Switching to ProZinc | Feline Diabetes Message Board - FDMB

Switching to ProZinc

C

Csj18

Member since 2025
My cat has been on Vetsulin and went into remission briefly. In Sept he relapsed and the vet had us restart the Vetsulin. We are up to 2 units and it doesn’t seem to be working/we thought he might be bouncing.

We decide to switch to ProZinc. The vet is having us start at 1 unit and see how it goes.

They didn’t think he needs a “washout” period, told us just to start the ProZinc on his next dose…is that right?
 
Hi, Csj.
Our Felix was diagnosed with diabetes in June and prescribed Caninsulin (Vetsulin) because basically he needed insulin straightaway and that was the only thing in stock. You've made a good decision to switch over to Prozinc because Caninsulin's not made for the cat's quick metabolism and doesn't last long enough. We switched over to Prozinc at the end of July. We ended one day with the evening Caninsulin injection and then, instead of Caninsulin the next morning, we started on a starter dose of Prozinc. We made sure to test him at several times throughout the day to ensure he was ok. Obviously, your cat will need to acclimatise to Prozinc over a period of days and weeks. The BG curve should be gentler and less likely to induce bounces although these are still possible.

Csj, it would be good if you could fill out details in your signature as recommended on this page:
Sticky - New? How You Can Help Us Help You! And if you could get a spreadsheet together with your cat's daily blood glucose readings, this helps members of the forum have a good idea of what's going on. See instructions here:
https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/how-to-create-a-spreadsheet.241706/

I'm sure Suzanne (Suzanne & Darcy) will help you if you require advice - she's a fantastic powerhouse of information and encouragement.
Good luck.
Astra & Felix.
 
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Csj18 said:
My cat has been on Vetsulin and went into remission briefly. In Sept he relapsed and the vet had us restart the Vetsulin. We are up to 2 units and it doesn’t seem to be working/we thought he might be bouncing.

We decide to switch to ProZinc. The vet is having us start at 1 unit and see how it goes.

They didn’t think he needs a “washout” period, told us just to start the ProZinc on his next dose…is that right?
Click to expand...
That’s correct
 
Hello again over here. Sorry for my delay in replying. Wednesday I took my cat to a University Teaching Hospital as I said (and was on the road a lot) and yesterday was just another complete disaster of a day. Today is better so far.

I would love to help and definitely could help you see if he is bouncing, but I need to be able to see spreadsheet data. If you have any trouble getting it set up with the instructions Astra so kindly linked above, let me know because we have a moderator who can get it set up in a few minutes.
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
Hello again over here. Sorry for my delay in replying. Wednesday I took my cat to a University Teaching Hospital as I said (and was on the road a lot) and yesterday was just another complete disaster of a day. Today is better so far.

I would love to help and definitely could help you see if he is bouncing, but I need to be able to see spreadsheet data. If you have any trouble getting it set up with the instructions Astra so kindly linked above, let me know because we have a moderator who can get it set up in a few minutes.
Click to expand...
Thank you, I will try creating one soon. I do not have Google/gmail so I’ll have to put it in a different format.
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
@

@Marje and Gracie do you have any ideas about the spreadsheet?
Click to expand...
Suzanne, May I tentatively suggest that Marje take the suitable FDMB Google Spreadsheet and, using the File/Download/ command, export it as a Microsoft Excel document and send it to Csj? It can then be opened in Excel or any other Open software. I've just done this as an experiment with Felix's spreadsheet and it seems generally fine, bar some small formatting issues here and there. Of course, Csj would have to provide some details as to whether she or he is using a pet meter or human meter, etc.
Astra & Felix.
 
I have an AlphaTrack3. We were just at the vet today because I thought the numbers I was getting were high. They drew blood from his leg and the used my meter and strips getting a reading of 381. Then they used the exact same blood from the syringe on their test strips in their AlphaTrack 3 and got 325.

I know there is a range but that seems like quite a difference. I am going to order new strips and call the company on Monday.

We started him on the 1 unit Prozinc this morning so I expected a higher number since the dose is less than the 2 units of Vetsulin. Good news was he didn’t fall a 100 points at the 2/3 hr mark like he was doing with the Vetsulin.
 
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Astra&Purrfect said:
Suzanne, May I tentatively suggest that Marje take the suitable FDMB Google Spreadsheet and, using the File/Download/ command, export it as a Microsoft Excel document and send it to Csj? It can then be opened in Excel or any other Open software. I've just done this as an experiment with Felix's spreadsheet and it seems generally fine, bar some small formatting issues here and there. Of course, Csj would have to provide some details as to whether she or he is using a pet meter or human meter, etc.
Astra & Felix.
Click to expand...
Thank you but there are issues you might not be aware of with us using Excel here. There is a long history.

