PZI or Lantus

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K

Kitty mom

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I will post this in both forums.
My vet is letting me decide on what medication I want to use PZI or Lantus. I've researched both and just when I think one is better another vet site says the other is the better choice of the two.
I'm going to stay hopeful that we can get Dasher into remission and on one site a vet believes cats have a better result with PZI. We should get his meds tomorrow and I'm so torn as to what's the best choice. I'm a believer its the people who are living this are the best to ask about this. Please let me know as I just don't know, I just want to get him started on one.
 
Hi Robin. I am only familiar with ProZinc although I have read a lot of Lantus posts. I have been reading here since March 2014. I have seen remissions in both ProZinc and Lantus. I have read that someone thought that Lantus may have a little higher remission rate but I couldn't tell you if that is a scientific fact or not. They both are very popular. I like ProZinc because I can be flexible i.e with the doses and with the time whereas Lantus you have to be on a tight schedule and the same dose until the cat has earned an increase or decrease. I have learned so much from both forums. The Lantus board is a lot more active than the ProZinc forum so you have a lot more people there to review your spreadsheet. Oh and one more thing, my experience has been with vets is that they are pretty much familiar with one brand. My vet is more familiar with ProZinc however my other vet is more familiar with Lantus. So that is why you might have one vet telling you one is better than the other because that is the only brand that they know, promote or sell.

On a side note, you might want to change your heading from "911" to "?" so people don't think you have an emergency. Anyway, you can try one and if you are not happy with one, you can try the other.
 
I second the flexibility of ProZinc. I can't do a strict 12 hour schedule, so I chose ProZinc for Gracie.

One advantage, if a vet is not familiar with Lantus, but is familiar with using Humulin or Novolin in cats, is that many of the concepts transfer in terms of how it works. ProZinc and BCP PZI just last longer than the 6-8 hours that Humulin/Novolin lasts.
 
Someone wise here once said, " the best insulin is the one that works for your cat". There are more people here using Lantus than ProZinc. That means more support in that forum. Lantus also has vet studies that have been done and they include a structured dosing protocol. That makes dosing easier - if you get this number, you do this.

ProZinc is more individualized, so you use the data from your cat's blood glucose levels to decide about a dose for your specific cat. It can be frustrating to figure out what dose might be best. One of the biggest advantages of ProZinc is that you can dose off a strict 12/12 schedule, and dosing is not solely based on midcycle numbers. Lantus requires midcycle numbers on a consistent basis to base doses on.

You might read the threads here and on the Lantus forum and check out spreadsheets. It might give you a feeling for how the insulins might work for you and your cat.
 
Thanks for asking this question. I was wondering if I should perhaps switch Ben to lantus because I'm still having issues finding his perfect dose. I think I needed the reminder that given my work schedule, Prozinc is the right one for us. You'll find great support here for whatever insulin you end up with. Good luck.
 
I've used both ProZinc and Lantus. I got lucky though - Tink went OTJ after just a couple doses of ProZinc. NOT normal. Turns out, at the time - I think diet was a HUGE part of his diabetes - soon as we got him on wet food, he went into remission.

When his numbers started creeping up, I started again with ProZinc (still had it). Wasn't happy with his numbers after a couple months, so switched to Lantus. We still aren't completely regulated... but doing better.

I think both are fine insulins for cats. Lantus seems gentler on him - he doesn't usually dive as hard as he did on ProZinc. The ProZinc wasn't lasting a full 12hrs the second go-around - so we tried 3x/day dosing. That was really hard on my schedule - though I think it would have worked for him. But, I needed to only shoot twice/day - so we went to Lantus.

The downside of Lantus is that I HAVE to be home to shoot on schedule. ProZinc is a little more forgiving if you have to shoot an hour early/late. With ProZinc, I used a sliding dose, based on his preshot number. I liked that. I felt like I had more control of things, but it was also an extra measure of stress when you weren't quite sure if you should increase/decrease based on a borderline preshot number.

