surprised than me when the acro test came back positive. Recent research has shown that acromegaly is more common than previously thought.

Some high dose cats also use Levemir, so that's another option. I just made the switch from Lantus a while ago, but we aren't on high doses anymore.

 

[Phoebe_TiggyGA_NortonGA]

I recommend Levemir instead of PZI, though I have used PZI from BCP Vet Pharm in the past. It is better than Prozinc, in my opinion.

Levemir is similar to Lantus, but it doesn't sting. At higher doses, Lantus (being acidic) stings and can make cats extra cranky.

 

[Blue]

Yes we have discussed them. She and I agreed to try the insulin switch first. If there are no signs of better BGs in a few weeks will look into testing for other. She is familiar with the other conditions and tells me Taffy has zero signs of any of them - I realize that doesn't mean that she definitely doesn't have them..just not likely.

Don't waste your money on PZI, it's the least of the main insulins for high dose cats.

if you got up to 7units, am and pm, on Lantus, you won't do better on PZI, but should go with Levemir as Phoebe posted.

So, you cat has zero signs.... interesting, because a dose over 5units twice a day and still BG in the 300s is a sign. Does your vet have any other explanation for the high dose?

If you have a spreadsheet, the numbers will tell the story. Was there a reason you decided to stop at te 7u dose?

Gayle

ETA:
Switch to Levemir and tell your vet to draw for the two tests... IGF-1 and IAA
Taffy is nowhere near the good dose, and you want to hold each dose for no more than 6 shots, then up the dose by 0.5u. If you reach 10u dose, you can start your dose increases by 1u.

IAA Test
IGF-1 (Acro) Test

 

[Larry and Kitties]

y Murrfee has not experienced any stinging. He is on about 10 units Lantus

I recommend Levemir instead of PZI, though I have used PZI from BCP Vet Pharm in the past. It is better than Prozinc, in my opinion.

Levemir is similar to Lantus, but it doesn't sting. At higher doses, Lantus (being acidic) stings and can make cats extra cranky.

 

[Blue]

y Murrfee has not experienced any stinging. He is on about 10 units Lantus

I recommend Levemir instead of PZI, though I have used PZI from BCP Vet Pharm in the past. It is better than Prozinc, in my opinion.

Levemir is similar to Lantus, but it doesn't sting. At higher doses, Lantus (being acidic) stings and can make cats extra cranky.

Do you have another acro cat, Larry? If you are giving your cat 10units of Lantus twice a day, I hope you have tested the cat for acromegaly and IAA.
Since you can't ask Murrfee about whether the insulin dose of Lantus stings, all we can go by is the experience of human users who state larger doses clearly cause a sting to some of them.

We have seen with several acro cats that switching to Lev stops stings and give smoother numbers.
One of my own acros cringed/twinged from shots of Lantus, but she was much diff on Levemir.

Levemir is by far the very best insulin to use for a high dose cat.

Gayle