So....I "panicked" at 58 BG and gave Kit some high carb food right away (not much, but still...). JW says you recommended beginning with her normal food and working up to the high carb if needed.
Hey, nothing wrong with "panicking" and getting those BG levels back up fast. It's the natural reaction, to get your cat food, high carb food, and get those numbers up NOW!
It also depends on when in the cycle the low occurs. Kit had that 58 at +3, so was a good 2-3 hours away from her normal nadir. No worries trying it bring up the BG levels, especially since you had 2-3 more hours for nadir time.
How is this for a plan:
Yes, starting with the normal food is the first step when you get a low number in the 50's.
Then you retest in 20 minutes to see if the BG's are rising.
If steady, give 1 more teaspoon of normal food. And retest within 20-30 minutes.
If dropping still, at a 58 I would have pulled out the medium carb food.
If dropping still, after a second teaspoon of medium carb food, I think I would have pulled out the high carb food.
If BG's are rising, and rising by at least 20-25%, from lows like that, it's ok then to slow down on the feedings. You don't want to fill up your cat too quickly with food. You need your cat to be willing to eat, if the BG numbers go down later in the cycle.
If you have low numbers in the 40's, you feed those numbers, usually with a bit of medium carb food. And do the test, feed, cycle again and again. We call it "rinse, lather, repeat."
If you have low numbers in the 30's, you pull out the big guns and use that high carb food, and maybe even put a drop or two of corn syrup or honey on top of the food. Squeeze the gravy out of the can of food and let your cat eat that gravy.
If you have low numbers in the 20's, you go straight to giving corn syrup (like Karo) or honey, smeared on the gums and some gravy from the high carb food. If you have a blunt tipped syringe, you can administer the simple sugar anally. And you test every 15-20 minutes to make sure the number gets back above 70-80 and stays there for at least 2 hours.
If you have low numbers in the 20's, you need to bring them up as fast as you can. You may want to go to a 24 hour vet emergency clinic, if you can't get the numbers up on your own.
Depends on the hypoglycemia symptoms you are seeing also, as to how you respond.
Simple sugars, like corn syrup or honey, and the gravy from the high carb food wear off quickly. So you need to keep monitoring, until your cat is up to safer numbers.
There are some guidelines in this thread, when you get low numbers.
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/dont-panic-or-how-to-handle-low-numbers.210109/
