Feeding while doing a curve

[Priss]

Hello,

When you are doing a curve are you supposed to feed only before the shot? Priss likes to take small bits of her canned food at a time, so does not finish the full amount in the morning. I noticed her BG is raising after she eats (wellness beef and chicken today) and we're trying to do a curve to send to the vet for reference. If I tried to restrict her to eating only in a short period she wouldn't get enough calories per today.

Thanks,

Elizabeth

 

[Michelle & Dusty]

Hi Elizabeth,

There are a lot of folks who free feed their cats over the day. Some leave food out all day and others take up the food two hours prior to the next insulin injection (because the effects of the insulin is typically, at that point, wearing off and the food might cause the BG to go higher than it otherwise would have gone). So please do feel free to leave your food out if your kitty is a grazer. Mine is a grazer as well. She wouldn't get much food at all if I took it up in the morning after she got her first taste. ;-)

 

[BJM]

Letting them graze seems to keep the glucose more level, too, rather than spiking after a big meal.

 

[Elizabeth and Bertie]

...There are a lot of folks who free feed their cats over the day. Some leave food out all day and others take up the food two hours prior to the next insulin injection (because the effects of the insulin is typically, at that point, wearing off and the food might cause the BG to go higher than it otherwise would have gone)

Yep, I also free-feed my cats. It works well for us. Though there are some folks here who find that set meal times work better for their cat.

My personal view is that when you're doing a curve, it's actually really important to keep the feeding situation as normal/routine as possible; otherwise you're not getting a true picture of how the insulin is working in your cat on a day to day basis.

 

[Blue]

Hello,

When you are doing a curve are you supposed to feed only before the shot? Priss likes to take small bits of her canned food at a time, so does not finish the full amount in the morning. I noticed her BG is raising after she eats (wellness beef and chicken today) and we're trying to do a curve to send to the vet for reference. If I tried to restrict her to eating only in a short period she wouldn't get enough calories per today.

Thanks,

Elizabeth

When you are doing a curve, you don't want to make any changes in what you normally do.
You want to know exactly how your cat's numbers are, with your feeding style, and your insulin dose.
With the curves, you will see as you do more of them the reaction to food and insulin, and you can make adjustments in the future.

Some cats spike high from a meal, so if you see big spikes, you may want to split up the shot meal into maybe 4 mini meals, giving a tsp every hour, and you may see a more gradual curve.

By leaving everything as normal, the curve will let you know what is happening, and you can adjust as needed.