Decrease dose for pet sitter?

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Liz&Gus

Member Since 2013
Hi Everyone!

I will be going out of town and have a pet sitter lined up to give Gus injections. Gus is at 2U Lantus b.i.d. and has been fine at this dose for 2 weeks. However, he had a very low BG AMPS yesterday (79 AMPS), so I skipped his morning shot. His BG came up by +6 to 197, so everything was worked out.

My pet sitter is fine with driving to my place twice daily for injections and feeding, but is uncomfortable testing Gus, particularly as he can be mean if he is hungry. Since, my pet sitter is doing me a favor, I don't feel that I can really insist on testing.

Should I have my pet sitter decrease the dose to 1U Lantus for safety reasons, with the idea that it is better to have higher BGs for 5 days than to risk a hypo incident?

Thanks!

Liz
 
I would reduce dose. Also, the sitter should ensure that Gus has eaten before giving shots. Sometimes a cat will not eat well at first with a sitter. How long are going to be gone?
 
I agree, reducing the dose would be a good idea. I would suggest reducing it to either 1 or 1.5 units. Like Larry said, the important thing is to make sure your cat eats before getting insulin.
 
Absolutely. Better safe than sorry. If he's a little higher for a few days, no biggie. But you don't want any hypos with no one around to monitor or help.
 
Absolutely. Better safe than sorry. If he's a little higher for a few days, no biggie. But you don't want any hypos with no one around to monitor or help. And I personally would drop it in half. You are giving an awful lot of Lantus...
 
Thank you for the advice!

I'll have the sitter give 1 unit for the 5 days I am gone. My syringes only have full units marked on them.

Liz
 
Prepare a syringe with food coloring in for her to compare it to. And give her the phone and address of your vet and the emergency vet. Plus give your vet a credit card number and tell them you are out of town.
 
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