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lilituc November 15 2006, 16:39:56 UTC
U-40 are for measuring U-40 insulin and U-100 are for measuring U-100 insulin. The U means units and the number is how many units per ml, i.e. concentration. Here's a conversion chart:
http://www.petdiabetes.org/u40_conv.htm

Personally, I wouldn't do it, I'd just buy more syringes. But I'm bad at arithmetic.

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lilituc November 15 2006, 16:40:59 UTC
Sorry, that chart is going the other way. But I think you can reverse engineer it.

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bertha79 November 15 2006, 16:50:04 UTC
Oh great! Thanks for the conversion chart, that is really helpful. I too don't trust myself to be able to figure out simple math on a regular basis, so perhaps I will just buy more syringes but take a box of his for emergency backup...thanks!

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vodgut November 15 2006, 16:55:42 UTC
Found that same page. Yeah, you'd have to go to a much smaller number using U-100 insulin with a U-40 syringe. For only 3 units, that might be difficult to measure out that carefully with the syringe designed for the lower concentration.

Personally, I'd avoid this. The imprecision of the U-40 syringe probably makes going in the reverse direction from the web page more likely that the cat would be either under or overdosed on insulin.

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swirlydoodle November 15 2006, 16:47:39 UTC
U-40 insulin isn't as strong as a U-100 insulin. U-40 has 40 "units" of active insulin per milliliter. U-100 has 100 units of active insulin per milliliter. Therefore, U-100 insulin is 2.5 times as strong as U-40 insulin.

The markings on an insulin needle are designed to deliver 1 unit of insulin. 1 unit on a U-40 needle will correspond to 2.5 units of U-100 insulin. You need to divide by 2.5 to get the correct dose of U-100 insulin using a U-40 syringe. In your case 3/2.5 = 1.2. I don't know how easy it will be to draw up 1.2 on one of those syringes.

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bertha79 November 15 2006, 16:55:49 UTC
Ah, thanks for doing the math for me! Yeah, that might be tricky. It's probably best not to chance it. Thanks!

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chatalaine November 15 2006, 23:24:47 UTC
I agree with your decision! Just reading this, and snuggling my own cat, I would NOT risk it. God forbid I killed my babygirl just to save a few bucks!! Since I know firsthand how horrible an insulin crash feels, I wouldn't want to subject her to *that*.

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