Why are you choosing Prozinc

Biskey

Biskey

Member
Hello I am completely new to this I found out and started shots yesterday and still need havent started tracking BS i have been reading a lot of stuff on this forum and has been very helpful. I plan to start tracking soon.
My question for this group is why you chose prozinc. I was looking at the pricing and it is almost double the cost of vetsulin is there specific reason to go with prozinc. it is what my vet prescribed but i didnt get a chance to talk to him about other options yet.

Thank you any help is appreciated.
 
For one thing, ProZinc is longer lasting than Vetsulin.

Human insulins such as Levemir (detemir) and Lantus (glargine) are other options. They are even longer lasting, and work better for some cats.
 
I started on prozinc because it's what my vet gave me. It worked well and Sam went into remission after about three weeks. A year and a half later when he relapsed, I went back to Prozinc because it worked so well the first time. During this second diagnosis, I have also tried Lantus (Sam would bite the injection site and became very aggressive and unhappy), and Levemir (his numbers went sky high), so I came back to Prozinc and he's done much better again. Sam's reactions to Lantus and Levemir are quite unusual and they both work very well for lots of cats. I would recommend either sticking with Prozinc, or switching to Lantus or Levemir. I would not recommend vetsulin unless finances require it (which we all understand - treating diabetes is expensive). It is fairly short acting and causes the blood glucose to drop steeply, and then rise steeply which isn't ideal over the long-term.

As far as cost, many folks here order Lantus or Levemir from a pharmacy in Canada to get a better price (it's quite expensive in the states), or you can get prozinc from chewy.com for about $110 (they adjust the price up and down a little from time to time).

Let us know what questions you have about home testing. That is the most important tool you have for helping your kitty - probably even more important than which insulin you choose.
 
Vetsulin is short acting, while the other options like Lantus, Levemir, and ProZinc are longer lasting. Basically, Vetsulin wears off sooner and doesn't carry most cats through a full 12-hour cycle. Vetsulin can also produce steeper drops in BG. So for many cats, it drops them too low while it's working, then wears off and leaves them too high for much of the cycle. My vets really don't like Vetsulin as a result and only use it for cats when nothing else works or when the cost of the preferred insulins are an issue.

As between the longer acting insulins, for a normal diabetic kitty, the main difference between ProZinc and Lantus or Levemir is that ProZinc doesn't build up in the cat's body over time, while Lantus and Levemir do. The build up with Lantus and Levemir helps keep the blood glucose more stable in most diabetic kitties, so many vets prefer Lantus and Levemir over ProZinc. Lantus and Levemir are much more expensive than ProZinc in the US, but because they're human insulins, as Djamila mentioned, many people are ordering them from Canadian pharmaices for less.

For my kitty, however, ProZinc works much better. Pants started on Lantus twice, but it was a total disaster -- she over reacts and has super fast, near-death hypoglycemia. On her more recent go round with Lantus, her blood glucose went from 450 to 50 in under an hour on her very first .5 unit dose, which is not supposed to be possible. (That's a highly unusual reaction; most diabetic cats do very well on Lantus.)

Fortunately, her reaction to ProZinc was much more normal. She's sensitive to it, and sometimes has bigger drops than normal for no apparent reason, so I'm very cautious about dosing and leave her at higher numbers than most people on FDMB are aiming for. But so far, it's helping and it's not producing scary lows.
 
As many have said, I used Prozinc because my vet recommended it. They never mentioned the Ls...but this was a long time ago, so they may not have been as commonly used then. Prozinc worked well for us, and in the end, we discovered my cat had cancer as well so we were only on it for a short time. Honestly, if you've already bought the Prozinc and are using it, I'd probably stick with it at first. No sense in wasting the money! We'd be happy to help you with home testing and adjusting the dose.

If you haven't bought it yet, you could do some further research on Lantus and Lev if you wanted or go with the Prozinc. I wouldn't recommend Vetsulin, but if you do need to get that for money reasons, we can probably help you out with that too...it doesn't really work as well, but I've seen a few cats go into remission from it. I wouldn't ever suggest it, but it can be used.
 
I used vetsulin for two years before switching. My cat is in a high dose... I found when I hit around 5 units the vetsulin stung her and was uncomfortable.
 
MBL said:
My question for this group is why you chose prozinc. I was looking at the pricing and it is almost double the cost of vetsulin is there specific reason to go with prozinc.
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Prozinc 'usually' has a longer duration than Vetsulin, and doesn't drop the blood glucose as fast. However, there are cats that Vetsulin has worked just fine for.

Research from the RVC (Royal Veterinary College) in London found that cats who didn't do well on Vetsulin/Caninsulin (and quite a few don't do 'well') did better on Prozinc. Cats switched to Prozinc typically had better overall glycemic control, better clinical signs, and an increased chance of remission.

The other long lasting insulins, Lantus and Levemir (made for humans) are also good insulins for cats, and 'may' have a longer duration than Prozinc, and a flatter curve.
In other research from the RVC it was found that Prozinc and Lantus had similar remission rates. This was somewhat unexpected given Lantus' reputation for being the best for getting cats into remission. And the researcher who did this work actually won an award for proving this.

I've not used Prozinc (wasn't available in the UK when my cat was diagnosed) but have used two other PZI insulins; one rather like Prozinc and the other a very long-lasting PZI made for humans.
I like PZI insulins generally because they have some flexibility with the timing of the shots (as is also the case with Vetsulin), and it's easier to change the dose than it is with the long lasting human insulins, Lantus and Levemir.

Regarding the price difference between Prozinc and Vetsulin; yes, Prozinc is more expensive per vial, but it can often keep potency for longer than Vetsulin does. So, if you have a cat on a low dose you may find that the cost balances out because you may be able to use that vial of Prozinc for longer...

Eliz
 
Elizabeth and Bertie said:
In other research from the RVC it was found that Prozinc and Lantus had similar remission rates. This was somewhat unexpected given Lantus' reputation for being the best for getting cats into remission. And the researcher who did this work actually won an award for proving this.
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That's great to know! Thank you for sharing. Do you happen to know where to find the research? I've had a few suspicions about prozinc and I'm wondering if any of them are addressed in his work.
 
Djamila said:
Do you happen to know where to find the research?
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I think the lady who did the research was Ruth Gostelow from the RVC in London. It was part of their research into feline diabetic remission. But while some references have been made to this research I don't think it's yet been written up into a paper, or at least, not one that is in the public domain as yet...

Ah...but there was a short video talk from another RVC vet involved in the remission research, and I think that does touch on remission rates from Lantus and Prozinc... I have this vague recollection of posting a link to it here a while back.... Hmmm... Will see if I can find it.

Edited to add:
@Djamila - Couldn't seem to find it here but I think this may be the video/audio I'm thinking of...
https://www.facebook.com/vettimesuk/videos/10154849470681010/
 
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Thanks everyone for your input. I miss read the label and thought that prozinc bottle lasted 40 units not 400 units. which is the reason i was looking other options but 400 units is a lot more budget manageable and I can definitely do that. Based on all the input it does seem like the best insulin to start my cat on.
 
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