Cheapest place to buy Lantus 100 units/ml

Status
Not open for further replies.
gerrilady

gerrilady

Member Since 2011
My cat was diagnosed with Diabeties maybe about a year ago. It was an very long process to determine correct dosage. He is a huge cat - not fat - just huge. He is a rescue - neutered late in life hince the reason he is huge - he weighs just over 20 lbs. I have him on a strict raw food diet - chicken and he is now up to 13 units a day and is maintained at that. I have tried to back down on the dosage but he does not respond well - I can see his body reacting so I went back up to 13 units a day. We've also tried difference insulin and they don't work for him. He's doing wonderful - beautiful coat and interacts - however his blood sugar never really reaches a normal number. The vet did have him on Trylistane (I think thats the way you spell it) but that didn't help after a month and that - too - was very expensive. Ok.... Really - the main reason I am here is to find somewhere - ANY WHERE - that I can buy this insulin for less that almost $200 a bottle - because - yes - he goes through one bottle in just a little over a month. I'm a single mom trying to do the right thing but I'm talking - this is a car payment amount! Please - if anyone know of any place that can cut me a break. Please let me know. I've been told that my job position has been eliminated and I have to find a way to take care of my sweet Eclipse. The only advice that I am searching for is a less expensive place to get the Lantus..... Right now I am paying $189 at CVS - they give me a "pet discount" which is like $10 off I think... lol

Thank you so very much!
Gerri
 
Hello Eclipse and his Mom ~O)
I'm sorry to hear that Lantus is so expensive overseas. I live in Europe, Lithuania and buy Lantus Solostar pen (it has 300 units of insulin; 3 ml). One pen costs about 15,19 USD. So, as far as I understand, you need about 780 units of insulin per month (that is about 2 pens and a half). 780 units of insulin (the amount you need per month) would cost you about 37,97 USD in Lithuania.
Have no idea why there is such a difference in the prices :o

Wish you and your huge teddy all the best and to find a more affordable price of Lantus.
 
Hi Gerri,
At the dose you are giving, you may have a cat with acromegaly, OR Eclipse could be wildly overdosed. It's hard to tell without knowing some info like what dose did you start at, what kind of increases were done and how quickly, whether you are home testing, and other factors.

Below are the 2 tests that can be done, but first it would be good to sort out if Eclipse truly needs this high of a dose.
IAA Test
IGF-1 (Acro) Test

I'll send you more info, so please kindly check your pm's... I believe someone else has sent you info as well.

If you can please post some more info on the points I listed above, it will be helpful in helping you.

Gayle
 
Hi Gerri -

Where are you located? Many of us get our insulin from local drug stores, and when we first switched from ProZinc to Levemir, I called around to find the best price. Some people order theirs from Canada (you'll need a prescription from your vet). Others who have a Sams Club or Costco nearby get it there. Apparently you don't need a membership to use their pharmacy, but they offer more discounts on Rx for those with memberships. I don't have either closeby, so I ended up at Walgreens with their Rx card. It is a considerable savings with the card! And every time I go in/near another pharmacy, I stop in and ask their prices. I'm not above jumping around for the better price.

Grayson is/was insulin resistant (IAA), although we've had serious reductions over the past year. He has Acromegaly as well. Acro shows up with feline diabetes (FD) as a symptom, and often insulin resistant FD. Cats are generally large (G used to be 22#, dropped to 12# and up to about 25# now). He had a ravenous appetite, and has the separation in his teeth - there should be a couple of pictures on the forum to see what to look for.

On the Insulin Support Groups here (ISG), there's a forum where you can read more about both conditions on the Acro/IAA/Cushings forum. I cut other expenses so I could provide him the best care possible.

Sounds like you've got your kitty on a good diet, and are home-testing him, so that's a very good start. Good luck with the insulin search.

Lu-Ann
 
Hi Gerry-

You have gotten some good advice. Just wanted to add in regards to your original question:

Some links to discount cards for Lantus & Levermir that limit what you pay:
http://www.lantus.com/sign-up/default.aspx
https://www.myflexpen.com/saveonflexpen/saveup.aspx

many have had success with these. You may want to call around some to check who will work with them. I also think you (your kitty/child) needs to be '18 years old' on the application.

Sam's & Costco seemed to have best deals when we were on insulin. You do NOT have to be a member to use their pharmacy. Sams also price matched for us.

I hope you may also post this (and any other questions you might have) in http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewforum.php?f=12 section.
There are folks with high dose cats who can probably be your best resource and most tuned into things you are also dealing with regarding your kitty.
 
