I'm a newbie and so is my cat, Callie

Hi! My name is Marie. Please forgive anything I may say that might not be appropriate, I'm not used to forums and have a lot to learn, I'm sure. I'm so grateful I found this site! I have a diabetic dog, and now a diabetic cat. The dog is doing well, we're past the first year....which was horrendous....and he's now his usual stubborn, joyful self. Callie was just diagnosed two days ago. She's a calico with an attitude....I've heard most of them are. The vet put her on one unit twice a day and M/D wet food. I was worried I wouldn't be able to give her the injection because she usually doesn't like to be messed with very often. But so far no problems. My main worry is the cost of the ProZinc. The vet charges $192 for the insulin, $49 for the needles and disposal container. I think that's unbelievable!...... and I've been looking for a substitute or ProZinc at a cheaper price. Good Grief! Sam's insulin is $24.88 and his needles are $12.98 and he's a 55 pound dog....Callie is about 10 pounds. I will have a difficult time with these costs because my funds are limited, I'm 70 and on social security. Does anyone have any ideas, or has anyone found ProZinc cheaper? I haven't read through all the posts yet so I'm sorry if I'm asking a question that's already been answered. Marie

 

Welcome to the forum...this is what I do. Allivet online pharmacy has it for $95.. then add cold shipping & it’s around $125. Your vet will have to ok the script. If you call the pharmacy, they then fax a form to your vet to get the prescription. This is the cheapest I’ve found. A u-40 syringe is used with prozinc, but a lot of people use our conversion chart with the u-100 needles. You can get those needles at Walmart. http://www.felinediabetes.com/insulin-conversions.htm
This is the conversion chart. You can usually choose the needles gauge size & the length of the needle at Walmart & the cost is $13. I hope this helps!
You can also buy the testing meter, test strips & lancets there much cheaper.

 

Hi Marie and welcome!

Yes, we can help you manage this with a bit less expense. Prozinc is unfortunately, just expensive. Although your vet's price is utterly ridiculous. You can get prozinc from Allivet for less, although I want to say that with shipping it's still around $130-140ish. many of us use u100 syringes and a conversion chart. u100's can be purchased at any human pharmacy, though I believe WalMart is the cheapest at around $13 for 100 syringes. You can also order syringes online at adwdiabetes.com in either u100 or you can stick with u40's and still find them much cheaper than your vet is selling them!

Depending on the state you're in, you may need your vet to write a prescription for the syringes. Every state has their own laws about that.

If you're willing to learn to test Callie's blood glucose at home, you can get an inexpensive human glucometer (we can give you details about this if you're willing to give it a try) and save hundreds if not thousands of dollars by avoiding unnecessary vet visits and tests. Home testing is far more accurate than vet tests anyways since cats get so stressed at the vet. Blood glucose goes up with stress, so the vet gets numbers that are higher than they really are, then they tell you to give more insulin than Callie needs and you end up with your cat going hypoglycemic once she's home and relaxed.

My cat was semi-feral when I started testing him. I thought there was no way he would ever tolerate me stabbing his ear multiple times every day, but after a little time and training, he got much much better and now even reminds me when it's time!

You can also save a ton of money on food. most of us feed fancy feast (pate style only!) or Friskies (same - pate style). They are low carb enough to be safe for our cats and sooooo much cheaper than the vet foods. Those prescription foods are a scam - they are too high in carbs to really be safe for a diabetic cat. If you click on the food list in my signature, you can see the carb content of tons of different foods. We recommend keeping a diabetic cat below 10% carbs, and most of us aim around 5%.

Please ask any questions you have! We are all happy to help!

 

Oops! I hadn't hit "refresh" before I posted so I didn't see Becky already gave you much of the same info! Thanks, Becky! and apologies for repeating your great info!

 

No problem @Djamila - happy you’re here to help!

 

Welcome Marie! You've been given great advice to get you started. Come on back with any/all your questions any time.

 

Welcome!

 

I buy my u40 syringes on Adwdiabetes.com

https://www.adwdiabetes.com/product/18553/ulticare-u40-pet-29g-3-10cc-1-2in-half-unit

 

Welcome, Marie and Callie, you have already received great information.