Hello, pet parents. My name is Courtney and I'm one of the technicians with the critical care department with Central Texas Veterinary Specialty and Emergency Hospital. I'm going to talk to you about insulin handling and administration. Diabetes is a common disease process that we will diagnose here at the Specialty and Emergency Facilities and it can be very intimidating for owners knowing that you need to give an injection on a regular basis to their pet. Insulin comes in various types. We have our NPH insulins and they come a little bit cloudy and they need to be mixed. We have our shorter acting, regular insulin, it still needs to be mixed, but it is clear. And then we have these pens that are Lantus or glargine.
These insulins do need to be kept in the refrigerator and as I said before, they need to be gently mixed. When you remove it from the refrigerator, you can either gently invert it or roll it gently between your hands for about 20 to 30 seconds. The insulin syringes that you'll use will depend on the manufacturer and brand that is prescribed to you. Most of them look the same, but they can be off a little bit by how many units they have in the actual syringe. To draw up insulin, you will remove the cap from the plunger and then you will remove the cap from the needle gently. You'll then invert your insulin bottle, insert the needle into the rubber stopper and draw up the prescribed amount of insulin. You'll remove gently and then it's best practice to have your pet readily available for the injection so you don't need to recap the syringe. For our Lantus pens. These are in a similar fashion to our actual vials so what you'll do is you will remove the cap, the rubber stopper is on the end, you'll invert it and also again, insert the needle into that rubber stopper.