Well shoot, I missed all the fun!
A couple of notes about hypos:
- you've probably read me telling people to try low carb food first. That is particularly true when the lime green is getting closer towards usual nadir time. When you get an early lime green like that, medium or higher carb food is fine, and probably even the better option.
- rubbing karo/honey on a cat's gums should only be done if they are unable to eat themselves. If they are still conscious and can eat on their own, just keep feeding the high carb food. a healthy cat will come up, but it may take a little time. as long as they are not symptomatic, that's okay. And if they
become symptomatic, then they can't eat for themselves and at that point you can force it (i.e. rub it on their gums). honey and karo are very short lived, and you're really aiming to steer the kitty safely into better territory, so the food (carbs+protein+fat) is a better solution as long as the cat is still able to eat.
- encouraging drinking seems to help too. Now the disclaimer on this one: I haven't read any research about that. It's just something I've learned from Sam. Whenever he goes low too fast, he drinks water. He's not much for drinking, so there is something about it that helps him feel better. Just thought I'd throw it out there in case it might help some other kitty too.
Okay, now onto the dose. While Little is a bit bouncy, I don't think you've been overdosing (up until now
). I think today's margarita party (limes....get it
haha) has to be considered in the context of the cycles near it. Little had a flat yellow cycle yesterday AM. For whatever bizarre and unexplainable reason, those often precede active cycles. Which you saw last night with those lime greens during the night. Then this morning, she was rising, but was still significantly lower than normal when you gave the shot. The insulin kicked in faster (we'll get to that in a minute) and brought her crashing down. I don't think 1.5u was too much. It was just too much for today. And unfortunately, we can't really predict that. Sometimes it just happens.
But here's where we might have been able to guess it would happen: we just went through a time change. Most of the kitties are out of their usual patterns right now, and will be for another day or so. We are too. Remember how hard it was to go to sleep last night? And how much harder it was to wake up when your alarm went off? When we change times, even by just an hour
our hormones get all messed up. It's why our sleep is off, and if you're a particularly sensitive soul, you may be finding that you're hungry at the "wrong" times too. Our cats are going through the same thing. And since insulin is a hormone, and it's interacting with other hormones and complex physiology, their patterns and responses are wonky.
So again, I think on any other day, that 1.5u would have probably been just fine. But it was the perfect storm of a hypo last night, a number that wasn't
quite high enough at PS, and hormones that are all over the place because of the time change.
And it all conspire to give you quite a scare today.
I do hope you sat down and had that cry. As Linda said, it really is therapeutic and important for our own sanity to let ourselves release that angst. Crying is an incredibly healing thing. Plus, as mentioned, your hormones are going to be messed up for another few days as well, so might as well just roll with it and cry (or laugh) as much as you need to right now! Sending you lots of love and hope for a good and peaceful sleep tonight. You both need it!
I fed her normal meal since she is so low a 30 min stall would probably still be a NS #. will re test in an hour to see if I should give a token dose. Thoughts on +1 and dosing? If she’s up around 150 should I give maybe 1.5? I will be home today to monitor. Sheesh!
definitely not sleeping tonight worrying about that.
, then all bets are off. 