Starting dose for prozinc from caninsulin/Vetsulin?

C

Carys'n'Moira

Member Since 2025
Hi Everyone, my kitty Moira was diagnosed only a few weeks ago. We have been on caninsulin since then. We started at 2u twice daily but her numbers seemed to be worse than when she was at the vets. We dropped down to 0.5u twice daily and cut out biscuits, which did make a difference to her numbers but has given her a family flat curve now.

I spoke with the vet and I asked if we could try prozinc instead as I realised Moira's nadir was only after 3 hours on caninsulin. She agreed and has recommended starting on 1u. I don't know whether this will be too high for Moira as I don't want to shock her system too much and cause bouncing. But on the flip side I don't think 0.5u will be enough to do anything and I'm worried about her high numbers and playing catch up.

Does anyone have any thoughts or advice on this? We're new to this forum so hopefully my signature works 😅 thank you
 
Hello and welcome to the FDMB! You have done great work already by getting set up with testing and a low carb diet. That will help Moira a lot in the long run.

Looking at your spreadsheet with the Caninsulin, I agree that starting the ProZinc at 1 unit would be a good beginning. We need to get her out of the reds and blacks. Caninsulin is not an appropriate insulin for cats, and I think you will be much happier with the ProZinc. With ProZinc, it would be very beneficial if you can feed her and then give a small meal/snack at +2 and another one at +4. This will help prevent steep drops in blood glucose (BG) when the insulin is most active. I hope we will see her nadir move more toward +6. Will you be able to get tests at least around +4 and +6? The ProZinc will onset at about +2 so that is approximately when you will start to see the BG drop.

If you would like to start with 1 unit, I would recommend holding the dose for 1 week before we increase any further. How does this seem to you?
 
In what country are you located? Wales? It would be good to put this in your signature so we have an idea of the time difference between us. Right now I guess you are on GMT. I think you are 5 hours ahead of me.
 
Thank you Suzanne. We're based in the UK - I've amended my signature to show my location and timezone 🙂

Ah if only I knew now what I knew a few weeks ago! Moira was diagnosed just before Christmas and there was a mad rush from the vets to get her on insulin. Unfortunately my vets only keep Caninsulin in stock so that was all we were offered at the time. With hindsight I wish we had changed her food before starting insulin too. All the changes are not making Moira feel too good at all. Lots of hiding and doesn't seem very comfy in herself bless her.

The vet advised on Tuesday to increase Caninsulin to 2u before then starting prozinc on 1u (I didn't increase her Caninsulin as it seemed pointless knowing we would start prozinc from tomorrow). With giving her 1u I'm not so worried about her going hypo, more so of her bouncing all over the place and feeling rubbish in the process. With hindsight I think she's been diabetic for a while and the dipping into even not very low numbers is shocking her system. I asked on one of the Facebook groups and someone said stick with 0.5u when changing to prozinc. I feel like I'm getting different answers from everyone I ask 😅 my gut is telling me to meet in the middle and do 0.75u.

I can get tests throughout the day and feed her also - she's ravenous so she will be very pleased!
@Suzanne & Darcy
 
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I thought maybe you were in Wales because of your beautiful name! 🙂 Thanks for adding it to your signature.

I don’t know which Facebook group that was, but if it’s our group then they are not supposed to be giving dosing advice. However, I don’t think that is strictly enforced.

When my cat was first diagnosed, I got a lot of very bad advice from a Facebook group (Sugar Cats- so not our FDMB group) and it cost me a lot of valuable time and actually made my cat go into a very severe DKA where he spent a week in emergency care and nearly died.)

I will say that I have been here for quite a few years now and have a lot of experience with ProZinc. 1 unit is actually a conservative starting dose given Moira’s numbers. If she were starting as a cat who has never been on insulin before and we had no data on her spreadsheet, then I would recommend starting at .5 units. However, since we can see how very high her numbers are, 1 unit is a conservative and safe dose to begin. Those high numbers are very concerning. Do you test for ketones at home? With her high BG, you should be testing with either the urine strips or a blood ketone meter which works with a drop of blood on a specific test strip. The vet probably tested her, but ketones fluctuate a lot and need to be tested regularly — at least until we determine whether she is prone to high ketones or not. It’s important to know because, if she does have high ketones, we would want to fast track her dosing to begin to get the BG (and hence the ketones) down more quickly.

