Glargine grace period

I am brand new to this. Just did our first BG test and insulin shot today. I have tried finding the answer to my question in the forums, but haven't had success. How important is it that we give Freckles her shot exactly every 12 hours? Can it be early? Can it be late? At what point do you wait until the next dosing time?

 

Hello and welcome to you and Freckles.

It's best if you are fairly close for shot times. You can vary 1/2 hour once a day, or 15 minutes every shot. The shot can be late and how late depends on how easy it is for you to get back on time. I used to have a monthly meeting that was an hour before my usual shot time. I would take a fews days before hand to move the shot time up gradually, so I could do it on time the night I needed to. The next day, I would just shoot the hour later back on my usual time.

When it's no longer possible for you to move the shot slowly over several days to your normal time. What is the reason you might have to shoot early/late? Maybe we have some tips for you.

 

Thank you for your response, Wendy. We will be heading out of town in about 6 weeks and I'm not sure if our pet sitters will be able to do the shots on the schedule we will be on. Mostly though, I'm guessing things will come up along the way that could mess up the schedule occasionally and I'm just trying to get correct information ahead of time.

 

What may be important for your pet sitter to understand is that Lantus isn't like other types of insulin. Some vets and pet sitters will tell you it's OK to shoot within a 2 hr window in either direction. That's not true with Lantus. An early shot acts like a dose increase whereas a late shot acts like a dose reduction. There's overlap between the doses as well as the action of the insulin being cumulative. I would be careful to make sure your pet sitter understands.

My sitter was able to work the timing out. It wasn't the same as my shot time but it was more important that she should shoot close to 12 hrs.