Insulin Pen, issues

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Oonagh's Mom

Oonagh's Mom

Member Since 2014
Oonagh is now on insulin and is in a Feline Insulin study:
Need some advice or suggestions from anyone else using an insulin pen instead of an injector to give a shot . About a week and a half ago, Oonagh was put on .5 mill of insulin. I have a new box of needles. On wednesday of this week, I attached the needle like I've been doing for over a month, and when I tested it, nothing came out. I twisted it back to the 1 setting as I was instructed to do, and again, nothing came out, and the pen did not default back to 0. I tried 3 different needles and nothing. So i finally gave up and explained the problem when I took her in for her testing. Well, when I went to pick her up that evening, the nurse showed me that the pen was indeed working, so I concluded to my embarrassement, that it must have just been me, since I am not a morning person. However, I had this happen again about Thursday evening. When I tried a 2nd needle, immediatly, the insulin leaked out before I even had to press the plunger. Again this evening, it happened. I switched to a 2nd needle, and it seemed to work, but when I tried to give the shot to the cat, the number indicator did not move, and the plunger acted very stiff. The nurse and doctor think I have been holding the pen wrong, but this time, I held it as they showed me. I tried to force it again, and it barely moved. I had restuck the cat by this time. When I pulled out the needle again, there was a drop of insulin at the end, and when I tested the needle, it seemed to flow freely. I am wondering if I need to ask for another box of needles, or am I now too tense to do this anymore after all that trouble on Wednesday? If this keeps up, I don't know if we'll be able to stay in the study. They tell me she could be going into remission, but if the pen doesn't work, or I have a bad box of needles.... I don't know if I should try to restick her again, or leave it until tomorrow or what.... It's frustrating when you are doing as you've been doing, and it suddenly you can't get your tools to work, and you don't think the people who need to listen to you don't believe you.
 
the difficulty is that none of us use the pen like it is intended.
We have pens, but we use them like a vial.... drawing out the insulin with a syringe.
The main reason for this is the pens only do whole unit doses..... and we do doses in 0.25u increments.

Is there any reason you can't switch to a syringe?
Sometimes one unit is too much for a cat.
 
It's part of the diabetes study. That is what I have been given to use. She has been doing really well for the past month, and the vet has lowered her to .5. but now with a new box of the needles, I can't seem to get it to work right. He actually called me this evening after I sent an e-mail to the clinic and he is having me bring Oonagh in on Tuesday. He told me the box came from a larger shipment from the same source. But I'm still not entirely convinced I don't have a box of defective needles....
 
What pen are you using? Lantus and Levemir pens only dispense in on-unit increments.
I used a Levemir pen for my MurrFee. He was then on 18 units of Levemir twice daily.
 
Maybe ask if you can use a syringe. Depending on the purpose of the study, that may be OK to do.
 
I've used the pens before on humans at work, and I hate them. I have misgivings that they are dispensing the correct amount (because I can't see it) and in people with the small needle, and the way you have to hold the pen, there always seems to be a small amount of insulin that "leaks out" of the injection site (which I was told is "normal"). Sometimes if the person is only on 1-2 units, this leaked amount appears to be quite a big % of the dose. I hate them with a passion, and use them as a vial if I can.
 
One of my concerns is that with this newest box given to me by the vet seems to have a lot of faulty needles. They told me to hold the pen upright and press the plunger to check and make sure it works. Just about every time I've done this within the past week, I see nothing coming out. Last wednesday, I went through 3 needles and finally gave up. I had to take oonagh in for a scheduled visit as they test her levels throughout the day. When I went to pick her up they showed me that the pen was working and implied it was me. They showed me that I was holding the pen "wrong" etc. However, there have now been 3 or 4 times since that day, not early morning, when I've held the pen just as they instructed and have gotten nothing out. So, I changed the needle, and a large drip came out of the end before I even pushed the plunger in. And yesterday evening, after I finally attempted to give her the shot, the plunger didn't seem to want to plunge at all. It is nearly out of insulin and I suspect that coupled with thi new box of needles, that something is awry. The vet actually called me Saturday (in answer to my e-mail voicing my concerns) and assured me that I could not possibly be correct about the needles because they were using working needles from the same batch. I don't know what is going on, but I am getting close to just giving up. I did this well for an entire month, but suddenly, it's all gone to h in a handbasket. I would say maybe i'm just having trouble seeing the spray come out of the pen, but I could see it this morning, and when it's working, I end up with insulin on a napkin that is obvious to see. (one of the instructions said to test it over a napkin.)
 
Unless the study is specifically to prove whether or not the pens work for cats, surely you could switch to using syringes and using the pen like a vial to draw insulin out of with a standard syringe? And if the study is to see whether or not the pens work - if they're not working for you then I can't imagine all these problems with getting Oonagh's dose into her is going to be doing her any good...and the stress of trying to make it all work isn't going to be doing you any good either. Even if it did turn out to be something about the way you're holding the pen rather than faulty needles, if a method doesn't work for you then it doesn't work. I'd push them to let you use regular syringes with the pen to make sure Oonagh's getting her dose correctly.
 
I totally agree with April...unless the study you're in specifically forbids you from using normal insulin syringes, I'd just get some and start using them instead of the pen needles. You just pull the cap off the pen and instead of attaching one of the special needles that goes with it, pull the correct dose out of the pen (just like it was a little vial) ...at least that way you know your cat is getting the insulin she needs
 
The study is to see if insulin injected by the pen will work. I have never given shots to my cat before until this study, and so don't have any of the other type of supplies--plus I don't want to try any thing new without the doctor's approval--for one thing, I'm concerned I'd end up really hurting her and 2, this is my 2nd box of needles and the problems actually started with this box. As long as she is in the study, Oonagh gets her supplies for free. Otherwise, well...I don't want to think about the otherwise. We did coconut oil for a year, and it kept her going ok, but then both she and my other cat began to have bad reactions to the oil and had to stop it.
 
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Are you storing the pen in the fridge? Pens should be stored at room temperature if you are using the needle attachments, because the temperature changes cause the auto-inject mechanism to malfunction. Pens stored at room temperature will probably have to be discarded earlier than if stored in the fridge.
 
Storing at room temperature as I was instructed. It seems the problems started with the new box of needles that they gave me in the clinic...
 
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