Bouncing is a very frustrating and very common part of the feline diabetes journey. The only real way for a cat to stop bouncing is for them to spend as much time as possible in the lower/normal cat BG numbers. The cat’s body needs to re-adjust to being in normal BG. Every cat is different, and I have seen some adjust quickly and others take a long time to stop bouncing. Also, some cats will act very strangely when first getting back into lower BG — some seem lethargic or even will hide, while others do just fine and seem to feel great — and they’re less ravenous and drinking less water and using their litter tray less, etc.

I am really sorry that this has been so hard on Moira, but I know we can help her.

Are you using U-40 syringes with the half unit markings? You will need those to make fine dose adjustments.

I am advising you to start with 1 unit because I believe that will be a safe, conservative starting dose for her based on your spreadsheet data to this point. I am not going to be upset if you decide to go with a lesser dose (well… I might be if her ketones are high) although I may advise an increase to 1 unit after about 3 days if you decide to do that.
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
I thought maybe you were in Wales because of your beautiful name! 🙂 Thanks for adding it to your signature.

I don’t know which Facebook group that was, but if it’s our group then they are not supposed to be giving dosing advice. However, I don’t think that is strictly enforced.

When my cat was first diagnosed, I got a lot of very bad advice from a Facebook group (Sugar Cats- so not our FDMB group) and it cost me a lot of valuable time and actually made my cat go into a very severe DKA where he spent a week in emergency care and nearly died.)

I will say that I have been here for quite a few years now and have a lot of experience with ProZinc. 1 unit is actually a conservative starting dose given Moira’s numbers. If she were starting as a cat who has never been on insulin before and we had no data on her spreadsheet, then I would recommend starting at .5 units. However, since we can see how very high her numbers are, 1 unit is a conservative and safe dose to begin. Those high numbers are very concerning. Do you test for ketones at home? With her high BG, you should be testing with either the urine strips or a blood ketone meter which works with a drop of blood on a specific test strip. The vet probably tested her, but ketones fluctuate a lot and need to be tested regularly — at least until we determine whether she is prone to high ketones or not. It’s important to know because, if she does have high ketones, we would want to fast track her dosing to begin to get the BG (and hence the ketones) down more quickly.

Bouncing is a very frustrating and very common part of the feline diabetes journey. The only real way for a cat to stop bouncing is for them to spend as much time as possible in the lower/normal cat BG numbers. The cat’s body needs to re-adjust to being in normal BG. Every cat is different, and I have seen some adjust quickly and others take a long time to stop bouncing. Also, some cats will act very strangely when first getting back into lower BG — some seem lethargic or even will hide, while others do just fine and seem to feel great — and they’re less ravenous and drinking less water and using their litter tray less, etc.

I am really sorry that this has been so hard on Moira, but I know we can help her.

Are you using U-40 syringes with the half unit markings? You will need those to make fine dose adjustments.

I am advising you to start with 1 unit because I believe that will be a safe, conservative starting dose for her based on your spreadsheet data to this point. I am not going to be upset if you decide to go with a lesser dose (well… I might be if her ketones are high) although I may advise an increase to 1 unit after about 3 days if you decide to do that.
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Aww thank you. I'm quite fond of my name too! It comes from the word 'cariad' which means love/darling. I am from Wales originally but living in England at the moment.

I've mainly been reading and asking questions on the UK group which I have found to be very helpful to be honest. Only the mods are allowed to give dosing advice and I believe they have a group chat separately where they discuss this beforehand. Obviously it's up to each individual whether they take this advice or not - and they do make this very clear.

I have been testing for ketones daily and they are generally always below 0.5mmol on blood. There was a couple of days where I got 0.6 but they did come down later on. I've tried testing urine also but I find differentiating the colours on the strips quite difficult, so just stick with the blood testing daily.

