Diabetic Dog. Supplies advice needed.

[BryanAdamsLeftAnkle]

My friend is elderly with poor health and on a pension (this is relevant) and has a lovely wee auld dog who she rescued. The dog is diabetic and blind.

She's paying £48 for a vial of 10ml canine insulin and pays £1.50 a syringe with needle.

I'm shocked at the prices. She's also been told that if she drops the vial then she needs to dump it. Her hands are bad so she has sadly binned a few vials over the months.

If the bottle isn't broken why was she advised to bin the product?

Is there anywhere I can get the needles and syringes cheaper for her?

If she drops the bottle she does have to dump it if she wants the insulin to work because the protein in the bottle gets damaged by being dropped so doesn't work any more.

Insulin syringes for dogs are in 'units' of insulin so it's very unwise to use any other form of syringe. You may be able to get them online but make sure they're exactly the same, eg if it's a caninsulin syringe from the vets then make sure its a caninsulin syringe from online to prevent accidental overdose.

It's a difficult situation and I do feel for anyone in this position but sadly pets are a luxury and sometimes they come with a luxury price tag .

I'm trying to wrap my head around how insulin can be changed by dropping it. Human insulin isn't so sensitive. Ok thanks. I feel bad for her. Dropped from counter to floor and boom there goes £48. Eeeeek.

Could you help her out by buying it online if she is unable to do it herself?

As Aw12345 says, as long as the syringe and the insulin are the right types, you can buy the syringes online, but you can also buy the insulin online (from a reputable pet pharmacy, e.g. Animed Direct) assuming the dog's diabetes is well controlled. The vet will write a prescription (they will charge a fee, usually £15-£20) but as long as the treatment is stable, a prescription can be written for a maximum of 6 months and reused (so if she's uses 1 vial a month, they can write a prescription for 1 vial that can be used 6 times - you can buy 1 vial 6 times, or 2 vials 3 times, or 6 in one go or whatever).

Online pharmacies are significantly cheaper as they have minimal overheads

Thanks. I will try that.

The insulin molecules themselves are long chains so get broken and stop working if the bottle is dropped or shaken vigorously. It might be worth asking if the vets can pre load the syringes for her if she struggles with her hands (will be 'off license') to reduce risk of dropping things or looking into one of the insulin pens.

The insulin pens are massively expensive. I worked out the costings for one of my clients and it worked out at about 5x the price

Our old cat was diabetic. Our vet would give us a prescription and we would buy the insulin (caninsulin) online from animedirect.co.uk. The vet also recommended petdrugsonline. We got syringes from viovet. It worked out a lot cheaper than buying from the vets-one of the nurses said they couldn't buy the insulin in as cheap as it was online (shame as I would have preferred to support a small business)

I’ve only just seen you post, so I assume your sorted? If not let me know and I will give your our info on getting diabetes supplies. We have a ten year old Westie who has been diabetic for about six years.