Newly diagnosed cat starting ProZinc tomorrow

Draíocht

Draíocht

Member Since 2026
My first vial of ProZinc for Kitty arrived at my vet and I'm not long home after picking it up. It's 9.30pm here now and I don't feel safe starting it overnight. I also want to put her on a schedule for shots at 7am and 7pm so I'm going to do her first shot at 7am tomorrow. I am really scared and I have a few questions.

1. My vet initially wanted to start her on 1.5 units and when I asked about starting lower she agreed we could start on 1 unit. I'm very nervous about it because Kitty has only recently switched to low carb food. She had been eating wet food already but not low carb wet food. I think I would feel safer starting her on 0.5 but I don't want to go against my vet. I do trust her and she is actually a friend of mine. Kitty's blood glucose was at 22 mmol/L earlier and then at 30 mmol/L after a feed. She weighs 3.2kg. I know I should follow my vet and Kitty's blood glucose is very high but I'm so extremely scared.

2. The syringes we were given don't have half units marked on them. How do you measure in increments of 0.5 or 0.25 units? I thought it needed to be measured precisely. Of course if I'm giving 1 unit it will be ok but from everything I've read on here, it seems like small adjustments are often recommended so how would that work if they can't be measured?

3. I'm obviously taking the risk of hypos very seriously. I have my kit ready and I've printed the recommended info. (Thanks so much to this forum for that.) I have a list of vets ready but I am very anxious about where I can go with Kitty if we have an emergency. I live in rural Ireland and the services are not great. My choices in an emergency are:

- a terrible vet 10 minutes away who I have had two separate extremely negative experiences with
- a couple of mediocre vets 20-25 minutes away who mostly work with farm animals rather than pets
- a choice of a couple of vets on the outskirts of the nearest city who have practices just for small animals (as opposed to farm animals), at least one with cat specific facilities, but these are 35 minutes away when there's no traffic and longer at busy times
- my own vet at 50 minutes away via a good road with no traffic so a consistent driving time - she is a small animal vet but if she's not on duty at the time of emergency I would be seeing one of her colleagues anyway, who are similar to my closer vets in that they mostly deal with farm animals

Hopefully it won't happen but I want to have an action plan ready. What would you do in this situation?

4. My husband and I usually go to sleep at around 10.30 or 11pm and get up at 6.30am. I'd like Kitty to be at the minimal risk during the overnight periods when we won't be able to monitor her. Is my plan of 7am and 7pm a good time for the shots?

5. I will do a curve test tomorrow and fill in the spreadsheet. I hope I can get Kitty to eat enough at the time of the shot because she's used to having small feeds more regularly. Will her blood glucose drop too low if I can't get her to eat a big feed? I'm so worried and I suppose I just don't know what to expect.
 
Draíocht said:
The syringes we were given don't have half units marked on them. How do you measure in increments of 0.5 or 0.25 units? I thought it needed to be measured precisely. Of course if I'm giving 1 unit it will be ok but from everything I've read on here, it seems like small adjustments are often recommended so how would that work if they can't be measured?
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Oh. This is a problem. Cats are small creatures and small adjustments really can make a difference in their numbers. It’s not like people. Can you order some U-40 syringes with half unit markings? You are using U-40 syringes, correct?
 
Draíocht said:
Hopefully it won't happen but I want to have an action plan ready. What would you do in this situation?
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Let’s make sure this will not happen. We are always extremely careful about dosing here. Most incidents of low numbers can be managed at home with high carb food and/karo syrup (corn syrup) or honey if required. You have read through the instructions about how to manage low numbers? I have helped many people with managing low numbers. The cats who need actual veterinary assistance are typically being overdosed and we make sure that’s not going to happen. The protocols we follow here are designed for safety! I do understand your anxiety!!
 
Thanks so much. Yes, they are U-40 syringes. So far I have found one place online to order them but they're not in Ireland so they might take a while to get here. I will order some anyway and keep looking.