Hi,
At higher doses, I really recommend changing to Levemir, which is very similar to Lantus but it doesn't sting. Human diabetics have told us that Lantus stings/burns when injected.

I've been using Levemir for my kitty since 2009 and love it.

That said - I order my insulin from Canada. You need to allow 3 to 4 weeks, but it is a fine product at much better prices than we have here in US. You do need to fax them a prescription.

5-packs of Levemir pen cartridges cost $125. That is 300U per pen x 5 = 1500U of insulin.

My first diabetic cat, Norton, was positive for Acromegaly. He was at 13U BID at one point also, so I do understand where you're at. He got intestinal cancer (unrelated to the acromegaly) and passed away in 2008.

phoebe
 
First of all, thank you all so very much for the quick and concerned responses. He does also have cushings and never responded to the Trilestain even after a month and that was getting expensive as well. I had to decide to cut the Trilestain and just focus on the insulin.

I will talk to my vet about the other tests, Gayle. Thank you.

I'll also talk to my vet about Levemir - because - yes - does sting. I do warm the syringe between my fingers before I inject then I rub the injection site afterwards. He's gotten used to it I think - or he's just so hungry tearing into the chicken that he doesn't notice. :(

We are located in the US - Mid Missouri. Do any of you have a website where I might look into ordering from Canada? I've checked prices at Sams and Costco and they aren't that much different - however I haven't checked in a while so it sounds like I'm due to call around for pricing again - especially after checking out the links for the discount cards. :) I never thought of calling him my "child". However I did ask my medical doc if he would give me a script for the insulin and he looked at me like I was nuts and I said "What the heck - couldn't hurt to ask - worse thing you can do is say no. " :)

Thank you all so very much. I will have to do more reading and research for my little black man.

Good night all.

Gerri
 
bettyandhank said:
Some links to discount cards for Lantus & Levermir that limit what you pay:
http://www.lantus.com/sign-up/default.aspx
https://www.myflexpen.com/saveonflexpen/saveup.aspx
Click to expand...
You might run into issues with these cards since many pharmacies require an NPI number before using them and just recently, the DHHS has revoked most vets' NPI numbers. :roll: In those cases, the AVMA recommends that veterinarians ask pharmacies implementing the NPI system to use software that allows a prescriber to bypass the NPI for veterinary prescriptions, or alternatively, use a generic NPI number for veterinarians in order to get past that screen, however, many pharmacies are no longer even doing this much. :sad:
 
I'm totally new to this site as I was diagnosed 2 weeks ago but I just did the whole pharmacy ring around last week. Kroger wanted 195 a bottle. The cheapest I could get it was at Sams at 188. Giant Eagle, Meijer, Walmart and Sams were all within 7 bucks of each other.
I then tried the discount card at Kroger (as that is where they called the prescription in) and they tried the medicationdiscountcard.com and a card they had themselves and got a whopping zero off. They said that the cards are good for generic medicines but there aren't any generic versions of insulin.

I did find that the Relion prime (i think) meter was the same price as the others are Walmart but there strips were very cheap - $9 for 50 - they had an ad for them at the checkouts by the bags which was obviously too late by the time I was checking out and had already got the Relion Micro. Switching meters might save you $30 every time you need a refill of test strips (which could be quite often if you test as frequently as some of these excel files look like!). The next time you fill up would cost 29 for 50 strips (20 for the meter and 9 for the strips) but thats still under the $38 for the prime

Hope this helps you (or someone else)
 
absoblogginlutely said:
I did find that the Relion prime (i think) meter was the same price as the others are Walmart but there strips were very cheap - $9 for 50 - they had an ad for them at the checkouts by the bags which was obviously too late by the time I was checking out and had already got the Relion Micro. Switching meters might save you $30 every time you need a refill of test strips (which could be quite often if you test as frequently as some of these excel files look like!). The next time you fill up would cost 29 for 50 strips (20 for the meter and 9 for the strips) but thats still under the $38 for the prime
Click to expand...

The Prime is the cheapest around for the test strips. When first starting out, however, the Micro/Confirm is generally recommended for new users because it requires less blood. During the first couple of weeks of testing, the amount of blood is a HUGE frustration, so the Micro makes things a lot less stressful because of that. If you've been testing a while or are able to consistently get a generous amount of blood without poking the vein every time, then the Prime is ideal, especially for the unbeatable price of the strips. :thumbup A lot of people (myself included) start with the Micro or Confirm and then move onto the Prime as their cat's ears learn to bleed, keeping the Micro as a backup meter.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top