9/14 - Dental surgery scheduled for 9/23, how to adjust insulin dosing time?

Hi friends ,
Milo is having his dental surgery/cleaning / on September 23. His usual time for his Lantus is at 10:00AM and 10:00 PM.
I am dropping him off at the vet on September 23 at 8:30 AM.
The instructions per The Vet are:
Keep food out during the night.
Remove food at 6:00 Am.
Check his Glucose at 6:30 AM.
Insulin:
1) If greater than 360mg/dL ( 20 mmol/L - Give full dose.
2) If in between 180mg/dL and 360 mg/dL ( 10mmol/L - 20 mmol/L ) - Give half a dose.
3) Less than 180 mg/dL (10 mmol/L)- No insulin. Bring insulin with me to The Vet. I will follow these instructions but...
I need some advice on how and when i should start adjusting his insulin dosing time to be
compatible with his surgery date and dosing time please?
Milo is 11 years old and except for his diabetes he is doing well. But I'm a bit concerned how it
will go once we are back home again .I suspect they will send me home with pain meds etc ..Milo
is very difficult to give pills to.. does pain meds come in liquid form as well?( I had a previous cat for 13 years diagnosed with mega colon so very comfortable giving oral liquid meds by syringe)
Any advice in regards to post dental surgery care is much appreciated! Thank You.

 

@Sienne and Gabby (GA)

@Wendy&Neko
@tiffmaxee

 

Do you know what time that actual dental/anesthesia will be? That is a factor in determining dose and amount to eat. Some vets say give half dose and half food in morning if AMPS is like it usually is. From the food cutoff time it may be that the dental/anesthesia is in the early afternoon.

 

Hi Larry, and thanks for responding. No i don't know what time his surgery is
scheduled for.( i will find out) I do trust my vet he is all onboard with me following
FDMB and Feline Diabetes Group. And seem quite knowledgeable about Feline Diabetes.
I will follow his instructions, but trying to figure out how to back up his insulin dosing times, with 15 minutes increments ahead ( 8 days) until the dental surgery. Vet said cats only need a 3 hour window to be fasting
for surgery so thinking he may be scheduled for perhaps 9:30 Am >...?

 

I always gave the shot before dropping off the cat. Not that I didn't trust the vet to follow instructions on dosing or timing, but..... have heard some stories from others. If you want to move the shot time up before hand, you can move it 1/2 hour once per day, or 15 minutes per shot. Then you won't have to worry about leaving insulin/needles with the vet, or get charged for it.

Unless it takes you two hours to get to the vet, I would just shoot before you leave. Removing food at 6:00 am was standard with what Neko's dental vet requested. He actually said no more than 1/3 of her breakfast and cutoff was 6:00 am. But I'd test then, and test again an hour later which was before I did the shot and left. I never gave more than 1/2 dose, nor let them dose her. She was sensitive to small changes in dose.

 

Hi Wendy, and many thanks for your sound advice! Starting tomorrow i will move Milo's insulin dosing times up 1/2 hr per day,
and it will be at the correct time on 9/23.
Our Vet is only 10 min. away from home so i will consider shooting just before leaving.. after seeing his Glucose
numbers. Good idea to test twice i think.
Did you have any issues post dental surgery?

 

Any post surgery issues depend on the cat, and what was done during surgery. Neko had a few dentals. One was just cleaning, second involved scaling back a tooth that was rubbing her gum, the third one was a tooth removal and a removal of a benign growth on her jaw. Needless to say, the latter was the toughest on her. But she still had no problem eating when we got home. But she also had appropriate pain control given to her. You can always pick up some really soft food, such as one of the Churro's or TikiCat Velvet Mousse before hand.

 

Hi again Wendy, Found some TikiCat Velvet Mousse here in Canada at Petsmart doing a qucik lookup, but unsure
which to choose from. What is a good one low carbs? Cant find Churro Brand in Canada.Thanks!

 

All the Tiki Cat Mousse are low carb. Churro is more a treat than a complete meal.