confused about insulin cost

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keldarkk1

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My cat was just diagnosed Friday. I spent $120 on insulin, which was painful. I keep seeing others post that having a diabetic cat isn't very costly and that the total costs will be $30-50 per month. Is my vet over charging me or are the others just very lucky?

I am a single mother and don't have a great job. I have no idea how I am going to come up with so much extra money each month, but not coming up with it just isn't an option. I would really love to find out where to get the insulin for $30-50!
 
What type of insulin is your cat on? There are different types of insulins, each of which has it's plusses and minusses.

There are some less expensive insulins, which don't work well for a lot of cats but which do work well for some (Vetsulin, Humulin N, etc). And there are some more expensive insulins, which do work well for a lot of cats, but which are ... well, more expensive (Lantus, Levemir). The key in keeping Lantus and Levemir costs down is to request your vet to write you a prescription for the insulin in pens or cartridges and not a vial; it's a higher up-front cost, but usually a better buy in the long run.

Since you said you got your insulin from a vet, I'm going to guess that you're on ProZinc? That's a newer insulin, a replacement for Idexx's PZI-Vet. Like the other insulins, it has it's plusses and minusses; it's usually better tolerated than Vetsulin and Humulin N, and has a shorter duration (and is therefore somewhat more flexible) than Levemir and especially Lantus.

If stored and handled properly, many insulins will last longer than the manufacturer's 'guaranteed effective' date. For example, Lantus is guaranteed effective for 28 days after opening, but with proper care and storage, folks have used it for 6+ months before it started losing it's effectiveness.

If you go to the bottom right corner of the screen and use the 'Jump To' box, you can go over to the forums for each type of insulin. There are stickies at the top of each forum, explaining the most effective way to use the insulin. You'll find that two of the main things the folks at FDMB emphasize are home blood sugar testing and a proper low-carbohydrate diet (that expensive 'diabetic' food the vet sold you -- it's crap).

The one thing that will give you the most control over your cat's diabetes is home blood-testing. That way, you can see exactly how your cat is reacting to insulin in real-time, without the expense or stress of a vet visit, and you can adjust your dosing accordingly. A good low-carbohydrate diet is also important, but a dietary change should only be done if you're home-testing, as it *will* decrease the amount of insulin your cat needs, and your cat's blood sugar levels can drop dangerously low if you change diet without also adjusting the dose as needed.


Can I ask your cat's name, what insulin s/he's on, how much insulin you give her/him and how often, and what s/he's eating? Oh!! -- and welcome!

-- Jean and her Gwyn
 
keldarkk1 said:
My cat was just diagnosed Friday. I spent $120 on insulin, which was painful. I keep seeing others post that having a diabetic cat isn't very costly and that the total costs will be $30-50 per month. Is my vet over charging me or are the others just very lucky?

I am a single mother and don't have a great job. I have no idea how I am going to come up with so much extra money each month, but not coming up with it just isn't an option. I would really love to find out where to get the insulin for $30-50!
Click to expand...

Many people here use Lantus, or Levemir insulins for their kitties and they purchase it in the pen cartridge format.
While the initial outlay might seem higher, each of those 3mil pens will tend to last about 30 days *if* your cat is on 1unit, or less, of insulin BID.
5 cartridges costing a total of about $115 lasting 5 total months, or so - $23 per month for insulin.

Most expensive monthly cost is probably going to be the meter strips, (and we DO advocate home testing and you NEED to home test if you are giving insulin). Wal-mart's Reli-on brand is not as expensive as a lot of meters out there, and the strips to that machine will run about $40 for 100 strips.
The Machine is often free with your first strip purchase. You will use, if you test a minimum of before each shot, 60 strips per day.

Another option might be the TRUEBalance frequent tester combo - 250 strips for $59.96
http://www.americandiabeteswholesale.co ... Detail.bok
And the meter for $5.99 http://www.americandiabeteswholesale.co ... Detail.bok

Lancets, which you will also need, can be purchased from the same online seller for less than $5 for 100 of them.

FOOD is where you can REALLY save. You do NOT need any RX foods. Store bought CANNED low carb Friskies, 9-Lives, Fancy Feast, Special Kitty, Sophisticat, etc. will do just nicely - and you will find that is what the vast majority of people on this board in the US feed to their cats. BUT!!! You really NEED to be home testing if you are going to feed your kitty a new diet. Lowering the carbs w/o knowing what your baby's BGL is before you give insulin is a recipe for a disaster - hypoglycemia. viewtopic.php?f=28&t=15887

An average sized cat who is well regulated will need to eat about 5-6 oz of food per day. The caveat of feeding low carb foods is that many times,
you are able to reduce your kitty's insulin dose, and quite a number of cats do become DIET CONTROLLED diabetics on low carb food alone!