I didn't realise the US mg/DL page on my spreadsheet wasnt working correctly. I've fixed it now if youd like to take a look at it in it's full working glory. I guess what throws me is that her AMPS and nadir was worse one week after insulin than it was at the vet when she was diagnosed. The vet said it was likely the food, but nothing had changed for her. The only reason I could think of was that it just shocked her body so much and that she was bouncing like crazy. It didn't seem to improve until I dropped her dose down and removed the biscuits.

I do have U40 syringes with the half dose markings 🙂

Moira's such a gentle soul, but she is very timid. She had another owner before us and it took a lot of work for her to trust us. She's hiding so much and not very active currently. It honestly breaks my heart when I think of how comfortable and happy she was this time last year 😥
 
Carys'n'Moira said:
Obviously it's up to each individual whether they take this advice or not - and they do make this very clear.
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Yes. It definitely is.
Carys'n'Moira said:
I didn't realise the US mg/DL page on my spreadsheet wasnt working correctly. I've fixed it now if youd like to take a look at it in it's full working glory.
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I was able to see it this morning. It should open up (on my end) to the US tab and it’s not doing that. But yes. I can see.

Can you tell me the date that you stopped giving her the high carb food?

Good for testing the ketones. I also used a blood ketone meter. I am happy with those numbers. You don’t have anything over 1 and that’s good. They aren’t at a concerning level.
 
Carys'n'Moira said:
zy. It didn't seem to improve until I dropped her dose down and removed the biscuits.
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Cutting out HC food makes a huge difference. It can significantly lower BG. That is why I always advise people to test frequently when switching diets and to make food transitions gradually. It sounds like she was already eating some wet LC food? (the Felix) and you just needed to stop the HC biscuits.
 
Carys'n'Moira said:
Moira's such a gentle soul, but she is very timid. She had another owner before us and it took a lot of work for her to trust us. She's hiding so much and not very active currently. It honestly breaks my heart when I think of how comfortable and happy she was this time last year
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This is really sad and, believe me, I do understand. I work in rescue and have a lot of my own cats. I have a similar situation going on right now and am nursing two who are not doing well. It’s always something around here. I lost two cats in 2025 as well.

I am very optimistic about being able to help Moira though. She’s going to be much better off on the ProZinc and I can’t wait to see her feeling better (and you getting your sweet cat back.) Is she getting a little low carb treat with every ear prick for testing?
 
Also, if she is prone to bouncing, a bounce will not last more than six cycles before the blood glucose will come down again. If a cat is particularly bouncy, they may begin another bounce shortly after that and the cycle keeps going. 😵‍💫 😩 I often work with people who lower the dose because they think it will help with the bouncing, but it does not. Usually, the only result is that their cat never reaches normal blood glucose numbers, and stays high all the time again so naturally, they would not bounce in that case.
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
Yes. It definitely is.

I was able to see it this morning. It should open up (on my end) to the US tab and it’s not doing that. But yes. I can see.

Can you tell me the date that you stopped giving her the high carb food?

Good for testing the ketones. I also used a blood ketone meter. I am happy with those numbers. You don’t have anything over 1 and that’s good. They aren’t at a concerning level.
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Stopped giving HC biscuits on 01/01. She was eating some wet already, but the biscuits were the bulk of her diet. I just woke up and decided to cut them out cold turkey. She was fine with the change and I haven't noticed any adverse effects with her poo etc (I think she really wanted the wet food tbh).
Suzanne & Darcy said:
Can you add Moira’s age to your signature and her diagnosis date. ?
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All done 👍
Suzanne & Darcy said:
This is really sad and, believe me, I do understand. I work in rescue and have a lot of my own cats. I have a similar situation going on right now and am nursing two who are not doing well. It’s always something around here. I lost two cats in 2025 as well.

I am very optimistic about being able to help Moira though. She’s going to be much better off on the ProZinc and I can’t wait to see her feeling better (and you getting your sweet cat back.) Is she getting a little low carb treat with every ear prick for testing?
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I'm so sorry that sounds really tough. I can't imagine looking after two cats going through this at once. You must be made of strong stuff to cope with all of that! I'm so sorry to hear about the two you lost as well. Did they have diabetes also?

