Needle length for insulin pen

[Myrtlesmum]

Hi, I'm wanting to switch from using syringes to an insulin pen so I can get a more accurate dose as the cat is on 1.5 dose. The syringe I'm using has a 12.4 mm needle which I try to put in at a bit of an angle. with the pen, would I need a shorter needle? My cat has a thick coat if that makes a difference.....
Thanks!

 

[Chris & China (GA)]

We don't use the pen needles with pens either......we continue to use regular insulin syringes and just pull the insulin out of the pen.

We do dose changes in .25 unit increments and most pens only give whole unit doses

 

[Sieden]

A 12.4 mm needle, damn that's long. No it doesn't matter if your cat has a thick coat or not, you can just part the coat to see the skin. It's not advised to use pen needles over syringes due to whole number dosing. I just went and looked at my own pen to make sure that I was correct just to be sure and my Lantus SoloSTAR pen is in whole numbers only.

 

[Yong & Maury GA]

My syringes are 1/2 inch / 12.7mm and they work fine with Maury's thick undercoat. Why did you want to stop drawing the insulin from the pen vial with a syringe? As the others have said, the pen only doses in whole units. If the 1.5 dose is difficult they do make syringes with half unit marks