Lantus Shot Time Feeding amount question

[tomtom13]

Evening all

here is my Lantus question:

is it that important to get a good amount of food in the cat at shot time with Lantus? given that it usually takes a few hours to kick in.

here is the concern: Tomcat sometimes just doesn't want to eat his normal amount at shot time (about 1/2~3/4 can of ff)---I can tell he isn't sick or anything...he is just being picky. can you imagine that? so what I do is open can after can after can to get that amount in him. But tonight I thought....okay this guy is manipulating me. ;-) I know he will eat anything at +2......so why not just hold out until then. not to mention: most of the time his PS numbers are high anyway.....why give his system even more sugar while waiting for the insulin to kick in.

what do you think?
is it alright to offer his normal food at shot time and if he doesn't eat a good amount .......tough....I am not opening up 3 more cans....you just have to wait an hour or so?

thanks all

~kelly

 

[Deb & Wink]

I would still like to see tomcat eat at least a bit of that meal with the shot. Maybe half of what you give him. It's a good idea to have a bit of food on board with the shot.

With the Lantus, since it does not usually begin to onset until +2 , you could wait and feed the rest of the meal then.

Wink hated wet food when I first got him. I was happy if he ate 1/4 can of Fancy Feast with his shot, then he would eat more later. It could easily take Wink 30-45 minutes to eat that 1/4 can.

With the Humulin N or even Vetsulin, it was imperative that Tomcat ate enough before you gave him the shot. That was because the onset can be in really fast, 1 hour or less.

 

[Wendy&Tiggy(GA)]

Have you thought about free feeding? My boys don't eat at shot time, they graze all day so I don't worry about shot time. Now today I shot bailey and afterward noticed he wasn't eating as much, so I just kept testing and an eye on him to make sure he was eating. If he dropped low due to lack of food, I can bring him up again with syrup or HC food so not so worried.

Tomtom is still high though, it's just the pâtés you a feeding with fancy feast right? Maybe tweak it and stop the friskies since fancy feast is lower carb and see if you can bring him down more? Some cats are more carb sensitive than others. So maybe you want to try to tweak to under 5% calories from carbs? http://www.catinfo.org/docs/FoodChartPublic9-22-12.pdf

Wendy