Drawing insulin from vial question

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Lori in Ohio

Lori in Ohio

Member Since 2010
I found this in one of the Lantus/Levemir sticky's:

"If you draw up too much insulin in the syringe... squirt excess either into the air dramatically like they do on TV or into a paper towel... anywhere but back into vial/cartridge/pen. There is a silicon coating inside the syringe. It can contaminate the insulin vial with silicon (this is probably what makes "floaties", it forms a white precipitate). Better to waste a drop than ruin whole vial, cartridge, or pen."

When the vet instructed me on how to draw the insulin from the vial, she had me draw well past the dosage and squirt the excess back into the vial until I get to the right line on the syringe for the dosage.

I do not see any floaties or anything, so I think the insulin is ok, but does everyone here follow the above statement?
 
I think most beans pull out more than the dose and then squirt the excess into the sink.
 
I draw a little extra out of the vial, flick it to make sure I get any little air bubbles to the top, then squirt the excess out into the sink.
 
10/04/10 Callie's AMPS 238

Boy will I be careful on the draw! I had been shooting the extra back into the vial. Won't be doing that again! My insulin went bad earlier than was expected so now I wonder if it may have been the silicone. Have a great day .... Libby and Callie (and civvies: brother Buddy and sister Missy)

Callie's SS
https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key ... TuVA#gid=0
Callie 10 yrs old on 9/17/10 dx 6/12/10
Lantus 2 units BID (U100) since 9/30/10
HT BG with ReliOn
Wet food only since 9/30/10
Camp Hill, PA USA
 
I also draw a little excess, and squirt into the sink. Never back into the vial as it'll ruin the insulin. As what the protocol states. Sure, it's a bit of a waste of insulin, however, you'll lengthen the insulin's life a bit more by not squirting it back into the vial. (unless I'm wrong, and someone please correct me)
 
Gingers Mommy said:
I found this in one of the Lantus/Levemir sticky's:

"If you draw up too much insulin in the syringe... squirt excess either into the air dramatically like they do on TV or into a paper towel... anywhere but back into vial/cartridge/pen. There is a silicon coating inside the syringe. It can contaminate the insulin vial with silicon (this is probably what makes "floaties", it forms a white precipitate). Better to waste a drop than ruin whole vial, cartridge, or pen."

When the vet instructed me on how to draw the insulin from the vial, she had me draw well past the dosage and squirt the excess back into the vial until I get to the right line on the syringe for the dosage.

I do not see any floaties or anything, so I think the insulin is ok, but does everyone here follow the above statement?
Click to expand...
I draw about 0.5u-1.0u more than the dose, so I can get the air bubbles out, and squirt the excess into the sink. Better to lose a little insulin than contaminate the whole vial/pen. I never use the whole pen anyway, so it isn't as if I'm wasting it.

For other insulins (like PZI), you can do as the vet instructed, but NOT for lantus or levemir.

Glad to see you are reading the stickies....TONS of great info there! That's why we encourage everyone to read the stickies, there is so much info to learn and a lot of it is in the stickies to make it easy to read and re-read as necessary. :-D
 
I had the same advice here even though the leaflet that comes with the Lantus vial says to inject air first then shoot any bubbles back into the vial...!!
It makes sense though, to not risk adding anything to the vial other than what was in it when you opened it (if you want it to last as long as possible and not throw it away after 28 days as the mfr. also advises!) As said above we never do seem to get to empty a vial anyhow...!
 
The vet that gave me those instructions was my old vet back in January.
The instructions were for Humulin N.

I also read that on the leaflet.....so when I read the sticky, I really got confused.

I will no longer shoot the excess back into the vial, since most of you agree we shouldnt.
 
There is a difference in the way a vial and a cartridge/pen are constructed. The cartridges/pens have a pressure system whereby a plug (I don't know what else to call it) moves down the tube as you draw off insulin. It keeps the tube air tight. This is why you don't want to inject air back into the cartridge/pen.

The vial is not in an an air tight container. It's actually OK to shoot air back in. I think most of us don't do that just to reduce the "turbulence" that injecting air or excess Lantus back into the vial would cause. Frankly, I think this makes sense given that Lantus is a fragile type of insulin.

Handling Humulin is very different. (I think the stuff is indestructible.) You have to roll it, it lasts forever, etc.
 
Saw your post on a different condo asking what OTJ is...that means "off the juice" so that kitty does not need insulin and is on what we call a "honeymoon". So it's a great thing to celebrate. If you notice, Achilles is on his OTJ trial.
 
Marjorie and Gracie: Thanks for answering that question for me. I kinda thought maybe thats what it meant, but wasnt sure.

Sienne and Gabby: That makes sense for sure. Thanks. Since I bought the vial this time, I guess its still ok.
 
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