Long story short we've had a relative staying with us for the last 10 months. Relative also decided to get a (very large breed) puppy without consulting us during this time. Moira was obviously terrified so started hiding in our bedroom a lot more. Puppy kept stealing her food so we had to move that into our bedroom too. Moira didn't want to go outside then in the summer because the puppy was always there growling at her so we had to get a litter tray in our bedroom. Puppy is now nearly a year old, not well trained and very loud and disruptive. The cat won't leave our bedroom at all now (exarcerbated by her not feeling well). Relative won't leave and there are no concessions made for the cat. It's incredibly frustrating and difficult. I feel that's why I probably missed the diabetes for so long - I thought she was stressed about the dog and losing all of her territory.

She absolutely gets a low carb treat with every test. I was very nervous about the ear pricks but generally shes very well behaved for them. The AMPS is by far the hardest one because she's just so ravenous and restless in the morning.
Suzanne & Darcy said:
Also, if she is prone to bouncing, a bounce will not last more than six cycles before the blood glucose will come down again. If a cat is particularly bouncy, they may begin another bounce shortly after that and the cycle keeps going. 😵‍💫 😩 I often work with people who lower the dose because they think it will help with the bouncing, but it does not. Usually, the only result is that their cat never reaches normal blood glucose numbers, and stays high all the time again so naturally, they would not bounce in that case.
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So with a bouncy cat what's the solution then? Would it just be to raise the dose slightly and then hold for X amount of time (and then keep repeating as needed)? X
 
Carys'n'Moira said:
She absolutely gets a low carb treat with every test. I was very nervous about the ear pricks but generally shes very well behaved for them. The AMPS is by far the hardest one because she's just so ravenous and restless in the morning.
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This reminds me. Maybe you already know this, but with ProZinc you don’t need to wait any amount of time after eating to give the insulin. With Caninsulin of course you wait about 30 minutes after the cat eats to give the insulin, as you know, but with ProZinc you can test, feed and shoot the insulin all within a few minutes. Moira sounds like a very reliable eater so you won’t have worries there.

The situation with your relative sounds terrible. I feel so sorry for Moira. First she has a difficult time with her first family it sounds like… you adopt her and gain her trust and she’s a happy cat, then this annoying puppy enters the picture and she’s too afraid to leave the bedroom. It’s understandable that you would miss the diabetes. The stress she’s had in the last months probably played a role in her diabetes. Cats can have very negative effects from stress that manifest in many different ways— skin conditions, urinary tract problems, etc. so I am sure it didn’t help.

I am happy she likes the wet food. 🙂
 
Carys'n'Moira said:
Stopped giving HC biscuits on 01/01. She was eating some wet already, but the biscuits were the bulk of her diet. I just woke up and decided to cut them out cold turkey. She was fine with the change and I haven't noticed any adverse effects with her poo etc (I think she really wanted the wet food tbh).

All done 👍

I'm so sorry that sounds really tough. I can't imagine looking after two cats going through this at once. You must be made of strong stuff to cope with all of that! I'm so sorry to hear about the two you lost as well. Did they have diabetes also?

Long story short we've had a relative staying with us for the last 10 months. Relative also decided to get a (very large breed) puppy without consulting us during this time. Moira was obviously terrified so started hiding in our bedroom a lot more. Puppy kept stealing her food so we had to move that into our bedroom too. Moira didn't want to go outside then in the summer because the puppy was always there growling at her so we had to get a litter tray in our bedroom. Puppy is now nearly a year old, not well trained and very loud and disruptive. The cat won't leave our bedroom at all now (exarcerbated by her not feeling well). Relative won't leave and there are no concessions made for the cat. It's incredibly frustrating and difficult. I feel that's why I probably missed the diabetes for so long - I thought she was stressed about the dog and losing all of her territory.

She absolutely gets a low carb treat with every test. I was very nervous about the ear pricks but generally shes very well behaved for them. The AMPS is by far the hardest one because she's just so ravenous and restless in the morning.

So with a bouncy cat what's the solution then? Would it just be to raise the dose slightly and then hold for X amount of time (and then keep repeating as needed)? X
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Dose increases would still be made based upon kitty’s nadir just like with any cat, but you have to keep plowing ahead gradually — and we hope to see the bounces start to clear more quickly (last fewer cycles). That’s when we know we are making progress with the cat’s body becoming more accustomed to lower numbers.
 