But - Lantus seems to work well for Tink overall and it's much easier on my current schedule - if only we could find the right dose. He seems to find some sort of carb-filled contraband (pizza, macaroons, etc) every time we get into a nice flow - so we're still working that part. :roll:

The Lantus forum is VERY active - I've always gotten an answer to any "911" situation within minutes, no matter what time of day (or night) it is.
 
Okay I wasn't asked but thought I would chime in anyway...There is a third choice in insulin that is from my experience working with it, a cross-breed of the the two and that is Levemir.

While Lev is a depot insulin like Lantus it is also more forgiving when it comes to early or late shots, can be somewhat dosed on a sliding scale (not a huge scale but a drop more or less depending on preshot numbers with appropriate data). Is easier I think in shooting low to stay low because it has a much later onset and nadir than Lantus, so once you have dialed in a good dose you can feel comfortable shooting a green preshot because you know how long they will still rise and the normal Lev curve is very very flat for the most part to almost a bell shaped curve where they rise to mid-cycle and then drop towards the next preshot. And it has a neutral base that doesn't sting like Lantus can and to which some cats are very sensitive to, my Autumn was one such cat. On Lantus she was so tense and uptight on Lantus that she was actually dangerous to not only test and shoot, but dangerous to my other animals (would fly across the room to attack them). Once I switched her to Levemir she became a gentle, sweet and loving cat.

Levemir forms it depot differently than Lantus in that it binds and unbinds to a protein in the blood, so I have found again from my own experience in using it that I get an immediate reaction to dose changes which allows me to work it with both preshot and nadir numbers when deciding my dosage on any given day for Autumn. I can add a little extra to the dose if she bounces sky high and pull that bounce right back down again. Or shoot a little less if she has a lower than normal preshot just to keep her in safe numbers.

If you want more info on Levemir then please PM I'm always happy to share my experiences with this insulin. Frankly after working with both it and Lantus, if I had to pick a depot insulin for a newly dxed cat my first choice would be Levemir. Can't comment on PZI since I have never used it, but out of 6 sugarcats Levemir has been the best choice for 5.

Mel and The Fur Gang
 
Thanks for chiming in. We already filled the Lantus so it's what we're going to try, I however will keep the other in mind.
Thanks for your input .
 
MommaOfMuse said:
Okay I wasn't asked but thought I would chime in anyway...There is a third choice in insulin that is from my experience working with it, a cross-breed of the the two and that is Levemir.

While Lev is a depot insulin like Lantus it is also more forgiving when it comes to early or late shots, can be somewhat dosed on a sliding scale (not a huge scale but a drop more or less depending on preshot numbers with appropriate data). Is easier I think in shooting low to stay low because it has a much later onset and nadir than Lantus, so once you have dialed in a good dose you can feel comfortable shooting a green preshot because you know how long they will still rise and the normal Lev curve is very very flat for the most part to almost a bell shaped curve where they rise to mid-cycle and then drop towards the next preshot. And it has a neutral base that doesn't sting like Lantus can and to which some cats are very sensitive to, my Autumn was one such cat. On Lantus she was so tense and uptight on Lantus that she was actually dangerous to not only test and shoot, but dangerous to my other animals (would fly across the room to attack them). Once I switched her to Levemir she became a gentle, sweet and loving cat.

Levemir forms it depot differently than Lantus in that it binds and unbinds to a protein in the blood, so I have found again from my own experience in using it that I get an immediate reaction to dose changes which allows me to work it with both preshot and nadir numbers when deciding my dosage on any given day for Autumn. I can add a little extra to the dose if she bounces sky high and pull that bounce right back down again. Or shoot a little less if she has a lower than normal preshot just to keep her in safe numbers.

If you want more info on Levemir then please PM I'm always happy to share my experiences with this insulin. Frankly after working with both it and Lantus, if I had to pick a depot insulin for a newly dxed cat my first choice would be Levemir. Can't comment on PZI since I have never used it, but out of 6 sugarcats Levemir has been the best choice for 5.

Mel and The Fur Gang
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This is great information especially for someone like me who is new to all of this. Thanks for sharing!
 
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