As the title says I am trying to help a co worker find inject-able insulin for her cat. She has done some research but the cost the ship with an ice pack is throwing most companies out of her price range.
Does anyone have any good sources?
Thanks
Emily
Walgreens, with their card?
CostCo?
Those are usually my go-tos for pet prescriptions as inexpensive as possible.
what kind of insulin? Reglar? NPH? long-acting? It looks like vet insulin is usually the long-acting, which would make sense.
Regular would probably be cheaper but more inconvenient (more injections).
If fiances are a big hindrance, she should be able to use human insulin and covert the doses if her vet will cooperate with that. It would be cheaper in the long run since in looks like vet insulin is 40u/ml while human insulin is usually 100 u/ml. It is harder to draw up the correct amount on the more concentrated (human) insulin, but it can be done (the last time I gave a cat insulin was in the late 90s when I was working in a shelter and we used very small amounts of human insulin).
If she wants or needs to stick with cat insulin, Valley vet has good prices on cat insulin, but shipping could get $$ depending on where you live.
For my client with a cat on PZI, ordering it through my hospital’s online pharmacy has been cheapest. KV and others have been cheaper for the medication, but the shipping ends up making them more expensive. Or, she gets it from me as next day shipping with ice packs is standard from my distributor. If the cat has done well on PZI, I wouldn’t recommend changing.
Op (Hi Em) - I have a barn cat on Lantus insulin. The price has doubled since he was first dx diabetic about 4 years ago. Last Rx, the lowest quotes were from Costco and Walgreens, but still $250+ for 10cc, 1000 units. My cat gets 2 units twice a day, so that bottle theoretically lasts 250 days, or 8 months. The drugstores will label that it has to be used within 30 days, (maybe 60 - I don’t remember right now). However, in the real world, with refrigeration, I have used the 10cc bottle for well up to 6 months, with no detriment to the cat or his diabetes control.
good luck!
Ask your doctor for a sample. Drug companies are usually liberal with insulin samples and one pen or vial will last a long time.
Is Cat insulin different? When we needed it for our old dog the cheapest place was Walmart and they didn’t require a prescription (though we had one from the vet)…
This may be a long shot, but I work in a physician’s office, and two of our MD’s cats are on insulin. We keep it in the office for pt use, and if we have any hat expires, the MD’s take it home to use on their cats. I wonder if you might know anyone who could do that?
I just picked up a vial of ProZinc from my vet for my cat. I had looked online at Amazon but the price was about the same and my vet’s office did tell me that it was prescription only. But their pricing at least was no more than what I would have paid to order online.
My diabetic cat was on Lantus (glargine) insulin for years. It was the only thing that kept him stable and it did so for years. He had been on pork lente but when it was discontinued we struggled to find something that would work.
I had read some research papers and talked to the vet. We decided to try it because nothing else was working.
He died about 2 years ago at close to 19 years old. The insulin was expensive but I got it at Walmart and it was much less expensive there than anywhere else.
From what I’ve read, Lantus is a really good choice for diabetic cats.
Here are some good links for managing diabetic cats (I have one):
http://fdmb-cin.blogspot.com/2013/11/lantus.html
http://catinfo.org/?link=felinediabetes
http://www.felinediabetesremission.com/
http://www.bcpvetpharm.com/products_bovine.htm
That last link is supposed to be a good supplier for PZI insulin, which incidentally, is supposed to be cheaper than lantus. They would not give me a quote over the phone without an actual script in hand.
I get the Lantus, insulin gargline, from Target or Walmart in single pens. From Target it is about $80, and it lasts about 2 months. I’ve heard you can use the drug manufacter’s discount program to get it for $25 at walmart but I haven’t tried it yet. I do get my syringes at Walmart for literally 1/3 of the price at the vets.
If she reads the links I posted, do NOT try to do a diet change while medicating the cat with insulin unless she can competently test blood glucose levels on her own. Sometimes diabetic cats can be regulated almost completely with diet change, and can go into remission due to diet change. If you then administer insulin on top of that the cat can become hypoglycemic. Cats do not die suddenly from being hyperglycemic, but can from being hypoglycemic.
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