PROZINC HELL

IDEXX PZI was great, used it for 3 years. Prozinc? Using it 2 weeks now, no good. Started at same dose as PZI, didnt like the results, so I reduced thinking maybe he was rebounding.
Generally:
There have been several instances where I thought I completely missed with the shot, as there was no change in the numbers for 10 hours. BIzarre. I did not miss. Other times when beginning at BS 500, he has fallen rapidly (100 points per hour), leveled off and then back up at +10. I know, sunds like a rebound, gave less insulin, numbers didnt drop at all. WTF? He is on prednisone once a day, pred takes 3 hours to start increasing his sugar. If he is high, I wait to give the pred , so the insulin time to work. When I give pred, I give more insulin, about .4 units more.

I had some PZI left in the bottle, so I used it just for yesterday to see if maybe it was just my cat. He had his first normal day in 2 weeks. WIth a preshot of 119, I went back to the PROZINC last night. I didnt get up to test in the middle of the night, but this morning at +8.5, he was 450. He does not have enough kidney function to live through this bull****. WHAT AM I GOING TO DO??? Vetsulin? Lantus??? HAs anyone transitioned form PZI IDEXX to anything else successfully???? I give about 3.6 units when giving the pred, and 3.2 with no pred. I will start logging data. I didnt think I needed to with this insulin, but maybe I need to learn it's "quirks" like I did for the PZI. With PZI, after 4 doses high, I always had to drop back for one dose...because it "built up" for lack of a scientific terminology.

Any help, or experiences would be appreciated.

 

My first thought would be to try one of the compounded PZIs, specifically BCP PZI.

I never used PZI VET but did use BCP PZI, and when I was in the PZI group saw no difference in protocol between the two. It will require a new script from the vet, but the vet can order a free 5ml vial of U100. It only takes a couple days for your vet to get the free vial, so if your vet faxes the request today, you can likely have it by Thursday or Friday.

Good luck. Venita

 

Ditto what Venita said.....go with BCP.

 

fwiw, from what i've been seeing about prozinc, it works, it just takes substantially more of it to do the job than the pzi vet did.

also, fwiw, i switched from pzi vet a couple months ago to lantus and generally speaking, once it starts working, it does a pretty good job. it's a bit frustrating though in that with pzi if i tested mid afternoon and Mousie was higher than i liked, i could just shoot some more and i can't do that with lantus. i just gotta sit there and wait for +12 to come around

 

What you describe is the same issue I am having with my Oscar. Some days we see absolutely no change, and others we see a minimal drop. I had to reduce our dose from 3.5U to 2.8U because of a nadir coming out of the blue at a 44. Now I can't even get greens again. I think it has something to do with the insulin over powering the cat's system and I just need to stick it out at a higher dose and feed more, but it is so frustrating! cat(2)_steam

 

Thank you for telling me about the PZI BCP. I will send the form over to my vet. How are they making it without the bovine pancreatic tissue? Is it just pork?

Anyway, I thought of lantus, but humulin didnt work at all. Does that matter? I also like the freedom of shooting at +8 if I have to. Lantus is long acting. How long? Isnt PZI long acting? I will try to start with the PZI BCP, if I cant for some reason, I will the lantus. In the meantime have a little PZI Idexx left in the bottle, it will last another day.

THANK YOU so much .


Kelly & Oscar: I am having the same exact issues with Prozinc. Last night's pre shot was 217. Then his +2.5 was 65. WAY too soon for that number! I gave him a teaspoon of corn syrup & 3Tablespoons of shaved friskies with gravy (it is like eating cereal).

(Hey everyone, in case you dont know this, friskies foods with gravy are the hypo food of choice, just dont feed too much or you will be at 500 in the morning.)
Also if anyone is in NJ, START II is having a tricky tray for the cats at a place in Garfield NJ. I went last year, it was really fun. They had like 500 people show up. Tons of prizes. The info is on their website.

 

More details about BCP PZI are available at their website: It is bovine still --
http://www.bcpvetpharm.com/

Lantus and Humulin N are very different, so I would not judge one by the other.

 

Amy - I think it just takes longer than the manufacturer's stated 45 days for the ProZinc insulin to settle in. You don't need to give the karo syrup or HC food until kitty is lower than 40. At 65 I would just open up another can of LC food. Otherwise you might be creating more problems with the numbers than is needed. Each insulin has their draw backs and perks, its all a balancing game I am afraid!

 

Yeah, I strongly disagree. 65 at +2.5 is a problem. I have been doing this for almost 4 years. Thanks anyway.

 

Sorry, I didn't see that it was at 2.5. My appologies!

 

No problemo... starting lantus tomorrow. Trying to help this cat...love him so.