lantus or ProZinc?

[ecurie]

I'm wondering what your thoughts are on Lantus or/vs ProZinc? I've been trying to read everything i can about feline diabetes and i'm finding some information that says ProZinc is better for cats than Lantus. Since i now know almost enough to fill the head of a pin, i thought i'd ask the opinion of people here.

Oliver is on 1unit 2xday. we just started day 3. Last night i pulled the last of the kibbles (sorry to take so long) his amps was 337. only a trace of ketones in his urine this am... seems to be heading in the right direction?. I'm trying not to be too anxious to give him more insulin and get him in the normal range until he's got the dry kibbles out of his system and we see what happens with only feeding wet fancy feast.

We are stressed about his testing, so he is stressed about his testing. While we are on the testing learning curve, i don't want to try and pick his little ear every couple of hours. He already runs from us and won't come for cuddling for hours after ear picking. My thoughts are to get better at the testing and then start to do it more often and be able to regulate his BG close to or in the normal range???

i'm so glad you are here! I apologize for posting so often, but you are our lifeline!!!

thanks
mary

 

[Elizabeth and Bertie]

Hello Mary,

First of all :YMHUG: (big hug!) for you!

Never, ever, ever apologise about posting questions. That is what FDMB is for, and some time soon you'll be answering questions as well as posting them!

You are doing just fine. In fact, you've learned a heck of a lot in a very short time.

I'm wondering how we can help you with your hometesting. What sort of problems are you encountering exactly? Can you take us through your routine..?

Re Lantus or Prozinc, well that's a tough question. There are fans of both insulins on this forum. I don't think I've ever seen a direct comparison between the two.... So, I'll leave that to others..... What insulin are you using at the moment (will check your previous posts...)

(Edited to add So, your kitty is on Lantus at the moment? What problems (if any) are you having with that? (Just wondering why you're considering Prozinc....)

 

[ecurie]

hi
our hometesting starts with cuddling ollie and rubbing his ears while giving him his favorite shrimp. Then we use the warm sock. he sits still for this part pretty well and only growls a little. Then comes the sticking him part. We have had trouble getting blood until we used the warm sock. By the time there's enough blood for the test, he REALLY wants to be done and get away. So there's some restraining while we get the blood onto the test strip. Also, there's all our newbie mistakes.. that take extra time, 1) i forgot to push the test strip all the way into the meter, so we had to hold him still while we got ready all over again. 2) when we didn't see blood right away, we poked him again. Now we've learned that if we wait just a few seconds, there will be blood. 3) i broke the tip off the darn lancet when i took the top off, so i had to go get another.

I really think that when we get better at this, we won't be so nervous and then we won't convey that nervousness to him. But he really jumps when we pick his ear... Seems to hurt a lot?!

I'm not really considering a change in insulin. I don't want to change anything, except eliminating high carbs. I assume that it takes awhile for his system to get used to the change in diet, the addition of insulin, the fact that he no longer has ketones and will need some time to reestablish a baseline for making decisions on insulin amounts etc.. I was just reading that ProZinc may be closer to a cats insulin and therefore might be better for them. I have also read that Oliver's Lantus is a very good insulin. I'm just wondering what thoughts you people might have because you are so much more knowledgeable than I am.

I guess that while we are all trying to get used to this yucky diabetes, we are hoping for his system to fix itself! My uncle and one of my aunties were diagnosed with diabetes. Both of them refused to accept it and eliminated it with diet, weight loss and exercise. Like all of us, i want that for my sweetie Oliver also!! But, if we are going to be diabetic, i want to know as much as i can and keep him as close to normal as possible to eliminate further damage and have him be as happy and healthy as he can be.

Again, thanks very much for letting me pick your brains.
Mary

 

[Julia & Bandit (GA)]

Cats have very few nerve endings in their ears (less than people have in their fingertips), so the pokes do not really hurt them. What they hate in the beginning is having something new and strange done to them, being restrained, and sensing that their human is nervous and scared. I promise you, all of these things will get better the more you test. I was in tears the first two weeks of testing Bandit because he fought me tooth and claw, but he now runs to his testing basket when he hears the glucose meter beep on and starts purring.

If you're on Lantus already, stick with that. There haven't been any studies comparing the newer Prozinc to Lantus, but studies that compared the old PZI showed that it had much lower remission rates compared to Lantus. The reason the old bovine PZI was thought to be better for cats was because cow insulin was supposed to be more molecularly similar to cat insulin, but there were no studies that ever proved this theory; in fact, studies proved that long acting human insulins like Lantus and Levemir had a greater duration of action than PZI, and the duration of action was directly related to the insulin's success in controlling blood sugar. The newer Prozinc is a human recombinant insulin; not a bovine insulin, so the perceived molecular similarity doesn't even exist anymore. While the newer Prozinc is thought to be more effective than the old PZI because of it's greater duration of action, it's still has a shorter duration than Lantus or Levemir.

In other words, ideally you want to use Lantus or Levemir, but Prozinc is not a bad insulin to use with cats if that's what you have. One instance where Prozinc might be preferred is if you can't shoot on a 12/12 schedule as recommended with Lantus (but you can also tweak dosing with Lantus to compensate for shooting off schedule as well, so that's why I say "might".)

 

[BJM]

A small dab of Neosporin ointment (not cream) with pain relief applied to the ear a few minutes before testing and then wiped off to test, may reduce the annoyance of being pricked plus help the blood bead up.

 

[Ida and Charlie (GA)]

The case for Lantus is that there IS a lot of data to the effect that the majority of cats managed with Lantus eventually go into remission and are able to be diet controlled. I'd keep kitty on it just for that reason.

The new ProZinc (human recombinant, not bovine) has not been around long enough for the data to be collected to know if remission is as common as it is using Lantus and chemically, it is VERY different and most resembles the N insulins (Humulin N, Novolin N) which are also protamine zinc suspension insulins but are not as long lasting as ProZInc which has more protamine causing the longer active duration.

 

[ecurie]

thank you for the lantus/ ProZinc information. I had specifically asked our vet for Lantus because of what i had read about it.
I will try the neosporin with "ouch control" for blood testing. heaven knows i will try anything. Last night was the first time we didn't get a blood sample before Ollie's shot.

I am still testing for ketones. now he's barely a trace. I haven't been able to collect a proper sample... I hover over him while he's using the littler box (clumping litter) while he's in there, there's always a little pool that hasn't worked it's way into the litter and i dip the stick in that pool. I'm sure it's not the best, but i can get a sample that's not got any litter on it.

I'm amazed at how quickly he has improved. His eyes are not dilated, his dandruff is almost gone, his coat looks soooo much better, he's got lots more energy.

thanks again and again