Here is the link to Binky's list - a treasure trove of information for cat foods. http://binkyspage.tripod.com/canfood.html Choose foods that are less than 10% in carb value. My diet controlled kitty gets foods that are 5% or less in carbs and was only on insulin for 60 days before he was able to stop taking it due to lowering the carb content in his foods.

HTH,

~M
 
The Machine is often free with your first strip purchase. You will use, if you test a minimum of before each shot, 60 strips per day.
Click to expand...
*cough* That should read "60 strips per *month*, not day.


(Correcting because MaryJo's off-line ATM and I don't want you thinking it's 60 strips a day ... )
 
We got a good 2 1/2 months out of our first vial of Lantus. In the end we didn't stop using it because it "pooped" out, but because Yittle went into diet-controlled remission and never required another dose. We made very sure to never shake it, keep it in the fridge at all times, never expell air into the vial when drawing insulin out (always overdraw into syringe and then tap the excess into the sink not the vial) etc. Even during the last weeks he was using it that vial was capable of sending him into borderline hypoglycemia (blood glucose under 45 etc).

So depending on what insulin you're using, and how carefully you store it and use it - it can last for LOTS longer then the manufacturer suggests for a human.
 
We purchased a 5-pack of 3ml Levemir cartridges for $120 Canadian from Walmart (I live in Michigan and got it in Ontario).

The 5-pack will last over a year with refrigeration and careful handling. Depends on your dose too. My two diabetic cats get a TOTAL of 3 units per day - so a 3ml cartridge containing 300 units lasts approx 100 days. Levemir is less fragile than Lantus.
 
keldarkk1 said:
My cat was just diagnosed Friday. I spent $120 on insulin, which was painful. I keep seeing others post that having a diabetic cat isn't very costly and that the total costs will be $30-50 per month. Is my vet over charging me or are the others just very lucky?

I am a single mother and don't have a great job. I have no idea how I am going to come up with so much extra money each month, but not coming up with it just isn't an option. I would really love to find out where to get the insulin for $30-50!
Click to expand...


Insulin cost varies. What insulin did the vet prescribe for your cat?

Lantus and Levemir insulin are quite expensive but both work very well for diabetic cats. Newly diagnosed diabetic cats who start on Lantus right away along with a low carb diet have a very high remission rate (80% I think?) and may no longer need insulin after a few weeks.

There are ways to cut costs with Lantus or Levemir. Like buying the pre-filled pens or cartridges instead of a single bottle. The pens and cartridges come as a pack of 5 and you use one pen or cartridge each month. A pack costs about $150 but it comes out to $30 per pen or cartridge for 5 months which is much more cost effective than paying $120+ for a single bottle that may need to buy every single month since the bottle doesn't last too long.

Humulin N by comparision cost $30 or so. But the insulin tends to be too short acting in diabetic cats and achieving good regulation is a bit harder. Some cats do respond well to Humulin N, though.

You can use a free prescriptiom drug card to save money on insulin that you buy at the Human pharmcy. Here are links: http://www.felinediabetes.com/phorum5/r ... ?8,1946184 And shop around for the best price .Some people buy insulin from online Canadian pharmacies for a lot less money.

The initial cost for your diabetic cat is pretty high but it does go down. Here are tips on how to save money: http://www.geocities.com/jmpeerson/frugal.html
 
JJ & Gwyn said:
The Machine is often free with your first strip purchase. You will use, if you test a minimum of before each shot, 60 strips per day.
Click to expand...
*cough* That should read "60 strips per *month*, not day.


(Correcting because MaryJo's off-line ATM and I don't want you thinking it's 60 strips a day ... )
Click to expand...

Thanks for correcting that for me, I was typing with Stormy Blue trying to lay on the kybd - but I am not Mary Jo :-p

~M
 
I think you can look at it as having to buy the econo size for an item, but that item lasts you a really long time.

Kinda like buying some toilet paper on sale 25$ and it comes in a box of 100 rolls! You may say YIKES! 25$ for some toilet paper? That's crazy!

The items you need to buy may seem like it's a big expense but you are not getting the items frequently. Think of it like stocking up your kitchen with food, from scratch ... it's alot of money to get all those little things, but once you're stocked up, you just need to get the replacements once in awhile.