Carys'n'Moira said:
'm so sorry that sounds really tough. I can't imagine looking after two cats going through this at once. You must be made of strong stuff to cope with all of that! I'm so sorry to hear about the two you lost as well. Did they have diabetes also?
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No. They were not diabetic cats. They weren’t even old cats. One was a healthy 7 year old cat who seemed fine in the morning but was dead at the vet’s by late afternoon. That was my daughter’s special cat and she was behaving completely normal that morning. We really have no answers. The vet thinks it was hemolytic anemia.

The other was a cat also of about 7-8 years who did have FIV as it turned out, but he had always been extremely healthy for years. He started getting very high fevers that didn’t respond to antibiotics. He also became very red and had bumps all over his ears. We had these biopsied and the pathology report said it was an autoimmune skin disease— so steroids were started and he seemed to improve greatly. We started tapering the steroids and things went downhill. We went back to the vet and had bloodwork done and all of his white blood cells were depleted (seriously depleted to almost nothing.) He didn’t last two days after that. These two cats died within a month of each other. I fully expected to lose my senior cats first. You just never know! 2025 was not a great year for us from a cat perspective. We also had one with hyperthyroidism undergo I-131 treatment (fortunately he is doing well now) and another cat with very severe lymphoplasmacytic rhinitis (which took months to diagnose by various means — finally via biopsies and CT scans). She had radiation treatment to her sinuses/head which was supposed to be curative but didn’t seem to help. Finally she was put on a medication that cured the rhinitis, but we believe it damaging her kidneys because one month later she was in kidney failure (previously her kidney values were very good.) We have managed to keep her feeling well despite this and are hoping her kidney values will improve (they have somewhat as of Monday when she was at the University Internal Medicine vets) but the numbers are still bad .. although you would not know it because she’s doing so well — except when she gets upper respiratory infections and can’t breathe and so won’t eat … which means antibiotics and syringe feeding.) We just went through this in December. The inflammation from the rhinitis has damaged the internal structures of her sinuses and head so that she is vulnerable to upper respiratory infections. I have to admit it is a LOT. she is 14 though and will be 15 this year. Fortunately she’s breathing perfectly well again now.

The other sick cat I have now is another cat with FIV. He is the sweetest boy. Everything happens to him. He was shot when he lived outdoors before we adopted him. I took him in because I couldn’t stand the stress of worrying about him all the time. He is a white cat who spent too much time in the sun… he has had squamous cell carcinoma on his ears and then on his nose (successfully treated with radiation). His a long story too, so suffice to say he was diagnosed with IBD via surgical biopsy in October 2024 and has gone downhill ever since. It doesn’t respond to steroids — his intestinal inflammation is the same on all of his ultrasounds as it was before starting steroids — and no matter how much he eats he is losing weight. Recently he was diagnosed as having pancreatitis too. He won’t eat the prescription hydrolyzed food. Sorry for all that… I didn’t really intend to write all that but I just got going 🙂
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
This reminds me. Maybe you already know this, but with ProZinc you don’t need to wait any amount of time after eating to give the insulin. With Caninsulin of course you wait about 30 minutes after the cat eats to give the insulin, as you know, but with ProZinc you can test, feed and shoot the insulin all within a few minutes. Moira sounds like a very reliable eater so you won’t have worries there.

The situation with your relative sounds terrible. I feel so sorry for Moira. First she has a difficult time with her first family it sounds like… you adopt her and gain her trust and she’s a happy cat, then this annoying puppy enters the picture and she’s too afraid to leave the bedroom. It’s understandable that you would miss the diabetes. The stress she’s had in the last months probably played a role in her diabetes. Cats can have very negative effects from stress that manifest in many different ways— skin conditions, urinary tract problems, etc. so I am sure it didn’t help.

I am happy she likes the wet food. 🙂
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Okay thank you that's good to know - will certainly speed up my mornings a little bit 😅 with prozinc so you need to roll the bottle before dispensing? I've been gently inverting the Caninsulin before drawing up with the syringe - not sure whether it's the same?

