Recent Issues with Vetsulin insulin and possible supply issues
Recently the FDA and Intervet/Schering-Plough Animal Health (the makers of Vetsulin insulin) announced that a quality test indicated that some batches of the drug may have varying amounts of the active ingredient in them. This could lead to accidentally overdosing or under dosing pets receiving Vetsulin. However, at this time there have been no documented cases of this actually happening and no Sioux Nation clients receiving Vetsulin have had any complications. As a safety precaution, Intervet and the FDA are working together to determine the cause of this variation and rectify the situation.
Should your pet show any of the signs of hyperglycemia (drinking more, urinating more, eating more) or hypoglycemia (weakness, lethargy, coma, seizures, behavioral changes, muscle twitching) please notify us immediately.
While we await further information on this process we intend to continue using Vetsulin with our patients because there have been no documented issues. If you are uncomfortable with this decision please do not hesitate to talk to Dr. Thoreson. There are insulin alternatives that your pet can be changed to, although this will require glucose curves and dosage adjustments similar to what was done when your pet was initially diagnosed.
It seems that the most pressing issue we may be facing in the near future is that Vetsulin supplies may be limited during this evaluation process. It is unfortunately possible that it could become completely unavailable and force us to change all of our patients to a different insulin. At this time, supplies are staying steady but we are advising our clients to PLEASE call to check availability well in advance of needing refills to avoid possible supply issues.
If you have further questions regarding this situation, please don’t hesitate to ask.
Sincerely,
Phil Thoreson, DVM
Sioux Nation Pet Clinic