Although early-age gonadectomy has become more common, concern still exists regarding risk for hypoglycemia in very young animals that lack liver glycogen stores. This study evaluated the effect of postoperative transmucosal application of corn syrup, a common practice, on blood glucose concentrations in kittens. Seventy-five kittens between 8 and 16 weeks of age were randomly assigned to a treatment or control group. Corn syrup application was not found to result in significant blood glucose elevations as compared with controls, and no kitten in the study was demonstrated to be hypoglycemic. These findings suggest that routine dextrose supplementation in these patients is unwarranted and that truly hypoglycemic kittens may require an alternate route of administration to significantly increase blood glucose concentration.
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