Drawing insulin from the Lantus pen?

Hi everyone-- I bought the Lantus/glargine pen when Dexter was first diagnosed (in August). I had no idea how it all worked, so when the CVS pharmacist asked if I wanted the pen for $88 or the vial for $300, I chose the pen because it was cheaper and a smaller quantity of insulin (the pharmacist told me that the vial would expire before I could use it all; I now know refrigerated insulin can last longer than he said).

I need to increase Dexter's dosage to 1.25. When I bought then pen I didn't realize that it only dosed in increments of 1 unit, so doing 1.25 units isn't possible with the pen. My vet mentioned that she had heard of people using the Lantus pen to draw insulin into a U100 needle and stopping it up again. Is this possible? Safe?

I know the best option is just sucking it up and buying the $300 vial, but I wanted to see if this community had any advice on using the pen before I spent more money. This prince of a cat is already getting all my money in his luxurious wet food! Thanks in advance.

 

Sure! Lots of us do it.

Here is a link with Info on it
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/syringe-insulin-info-handling-drawing-fine-doses.151/

 

Yes, using a U100 syringe is what most of us do for the reason you described to not be able to dose anything that isn't a full unit. And the needles that come with the pens are very cumbersome to use. Dexterity is much easier using the U 100 syringes to draw and shoot.

A lot of us here are using pens instead of vials since we can use the whole pen before it would go bad ( 6 months refrigerated ) where as a vial would likely go bad before you would be able to empty it.

 

I used the pen and just used syringes to take out what I needed much easier to do when you need small doses. Never had any problem with the pen going bad. Get the syringes that have smaller increments on them I can't think of the size right now not home to check box. It will be so much easier and you will he happier.

 

Thank you so much everyone! This is really helpful.

 

Yup. Drawing doses from pens is the only way to go!!