Csj18 said:
Thank you, I will try creating one soon. I do not have Google/gmail so I’ll have to put it in a different format.
Click to expand...
Gmail accounts are free. Is there any reason why you can’t get one? If you can’t, you can use another email but the SSs are stored in google drive and it just makes it simpler to have a Gmail/google account.
 
Csj18 said:
Good news was he didn’t fall a 100 points at the 2/3 hr mark like he was doing with the Vetsulin.
Click to expand...
This is not surprising because vetsulin is a terrible insulin for cats and drops them hard and fast and doesn’t last very long. I am surprised it was prescribed for your cat to begin with because it isn’t even a recommended insulin (American Animal Hospital Assn) for cats. ProZinc will be much better.
 
Csj18 said:
I know there is a range but that seems like quite a difference. I am going to order new strips and call the company on Monday.
Click to expand...
We are mostly looking at trends. High numbers are high numbers and we need to get them down. The difference between a 381 and a 325 is not that important. You should know about meter variance that is allowed. Glucose meters are permitted to have a variance of about plus or minus 20 percent. That means you could actually test a single drop of blood and get, for example, 400 and with another test strip applied to the same drop of blood you could also get a reading as high as 480 (+20 percent) or as low as 320 (minus 20 percent.) I don’t often see this much variation, but I frequently see at least ten percent — but it can sometimes happen and is allowed. I know when I first learned about it I was really dismayed. Of course, when they’re in low numbers, we must take the readings at face value and act accordingly— and the variance won’t “seem” as large because the numbers are lower.)
 
Csj18 said:
We started him on the 1 unit Prozinc this morning so I expected a higher number since the dose is less than the 2 units of Vetsulin. Good news was he didn’t fall a 100 points at the 2/3 hr mark like he was doing with the Vetsulin.
Click to expand...
The less radical drop in BG is good news, @Csj18 This is the gentler curve I mentioned in my post above (#2) which I hope you saw?
Do you have the software to edit PDFs? Because the FDMB spreadsheet could also be exported in PDF file format for you.
Astra & Felix.
 
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Astra&Purrfect said:
Hi Marje. If Excel poses a problem, it can be exported as a PDF instead.
Astra & Felix.
Click to expand...
I appreciate your input but we’ve been dealing with SSs here for decades and we’ve learned the best way to do them and link them so they auto update in real time is with google. PDFs won’t do that. Thanks for your input, though.
 
Csj18 said:
Thank you all for your help! I will put together a spreadsheet and post it as a PDF so it is viewable. I don’t use Google for personal reasons.
Click to expand...
That won’t work. Our format allows the SS to auto update in real time. That is crucial if the BG starts to run low and you need help.

I respect your feeling about google but I hope you can make one exception for the health of your cat. It’s not possible for us to have members using whatever SS formats they want; we have to have consistency because we have so many members so all SSs need to function the same. I hope you will work with us on this and I am happy to help you (or do it for you) create the SS.
 
Marje and Gracie said:
I appreciate your input but we’ve been dealing with SSs here for decades and we’ve learned the best way to do them and link them so they auto update in real time is with google. PDFs won’t do that. Thanks for your input, though.
Click to expand...
Hi Marje.
I agree that the Google SS way is by far the most consistently reliable and convenient way to do it rather than another format on some other cloudserver. Hope Csj will come round to doing it!
See you.
 
A few people I know have told me they signed up for a google account and just used false name, date of birth and other information (although perhaps I should not be saying that.) This was not members of this Board, although they can handle it however they wish. I suppose there needs to be either a recovery email or phone number… or can you just use the Google Authenticator App on your phone. I have that app and use it for things like PayPal and a couple other things.
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
We are mostly looking at trends. High numbers are high numbers and we need to get them down. The difference between a 381 and a 325 is not that important. You should know about meter variance that is allowed. Glucose meters are permitted to have a variance of about plus or minus 20 percent. That means you could actually test a single drop of blood and get, for example, 400 and with another test strip applied to the same drop of blood you could also get a reading as high as 480 (+20 percent) or as low as 320 (minus 20 percent.) I don’t often see this much variation, but I frequently see at least ten percent — but it can sometimes happen and is allowed. I know when I first learned about it I was really dismayed. Of course, when they’re in low numbers, we must take the readings at face value and act accordingly— and the variance won’t “seem” as large because the numbers are lower.)
Click to expand...
Thank you for this response, it was very helpful!
 
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