pre measure shots ??

[PEPE FAMILY]

Pepe has been on 4 units twice a day of Lantus as prescribed for a few months now and is doing pretty good.
I never did work up the nerve to use the test meter but I do massage his ears twice a day before I give him his shots.

My question is this: Is it ok to pre measure the doses so that my wife can give him the shot if I am not home at the usual times ? (She has difficulty seeing and measuring)

Also would it be ok to measure up about 4 doses in advance and keep them in the fridge to use over the next 2 days or should I try and always measure and shoot immediately ??

 

[BJM]

Lantus is somewhat acidic and may cause the lubricant to dissolve from the syringe into the solution, so that would be injected too. It is a small amount. We generally do not advise it.

For vision issues, we recommend good magnifiers. I wear glasses and can add either clip on magnifiers (ex Carson Clip and Flip on Amazon and at craft/sewing/hobby stores sometimes). You can get visor magnifiers or over the counter reading magnifiers if you don't have glasses, and free-standing magnifiers may be helpful alone or combined with the others.

 

[PEPE FAMILY]

thanx !! )

 

[BJM]

See my signature links Glucometer Notes and Secondary Monitoring Tools. Without doing any kind of assessments of your cat's glucose, be it blood or urine, you're flying blind. This puts your cat at risk for a hypoglycemic attack (too low), and diabetic ketoacidosis (too high+infection+not eating) which can be fatal.
If you practice testing on yourself, you can get a feel for it before learning to test your cat. An inexpensive human glucometer, such as the WalMart ReliOn Confirm or Confirm Micro (aka Glucocard 01 or 01 Mini) uses a tiny blood drop and the strips are reasonably priced compared to pet-specific meters.

 

[Melanie and Smokey]

Here is a post regarding prefilling syringes:

http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/prefilling-syringes.47760/

In the linked article it talks about a study done on Lantus in prefilled syringes, the integrity of the insulin was compromised enough that they recommended not filling the syringe very much in advance of the shot.

Depending on your dose, if you were at a whole unit dose, you could look at using the Lantus pens with the needle tips and using the pen's dosing system instead of drawing into a syringe. Most of the time we get into partial unit dosing so that doesn't work, but a possibility if you are at a whole unit dose.