New Member - anybody switch from lantus to prozinc?

[Marleycat2016]

Hi all, I have an 11 year old tabby diagnosed in April 2023. We’ve never successfully achieve remission, or even stable blood glucose numbers. We switched to a new vet who’s become more invested in our cats diabetes management since he has just had 3 teeth extracted and this vet has seen some positive progress with diabetic cats after dental work…he has a preference for prozinc, and we’ve been on lantus 2units every 12 hours since 2023, with no progress. Anybody have any experience switching from lantus to prozinc or vice versa?

 

[Wendy&Neko]

Hello and welcome. We've seen quite a few people switch from Prozinc to Lantus, and the odd one go the other way. And even one recently go from Lantus to Prozinc (vet's suggestion) but recently back to Lantus. Both insulins are good ones for cats, though some do better on one or the other.

Cats very seldom need to stick with the same dose for any length of time. We have a couple of dosing methods, listed in one of the Sticky Notes you might want to read at the top of the Lantus / Levemir / Biosimilars forum. A cat's pancreas has the unique ability to heal over time, if it spends time in normal blood sugar numbers. The dosing methods help you get there.

Your new vet is right that cats often see progress if they undergo needed dental work.

What food are you feeding your kitty? A low carb wet or raw food is best for diabetics. Also, are you home testing his blood sugars?

 

[Marleycat2016]

So lantus is the favorable option typically? There was lots of testing at the beginning of diagnosis, a lot of dosage adjustments. Really weird blood glucose patterns (I.e., waking up with high blood sugar, lower level AFTER eating, and going high after insulin injection). We do test at home. He’s been on exclusive wet food fancy feast chicken dinner since diagnosis in April 2023, and prior to that was on wet food royal canin adult instinctive. Unfortunately we can’t do a raw diet as we have young children at home.

 

[Wendy&Neko]

Low carb wet food is still a good option. If you are interested in putting the last couple weeks of your test data (good for you on home testing), into a spreadsheet, we might be able to suggest something. Details on how to create the spreadsheets we use are in this post: New? How You Can Help Us Help You! I can think of a couple reasons for the weird patterns you mention, but would need to see the blood sugar readings to pin in down.