Just diagnosed - ProZinc vs Lantus? Was started on Vetsulin

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hollyall

hollyall

Member Since 2011
Hello. This is my first post. My kitty, Maximilian, was just diagnosed last Saturday, January 8 with diabetes. I am heart broken and trying to learn all I can to help my kitty. I found this forum on the internet and have found many of the posts extremely helpful. My vet put us on Vetsulin on Saturday, but I called today and talked about switching to a different insulin as Vetsulin will not always be available. The vet agreed that, when their Vetsulin supply runs out, they will be transitioning their patients to ProZinc. I asked about Lantus versus ProZinc, but this vet does not have much experience with Lantus. He is willing to prescribe Lantus and work with me though. I wanted to get a feel from this forum about insulin preferences and/or pros and cons with ProZinc versus Lantus. In reading on the forum, there seems to have been good success with Lantus, but I understand ProZinc may be a little more flexibile. My job is pretty demanding and I work a lot of late hours. Any thoughts would be extremely helpful as I try to get up to speed.

Update
Max vomited in the middle of the night last night. I nearly lost it. I got him to eat some wet food and watched him for an hour and then had him sleep with me so I could keep tabs on him. Is this a sign of hypo or switching diet? Been switching him from Science Diet Light to Science Diet M/D at the advice of the vet, but I've seen in this forum that wet is better. Max hardly ever vomits. I have a call in to the vet.
 
Re: Max just diagnosed January 8, 2011

I can't talk about comparing the various types of insulin, but we're on Prozinc and I'm very happy with it so far. I'm sure someone will be along soon to give you some more advice/info.
 
Re: Max just diagnosed January 8, 2011

Lantus would require a stricter shot schedule, but is a great insulin. Do you think you'd be able to shoot every twelve hours or close to it?

Can you tell us more about your kitty? What type of food did Max eat? Did your vet tell you to change the diet? What dose of vetsulin are you on?

This is devastating at first, I remember crying so many times when Tucker was first diagnosed, but it really does get easier and in time you'll be an old pro at this or if you're lucky, some cats even go off insulin just by changing diet and giving shots for a little bit. Diet is very important with our FDs.
 
Re: Max just diagnosed January 8, 2011

Good Morning and Welcome to the FDMB Family.

First off hello to one Max to another Max, as my sugar cat is Maxwell. I can't be much help on the differences between insulins as my Max was only on Lantus for a couple of weeks before going into remission. But I can tell you that while this all seems very scary and overwhelming at first it gets tons easier as it goes along.

Some of the things that can really help you help your sweet Max is changing his diet if the vet hasn't already suggested this, here is what we have found helps a bunch with our sugarcats, is to transition them to a low carb/high protein diet. Now I have 10 cats only 1 is a diabetic but everyone eats what the diabetic eats, just good old fashioned Friskies canned cat food pate flavors, you want to stay way from anything in gravy. And no dry food as they are very high in carbs. This diet change alone with a few days on insulin got my boy into remission. Now that doesn't happen with all cats but a lot of them here do go into remission.

The second and absolutely the most important is learning to test your boy Max at home. This is something that you are going to want to learn BEFORE changing his diet, as sometimes with just a diet change their BGs can drop as much as 100 pts. This step is critical for so many reasons, first off it will make sure that Max is high enough to give insulin to safely, second of all it will reduce your and his stress levels since you won'tbe hauling him back and forth to the vet's all the time to do curves, You can just do them at home and then either take in your spreadsheet or as I do just email it to your vet. Home testing also gives you much truer numbers, since almost all cats (even those that love their vet) are stressed out at the vets with all the strange people, smells, noises, and animals, and stress raises BGs. So if your vet is basing Max's insulin on the numbers he is seeing at the office there is a good chance the dose will be too high for Max when he is all relaxed at home.
Home testing is absolutely the best way to keep your Max safe from Hypo.

Now home testing sounds really scary but it isn't. We just make a small prick to their ears, and get a small drop of blood to test. We use just regular human glucometers just like a human diabetic. They have very few nerve endings in their ears so it doesn't hurt them and my Max will even purr through it all, because he knows when he is done he gets a yummy treat. If you need help with learning to test just post here and we will all give you all the tricks and tips we have learned, everyone has their own way of doing it.

But above all else, just know you aren't alone in this, and we have all felt like you aare feeling right now, but this disease is very easy to manage, and soon it will become routine. It is so doeable that I adopted my Max as a diabetic from this very board a little over 2 months ago, and trust me if it wasn't something that was completely doeable I cerrtainly would never have set myself up to do it all over again when my first sugarcat Muse passed away (not from diabetes). Just remember to breathe and as you have questions come back and post, and we will help you through it all.

Mel, Max & The Fur Gang
 
Re: Just diagnosed - ProZinc vs Lantus? Was started on Vetsu

Both insulins work well, but differently. With Lantus, it is very important that you get mid cycle numbers - about 6 hours after the shot - because that number is the one you base doses on. With PZI, the midcyle numbers are useful, but the doses are based mainly on the preshot numbers. With Lantus, the shots should be 12 hours apart on a very consistent basis. With PZI, you can shoot earlier or later in the cycle, because you are reacting to the current number - not so much the mid cycle number. With Lantus there is a shed: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=150 With PZI, there is no shed.

So it depends on your life and whether you need flexibility of PZI or can easily manage the schedule of Lantus. Kitties get regulated and into remission on both insulins.
 
Re: Max just diagnosed January 8, 2011

Same situation here - OTJ in a few weeks with Lantus. Quite a few cats go on remission with Lantus use, provided that the cat doesn't have other complicating factors.

MommaOfMuse said:
Good Morning and Welcome to the FDMB Family.

First off hello to one Max to another Max, as my sugar cat is Maxwell. I can't be much help on the differences between insulins as my Max was only on Lantus for a couple of weeks before going into remission. But I can tell you that while this all seems very scary and overwhelming at first it gets tons easier as it goes along.
Click to expand...
 
Re: Just diagnosed - ProZinc vs Lantus? Was started on Vetsu

Thanks so much everyone!!! I really appreciate the responses, knowledge share, and encouragement. You are all great!
 
Re: Just diagnosed - ProZinc vs Lantus? Was started on Vetsu

Thanks for your initial post and all of the replies. I feel so much better about my newly diagnosed diabetic cat. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.
 
Re: Just diagnosed - ProZinc vs Lantus? Was started on Vetsu

Did you lose your login & pw?

Are is this someone new posting?
 
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