julie1220 said:
thanks for the comment in my condo, laurie. i was wondering about the insulin dose because i'd seen here that people seem to shoot 1/2 dose for the dental. I specifically asked the vet tech about it when she called for the appt reminder today and she talked to the vet and he said because of Lantus' delayed response that my reduced dose would affect him later tomorrow, post-procedure. He was adamant that i give punkin the usual dose.
I also wondered because i'm supposed to give him 1/2 the amount of the food, he usually has 1 can w/shot and 1/2 can at +3, if i reduce his food first thing by 1/2, then he has a lot less food to work with that insulin. Did i make that confusing enough? sorry!
i guess based on everything i'm reading here, and i think the vet isn't exactly right about that Lantus response, I want to reduce the dose, but i'm a little reluctant to walk in there in the am and say i disregarded his pre-procedure directions. waaaahhhhh.
the question is, what's best for punkin? would you reduce the dose? i will post in the morning, but often it seems like no one is available to respond. i also wonder about the value of the amps # tomorrow because he's telling me to feed punkin as early as possible. i assume it's shoot on time, but if i fed an hour or so earlier . . . ? won't the number then be useless?
Please do post in the morning...we were discussing this last night off board, someone will be watching for your post in the morning. Frankly, I wouldn't worry too much about the vet being annoyed....Punkin is
your cat, and you have the right to make the decision to shoot a reduced dose if you want to. Whether or not you shoot the full dose does not affect his procedure. The anesthesia sometimes causes the BG to drop post procedure...so if you reduce the dose, which should cause the numbers to be higher, that helps to counteract the drop from the anesthesia....does that make sense? Even if he doesn't drop....it's safer to have him run a little high than to drop low after anesthesia. It takes time for them to recover from the anesthesia too...it isn't fun to deal with a loopy kitty with low numbers! Not to mention, if his mouth is sore, you may have trouble getting him to eat, and you don't want to feed a lot of food right after either....
I would suggest that you tell him that you were uncomfortable with giving the full dose while giving half of the food, that you were worried about him dropping low without the normal food....a legitimate concern. If you are feeding first, then shooting an hour later, the food will influence the AMPS test...it won't be useless, but it will be affected. I would test before you feed, and test again before you shoot. If he were my cat, I would shoot 1/2 dose....no question about it.
