Traveling with insulin and giving a shot while traveling?

[tessa's mom]

Tessa is scheduled for dental surgery next week to get the rest of her teeth removed and the vet told us to give her 1/4 of her normal insulin at her normal time which is 7am. The problem is that we live 2.5 hours away from the vet dentist and the drop off is at 8am so we will be on the road at that time.

Does anyone have any tips on how to keep the insulin cold for the 8+ hours that we will be out of the house? My best guess is a cooler but I'm worried that it will either get the insulin *too* cold or it won't stay cold enough for the entire day. It's going to be in the low to mid 90s all next week so it will be VERY hot.

There are roughly 100 units left in her pen right now. It won't be a huge loss if we end up tossing this pen because we have 4 more pens in the fridge but I'd rather not waste one if we don't have to.

We could probably ask the vet to refrigerate it for us during the surgery but then we'll still need to make it home too. We could refill a cooler with ice but will ice make the insulin too cold?

I know you're not supposed to pre-fill syringes but would it be okay to do it just this once? That way we only need it to stay cold for 2.5 hours which is much more doable.

I'm also looking for tips on how to give a shot when we're not at home. Obviously we will find a place to stop but it will likely still be loud and strange for her. I also always give her insulin while she's eating and the vet said to just give her a treat with the insulin so she probably won't be eating for very long although I will probably break the treat up into several pieces so she's occupied for at least a few seconds.

I'm pretty nervous about this on top of being nervous about the actual surgery, travel, etc. Any words of wisdom would be great!

 

[Sienne and Gabby (GA)]

Wrapping your insulin in bubble wrap will insulate it from bouncing around as well as put a layer of air between the insulin and whatever you're using to keep things cold. If you're using a pen, they are actually made to not be refrigerated. We recommend that you refrigerate the pen because a cat uses far less insulin than a human so we don't use all the insulin as quickly when dosing a cat.

Had you given any thought to skipping the AM dose? Usually, the dose is reduced the day of a surgery. The pre-anesthetic and anesthetic can lower blood glucose and as a result, many vets recommend a reduced dose or suggest skipping the dose.

I actually gave a shot while traveling (i.e., in a moving car). My cat carrier opened both from the front and the top. I gave Gabby her shot by opening the top gate on the carrier.

 

[tessa's mom]

Wrapping your insulin in bubble wrap will insulate it from bouncing around as well as put a layer of air between the insulin and whatever you're using to keep things cold. If you're using a pen, they are actually made to not be refrigerated. We recommend that you refrigerate the pen because a cat uses far less insulin than a human so we don't use all the insulin as quickly when dosing a cat.

Had you given any thought to skipping the AM dose? Usually, the dose is reduced the day of a surgery. The pre-anesthetic and anesthetic can lower blood glucose and as a result, many vets recommend a reduced dose or suggest skipping the dose.

I actually gave a shot while traveling (i.e., in a moving car). My cat carrier opened both from the front and the top. I gave Gabby her shot by opening the top gate on the carrier.

Thanks! The bubble wrap tip is genius and I'm sure I have some around here somewhere.

I did consider skipping the dose but this is what the anesthesiologist recommended (the receptionist specifically checked with him first) and I want to at least try to do it since I assume they will have things set up with the assumption that she has insulin in her system.

I might try practicing giving her insulin in her carrier once or twice over the next week just so I'm not doing it for the first time in an already stressful situation. The only hitch is that we'll be using a different carrier. We ordered one of those fancy Sleepypod carriers that are crash tested since we'll be traveling much further than we've ever traveled with a cat before. The entire top of that zips off if we need it to and there's another top opening on it as well. It's supposed to get here Monday which doesn't give us much time to practice but I'm hoping it will get here earlier than that.

 

[Wendy&Neko]

I gave Neko the shot several times while on the road, on the ferry, in the ferry line up etc. We were stopped and I got her out of the carrier and on my lap. Or in one of her favourite beds that came with us. I had a small lunch cooler with a gel pack that went in the lid of the cooler. I too used bubble wrap, or a small face cloth to roll the insulin in, then I put that in a Tupperware container so it didn't move around. On our trip to Colorado State University for SRT, road trips were 9 hours for 3 days each way in 90+ degree weather.

I never skipped Neko's insulin for her dentals or her radiation therapy days. But I did do half dose, except the one time she was flirting with a reduction so I gave a token. That was a "game day decision" so you might want to allow for a last minute change. Some of the newer anaesthesia induction drugs do not impact the BG.

