New to Lantus - will I need new needles??

Status
Not open for further replies.
H

Harrycat

Member Since 2012
Hi there.

Vet has (finally) prescribed me Lantus after me begging for another insulin as Harry is out of control on Caninsulin.

I haven't got the vial yet.... but I am wandering if I will need new needles...?? I have the Caninsulin needles which say U-40 on them....

I am in the UK so if the vial comes in at u-100 what do I do??? (you would assume the vet would know this..... but I doubt it!!!). I am assuming that the U-100 is stronger? Is that right or wrong?

Thanks in advance

Jackie
 
Yes- the syringes are different- but if you have a whole lot of them to use up look on here for the conversion chart from 40 to 100.

And if you can get the pens instead of the vial I would do those instead. Maybe more in upfront cost but safer for longevity- both start ticking down the first time you stick a needle in them but the pens have less in them than the vial and you can use it up faster than the vial, you have extras in case the one gets contaminated, and if it gets dropped and breaks you still have another pen in the fridge.
 
Yes you will need U100 syringes with half unit markings.

Congratulations on getting a script for Lantus in the UK. :cool:

Since you are coming from Caninsulin, you will want to use the Tight Regulation
Protocol for dosing Lantus.

Once you are ready to get started, post and ask about the starting dose up in Lantus Land
 
Dammitt - wish I had asked earlier as I didn't know about the pens, and now the vial has arrived at the vets just now (apparently!).

Makes much more sense to have the spares in the fridge. :roll:

I have 3 packs left of the caninsulin needles at £8.80 per pack. What I might do is take the human u-100 needles off them to get me started and think about conversion charts etc once I am more confident and up and running!!! I think that might make life easier.........

Thanks again :-D
 
With Lantus you won't want to use conversion charts.

You will need to get the U100 syringes for U100 insulin.

With U40 syringes, it would be much harder to measure and convert the small doses.
 
I like 31g. Not sure what is available in the UK?

29g will work fine.

You will want something with half unit markings.
 
Yep you need U100 needles for the Lantus...while you can convert U40 insulin to use with U100 needles you can't go the other way around. Basically the difference is that there are 40units of insulin in one ml of a U40 insulin, and there are 100 units of insulin in 1ml of U100 insulin.

But the biggest difference between what you have been using and now that Lantus is that one of short acting insulin that is In & Out and the Lantus is a long lasting insulin that forms a depot under the skin. Think of it sort of like bath salts, when you first pour it in the water some melt right away and others take awhile to melt. That is sort of what Lantus does...each shot builds on the other one..Because it forms little time release crystals under the skin, so when you give the first shot of say 1u at least .75u goes to filling the depot, and only .25u to the cat, the next shot roughly .5 goes to the depot and .5u goes to the cat, etc until the depot is full and the cat is now getting a full 1u at each shot time.

Or another way to look at it is like filling a funnel with a constant stream of water. You want the water to flow fast enough to keep the water at the top of the funnel even, while the stream at the bottom of the funnel stays the same as well. If you pour too fast the funnel overflows (hypo) if you pour too slowly then the level drops (not enough insulin) so you need to up the rate of speed that the water is going into the funnel. But through it all there is still water in the funnel from the last time that you added water.

Mel, Maxwell, Autumn & The Fur Gang
 
These are the ones that I use, But not sure that you can order through ADW but if you can and use the link at the top of the page then FDMB gets a donation as well, and it doesn't cost you extra.Monoject syringes

All 3/10cc syringes should have the 1/2 unit marks as they are designed for human children and infants, so they need to be made to dose small doses.

Mel, Maxwell, Autumn & The Fur Gang
 
Harrycat said:
lol, just realised you probably cant open the uk amazon...... :lol:
Click to expand...
Sure we can. I have shopped at Amazon UK quite a bit, as books by my favorite author are in print in the UK but not all are in print in the US. Good luck on the Lantus!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top