Gary Edelson, DVM, discusses the proper storage and handling of insulin, the types of syringes available, locations to inject, and administration technique. Dr. Edelson also demonstrates how to draw up insulin into a syringe.
Storage of insulin is very important it needs to be refrigerated and in the refrigerator there’s different sections of the refrigerator that are evenly cooled so it’s really important that we don’t put the insulin in the door of the refrigerator as the door keeps opening and closing it can kind of shift its temperatures up and down so keep it protected from lights
On the second shelf or the bottom shelf keep it in its box in towards the back of the refrigerator keep an even cool temperature throughout insulin handling is very very important as some insulins like pros inc are very fragile and they need to be gently rolled whereas veselin needs to be shaken vigorously in order to get a uniform cloudy solution so there’s two
Different types of syringes in when we’re talking about handling insulin one is the u-100 syringe which is commonly found in the human market and then there’s a u4t syringe which is commonly found in the veterinary market with insulin products like bet saline and pros inc the insulin syringes are labeled as au 40 or u 100 based on the concentration of insulin
Molecules within each milliliter of solution so a u 40 syringe is actually two times less potent than a u 100 syringe administration of insulin is really important and we want to make sure that your pet is getting the correct amount of insulin so when we do administer insulin it is given underneath the skin called subcutaneous and really really important to
Find a location that is comfortable for yourself as well as your pet when administering insulin more common sites of administration are going to be between the pet shoulder blades on the sides of its legs or on the sides of its rear legs as well with any syringe there are three main key features one is the barrel the second one is the plunger and the third is
Our needle when we draw up insulin the plunger has a top line and a black line on the syringe inside the barrel the top line is what we judge off of and we go on the graduation lines equivalent to 1 unit 2 unit 3 unit for unit up to 5 units so when you get your insulin out of the fridge you want to first have your needle ready in this case we’re using pro zinc
So it’s a u4t syringe you want to remove the plastic cap and you also want to prime the plunger by pulling it back and pushing it all the way forth gently you’re going to grab your insulin in this case pro zinc you want to gently roll it between your fingers and then invert it to get ready for the syringe you’re gonna uncap it to the syringe place the needle into
The vial and we’re going to be giving 5 units of insulin so the graduation marks on the syringe or the barrel i’m indicate one at each marking so we want to go past the 1 the 2 the 3 the 4 and the 5 we’re going to go to 6 tap the syringe to get any air out and then go back to 5 units we’re going to gently place the bottle down carefully cap the syringe and then grab our pet for these
Transcribed from video
Insulin Use for Dogs and Cats By American Veterinarian
