Insulins for the treatment and stabilisation of glycaemia in feline medicine have evolved a lot in the last 20 to 25 years. We have gone from using preparations that were not always sufficiently effective or even dangerous to insulins that we can call «modern» and that allow the owner to administer these hormonal drugs without fear in a very simple way and almost without hypoglycaemia.
Currently, in feline medicine there are basically 4 insulins that the owner can use at home. These are: mixed crystalline and amorphous insulin extracted from pigs, human recombinant zinc protamine insulin, human insulin glargine and human insulin detemir. Of these, recombinant insulin protamine zinc and insulin glargine are the most widely used by clinicians in our country and also by the author. Both insulins are very safe and very reliable in lowering blood glucose levels in diabetic cats in a sustained manner; however, perhaps the biggest difference, according to current studies, is that insulin glargine has more laboratory hypoglycaemias but, paradoxically, far fewer clinical hypoglycaemias. If you would like to know more about how each of these insulins work, how they should be stored, what tricks the author uses to prevent owners from confusing doses and how to successfully manage their diabetic cat at home, click on the image to view this practical podcast.
