stressed over medication costs

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Lo21

Member Since 2013
Hello,

I'm a new member and greatly apologize if my question has been answered 500 x already. I was looking for a search area and couldn't find anything.

My cat, Marceau was diagnosed w/ diabetes this past Thursday. He is approximately 13 years old (adopted shelter cat) and I've had him for 10 years. I only brought him in because I noticed he had peeing in odd places outside of his litter box and drinking a lot of water, meaning, he was otherwise acting normal and didn't require any hospitalization or anything. I've been so stressed and worried ever since I found out, which hasn't been very long, and it's not that I don't think I can handle taking care of him, or giving him his two Lantus injections per day. I'm completed overwhelmed and stressed about the cost of the medication. I filled my first prescription and it was about $200 for the insulin and $35 for the syringes. I know that with all of our bills, and mortgage payments and living expenses, this extra cost just does not fit into the budget, and for some this is not that big of a cost. This is an expensive disease to have. It doesn't seem fair that I have to choose between allowing my cat to live a comfortable life or choosing to do without the medication and eventually have him put down. So, I've been thinking what can I do to make this manageable?

Sure, I can shave a few dollars off of some of my bills, but I'm left with these questions:

1) Does Pet insurance cover medication and can I still get it if my cat has already been diagnosed? If I can qualify, how much savings will the prescriptions be? What Pet insurance company is the best?

2) Has anyone used a free Medication Discount Cards? The ones that claim anywhere between 10% to 75% off of their medication? Has anyone gone this route and been able to save anything significant?

3) I've seen talk about online pharmacies, but I'm so overwhelmed at the possibility of having to pay exchange rate fees and ordering from non-US companies. Where can I find a list of reputable pharmacies that can cut the cost of his Lantus medication?

Bottom line, I just am so conflicted and confused, and I don't want to have to make a choice between keeping my cat stabilized until he lives out his full life and having to watch him get to the point where I have to put him down because I can't handle the costs. Please, help.
 
I don't use Lantus, but until someone comes along, here is a thread on buying and using it.

http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=151

It generally takes a long time if refrigerated and as most cats are getting about one unit twice daily, you can really stretch it out.

The big expenses are if you take your cat in for curves at the vet. We can teach you how to test at home (supplies are minimal cost) and it is much safer and much less expensive. You can fax your results to the vet for his/her input. Also, depending on what you are feeding, you can cut costs. We think there is nothing "prescription" about prescription foods. We feed OTC wet low carb food. A vet explains why here: www.catinfo.org. BUT don't change the diet if you are feeding dry until you are testing at home. Our Oliver went down 100 points when we switched overnight. If we hadn't been testing, we would have caused an overdose.
 
There are lots of ways to save money.
I get my syringes from WalMart for $12 for 100
Urine Ketone test strips from WalMart are $8
They also sell glucose meters for $9 that have inexpensive test strips
I get my insulin from Canada for $160 for 5 pens.

A vial of Lantus can last a lot longer than the 28 days that the manufactuer states, if handled correctly.

There are lots of ways to save money, and I'm sure that you will get lots of ideas, if you keep posting and asking questions.
 
First and foremost, what are you feeding Marceau? Depending on how high Marceau's GC numbers are you can bring them down considerably just by switching to wet food. Dry food is extremely high in carbs, most wet food like Fancy Feast pate type food is very low. If you're already dosing insulin be careful with the dosage if you suddenly switch to wet food from dry, his GC level will drop dramatically and require less insulin as a result of the switch. Some cats can become regulated quickly by using a good insulin like Lantus, home testing, feeding wet food, and maintaining a healthy weight. No high carb food or treats EVER! My cat Dusty followed those simple steps and within a week was off insulin. Some take longer, some never come off insulin, but all are able to live a long happy life. Insulin can last up to 6 months if refrigerated and handled properly; no shaking and keeping at a constant temp.
We all stressed out the first couple of days, take a deep breath or two, read up on all the info this site has to offer and things will fall into place before you know it. You guys can do it!
 
DCIN has this great writeup on sourcing insulin at lower costs.

Go to the Lantus website and sign up for the savings card program, making sure to enter a birthdate that makes your cat at least 18. Many people use their own birthdate. Some people have had success using this, some have not. You will need your vet to write the prescription for the pen, not the 10 mL vial, to take advantage of this program.

The Relion Prime glucometer is aobut $16-17 at Wal-Mart and 50 test strips are $9. It needs a slightly bigger blood drop 0.5 microliter than the Relion Confirm/Micro 0.3 microliter blood drop. Relion Confirm/Micro test strips are $18 for 50. Much, much less expensive than using a pet specific meter.

I would estimate that 90-95% of people on this board use the human glucometers to test their cats. They are accurate enough and we have reference ranges as to what the numbers mean.

