I have a boy that has been on vetsulin for over a year now-my vet has told me that they will no longer be able to get this medication and that I must bring my boy in so that they can keep him to try and switch him over to human insulin.
Has anyone else heard of this and, if so has anyone had any exp. trying to make the transition at home?
He gets SO stressed when left at the vets that I think his stress levels will add to his sugar numbers.
Any thoughts/advice on this issues would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

I think all of the vetsulin was recalled......

I have a dog on Novalin (the generic Walmart brand of Humulin N). She's been on it for over three years and is doing great. And it is about 1/4-1/3 the price of Vetsulin.

Why not have your Vet or a tech in the clinic teach you how to collect blood samples from the vein on the margin of the ear flap. VERY easy to do at home! Most clinics have more than one glucometer - have them teach you how to run one, and just do a glucose curve at home.

Takes the stress response out and you can measure his levels during the day when you are home. It is usually a fasting check, then every two hours until you see a drop and then the following rise again. The important thing is how low does it go before it starts climbing again. Usually when we change a pet's insulin or amounts we do a glucose curve one day per week for three or four weeks along with a morning and evening check and maybe inbetween if concerns of lows. Then you just keep track of all the results, times, levels, activity levels, and time/ amount of food eaten and hand it to your vet and go from there.

The company Abbott actually has a glucomter specifically made for home testing of dogs and cats. It's called AlphaTRAK. User friendly and comes with test strips and then you just order more strips as needed. The initial cost of the machine and strips will probably set you back ~$180 (so the same $ as a hospitalization day for glucose checks).

Thank you SO much for the time you took to type this response-I truly appreciate your time and knowledge.

There is another insulin out from Boehinger Ingelheim called ProZinc. It is the most similar to the Vetsulin. Good Luck!

While ProZinc is going to fill the niche of Vetsulin (which is, by the way, still available, it was not recalled), ProZinc and PZI insulins are labelled for cats only until further testing takes place. Now are there veterinarians who are using this on dogs?---you bet, but it is considered "off label" use.
The action of ProZinc is not the same as Vetsulin, so if you have an animal on Vetsulin and switch over, you do have to start from scratch regulating the dose. Switching from PZI to Prozinc is not a problem as they are so close in how they act in the body. PZI will become unavailable soon also, as they are going to strictly human recombinent insulins, no more cow or pig sources anymore.
I swear, you need a scorecard these days to figure out what product is sold by who, what giant company swallowed up another giant company and what will happen to their products, what manufacturers have stopped producing products due to lost sales, being shut down by the FDA due to improper manufacturing, etc. The economy affects us ALL, even the biggies. Things in the veterinary market are changing very quickly....

Thank you to all of you who took time to post a reply-they were all very helpful.