Yes, I've read all the instructions. I will have to be brave! Thank you so much for your help.
 
We had a slight complication this morning because we had a power cut so we waited until 8am when it was bright enough but we got it done. So our schedule is 8am and 8pm now.
 
What do you think of her numbers? She seems to have had a nadir very early and is now back up to very high even though there are still almost 3 hours until her next shot. Will her nadir stay so early or can I expect that to change over time? I was a bit worried about the sudden drop at first but it wasn't long before it started coming back up. I thought ProZinc was supposed to be slower with a longer curve?

She's had a very good day anyway and seemed so much happier and relaxed for most of the day when she was in the yellow numbers. I hope that's a good sign for her.
 
Hi! For the first day, think seeing some of the yellow numbers in the 200s is not bad at all! Let’s give it a little bit of time to see how Kitty does!
 
This leads me to ask when you are feeding her. I recommend feeding a small meal/snack at +2 and again at +4. This would be about a couple of teaspoons of wet food. The ProZinc will onset (start lowering blood glucose) at about +2 so feeding a snack at +2 and also at +4 can help prevent steep drops and smooth the cycle (and also sometimes move the nadir later as well.)
 
Thanks. I'm just feeding her with her shot. I test her first, give her her food, wait until she's eaten plenty, inject her and then let her keep eating until she's full. I haven't fed her in between.

She's not used to eating only twice a day so I wonder if she didn't eat as much with her first shot yesterday as she could have. She's eaten way more this morning compared to yesterday so let's see if that affects things.
 
Well, as I think I said, the ProZinc will onset at approximately +2 in most cats. It’s important to give a small meal then and again a bit later (so I usually suggest +4 although that’s not “hard and fast” necessarily and we can use the cat’s numbers as our guide.) If she drops too quickly it can trigger a bounce into high numbers. I just generally don’t recommend feeding much food after the nadir because it can cause the numbers to rise more quickly during the latter portion of the cycle. She should always get a low carb treat with every ear test, naturally. We need to keep that positive :cat:
 
Draíocht said:
She's not used to eating only twice a day so I wonder if she didn't eat as much with her first shot yesterday as she could hav
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She should not have to eat only twice a day. Diabetic cats need their calories spread out into smaller meals throughout the day. She also doesn’t have to eat a huge meal, but just a normal size portion, before the shot (she would if she were on a different insulin like Caninsulin, but not with ProZinc) because of the onset time being about two hours after the shot.
 
At least she is seeing some yellow numbers today. This will give her a chance to start getting used to a little bit lower BG. I am going to be so excited when we see some blue numbers! If she were my cat, after the third day (after 6 cycles) I would increase her dose to 1.25 units. It’s okay to do this since we are still finding her correct “starting dose” and also your vet had recommended beginning with 1.5 units. I am happy with the lower starting dose so that her body is getting a few days to adjust to the insulin.
 
That is interesting about the feeding and the different insulins. I have been following my vet's advice about it but I will look into that some more. She does seem to have had a slower curve today, which is good. Yesterday she was relaxed all morning but screaming for food by 4pm. Today she's been even more settled and only just starting to seem slightly hungry now. Her numbers have also come up later and more gradually. Hopefully that will continue to improve.

Yes, I also can't wait to see her have some blue! I'd really like to keep her out of red and black.

I don't think I can increase her dose until my new syringes arrive because the ones I have are the largest 1ml size and they only have markings in whole units. I had trouble sourcing anything locally but I have ordered some and they are on the way. I think your suggestion of going with a 0.25 increase first is something I'd be more comfortable with so I will run that by my vet as soon as the syringes arrive, which should hopefully be just a few more days.
 
I don't feel anywhere near comfortable enough to give any kind of advice, but I do want to offer support.

I'm new to this journey as well. My cat was diagnosed just over a month ago, and I understand how lost and confused you probably feel.