Yeah honestly it's been quite a nightmare really. I'm not sure whether the puppy caused the diabetes, but having the puppy here certainly exacerbates it. I've questioned whether her lower readings at the vets might have been because she was actually more relaxed there without the dog in tow 🤔 difficult to say for certain
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
No. They were not diabetic cats. They weren’t even old cats. One was a healthy 7 year old cat who seemed fine in the morning but was dead at the vet’s by late afternoon. That was my daughter’s special cat and she was behaving completely normal that morning. We really have no answers. The vet thinks it was hemolytic anemia.

The other was a cat also of about 7-8 years who did have FIV as it turned out, but he had always been extremely healthy for years. He started getting very high fevers that didn’t respond to antibiotics. He also became very red and had bumps all over his ears. We had these biopsied and the pathology report said it was an autoimmune skin disease— so steroids were started and he seemed to improve greatly. We started tapering the steroids and things went downhill. We went back to the vet and had bloodwork done and all of his white blood cells were depleted (seriously depleted to almost nothing.) He didn’t last two days after that. These two cats died within a month of each other. I fully expected to lose my senior cats first. You just never know! 2025 was not a great year for us from a cat perspective. We also had one with hyperthyroidism undergo I-131 treatment (fortunately he is doing well now) and another cat with very severe lymphoplasmacytic rhinitis (which took months to diagnose by various means — finally via biopsies and CT scans). She had radiation treatment to her sinuses/head which was supposed to be curative but didn’t seem to help. Finally she was put on a medication that cured the rhinitis, but we believe it damaging her kidneys because one month later she was in kidney failure (previously her kidney values were very good.) We have managed to keep her feeling well despite this and are hoping her kidney values will improve (they have somewhat as of Monday when she was at the University Internal Medicine vets) but the numbers are still bad .. although you would not know it because she’s doing so well — except when she gets upper respiratory infections and can’t breathe and so won’t eat … which means antibiotics and syringe feeding.) We just went through this in December. The inflammation from the rhinitis has damaged the internal structures of her sinuses and head so that she is vulnerable to upper respiratory infections. I have to admit it is a LOT. she is 14 though and will be 15 this year. Fortunately she’s breathing perfectly well again now.

The other sick cat I have now is another cat with FIV. He is the sweetest boy. Everything happens to him. He was shot when he lived outdoors before we adopted him. I took him in because I couldn’t stand the stress of worrying about him all the time. He is a white cat who spent too much time in the sun… he has had squamous cell carcinoma on his ears and then on his nose (successfully treated with radiation). His a long story too, so suffice to say he was diagnosed with IBD via surgical biopsy in October 2024 and has gone downhill ever since. It doesn’t respond to steroids — his intestinal inflammation is the same on all of his ultrasounds as it was before starting steroids — and no matter how much he eats he is losing weight. Recently he was diagnosed as having pancreatitis too. He won’t eat the prescription hydrolyzed food. Sorry for all that… I didn’t really intend to write all that but I just got going 🙂
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Oh wow you certainly do have a lot on your plate to say the least. Again I'm so sorry about the two kitties you lost - both of them within a month of each other is truly unthinkable. You must have been heartbroken 😥

And the two with health conditions you're managing now - they're lucky to have you taking such loving care of them. That sounds like a lot - I hope you manage to get some time to look after yourself too x
 
That reminds me, I have had a few members who didn’t know this, so I will mention it.

When you are drawing up the insulin, it’s best to not re-inject insulin back into the vial once it’s been in the syringe. The syringes have lubricants in them and doing this can contaminate and degrade the insulin. It’s best to just expel excess insulin into the sink or a paper towel or something.
 
