dosing/timing questions

[Karen & Rudy]

1. can we give him his shot while he eats? or do we have to do it a certain amount of time after he eats?

2. we give his shot at 6am and 6pm. instead, can we give it 6am and 6pm Monday through Thursday, 6am and 7pm on Friday. 8am and 8pm on Saturday, 8am and 7pm on sunday? or does everyone that normally shoots early because of work also get up early on the weekends?

3. can you peek at his chart and see what you think? we tested the last 3 weekends (mini curves) because he is on canned food only now and we wanted to see if that would make much of a difference. He seems to be staying between 300-400. Thinking we are going to need to increase? I'll send the numbers to the vet also, but wanted to see what you guys thought first.

Thanks bunches!

 

[Kimmied]

Morning Karen,
Can't help with dosing as I'm a newbie but wanted to say I keep Hank on 6:30 & 6:30, Sunday-Saturday since I'm an "early bird" anyway.

Nope, Hank still isn't' t eating wet food! I've tried putting him in the bathroom with kibble on top of wet food and wouldn't' t touch it! Argh!

But I brought it down to his usual spot and he did eat a little of the dry. So he may have got a little taste of wet food before he stopped. I'm not giving up! I will win this battle! :lol:

Have a good day,
Kimmie

 

[Sue and Oliver (GA)]

1. can we give him his shot while he eats? or do we have to do it a certain amount of time after he eats?

2. we give his shot at 6am and 6pm. instead, can we give it 6am and 6pm Monday through Thursday, 6am and 7pm on Friday. 8am and 8pm on Saturday, 8am and 7pm on sunday? or does everyone that normally shoots early because of work also get up early on the weekends?

3. can you peek at his chart and see what you think? we tested the last 3 weekends (mini curves) because he is on canned food only now and we wanted to see if that would make much of a difference. He seems to be staying between 300-400. Thinking we are going to need to increase? I'll send the numbers to the vet also, but wanted to see what you guys thought first.

Yes, you can definitely give him the shot as he is eating lots of people here do.

Changing the times on the weekend is not ideal. ProZinc is flexible but I would never suggest switching it back and forth by an hour for 3 days out of 7. Could you slowly change the daytime shot by an hour consistently (7:30 or 7) if it would fit the weekday schedule and then have that much extra sleep time on the weekends? Can you switch off with someone else in the household so one of you gets to sleep later each weekend morning?

I don't know about his numbers. He is consistently high which, unfortunately, can mean two things.

He is getting too much insulin. Changing by full units is not recommended because you can easily skip over an ideal dose.

He needs more insulin. This is also a possibility. If he were mine, I think I'd go with this scenerio and increase. But I would increase by .5, not a full unit and keep the dose for a few days, getting daily preshot numbers to see any patterns I am assuming you can't get a nadir (midcycle number) during the day? If so, I would commit to getting one at night every few days. If you are like me, you get up at night anyway. Just catch a test when you are up.

I am assuming your vet is not encouraging testing? It would be so much more helpful to have some daily preshot numbers (You really need to test before every shot- some day he may decide to drop and you want to know that and be ready to give less insulin.) and a nadir every few cycles. I would feel very uncomfortable testing with a curve once a week and not testing before every shot.

ProZinc users can generally get by with less testing, but if your goal is remission, committing yourself to daily testing (at least that minimum of daily preshots and a few midcycles) is the best and fastest way to get there.

 

[Carl & Polly & Bob (GA)]

2. we give his shot at 6am and 6pm. instead, can we give it 6am and 6pm Monday through Thursday, 6am and 7pm on Friday. 8am and 8pm on Saturday, 8am and 7pm on sunday? or does everyone that normally shoots early because of work also get up early on the weekends?

I have a different opinion than most people regarding timing of shots...

Last question first. I worked a different shift every week for the ten weeks Bob was on insulin. It was impossible for me to give him his insulin at the same time every day. And impossible to give them 12 hours apart more days than not. So he got his shots when he got them. They were never less than 10 hours apart. They were never more than 14 hours apart. But they were rarely 12 hours apart. My weekends were never on the weekend. My days off changed every week too. But the bottom line was that I did the best I could with the cards I was dealt.

Bob was on compounded PZI for ten weeks before he went into remission. So whatever I did right or wrong, it worked for Bob.

I, personally, would have no problem with the schedule you laid out. It is better than the one I used. The only "condition" I would attach to that is to NEVER give a shot without testing first, and try to get a mid-cycle test as often as humanly possible.

And most important - when in doubt, err on the side of caution. If you feel his preshot number is too low to give a normal dose, shoot less, shoot later after the number has risen without feeding, or skip the the shot altogether.

That's all "opinion", not " advice".