Re:Insulin Wars: How insurance companies farm out dirty work...
by dotuser on Tuesday January 22, 2019 @12:58PM
(#18970463)
Interesting, for me (and your dog's mileage may vary), humulin and novolin are interchangeable. I bought humulin at walmart before they switched to novolin but I rarely use NPH. I only need it when either I don't have insurance or I need a new prescription because my insurance decided to switch to another preferred basal insulin. It's easy for me to see any changes since I can monitor my blood sugars but for a dog, that could be a challenge and probably requires a stay at the vet to run tests.
You probably know this better than I, but the doctor advised us that Humulin N and Novolin N are not interchangeable; while they are the “same” insulin (NPH), the manufacturing process is different, affecting dosage.
In our pet’s case, the Dr. had conducted a series of exams to determine Humulin N dosages — which he advised us we would have needed to redo if we switched her to Novolin.
I think in humans it is easier to get blood readings, but in the dog’s case the Dr. needed to keep her in hospital to do a series of “curves;” this was expensive, so we did not want to redo.