How to change shot schedule?

[KSAkitties]

Hello,

Can someone please advice how I should go about changing Major's shot schedule?

Major' currectly gets insulin injections at 4:00am and 4:00pm (test, feed & shoot). Unfortunately, I have to be away for a week from 4 to 11 Oct. The vet who is going to give Major the injections can only come at 08:00am and 08:00pm.

I have been following Vicky's posts on split dosing for another member who seems to have a variable work schedule but I am not experienced enough with Levemir to do the split dosing nor change the current shot time on my own.

I suppose I have two options:
Option 1: start moving back Major's shot time by 15 mintues for every shot (based on my calculation, I will need 16 cycles to achieve the new 08:00am/08:00pm shchedule).
Option 2: use split dosing to extend the duration.

Thanks,

 

[Vicky & Gandalf (GA) & Murrlin]

Major is doing so well that moving the shots up by 15 minutes at a time, given that you are able to do with your household or work schedule, would probably be much less disruptive than doing split doses. You have just enough days to move up 15 minutes each day if you start tomorrow.

Split dosing works, but to my knowledge has never been done for a cat so well regulated. By its nature, split dosing is still not ideal to maintain BGs as level as his are. That's why I would recommend just doing it in 15 minute increments over the course of that many days.

If you're unable to do that because of your schedule, let me know and I'll help you. That's very nice of your vet to come to the house to do shots! Will they be testing as well?

 

[KSAkitties]

Major is doing so well that moving the shots up by 15 minutes at a time, given that you are able to do with your household or work schedule, would probably be much less disruptive than doing split doses. You have just enough days to move up 15 minutes each day if you start tomorrow.

Many thanks, Vicky. I will start moving by 15 min tomorrow.

That's very nice of your vet to come to the house to do shots! Will they be testing as well?

I will teach my vet to do the pre-shot testing and show him how to give insulin injection. I am currently training another person (cat sitter-in-training) to do home testing. He will come at least twice a day to take the mid-day reading. Major's BG sometimes drop a lot by +4 so I will have the cat sitter do the +4 reading and feed Major at +4. If he can manage to do the home testing well (without stressing Major too much), I will also ask him to do +6. This is not an ideal arrangement but this is what I can organise at the moment.

Vicky, based on Major SS, do you think taking the +4 reading is more critical than +6? His BG usually goes up after eating at +4; therefore, his +6 is often higher than his +4.

On a separate note:
Diabetic cats are routinely PTS here in Saudi Arabia even though Lantus and Levemir are readily available in the local pharmacies. Unfortunately, the vets here (we only have two vets in the entire province) always recommend euthansiation. I hope and keep my fingers crossed that after this experience, my vet will see that FD can be treated and will start treating cats with diabetes. It breaks my heart to know sugar kitties are PTS because the local vets do not know how to treat FD.

 

[Vicky & Gandalf (GA) & Murrlin]

It seems to me that he's fairly steady between +4 and +6 so I don't know it's crucial to get both the +4 and +6. Anywhere in there is probably good enough.

That breaks my heart too that they don't know how to treat diabetes in cats. You are so awesome to encourage this and show a vet! If Lantus and Levemir are available there, that means it's possible to treat them with better insulins than they use in the UK! Since they start with caninsulin there.

Kudos to you! And Major of course. dancing_cat dancing_cat

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