Best place to get insulin and supplies

[Magda]

Where do you get your insulin? It costs $120 at my vet Plus I will be needing needles soon (U-40)
I am in so much debt right now because of my 2 cats need to find best way to lower the bills.
Also need ketone strips. Which ones do you use?
What else should I get?
I'm in Northern NJ.

 

[Sue and Oliver (GA)]

That isn't a bad price. You can get compounded ProZinc on the Internet with a vet prescription. It tends to run about $90 not including shipping. If it turns out he needs less insulin, a vial should last longer.

You can use U100 syringes, buying them cheaper at the pharmacy. It looks like NJ allows you to get them without a prescription. BUT to use them with a U40 insulin, you have to use a conversion chart:

http://www.felinediabetes.com/insulin-conversions.htm

If you decide to do that, get the 0.5 unit type so you can dose in smaller increments.

 

[Mancat]

I get my insulin from the vet's as well. ProZinc runs me about $143 per bottle. Sue's right, you can get it cheaper online however they charge you a fortune because it has to kept cold and shipped overnight so you almost end up paying the price that you'd pay at the vet anyway. I got my ketone strips on Amazon. It was 50 strips for about $12. You should only need to test weekly at most. I only test my cat occasionally if something seems off. Those will last you quite some time. I use the ADW Diabetes website for my needles. It's for human diabetics however they have a section for pets.

http://www.adwdiabetes.com/product/ulticare-vetrx-insulin-syringes_1270_112.htm
This link is the exact U-100 needles that I use. I started with U-40 and they run about the same price but I needed more fine control of dosing so I ended up switching. You can find conversion charts through the message board or just Google it. If you get a couple packs it should last you awhile.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007AZ686I?tag=felinediabetesfdmb-20
The link that I used to get Ketostix to test ketones.

I don't know what kind of meter you use but a lot of people use the human Freestyle meter with test strips. Originally I purchased the AT2 meter for pets per my vet's recommendation and when I found this website, I stopped using AT2 test strips and started using Freestyle strips. That saved me quite a bit. AT2 strips are very expensive. Below is the link for the strips that I use. Next to the insulin they are the most expensive, unfortunately. Because I'm still in the process of regulating my cat I buy these on the regular and that does tend to add up. You can usually get them on sale for $30-$35.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004DJYJJM?tag=felinediabetesfdmb-20

The last thing I can recommend, and I don't have total details about it, but someone mentioned that there is a forum on the site here where people have extra supplies that they no longer need. You could try finding that and seeing if anyone can help you out. I used to have U-40 needles that I would have gladly given you but I ended up using them. I hope some of my information helped you out though.