Withholding insulin while Pinky fasts for morning blood draw

[ourboypinky]

We give Pinky Prozinc 2X daily, 3 to 3 1/2 units at 6:00 am and 6:00 pm daily. A question which we will have to ask our vet, but want to know your experience with this: What to do if a 12 hour fast is required for a blood draw? Adjust time of previous last injection to coincide with blood draw? In other words, we can't give insulin without food. If blood draw (after 12 hour fast) is at 9:00 am, do we give last injection 12 hours previous to this, say 9:00 pm, even though typical injection time in evening is, say, 6:00 pm? May be dumb question, just want to know if anyone has dealt with this issue. Seems like the only way to do this is go with a 15 hour period between injections previous to that 9:00 pm injection. Thoughts?

 

[Carl & Polly & Bob (GA)]

Re: Withholding insulin while Pinky fasts for morning blood

You could go either way, but I would probably stay on schedule rather than adjust the shot time forward by 3 hours. If you do that, then you would need to give him his next shot 12 hours later (9pm) and then your schedule would be off and you'd have to work your way back to 6 and 6. See what your vet thinks.

Another option would be to give him a reduced dose at 6 am instead of skipping completely, even though he will not have eaten. I linked an old thread today in another thread in PZI (Robbie's and Ellen's) about the whole "No food means no insulin" theory, and it isn't a 100% hard and fast rule.

Again, see what your vet thinks. No way would I give him his full dose, but I would consider a token dose like 1 unit perhaps.

http://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=9070

Carl

 

[Grayson & Lu]

Re: Withholding insulin while Pinky fasts for morning blood

When Grayson was at Colorado State Vet School for his SRT (radiation treatment for Acromegaly), where he was anesthetized 4 consecutive days, he had to fast as well. They told us to give him a half dose in the morning - without food. He did fine, and even got some decent numbers.

I have REALLY LOW blood pressure when I do fasting bloodwork...75/40 at 10 am... so I now schedule the bloodwork earlier - between 7 and 8 am. You may want to ask your vet if perhaps you can drop the cat off when they first open, so they can draw the blood and, so as not to totally throw off the shooting schedule. Then he/she can examine/treat the cat at whenever the scheduled time is. And I'd bring food at drop-off, so he could eat immediately after the blood is drawn.