When to give insulin shots for cats
How to Give Insulin Injections
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hi my name is Jen I'm a veterinary
technician and today I'm going to show
you how to administer insulin injections
at home to your pet the first step is
going to be gathering all of your
supplies before you get your pet ready
to give the injection you should have a
bottle of insulin at home this will be
kept in the refrigerator so you'll need
to get that out as well as your syringe
you want to make sure that you have a
correct type of syringe that matches
with your insulin there are two types
there's au forty which means there are
40 units per milliliter and au 100 which
means a hundred units per milliliter
it's very important that you use the
correct type of syringe with the correct
type of insulin for your pet if you're
unsure of that you have the correct
supplies make sure you check with your
veterinarian when you get your insulin
out of the refrigerator you want to make
sure that you handle it with care it is
a delicate molecule and can be damaged
and be less effective if you handle it
roughly or if it's left out of the
refrigerator so when you've got your
insulin out you may notice that some of
the medicine has settled down to the
bottom of the bottle you want to make
sure that you mix that up into the
liquid by gently rolling the vial or
mixing it back and forth you don't want
to shake it violently you don't want to
handle it roughly once that's well mixed
you're ready to draw it up into your
syringe you're going to open your
syringe
remove the cap and you're gonna turn
your bottle over there's a rubber
stopper in the top here we're going to
insert the needle now you want to know
keep in mind what dose your patient
should be on and pull back on the white
plunger to that dose so I usually go
beyond the dose just so that I can make
sure I see the liquid in the syringe and
then I watch for any air bubbles and
gently flick that syringe until the air
bubbles go to the top of the syringe I
then depress the plunger until I get to
the appropriate dose in this case we're
gonna say five units once I've drawn up
my five units and have ensured that
there are no air bubbles in the syringe
I'm going to pull my syringe out and I'm
going to carefully recap my syringe
being careful not to poke myself or
touch that to any surface this is now
ready to get to be given to your pet so
then I would go and get my cat to
administer the insulin okay now that we
have our insulin drawn up we're ready to
give that to our pet so before you give
any insulin you want to make sure that
your pet has eaten their entire meal
whether that be breakfast or dinner it's
important that they have that sugar in
there for the insulin to work on so you
never want to give insulin unless your
pet has eaten so when you're ready make
sure that they've eaten you want to get
them nice and relaxed
we usually give the insulin in the loose
skin over their shoulder blades in this
region we just try to avoid going in the
same spot every time
you can alternate shoulder blades go in
the middle but try not to go in the same
spot every time to avoid developing some
scar tissue when you're ready to give it
you're gonna want to pick up the skin
away from the muscle and tissue
underneath make a little tent and I
usually will make that tent with my left
hand because I'm right hand dominant and
I will hold the insulin syringe in my
right hand now I'm going to make that
little tent and I'm going to put the
needle right into this
a pocket in the skin here so I'm going
to take my cap off of my syringe and
keeping my finger off of the plunger I'm
going to put that needle right into that
little pocket once the needle is in
there I will depress the plunger and
inject the insulin alright once you've
administered your insulin injection you
want to make sure that you dispose of
the sharp needle into a proper sharps
container so that it doesn't go into
your trash so you should ask your
veterinarian or pharmacist for a
biohazard container to dispose of your
needles if there's any question of
whether or not your pet got the insulin
say he moved or you're not sure if you
got fully into the skin you never want
to administer another injection you
would want to wait until the next one is
due to avoid accidentally overdosing
your pad on insulin and that's how you
administer insulin to you pad at home
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