While you have a day to look into it, you might want to call around and see if you can find a pharmacy that will let you split open a box of pens and buy just one....A lot of vets don't know about the pens, but they're the exact same drug, just in a different form.....each pen holds 300 units and you still use regular insulin syringes to pull the insulin out of the pen. We don't use the special needles designed to go with the pens (they are for humans to use)
Target stores, hospital pharmacies, some Costco pharmacies are some places we've heard that might be more willing to sell just one pen.....300 units is enough to last most cats about 3 months (or more..depends on dose).
One pen will cost you around $80-$100 instead of spending $300 on a vial that you'll most likely end up throwing half away
There's all kinds of great information about Lantus in the "stickys" at the top of the
Lantus Forum. The most important thing to learn is that it take 5-7 days when you first start before you'll know how well your cat will respond to the dose he's started on. It takes that long to build the "depot" that lantus requires (it's kind of like timed-release...out of each shot, some goes to work and the rest goes "into the depot" and is slowly released back into the bloodstream)
We start most cats here on somewhere 1 unit twice a day so if your vet suggests a higher dose, I'd really recommend you post and ask for advise here first. Most vets start their cats at way too high a dose! (My own vet suggested 4 units as a starting dose for China...at the time she weighed less than 8lbs and in the 4 years we've been doing this, she's never needed more than 2.75 so I would have seriously overdosed her if I'd listened to the vet)
It's much safer to start lower and slowly go up so you not only keep kitty safe, but also don't miss out on what could be a "perfect" dose. We only do increases in .25 unit increments here.
Because Lantus does usually take several days before you start to see real results, you could probably safely start on Friday night (if your vet doesn't go ahead and start on Friday morning....but remember, the shots need to be 12 hours apart). A few cats will respond sooner, but generally, it's going to take a few days before you'll see what the dose is truly going to do.
If your vet doesn't know about the pens, here's what we're talking about.....Again, you'll still need to get regular insulin syringes to use with it (or with a vial).
You'll want to get 3/10ml, 30 or 31 gauge insulin syringes
with half unit markings
All these have half unit markings and are the correct syringes for U100 insulin and are available from
ADW online:
UtiCare
Monoject
Carepoint
Sure Comfort
BD Ultra-Fine
They're also available at WalMart if you have one near you..Their Relion Brand 3/10ml, 3o or 31 gauge, 8mm insulin syringes all come with half unit markings and are only $12.58 for a box of 100 (although it seems a lot of WalMart employees don't realize that they DO come with half unit markings!!)
