New in this group, switching from Prozinc

Daphne and Aida

Daphne and Aida

Active Member
Hi there!

I'm bringing here Aida's case!

She was diagnosed in May, was started with Prozinc, and was controlled pretty well. Her dose kept decreasing, and there was a point when we were thinking she might go into remission, but suddenly she started having numbers in the yellow, which hadn't happened in quite some time. Ideally, I would bring her for a blood draw and check-up for infection but my finances are a bit stretched, so I had a talk with our previous vet (we changed country in the meanwhile). During our phone consultation, she had a look at Aida's spreadsheet and asked me some questions to assess if Aida wasn't hiding some sort of infection. She told me that most probably the insulin had lost its potency. I've been using the same vial for 5 months now, normally they remain ok for 6 months, but it might be that some loss in temperature stability during the move has contributed to shortening it.

I just bought a vial of Lantus and I'm planing to making the switch tomorrow.

She's been getting 0.8U of prozinc lately (U-40 insulin).
How much should I start her with lantus?

Many many thanks!!!
 
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Daphne and Aida said:
Hi there!

I'm bringing here Aida's case!

She was diagnosed in May, was started with Prozinc, and was controlled pretty well. Her dose kept decreasing, and there was a point when we were thinking she might go into remission, but suddenly she started having numbers in the yellow, which hadn't happened in quite some time. Ideally, I would bring her for a blood draw and check-up for infection but my finances are a bit stretched, so I talked with our previous vet (we changed country in the meanwhile). During our phone consultation, she had a look at Aida's spreadsheet and asked me some questions to assess if Aida wasn't hiding some sort of infection. She told me that most probably the insulin had lost its potency. I've been using the same vial for 5 months now, normally they remain ok for 6 months, but it might be that some loss in temperature stability during the move has contributed to shortening it.

I just bought a vial of Lantus and I'm planing to making the switch tomorrow.

She's been getting 0.8U of prozinc lately (U-40 insulin).
How much should I start her with lantus?

Many many thanks!!!
Click to expand...
Welcome. We also made the switch from Prozinc to Lantus and are very happy that we did!
Do you have U-100 syringes?
 
Thank you for the welcome!
I'm using U-100 syringes, I've been using the conversion table. I'm a bit lost now that I won't need to convert, dose it mean that the 0.8 that she currently gets will be … ?? what?
I'm completly lost the more I try to think about it…
 
We suggest that you start Lantus on a day where you can monitor. Some cats show movement right away and others wait until the depot builds (approx 5-7 days).
The starting dose takes into consideration where the nadirs are on the current insulin. It looks like Aida's nadirs are great but that she's not getting good duration on Prozinc.
I'm going to tag @Wendy&Neko and @tiffmaxee for their recommendations.

Have you read the stickies at the top of this forum, such as What is the Insulin Depot? and Dosing Methods: Start Low, Go Slow (SLGS) & Tight Regulation (TR)
 
Yes I’ve been reading a lot on the forum lately, to try and understand what’s happening with Aida and how to make the switch. I think that I’ve understood some things.
The depot makes total sense yes.
I was using the SLGS dosing protocol and then, when she started needing less and less, i adapted to her. I guess ill have to go back to it right?
Of course ill have to keep an eye on her for the next few days after the switch.
 
When you start Lantus, you will HOLD the dose for 7 days for the depot to build UNLESS (1) following SLGS kitty drops under 90 OR (2) following TR kitty drops under 50.
If you're feeding any dry food, then you'll have to follows SLGS.
TR is more aggressive and requires an all wet food/raw food diet and multiple tests a day. Here is the link explaining the two.

You are certainly testing enough for TR and I see you were following MPM which is very similar. Read through the link and feel free to ask any and all questions that come to mind. We're here to help. :cat:
 
With TR, you can hold the initial dose for 5-7 days, even less if really high numbers. Given that Aida was seeing greens on relatively small doses, that shouldn't be a problem. However, it may or may not take a few days for the depot to build and you to see how she does on the initial dose. We strongly recommend testing more frequently (AM and PM) at the start, as some cats have a strong reaction to a change.

If you want to follow TR for dosing and if you can test frequently and are used to handling low numbers, you could start at 0.75 units of Lantus on that U-100 syringes. If not, then I'd try 0.5 units to start. If you want to follow SLGS for dosing, then I'd try 0.25 units to start. My reasoning is that not long ago 0.4 units was taking her under the point where you'd reduce the dose per SLGS.
 
As I wrote on your thread on the ProZinc forum, since you already were following MPM with ProZinc, I would suggest doing TR. You do a great job of testing Aida. She was having awesome numbers on a low dose of ProZinc until her vial lost potency (we think anyway). But she will do well on Lantus too since you can’t get ProZinc in Greece. My only other thought is that you could start with a slightly smaller dose than .75 because of our thoughts that the ProZinc going bad…. We don’t actually know, but since Aida already had her dental before you moved and she was doing great and she doesn’t seem to have any other health problems that are evident…. maybe to be cautious you should try .5 units with that nice fresh Lantus. :cat:
 
@Daphne and Aida
Hi Daphne
when you do switch to Lantus please note that on your signature, you can put Lantus as of then the date. On your spreadsheet where you have Prozinc please put Lantus and the date you switched, Also change your dosing method you want to follow on your signature and spreadsheet.
If you know how to do this put a blank line above the date you are switching to Lantus and just type Lantus Now and highlight it any color so it stands out. Good luck with the Lantus :cat:

When you post on the Lantus Board we like you to post like this in your title
Date Aida AMPS # and any additional tests after that, you can continue with the PMPS numbers also
Try and post everyday and then link your previous days post to your new post


To linkyour previous posts
Your previous days post will always be in the URL all the way up top ignore where it says insert or cancel I'm just trying to show you where your previous days post will be
Just ignore where it says insert and cancel
Just copy your previous days post and then paste it when you do your new post





Like I said
your previous days post it will be the one all the way up top, above the pic of that cat and the picture of a bottle of insulin there, let me know if you understand it




austin-logo-240.jpg


PS I'm not that great at explaining things :p
I hope you understand this .
 
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Diane yes totally understood! I’m on my phone right now so just giving some quick thoughts, I’ll correct the signature and put the new info on the spreadsheet later on the computer.

Suzanne thank you! You’re really reading into my fears and thoughts! If the vial has indeed lost its potency, then the 0.8 isn’t the actual dose that she needs, right?
So I went on and gave her 0.5U.

It smells differently than prozinc, stronger, i did search the skin through her thick coat to avoid any fur shot and she did flinch but there was some residual smell, I hope it’s normal…

Wendy thank you as well! I’m thinking of following the TR method, since I’m already checking her BG a few times. I’ll have to monitor her during the night for the next few days.

And Angela, thank you so much for all the links and explanations!

You’re all amazing, so glad to have found you all, really hope my sister will soon join!
 
Oh my god I’m soooooo relieved!!!
It really was the vial!
No yellow in sight! At +11 she was higher than at AMPS! The greens were kept longer!

I should monitor her for the next few days as the depot will build up right? Not sure if I should I keep doing curves, or if a check every 3 hours is ok. Aida is very tolerant with the testing, but I don’t want to abuse her patience either…
 
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