Best Practices

Hi All - as a newbie, I've been reading everything I can get my hands on. I'm interested in best practices for testing BG. For example: Test, feed, wait 30 minutes and inject; Test, feed, don't wait and inject right after feeding; Test, inject, wait 30 minutes and feed. I've got so much going on in my head that I want to make sure that I'm doing this correctly.

What have you all found that works best - and yes, I realize that things may vary from cat to cat.

 

Here's the basic plan:

1. test every day AM and PM before feeding and injecting (no food at least 2 hours before) to see if the planned dose is safe
2. test at least once near mid cycle or at bedtime daily to see how low the BG goes
3. do extra tests on days off to fill in the response picture
4. if indicated by consistently high numbers on your spreadsheet, increase the dose by no more than 0.25 u at a time so you don't accidentally go right past a good dose
5. post here for advice whenever you're confused or unsure of what to do.

Many people test, feed immediately and inject while kitty is eating if he/she has a normal appetite - ie., will eat willingly. Some people allow some time to eat before injecting. The important thing is to remove food for two hours before the pre shot test.

 

The general recommendation is to test, feed, and inject with very little time in between. The test is going to show you what the BG is "right now" and whether it is safe to inject based on that number. If the number happens to be a bit low, you can "stall" which is wait a few minutes [maybe 20 to 30] without feeding then test again to see if the number has risen to a safe point for injection. If the number is rising you can then feed and inject, knowing that the food is possibly going to raise the BG even more. My kitty takes a long time to eat so I test about 30 to 40 minutes before injection time, feed and then inject whether or not he has finished his meal. As long as he has eaten most of it by shot time and his BG is high enough to shoot, I shoot even if he still has a bit of food to finish. Much depends on the insulin you are using. You may want to post this question in the ProZinc forum so others who use this insulin can weigh in.

 

Thank you both for the reassurance! The BG test kit arrives tomorrow, so I'm interested to see what her reading is. I've had her on wet food for 3.5 days, she is drinking less water and she's also eating well, but not gobbling like she's starved. Hopefully we caught this early, fingers crossed.