Skipped AM shot - did I make the right choice?

[supervix56]

Hi,

This morning LeeLee only had a few bites of food. Her BG (right after those few bites of food) was 263. I decided to not give her the AM shot as I had to leave for work couldn't ensure that she would eat more.

Was that a reasonable decision?

How fast does food affect their BG?

Also, I'm having a terrible time trying to get LeeLee on an eating schedule. If I'm home, I take away all food 2 hours before the shot. If I'm lucky, she'll eat only a quarter of a small can off food just before her shot, so I wind up leaving food out for her. And then the cycle just continues. Any advice or links on how to accomplish this? I've also got three other cats, which complicates matters (one is a bag of bones that I have to beg to eat, another is bordering on obese and could certainly stand to lose weight, the other is a proper weight.) They're also alone for 10 hours a day while everyone is at work.

Thanks,
Erin and LeeLee

 

[BJM]

Hi,

This morning LeeLee only had a few bites of food. Her BG (right after those few bites of food) was 263. I decided to not give her the AM shot as I had to leave for work couldn't ensure that she would eat more.

Was that a reasonable decision?

How fast does food affect their BG?

Also, I'm having a terrible time trying to get LeeLee on an eating schedule. If I'm home, I take away all food 2 hours before the shot. If I'm lucky, she'll eat only a quarter of a small can off food just before her shot, so I wind up leaving food out for her. And then the cycle just continues. Any advice or links on how to accomplish this? I've also got three other cats, which complicates matters (one is a bag of bones that I have to beg to eat, another is bordering on obese and could certainly stand to lose weight, the other is a proper weight.) They're also alone for 10 hours a day while everyone is at work.

Thanks,
Erin and LeeLee

If you're ever in doubt like that, don't shoot. Occasional high glucose is less likely to cause an immediate problem, while too low ("Hypo") can kill quickly. Generally, after eating some, the glucose will rise for roughly 2 hours. Then, as the insulin starts taking effect, the glucose will start slowly dropping. You probably would have been fine, but until you learn how your cat reacts to insulin, being cautious is OK. Once you start accumulating data about how she handles it, you will be more confident about giving insulin safely, based on that data. If that happens when you'll be home over the weekend, you can monitor what happens if you shoot. Typically, because Lantus is so gentle, the cat gets hungry and eats if the glucose is lower than usual. If you're home, you can test every 3 hours and do a mini curve to see how 1 unit twice a day works for her.

If you get everyone shifted to low carb, canned food, it will be OK to leave it out for everyone. My obese civvies lost weight when I switched them all over to that.

The bag of bones kitty could by hyperthyroid or have renal disease (or something else), if you've not already checked that with the vet. You might do supplemental feedings when you're home, of higher calorie (yet still diabetes safe) kitten food, such as Evo Cat and Kitten.

 

[supervix56]

Thanks for the reply. My bag of bones cat gets checkups throughout the year. She has IBD that I haven't been able to control yet (she didn't do well on prednisone and I tried limiting ingredients to see which ones bother her, but she's so picky she stops eating if she gets the same thing twice in a row.) Right now I'm keeping this cat separated while I'm at work so that I can leave her food out for her.

The others (including LeeLee) have canned Wellness left out for them and a bit of dry Hills M/D. I'm worried that if there's no dry, LeeLee just won't eat anything at all. That's good to know that Lantus is gentle and so the cat will usually get hungry and then eat.

 

[BJM]

Here's a Yahoo group for IBD you may find helpful.

It can take some getting used to, but if she has eaten the wet, she'll likely eat it if no dry is present. Also, Cat Info lists a number of options to help with food transistions.