This forum is a fantastic resource, and I'm glad you found it. I'll keep Kitty in my thoughts, and I hope her numbers keep improving!
 
Draíocht said:
That is interesting about the feeding and the different insulins. I have been following my vet's advice about it but I will look into that some more.
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We see that advice from vets given a lot here — to give just two meals per day — it’s kind of old school thinking and is not the most up to date way of feeding a diabetic cat on insulin. When she’s in lower numbers, it will be even more important to keep a little food in her —especially during the first half of the cycle when the ProZinc is having the strongest influence on lowering her BG. It doesn’t have to be a lot off food for the snacks — just a couple teaspoons.
 
Elohelay said:
I don't feel anywhere near comfortable enough to give any kind of advice, but I do want to offer support.

I'm new to this journey as well. My cat was diagnosed just over a month ago, and I understand how lost and confused you probably feel.

This forum is a fantastic resource, and I'm glad you found it. I'll keep Kitty in my thoughts, and I hope her numbers keep improving!
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@Draíocht — Lola’s cycle so far today is actually a good example of how we use food to steer the numbers. We “feed the curve.” Lola started out the morning with a much lower than expected Pre-shot blood glucose number. It was coming up a little after stalling for two hours, but it was still lower than anything that we had seen before. So Lola got a small dose of .25 units of insulin this morning. By +2, her blood glucose had dropped to 76 which is a healthy number and not too alarming, but it was early in the cycle and we wanted to manage that a little bit — so she was given a 6.4% carbohydrate food. This is still low carb of course because it’s under 10% carbs. That worked nicely to bring her numbers up just a tiny bit to 113 just 30 minutes later. Lola will get another snack at +4 that’s planned and she’ll hopefully continue to have a good cycle.
 
Elohelay said:
I don't feel anywhere near comfortable enough to give any kind of advice, but I do want to offer support.

I'm new to this journey as well. My cat was diagnosed just over a month ago, and I understand how lost and confused you probably feel.

This forum is a fantastic resource, and I'm glad you found it. I'll keep Kitty in my thoughts, and I hope her numbers keep improving!
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Thank you so much. Yes, it is an absolutely wonderful resource! I'm so glad I found it too and so glad for all the cats whose humans have found it. I hope Lola continues to do well too! I will have a look for your thread about her.
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
@Draíocht — Lola’s cycle so far today is actually a good example of how we use food to steer the numbers. We “feed the curve.” Lola started out the morning with a much lower than expected Pre-shot blood glucose number. It was coming up a little after stalling for two hours, but it was still lower than anything that we had seen before. So Lola got a small dose of .25 units of insulin this morning. By +2, her blood glucose had dropped to 76 which is a healthy number and not too alarming, but it was early in the cycle and we wanted to manage that a little bit — so she was given a 6.4% carbohydrate food. This is still low carb of course because it’s under 10% carbs. That worked nicely to bring her numbers up just a tiny bit to 113 just 30 minutes later. Lola will get another snack at +4 that’s planned and she’ll hopefully continue to have a good cycle.
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That's fantastic information and really makes sense. Thank you so much!
 
Kitty's numbers haven't really come down very much at all since her last shot. I'm wondering if that can happen sometimes or if maybe we didn't dose her properly somehow? It's past midnight here and I need to sleep but I was really hoping to see her in the yellow before resting for the night.
 
Draíocht said:
Kitty's numbers haven't really come down very much at all since her last shot. I'm wondering if that can happen sometimes or if maybe we didn't dose her properly somehow? It's past midnight here and I need to sleep but I was really hoping to see her in the yellow before resting for the night.
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Oh dear, I wish I knew your name to reply! Anyway, yes, this can happen! You are not doing anything wrong, and I don’t see anything abnormal about Kitty’s numbers this early in her journey. I so admire your dedication! It appears to me that she is having a bit of a reaction to being in lower numbers (the yellows). I don’t think she will be extraordinarily high in the morning. She’s been coming down a bit this evening. I study a lot of spreadsheets, and I think that Kitty’s looks typical of many cats new to insulin.

