Canine diabetes / caninsulin

Our big guy was diagnosed with diabetes in April this year. He’s 40kg (normal for his breed), and in the ten years we’ve had him has always had science plan and fish; the diabetes seems to be just one of those things.

He started on 12iu twice daily, which is still in the process of adjustment to find the maintenance dose (will probably end up 15-20iu twice daily).

The info from the vet has been exceedingly poor and I have a couple of questions:

1. Anyone have good tips for dialling in the maintenance dose via diastix?

2. Anyone know a source of generic canine insulin or how I can manage the cost (caninsulin is expensive; vets appear to have a monopoly on its sale in Northern Ireland as the GB discounters won’t ship across; we’re not insured for chronic disease treatment).

Many thanks!

I used Petdrugs Online for our cats thyroid medicine. As long as it is not an aerosol it looks like they ship to NI see https://www.petdrugsonline.co.uk/delivery and that is a Royal Mail restriction. I still had to pay for the actual prescription to send through but saved a fair bit overall.

Thanks for the tip, I’ll have a look. The issue seems to be that the caninsulin is refrigerated and needs insulated delivery, so anywhere I’ve looked excludes Highlands, Islands & NI.

Which is a massive pain, since even with the expedited shipping cost it seems about a third of the price that the vets charge :(

Our poor old girl, a Spinone, was 30kg and was on 35iu twice a day. She was insured but we had a prescription and used petdrugsonline (still cost Petplan over £20k over 18 months; brain tumour and associated complications). The caninsulin came in a coolbox but we live in England and I dont know if they will send to NI.
Sounds like your boy isn't too bad though so good luck.

Mrs Beanie suggests having a look on facebook for canine diabetes support and information, and also canine diabetes support group. They are USA groups but there are people from the UK and they have useful information to offer.

Many thanks for the responses thus far. Any further thoughts or info greatly appreciated!

So sorry to hear this, what a shame for the dog and you.

May I ask what the dog eats (food types and brands)?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Senninha

So sorry to hear this, what a shame for the dog and you.

May I ask what the dog eats (food types and brands)?

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As above, it’s always been Hills Science Plan supplemented with fish.

Have you been in touch with :


https://www.petsathome.com/shop/en/pets/content/vets?ddkey=https:en/pets/searchterm

Good luck !
We went through the same for 2.5-3 years with our big Golden, and am pretty sure we were told (off the record) human insuline can also be used....
At times, Vets are .....

Have you been in touch with :


https://www.petsathome.com/shop/en/pets/content/vets?ddkey=https:en/pets/searchterm

Good luck !
We went through the same for 2.5-3 years with our big Golden, and am pretty sure we were told (off the record) human insuline can also be used....

At times, Vets are .....

I’ll follow up on that link, thanks.

I have read that human-use insulin is formulated in a different strength from canine use, and that the primary issue is dosing error. Which immediately makes one think: well, if I can understand and correct for strength/dose, no-one is saying that it’s pharmacologically different stuff...