I pay around $120 for 5-cartridge package of Levemir and it will last me about 5-6 weeks but the doses I give my TWO cats is pretty high - 8units and 14units. You won't be giving your cat anywhere near that much so each cartridge would last you at least 30days(Lantus) or 42days(Levemir), or somewhere around there if you have some other insulin. I occasionally use Humulin R and that one has no expiry shelf life that I know.

Testing will be a minimum of 2 times a day but it's best to get a couple more tests in during each cycle, so you could say maybe 4 tests a day. A box of 100 strips would last you 25 days.

Now, before we get way ahead of ourselves here, there is one thing you should know and that is you may not even need to give any insulin if you have a kitty that may just be controlled by diet alone! There are many kitties who are given an improved diet and they show improved BG numbers. There are many others that improve their diet and are on insulin for a very short time, and then they are off insulin.

Your cat was just diagnosed recently, so you should get the meter to test and go from there.
Since you already have the insulin, let's get you testing and see how things go.
If you can provide the info the others mentioned, people here can help you through it.
 
There seems to be some conflicting and somewhat erroneous information in this thread. Hope I can clear up a few things as to monthly cost regarding the longer lasting and most effective human insulins many of us here use for our diabetic cats, Lantus and Levemir.

There is a difference between the expiration dates on the vials or pens and the in-use expiration. The expiration date listed on the vial or pen is the unopened/unused expiration. The manufacturer of Lantus pens recommends 28 days as the in-use point of expiration, the manufacturer of Levemir pens recommends 42 days as the in-use point of expiration and those would be from the date you first draw from it. Most of us get far longer use from them, despite what has been stated. The pens are much more cost effective than the vials of these insulins.

Human diabetics would rarely use a pen longer than manufacturer recommended in-use expiration periods because they use so much more than we use for our cats, unless the cat has Acromegaly. Also, those recommended in-use periods for Lantus and Levemir pens are so short because the pens are meant to be used and kept at room temperature.

We have determined the pens can last until they are depleted as long as they are refrigerated and otherwise treated carefully - not kept in the frig door or exposed to light more than necessary.

Lantus may not typically last as long as Levemir, but it has shown to continue being effective well after 28 days of in-use as long as it is kept refrigerated and handled carefully. I have not used it, I am only reporting what has been posted on FDMB and available in the stickies in the Insulin Support Groups.

From my personal experience, having used Levemir for almost 3 years, it comes out to about $13 a month for me, even less if I ordered from Canada. If you were able to afford that $120 for 1 vial, you could have afforded a 15 month supply of Levemir from Canada. It's probably about the same cost for Lantus.

So even $30 or $50 a month cost estimate is too much, you can get insulin which will work well for your cat for much cheaper!
 
Our $120 vial of Lantus lasted about 2.5 months (admittedly poor handling according to these boards' instructions) and the 5 pack of pens was around $200. We were off of the stuff before we made it through 1 pen, but if you go by 1 pen per month our insulin costs ran slightly under $50 per month either way.

I freaked out at the cost at first too. The pharmacist gave me what he had estimated I needed in syringes - 20 - and I was thinking a $120 of insulin is going to last me 10 days!?!?!?! But then the vet showed how much we'd use each dose and explained that storing in the fridge would help lengthen the life of the insulin.
 
I don't believe we got your name, so forgive me but you never did tell us what insulin you are using. everyone seems to think your on lev. or lantus. if your on pzi (pro zinc) a vial could last you nearly a year!
please give us lots more information.
the more you know the cheaper it gets.
for example, do not let your vet test your cat anymore. that is something you do and save a bundle plus it is MUCH more helpful to dosing to do it yourself.
not to be self righteous but many many here know more about treating diabetes than your vet. that is ALL we do, feline diabetes, whereas your vet maybe spent 20 minutes learning that in schooling.
we know all about how to properly feed you diabetic cat.
many cats go otj (off the juice, insulin) with proper diet and testing so that would save you a bundle. i may be able to help you get started so pm me if you need anything.
just press the pm buttom on the lower portion of this post and send me a private message if you need some supplies.
and give us more info.
and ask questions.
it can be much cheaper the more you know.
Lori
 
I calculated it out and Vetsulin was costing me about $0.15 per Unit, and Lantus is costing me about $0.13 per Unit.

Remember that Lantus and the human insulins are U-100 concentration, and the insulin for pets is U-40 concentration. So you can't just compare the price of 10mL of one insulin to 10mL of another.
 
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