Try Churu for a treat for a "meal". Might take a little longer for her to lick up than a eating a hard treat.

 

[tessa's mom]

I gave Neko the shot several times while on the road, on the ferry, in the ferry line up etc. We were stopped and I got her out of the carrier and on my lap. Or in one of her favourite beds that came with us. I had a small lunch cooler with a gel pack that went in the lid of the cooler. I too used bubble wrap, or a small face cloth to roll the insulin in, then I put that in a Tupperware container so it didn't move around. On our trip to Colorado State University for SRT, road trips were 9 hours for 3 days each way in 90+ degree weather.

I never skipped Neko's insulin for her dentals or her radiation therapy days. But I did do half dose, except the one time she was flirting with a reduction so I gave a token. That was a "game day decision" so you might want to allow for a last minute change. Some of the newer anaesthesia induction drugs do not impact the BG.

Try Churu for a treat for a "meal". Might take a little longer for her to lick up than a eating a hard treat.

Thanks! I think between your info and Sienne's I've got a good game plan. I can even do a test run to see whether the ice pack keeps its temperature long enough because I've got a fridge thermometer that has a counter of how long above the set threshold.

Good call on the Churu, she loves those types of treats and it would take much longer for her to eat that than a treat. I can have my husband hold up the Churu while I give her the insulin and I think that will work out great.

I think even if we skipped the morning dose, we'd need to bring the insulin with us because there's a chance we'll be on our way home when it's time for her PM shot. The dentist closes at 5pm so we'll be back on the road by then at the latest. That would get us home at around 7:30pm which is 30 minutes past her normal shot time. But who knows when she'll actually be ready to go, hopefully it will be much earlier than that because I'd like to get home, get a test and let her settle in and get another test before her PM shot. That would be the ideal situation.

 

[tessa's mom]

Just wanted to give an update on how the insulin transportation went.

I have a refrigerator thermometer that counts the time above 40 degrees and I wrapped that in a small towel and put it inside a Tupperware container and put it in a cooler with ice packs above and below it. I tested this setup on Saturday where I sent the cooler with my husband and he left it in the car in the parking lot at work when it was 95+ degrees outside. The setup passed with just 30 minutes above 45 degrees.

I then tested again on Sunday to make sure it wasn't getting too cold. I am glad I tested because just 1 hour after I put the thermometer in there with the ice packs, I pulled it out and it said 20 degrees! Yikes. So I brainstormed a new setup. I put the thermometer inside of an insulated lunch bag and then put THAT inside the cooler with ice packs below and above. After 1 hour, the temperature was 36 degrees, just barely above the safe threshold. After 2 hours, it was the same temperature. I then put everything away because I assumed that because it stayed cool enough on Saturday that it would stay cool enough today especially since we would be in the car with the AC running for at least 5-6 hours traveling to and from the vet.

Unfortunately I was wrong BUT I still think the insulin is okay. First off, the insulin was still cool to the touch when I took it out. Second, when I got home, the thermometer said 61 degrees and it had been above the threshold for 12 hours (we were gone for 14 hours). I suspect that it stayed close to 45 degrees but probably just barely over that threshold for most of the day.

When I took it out to give her insulin at 7am, the thermometer said 36 degrees but said that it had been above the threshold for 1 hour. I think it took time for the insulated bag to actually get cold given that it was, well, insulated. It probably took time for the bag to re-cool after that as well but it likely stayed below 50 degrees most of the day. I'm not too concerned about it but if we don't see any action from the insulin in the next few days, we will switch to a new pen.

 

[Wendy&Neko]

Some people accidentally leave insulin out overnight in their house and it's still OK. One hour, as long as it didn't get too hot, should be OK.

 

[tessa's mom]

Some people accidentally leave insulin out overnight in their house and it's still OK. One hour, as long as it didn't get too hot, should be OK.

Thanks Wendy!

The timer said 12 hours above the threshold but I suspect that it never got very warm since the thermometer said 61 degrees at 6:20pm. The 1 hour on the timer was at 7am and we didn't get home until just after 6pm. It got down under 45 degrees for at least 2 hours of the 14 hours that we were gone so I suspect that it got down there and then slowly increased until it got to 61. I am not too worried about it. I just posted an update in case anyone else is ever in this situation and wants to know the details of what happened.