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pookiepura

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Ok, I was on this board once before but it has been quite some time ago. My cat, Sassy was on Vetsulin for some time now. She wasn't really doing much better and her BG levels kept rising. She was taking 6 units twice a day. The vet decided to switch her over today to Lantus, 3 units twice a day. I got the rx filled which was over $100 because the vet told me that it would last about 5 months. When I picked up the bottle of insulin, it said that it was 100 units. Now I am not the greatest at math, but how is it going to last me more than a couple of weeks? Is there something about this that I am not getting? Thanks in advance for any help that you may give me.

Karla
 
Hi - it sounds like you got the vial rather than the pens.

The pens come in a 5 pack and are 3 ml each, while the initial cost is around $200, they will last longer than the vial as you won't have as much waste.

Also, how was 3 units of lantus determined? For most kitties that do not have acro or cushings or other issues causing them to need a high dose - this is a HUGE amount of insulin to give one cat!

We typically recommend starting at 1 unit or less. And you MUST use U-100 syringes, not U40 syringes like you did with vestulin.

So, BEFORE you give any insulin - please confirm that you have the correct syringes.


Additionally, get U100 syringes with 1/2 unit markings. You will find it much easier to micro dose with it.

And finally, if you have not yet done so, please go to the lantus board, read the "starred" information there - it tells you EVERYTHING you need to know about lantus, handling, storage, dosing, etc.

DO NOT SHAKE OR ROLL LANTUS. DO NOT SQUIRT BACK INTO VIAL! DO STORE ALL LANTUS IN REFRIGATOR
 
Thank you for your response. I did get the correct needles from the vet's office. I will make sure to get rid of the other needles. I don't know how she came up with 3 units at once. I know that when she started with the Vetsulin that she was to take 2 units at a time and that never proved to be enough because we eventually got to 6 units.
 
u may want to create a spreadsheet to enter all your collected data, plus the most recent numbers when u were on vetsulin.

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=16
these are the instructions on how to create a spreadsheet using Goggle Documents.


how did your vet start on 3units of Lantus? is a very good question...with Lantus, you want to start low and go slow, all dosing based on nadirs and not preshot numbers.
Are u testing for ketones by any chance?
And what food are u feeding?
these answers will help others help u out.

Please do read up on Lantus in the Lantus forum, I see u are there right now, and thats great!
 
The 10 ml vial of Lantus contains 1000 units of insulin. You are probably confused since Lantus is a U100 insulin compared to Vetsulin which is a U40 insulin. Thw U designation is for the strength of the insulin. A U100 insulin has 100 units per ml. Thus a 10 ml vial has 1000 units.
 
Hillary & Maui said:
Also, how was 3 units of lantus determined? For most kitties that do not have acro or cushings or other issues causing them to need a high dose - this is a HUGE amount of insulin to give one cat!
Click to expand...

Actually it's not a huge dose. It's not a great starting dose, but there's nothing overly scary about it. Plenty of non-acro/iaa/cushing cats are using this dose and I would just about give my eyeteeth if my acrocat was on this dose ;-) We don't even know what food she's using, could be the dose is fine and reducing it right now could cause problems.

Hi Karla, glad to see you're such a proactive mama bean! :)
 
Hi Karla and welcome -- or is it welcome back?

If you are making the switch from Vetsulin to Lantus, you may want to take a look at the dosing protocol that those of us who are on the Lantus board use. Consistent with what Carolyn suggested, the protocol notes:

In many cases, the starting dose of Lantus or Levemir has been 0.25 IU per kg of the cat's ideal weight and is always dosed BID (two times a day, 12 hours apart). If the cat received another kind of insulin previously, the starting dose should be raised or lowered by taking this information into account.
Click to expand...

I'm going to assume you know all about low carb canned food and the ins and outs of home testing. I'm guessing you have a spreadsheet, as well. When you have a chance, could you link your SS to your signature? If you already have a profile, could you link that as well? If you don't, the instructions are in the tech forum.

Please join us in the Lantus forum. You will find a considerable amount of information about Lantus and the support group in the permanent notes at the top of the Lantus Board.
 
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