Test BG (Pre-shot) before or after a meal?

[Jess and MrCat]

Mr. Cat has been on Lantus for 10 days and just had an AMPS of 111 (before his breakfast). I didn't get any replies on this post to see what I should do (and Mr. Cat was hungry) so I gave him 1 can FF turkey giblets and waited an hour. Tested his BG - 202. So, I gave him 1U.
In order to determine whether or not I give him a shot, should I test his BG after breakfast from now on?
Thanks!
Jess

Previous post:
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=100657

 

[Amy & Papaya (GA)]

It looks like BJM replied in your last post.

I would suggest waiting 30 minutes without food and retesting.

We call that stalling.

When you're not sure whether the BG is high enough to give a shot or not, you want to see if the numbers are climbing WITHOUT food. If you feed, then test later, it might just be going up because of the food and then still go back down later, and you will have made the decision based on the wrong number. Does that make sense? So you should always test BG before breakfast to get an accurate number. If it is lower than you are comfortable shooting, you can "stall" as BJM explained, which is wait, say for half an hour, and test again but do not feed before the second test. (The only time you feed is if when you want to give the shot, you test and BG is really low, in the 40s. Then you definitely feed!!)

 

[Jess and MrCat]

Thank you, BJM and Amy! Your explanations are very helpful and make a lot of sense. Geez.... I don't know what I would do without this forum!
Jess