Don't buy the expensive prescription pet food from your vet. It's no better quality than many canned commercial foods. I got my foster cat Wink off the insulin by feeding him Fancy Feast and Friskies pate style foods.

Just a few money saving ideas for you.
 
You're just starting out....there's a lot of info to absorb, but one important one is that there's a very good chance you can get your kitty into remission so that insulin is no longer needed, just dietary regulation. You're using lantus which has a really good rate of remission (lantus and levemir are the two recommended if you're striving for remission). My kitty Molly was diagnosed last fall and by January she was "off the juice". I too didn't think this was affordable. I bought one 175.00 bottle of insulin and thought there was no way I could afford it, but it lasts over 3 months refrigerated so it's less costly than it seems and yes Wal Mart is the place to buy syringes and their Relion micro BG meter and strips are cheap (it's the strips that get you costwise in the long run....it was worth it to buy that meter) I used a generous holiday leave time to really follow her blood sugar curves at home and followed the lantus tight regulation protocol (there's two lantus user groups on this board, one for tight and one for loose regulation.....by following tight regulation it requires a lot of time and vigilant BG monitoring, by following loose regulation the protocol is more easy going and is better for those who aren't away from home quite a bit and aren't able to monitor BG hourly if necessary.....in both protocols, there's a very good rate of remission...not all kitties go in to remission, but a good number of them do!)
Keep reading information on this board. Follow the dietary recommendations and really be careful dosing and monitoring blood glucose (BG) if you're changing your kitty's diet while already on insulin. Want to make sure you're not giving too much insulin for the new diet, because their blood sugar does drop with changes to the foods recommended!
If you haven't learned to home test BG yet, that's the place to start :smile:
 
Thank you everyone for the tips and suggestions! I feel scammed for paying $35 for the syringes. And, if I can avoid being inside WalMart, I will do it. But, i'll suck it up for the prices on the supplies. I'm going to see if I can get a prescription for the Lantus pen, or if that doesn't work, I'll look into buying from Canada.

Marceau is a VERY picky eater. Before being diagnosed, he was eating Friskies SeaFood Sensations (dry.) I have tried different flavors and different brands and he would NOT eat. He is so stubborn! When I adopted a second cat a few years back, she was known to be a Fancy Feast eater, so I bought some for her and offered some to him--he refused. Eventually, he saw how happy my other cat Lucy would get when I would feed her and when offered to him again, he decided to take the plunge.. :) however he STILL won't eat a full can. I ended up feeding both cats half a can each in the morning and half a can each in the evening, as well as leaving the dry food out during the day. I know I need to have to slowly get Marceau to classic fancy feast only, but I also need to make sure he is having enough to eat. My vet prescribed Purina DM dry/canned food, but luckily, I read and everyone was saying DON"T BUY it, since there are cheaper options. I've been seeing a lot of people suggesting the classic varieties. My cats are currently finishing up a box of Fancy Feast gravy lovers, but I'm going to incorporate the classic varieties and eventually do the all out switch.

I'm so happy for the support & feel confident that if I run into problems, I'll be able to find someone who may have been in the same situation.

Thank you so much.
 
If you need dry for him here are 3 low carb ones you might test. Persistence is important in food changes and there a number of tips on Cat Info.

Evo Cat & Kitten (crunchy)
Stella & Chewey's freeze dried (has a sort of crumbly texture, can come in very small bags)
Young Again 0 Carb (5% the way we calculate it, internet only, allegedly they tend to eat less of it which is good 'cause it is pricey. They do give samples)
 
Ok just so you know....the gravy canned food and all dry kibble are quite high carb (except for the ones BJM listed above)...they're good to have on hand for emergencies if you're worried Marceau's blood sugar is getting too low. Please learn to test his blood sugar and monitor regularly before changing his diet,
his insulin requirements will change and you don't want to give him too much....low blood sugar is much more dangerous and possibly fatal...on this board it is called "hypo" for short.
Typically they need a lower dose of insulin after they've switched to a low carb diet.
It sounds like he's pretty picky and it will take a while to change him over but just wanted
to make sure you were aware of this.
Check out the posts on the lantus tight regulation board for more information.
Just click on the "board index" above and it will lead you to a menu of all the boards.
Lantus user group boards are under the Insulin grouping.
You can post and introduce yourself there and they'll be able to give lots of advice specific to your insulin type. The tight regulation group tends to be more active in posting than the other lantus group when you need quick answers.
 
Hello and welcome to the board!

As many have said, you shouldn't need to buy Lantus again for another 4-6 months depending on how well you store it - keep in fridge, not the door. Don't shake or roll it.

If you can get him onto a nice low carb wet, he could well go into remission - many cats do. And that would be good for him and save you money! However its important you home test to keep him safe as you don't want to overdose if he starts to go into remission - I would definitely pick up a meter. With a food change, Lantus and home testing , remission can happen within 6 months.. before you need your next bottle of lantus ;)

Wendy
 
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