Timing of Shot after Eating Question

[nutterbutter]

My Nutter was diagnosed about 4 weeks ago. (time flies so fast I can't even remember)

He's on ProZinc...started a 2 units twice a day, bumped up to 3 units twice a day for about 10 days, but is back to the 2 units.

My question has more to do with the timing of the shot after eating. I leave for work at about 6:30 AM and don't get home until 6:30 at the earliest and sometimes later. My vet says that the 12 hours can be plus or minus 1 hour either way. What I would like to know is what is the longest I can go between the meal and the shot. When I get up in the morning, my kitties want breakfast right away (I'm sure you all can relate to that). I'm just trying to figure out how late I can give his shot if I know I'm going to be running late that night.

Thanks for the help.

Linda
Nutter and Boo's Mom

 

[Joanna & Bix (GA)]

Hi Linda, welcome!

What I've seen stated before is that as long as they have food on board within the first 4 hours of a shot, they should be fine. I think you are asking the reverse, though, is it ok to feed first and then give insulin later? I think that's probably fine too - there's no hard and fast rule about what the timing would be, but I would think an hour before is no big deal.

It's nice though if they can eat in the early part of the cycle rather than just at shot time. Some people feed them a small meal at shot time, and then another small meal about 4 hours after. If you tried something like that, then they could have a bedtime snack and maybe would let you sleep in a little longer in the morning! ;-) (Probably not though, knowing cats! ohmygod_smile )

What I would probably do is let them eat as soon as you get up, and then give them a little snack at the same time as the shot. It may not even matter, but they do well with small meals anyway, so I'm thinking maybe 1/2 the food when you get up, and the other 1/2 when you are leaving would be perfect.

Mine are free-feeders so I may not be the best advisor, LOL. Some people use timed feeders too, that way you could let him have a small meal 3 or 4 hours after the shot if you wanted to. If you wanted to consider free-feeding, I can't even tell you how much easier life is once you go that route.

 

[Roger10]

I would try to keep the shots 12 hrs apart no matter what the exact time. Sometimes my schedule varies too. Like this morning I fed about 9am but didn't get his am dose til about 10am. That meant I needed to wait til 10 pm to test for his evening dose. Cats eat small meals thru out the day so it's not like with human diabetes where you eat then shoot. Just test before you shoot. When my guy first got diagnosed he tested below 100 a few times so I didn't give him any insulin. Putting him on the low carb, high protein diet has helped alot. That way your not fighting back the carbs with insulin. I get my food at a holistic animal food store but Petsmart carries the "Wilderness" brand. The thinking is less carbs will require lower doses of insulin to maintain a good number. Cats are tricky tho. Very unpredictable with BG numbers. My vet isn't a big believer of testing at home but I am.