I’m thinking about you! I’m hoping everything is all right. I see she dropped down just a bit today then back up. Maybe just give her a break until PMPS time. I’m very optimistic about things. We need to just let this 1 unit settle for a week and see where we are at that point. If her nadirs are still in the 300s (pinks), I would recommend an increase to 1.5. If she’s having yellow nadirs then I would recommend an increase to 1.25 units. Ketones will also be taken into consideration, but as long as she’s eating and drinking normally and she seems well to you — and her ketones stay below 1, I think she will be fine. I hope you are having a good day!
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
I’m thinking about you! I’m hoping everything is all right. I see she dropped down just a bit today then back up. Maybe just give her a break until PMPS time. I’m very optimistic about things. We need to just let this 1 unit settle for a week and see where we are at that point. If her nadirs are still in the 300s (pinks), I would recommend an increase to 1.5. If she’s having yellow nadirs then I would recommend an increase to 1.25 units. Ketones will also be taken into consideration, but as long as she’s eating and drinking normally and she seems well to you — and her ketones stay below 1, I think she will be fine. I hope you are having a good day!
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Hi Suzanne! How are you doing today? Yes she dropped down quite nicely before bumping herself back up into the reds at +7 unfortunately. Until about +6 she was doing really well - it was like having a completely different cat! She's been snuggled up on our bed, cuddling up on her window bed, checking out the birds through the window. She seemed to have a lot of energy until about +6. Then after the +7 point she's taken herself back under the bed (must not be feeling too good with the insulin wearing off) 😥. Hopefully that's temporary and improves over the week - it did seem to get a bit better on the Caninsulin dose changes after a few days. Prozinc does seem to be suiting her a little bit better though - we will see what happens as the week goes on.

Our vet is expecting a curve after a week so we'll be sticking with this until then and then I'll check in with them to see what they think. She'll be increasing the dose no matter what - I guess it's just a case of how much increase really. We will see what happens I suppose! And don't worry - I'm still checking her ketones - I've not forgotten 😉

I've heard that the nadir of prozinc can change and get further into the cycle as doses increase - is that true?
 
With many of the cats I help, the nadir will start to become closer to +6 or even +7 over time as their bodies adjust to having insulin again. Some cats new to insulin have nadirs at about +3 and start rising from there (which is always really disappointing.) So, as a newbie, Moira is doing really well! I am very happy to hear about how she was more her old self and feeling better for some hours today! I love that!
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
With many of the cats I help, the nadir will start to become closer to +6 or even +7 over time as their bodies adjust to having insulin again. Some cats new to insulin have nadirs at about +3 and start rising from there (which is always really disappointing.) So, as a newbie, Moira is doing really well! I am very happy to hear about how she was more her old self and feeling better for some hours today! I love that!
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Well Suzanne - what an up and down week we've had. Moira has been sick a couple of times overnight. She seems to have suddenly decided she doesn't like her usual cat food so much - the cheek of her! I've had to give her a different cat food overnight now and intermittently throughout the day to make sure she's eating. She seems to like it quite a lot thankfully.

It's been a mixed bag this week - she's been snuggling up in our bed a bit more which is nice. Still ravenous, weeing lots and drinking a smidge more water over the day than with Caninsulin. Not hiding as much though, which is definitely a good thing in my books. I think the change was a good thing overall, although there is still much progress to be made.

We did a curve today and she only went to low reds. She's never gone below high pinks on testing this week. I wanted to ask about your suggestion to increase to 1.5u twice daily. I know she needs an increase and I've read the SLGS guidance that says to increase in 0.25u increments. I was wondering why you suggested a 0.5u increase rather than 0.25u? I'm aware that going to 1.25u probably won't be sufficient to get her into a good range, but I'm worried about bouncing and shocking her system too much with a big increase at once. She was bouncing on her initial 2u dose of Caninsulin and it didn't seem to clear in a few cycles based on my testing. I'm curious to know your thoughts x
 
Hello Carys and Moira! I understand your difficulties with pickiness. I’ve had similar troubles with my cats this week — rejecting formerly accepted foods. I am glad she’s more cuddly though! That is a joy!

Her blood glucose levels are still extremely high. I am very concerned about that and the effects on her kidneys and other organs— that is why I was suggesting a slightly higher increase in her insulin. This is something more along the lines of the Modified ProZinc Method that members use to get their cats regulated more quickly. I was able to suggest it because Moira is currently on an all wet low carb diet.

I do appreciate your concern, and I notice that Moira’s ketones have remained in the low range, so if you would prefer to increase by .25 units at this time, I certainly understand that. It’s not a problem. 🙂
 
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