Written by @Sienne and Gabby (GA) Thank you for sharing! Daylight Savings time ends on Sunday, November 4th at 2:00 AM. For most of us in the U.S., this means it’s almost time to “Fall back.” The time change is rather inconvenient for Lantus & Lev Landers because we try so hard to stick to a 12 hour schedule. If you make no adjustments and just shoot at your regular time on the clock Sunday morning, your AMPS will be 13 hours after your PMPS the night before. This will cause higher BG’s for most cats, as it will partially deplete the insulin depot. Remember shooting late is equivalent to a dose decrease, so if your cat is in a phase where she is running tight numbers or earning dose reductions, this might slow things down. If you don’t want to have a +13 in the mix, you can move your time ahead a little at a time to minimize the impact on your cat’s numbers. Option A (move in 15 minute increments once a day): pick any 4 days during the week to move your shot time 15 minutes later. This option requires a little planning, but should have very minimal impact on BG’s. Example: regular time is 7:00 Thursday AMPS at 7:00 Thursday PMPS at 7:15 Friday AMPS at 7:15 Friday PMPS at 7:30 Saturday AMPS at 7:30 Saturday PMPS at 7:45 (you will set your clock back overnight) Sunday AMPS at 6:45, which is the “old” 7:45 Sunday PMPS at 7:00, which has you on schedule for Monday morning Option B (move in 15 min. increments twice a day).This may have a slight effect on BG numbers. Example: regular time is 7:00 Friday AMPS at 7:00 Friday PMPS at 7:15 Saturday AMPS at 7:30 Saturday at 7:45 (set clock back at bedtime) Sunday AMPS at 8:00 - your "old" 7 and you're back on schedule Option C (move in 30 minute increments): pick 2 cycles during the week to move your shot time 30 minutes later. This *could* have a little more impact on BG’s for cats who are sensitive to time changes. Example: regular time is 7:00 Friday AMPS at 7:00 Friday PMPS at 7:30 Saturday AMPS at 7:30 Saturday PMPS at 8:00 (you will set your clock back overnight) Sunday AMPS at 7:00, which is the “old” 8:00 Option D: (From Jill...) "Bypass all the fooling around with adjusting shot times over a period of several days. An occasional shot that's an hour late is not that big a deal. Most kitties won't even notice! Many of you are sleep deprived. Sleep in the extra hour and don't think any more of it than a bonus being thrown your way! That's what i'll be doing... and have always done." [Please bump this post until 11/4]
For our Prozinc users here: While this is written for the L insulins, they work for Prozinc too. You can follow any of the above scenarios that seems to work best for you and your kitty. Personally, I will be going with Option D, sleeping in an extra hour, and shooting at +13. Prozinc is pretty flexible, and unless your kitty is very very sensitive, it shouldn't make much difference. The first cycle might be a little "off" if your kitty rises quickly at the end of the cycle, but by cycle 2 or 3 you'll be back on track again. Of course, since I test/feed/shoot right when I wake up, convincing my furry little overlords to wait an extra hour for breakfast might ruin my "sleeping in" plan.
I use a version of option D myself even though Teasel is on Lantus. I don't find the one hour change in schedule to be a big problem twice a year.
Yeah, I was always an option D kind of girl. Whatever works best for you is fine, but I think it's easier to stick with D and really, it works fine for all cats I've seen on here.
