Insulin gone bad, what to do?

[Lisa and Angel]

Hi all,

My vial of Prozinc insulin seems to have gone bad (floating particles inside). Vet doesn't have it in stock, so they have to order a new vial and it won't be in until tuesday. What to do until then? Options are:

1. Continue using current Prozinc vial until tuesday
2. Use old Caninsulin vial (opened 21-4-2023, still looks good though and kept in fridge the whole time)
3. Buy and use new Caninsulin vial from vet which they do have in stock

Current vial was opened on August 6th. Lately her numbers haven't been great, though not terrible either. Preshots usually between 12-14 mmol/L, with minimal nadir (9-11 mmol/L). I figured it was losing potency so was planning to replace soon, just didn't expect it to go bad.

I shot today's PMPS with this vial too, noticed the particles as I was putting it away hope that won't hurt her.


Sorry my spreadsheet isn't up to date. My other cat developed a really bad bacterial UTI + pyelonephritis, required a ton of nursing care that kept me quite busy so I stopped noting her numbers for a while. I'll try to get it up to date again ASAP.

Edit: up to date now.

 

[Diane Tyler's Mom GA]

Hi all,

My vial of Prozinc insulin seems to have gone bad (floating particles inside). Vet doesn't have it in stock, so they have to order a new vial and it won't be in until tuesday. What to do until then? Options are:

1. Continue using current Prozinc vial until tuesday
2. Use old Caninsulin vial (opened 21-4-2023, still looks good though and kept in fridge the whole time)
3. Buy and use new Caninsulin vial from vet which they do have in stock

Current vial was opened on August 6th. Lately her numbers haven't been great, though not terrible either. Preshots usually between 12-14 mmol/L, with minimal nadir (9-11 mmol/L). I figured it was losing potency so was planning to replace soon, just didn't expect it to go bad.

I shot today's PMPS with this vial too, noticed the particles as I was putting it away hope that won't hurt her.


Sorry my spreadsheet isn't up to date. My other cat developed a really bad bacterial UTI + pyelonephritis, required a ton of nursing care that kept me quite busy so I stopped noting her numbers for a while. I'll try to get it up to date again ASAP.

Tagging Suzanne , she is familiar with prozinc and Vetsulin/Caninsulin
@Suzanne & Darcy

 

[Sienne and Gabby (GA)]

How about asking your vet's office if they have a colleague at another practice who has Prozinc in stock?

Chewy's also sells Prozinc. They may be able to ship overnight.

 

[Lisa and Angel]

How about asking your vet's office if they have a colleague at another practice who has Prozinc in stock?

Chewy's also sells Prozinc. They may be able to ship overnight.

Already did, nobody has it in store. In my country, most vets still use Caninsulin for diabetic cats so Prozinc is pretty uncommon. We don't have Chewy's either.

I've just kept using the current vial. I don't think switching her back and forth to Caninsulin is great either, and given the unexpected nice curve she had yesterday I think it's still working well enough for now.