5/3 New-Starting insulin tonight

[Dlacer]

New to the form. We have been working with Ronins vet closely. She gave us an rx for Lantus 1 unit every 12 hrs after eating.

We picked up the rx today but have to go to another pharmacy for the needles to find a generic brand they didn’t have. So we won’t start first shot until pm.

question is our vet called in the vial but our pharmacist gave us a pen because it’s cheaper to do the pen. What would you recommend is better for ease of administration the pen or vial? Right now we are stuck with the pen but are open to changing since we are so new to this.

I looked in to the pen once we got home and my worry is it says we can’t use it after 28 days. Which seems crazy because there is 300 units in one pen, which means I should be able to get 150 shots/days out of it. My other concern is in the video for the pen from the manufacturer it says that you have to waste 2 units each draw to check that it is working before admission. If that is the case then we will be using 6 unit each day, 1 unit for am, 2 for the check , 1 unit for pm and two for the check again. With using 6 a day means I will only get 50 days out of the pen. since it has 300 units per pen.

I saw on one of the forms that you can draw up from a pen like a vial. My thought is we can do that instead and have less waste then injecting directly with the pen.

My question is if we use the draw method from the pen to prevent waste and get more doses out of each pen can the pen be used after 28days? Since I should be able to get 150 days/shots out of a pen if we use the draw from the pen method.

Can you get more units out of a vial? How long does it last in a vial? Can you use the vial after 28days?

Thanks for your help in advance

 

[tiffmaxee]

Welcome. The pens are great because you will be able to use them to the last drop. My vials lasted only 5-6 months. You need to keep both in the refrigerator which prolongs the life of the insulin. Humans don’t refrigerate it so it lasts about a month. Definitely use the pen like a vial. It’s actually necessary so you will need to increase and decrease n .25 increments. So get syringes with 1/2 unit markings. There’s no way to know how many doses you will get because you will evaluate the dose at least weekly. How often depends on which method you choose to follow, TR or SLGS.

There’s a lot of information on the yellow stickies. I’d start by reading the one on the methods. Ask tons of questions as we like to answer them.

 

[Sienne and Gabby (GA)]

Welcome to the group.

Many of us use the pens. You do NOT want to use the needle tips/inject directly from the pen. The pens will only allow you to dose in whole units. That's fine for an adult human. It's not so good with a cat. We increase doses by 0.25u so you will need syringes. You will want to get U-100 3/10cc syringes with half unit markings. For getting a low cost option in order to get started, Walmart's Relion brand is fine. I bought my syringes from ADC. They don't carry Relion but have a good selection of insulin syringes with half unit markings. This is information on handling insulin and syringes, etc. I've used pens for 3 months which was to the last drop in the pen. Basically, you can use your insulin for as long as it's potent.

If you're going on a shopping trip, you will want to get a glucometer. Again, the Relion brand is one that many here use. The strips, which are the ongoing cost issue, are inexpensive. Remember to get lancets in order to poke your kitty's ear for the blood test. Ketostix are also a good investment to make sure your cat isn't developing ketones, which can be a major medical complication.

There's a great deal of information on getting started in this post on helping us to help you. It will guide you on what to put in your signature (so we don't keep asking you the same questions endlessly), where to find the spreadsheet template we use to track blood glucose (BG) levels which is imperative to know so. you can safely give an injection, etc. The only information that's not in the post deals with food. We recommend feeding your diabetic cat a low carb, canned food diet. There is great information on feline nutrition on the website I linked. There's a chart on the site that will give you a list of most (there's a lot!) of canned foods available in the US along with their nutritional information including carbohydrates. You'll want to feed. your cat under 10% carbs although most of us feed about half that amount.

 

[Dlacer]

Thanks that really helps to answer all my questions. I have reviewed the pinned posts and going to work on putting together a crash kit today and print the crash instructions as well. I will plan on discussing each method with our vet at our weekly check.

he is already on a wet diet of the fancy feast classic since December since we tried diet first per vet recommendations before starting the insulin today. We did get the ReliOn meter.

I will work on a signature and upload the chart we have once we convert the info we already have over to the recommended template everyone is using here.