How Long Does A Bag Of Lactated Ringers Last? (2024)

SwissMiss said:

My 5 year old cat Jasmine was diagnosed with stage 2 or 3 kidney failure about 2 weeks ago. I was given a bag of lactated ringers with the tubing and needle already attached. I'm supposed to give her 100 ML of the Sub Q fluids once or twice a week. The bag is 1000 ML. That means it would take 5 to 10 weeks to use up the bag. I read somewhere online today that lactated ringers should be discarded after 2 weeks once the tubing has been attached. Is that true? I've given her 2 treatments at home and of course I used a fresh needle each time. The liquid in the bag is still clear - it's not cloudy. The vet tech mentioned nothing about having to discard the unused portion of the lactated ringers after 2 weeks. I want to help my sweet girl feel better and not do more harm than good.

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Well, if the bag is 1000 ml (1 liter) and you are supposed to give your cat 100 ml (0.1 liter) of subQ twice a week, then it will be used up in 5 weeks, which is a little too long in my opinion, because at every use, some air gets in and might contaminate the content.
Aren't smaller bags available?

I used to buy 500 ml bottles and would give 120 ml every second day, so a bottle would last less than a week. I think it was the ideal, I wouldn't have trusted something that was in the bottle longer than a week.

I was told that once they are set up, they are good for 7 days, unless you refrigerate in which case they are good for 30 days. In either case, you would be beyond the acceptable date to use them. An unclear solution is also a sign that something is going wrong. However, I would ask your vet as they are selling you more than you can use and possibly a smaller amount is available as was suggested. Chewy sells this solution and set up for a much more reasonable price than a vet does.

I currently give it to my GSD, but he takes a lot more than a cat and we are done with a bag after 5 uses.

I"m going to give you the total opposite info as you've just received above. When I was giving fluids to my kidney cats, I purchased 1000 ml bags, and once I punched in the IV set -up, I stored the entire set-up in a plastic bag in a drawer between uses. I was to give 75 ml per sitting, 2 - 3 times per week (and more often it was just twice a week), so that meant one bag lasted for several weeks. We never had any issues. AND, our Vet told us it was perfectly fine to reuse the IV set up in the next bag as long as the tip didn't touch anything as we transferred if from the used bag into the new bag! (we didn't do that often, but occasionally did because couldn't get our hands on the set-ups in time). Of course, as you stated, a fresh needle is required each time.

I say if you have any doubts as to how long you can keep using the fluids, check with your Vet. I'm guessing they have "open" bags in their clinic that they use and doubt they toss them within a week or two, but could be wrong. (or they might store them in the fridge)