I really feel like Kitty is going to do very well and we are going to be able to get her well-regulated. .
 
I'm so upset with Kitty's numbers. Sometimetimes it seems like it's going really well and then it's just really high again. We had a couple of times when the insulin came straight through the other side so now we're really stressed every time we inject her in case it goes wrong. My vet said we could give her the shots in different parts of her body, anywhere where we can get a good fold of skin, so we've been doing it in different places since then. Can that affect the numbers?

Otherwise, I really feel like we're doing somthing wrong. We check really thoroughly each time to make sure there's no wetness on her after her shot so we know it's going in. What else can make it work some days and not others?
 
I’m so sorry for your troubles and frustration. She does need an increase to 1.6 units. Don’t hold the dose too long because glucose toxicity will make it more difficult to control things. Since she is eating a low carb wet food diet, I would recommend following the Modified ProZinc Method where we would increase her dose, as needed, about every 3 days. This will allow us to get her regulated more quickly. Post here for assistance.
See how she gets into yellows and then she goes higher for a few days. I believe she is bouncing from the yellow numbers that her body isn’t used to. She’s still going to bounce for a while, but we need to move on getting her to spend more time in the lower numbers.
 
Oh, and yes it’s perfectly fine to give insulin in various places - wherever you can get a tent of skin. Many people shoot in the flank area. Some people feel like they get better absorption there.
 
Have you seen this?
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Thank you so much. Yes, I have seen that. I looked through all of it after my vet said we could try other places but it was only after we started doing that, that the numbers seemed stuck up high.

We've gone back to just doing it in the scruff now and the numbers are a bit better. It's probably a coincidence but I think it's strange. Or maybe those couple of shots that went wrong just set her back for a while. I just hope it keeps going the right way. I really don't want to see black numbers anymore!

Hopefully her body will get used to the insulin soon because the bouncing is really frustrating. I know what you mean about her needing 1.6 units and I am keen to get her into the lower numbers but we have decided to go slow and my vet thinks that's the best way as well. She's checking in with me every week and we decide then to change the dose or keep it for another week.

Apart from the numbers, Kitty seems to be doing really well and is more and more like herself each week. I just need to remember to stay hopeful. I really appreciate your support!
 
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Well, you are in charge of how much insulin she gets, of course, but I think your vet is making a mistake in not increasing her dose because glucose toxicity has most likely already set in, making it even harder to move her out of the higher numbers. She’s already been on the 1.4 unit dose for 16 days. There’s slow (like the start low go slow dosing method) and then there’s glacier slow. Her doses are being held too long. Our dosing protocols were developed to be safe and effective. You can research the background data on them if you wish. I am concerned.

I know how frustrating the bouncing is! In the years I have been here, I have never seen a cat overcome bouncing by holding doses for too long. The only way to get a cat’s body used to lower numbers is to have them spend as much time as possible in the normal BG numbers. Unfortunately, you have to rode out the bounces — but you are already having to do that now even in the higher numbers.

Anyway, it was just my observation on her spreadsheet that she really needs a move to 1.6 units after more than two weeks on the 1.4 dose.

Since emotions can’t be conveyed well in a typed message, I want to say that none of this is meant in any kind of superior or hostile way! I fully support you, and I can see how hard you are working to help Kitty and how thoughtful you are in your approach to everything (including the injection placement.) I understand how difficult and frustrating this all is. I’ve been there.
 
Draíocht said:
Apart from the numbers, Kitty seems to be doing really well and is more and more like herself each week.
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This makes me happy to hear! Sometimes just a bit of insulin can make a big difference. That’s so important (that she seems more like herself.) And yes, you should be hopeful. She is going to do better and better over time.
 
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