Timing of everything

How important is it to do the food and shot at *exactly* the same time every day?

My vet says it should ALWAYS be at the same time every morning and night. I'm sure this is ideal. But what do you all do? If you do test, feed, shot at 7 am every morning do you never vary from that? Is there a window of time on either side? I know with humans you can give medications every 12 hours but have a window of 30-60 minutes on either side that is medically safe.

Invariably Pretty Girl seems to be pretty hungry 1-1/2 hours before test, feed, shoot. I am now mostly feeding her several small meals and letting her free feed somewhat throughout. Then picking up the food 2 or 3 hours before the next test, feed, shoot.

What do you do?

 

Lantus has stricter dose timing requirements because of the depot. The end of one dose overlaps with the start of the next because of the depot. That means that shooting early can act like a small dose increase and late a small decrease. That can play havoc with BG numbers. The usual advice is to stick to 12/12 dosing as closely as possible. If you know ahead of time a shot has to be early/late you can begin a time shift of 15 minutes twice a day or 30 minutes once a day to be at the appropriate (non-standard) time. Then you'd shift back to your normal shot time over a few cycles either 15 minutes Am and PM or 30 minutes once a day.

Sometimes things get in the way and we haven't been able to plan ahead. You can probably shift the time 15 minutes with no big effect and resume the normal time next shot. If it has to be 30 minutes+ I'd compensate afterward by moving the next shot 15 minutes earlier/later at next cycle and another 15 the cycle after that, etc.

Another scenario is one where the shot would be far off schedule because you have to be away from home, etc. In that case you can skip the shot altogether and resume the next dose time. If your kitty is doing well, hasn't had any problem with ketones and so on it can work out OK.

 

The way you’re doing it sounds good to me. That’s how I always did it. I’m not familiar with Lantus specifically so I can’t say if it’s a good idea to play around with the times, but to me it’s good that she’s hungry so you never have to worry about her not eating at shot time and you know you’re getting a good clean reading since she’s been ready for food for a while. I don’t see any harm in making her wait. Maybe leave a little extra at night time instead to hold her over? Small meals basically free feeding all day is perfectly fine. It seems most kitties do the best with multiple meals and being able to graze a bit.

 

Thank you both.

I didn't know anything about the Lantus depot until within the last few days and reading here. My life and schedule are pretty random right now (not at all the way I like it to be) and it is hard for me to be so exact about the timing. But I will follow the suggestions about the 15 minute shifts if needed.

She seems to be hungry a lot and I know it's partly related to not being regulated but I've also realized in the last week or so that it's partly related to just not having enough food and being on zero carb rather than low carb. I've switched to low carb and feeding several meals/grazing throughout the day and it seems better. The hunger is less prominent. I think I was shorting her on food and didn't realize it. Even in just a few days her body seems less thin. I ordered a scale and it came yesterday so I will weigh her weekly to keep track of it.

Thank you.

 

I agree with Kris, Lantus is a little fussy about times compared with other insulins, but there are ways to make these adjustments. On the flip side, because it has a relatively late onset, the "feed" part of the test-feed-shoot is much more flexible. As long as you're sure she'll eat sometime before onset (2hrs or so after the shot), you can go ahead and shoot even if she hasn't gotten around to eating her meal yet.