New member - Hypoglycemia and Brain Damage

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StaciNadia

Member Since 2022
Hi!

New member here! I’m StaciNadia and my diabetic cat is Jet! He is 13 years old and was just diagnosed 5 months ago. His vet started him at 1 unit Vetsulin and has gradually increased the dose. As of yesterday, he was at 4 units.

Yesterday I was out and my mom watched Jet have a seizure (didn’t know what it was at the time). She gave him honey and when I got home, we got him to the emergency vet where we found he was very hypoglycemic. He got a dextrose drip and food until his glucose levels were high. We were told 1 unit insulin with breakfast and 3 units with dinner and that dose from then on.

Well this morning, he wound up eating only half his food and he just had another seizure. His regular vet can’t see him so we are waiting for the animal er to open. I looked up hypoglycemia and saw about how brain damage can happen and I got really worried. Has anyone here had hypoglycemia experience and how did your cats recover?
 
I do not have a home meter, though we are planning on talking to his regular vet about one. We have an appointment next Wednesday for an all-day glucose monitoring to see his levels during different hours of the day. Last night when he was brought to the animal er, his level was 34.
 
How is he now? Is he eating? Responsive? You can buy a human meter at walmart for not much and use that. It's called the relion meters. A lot of us use them.
 
I gave him more of the food he didn’t finish at breakfast. He’s sitting on the floor in front of me. He seems okay, but he seemed okay before the seizure, too.
 
I would continue to try to feed him whatever he would it at this point based on his history. Usually you want something high with carbs a wet food with gravy, etc. or some dry. There is pinned pages on the vetsulin insulin page under forums that you can read. It will help tremendously. Hopefully, someone else will jump on here. When are you going to the vet?
 
Holtfam6 said:
I would continue to try to feed him whatever he would it at this point based on his history. Usually you want something high with carbs a wet food with gravy, etc. or some dry. There is pinned pages on the vetsulin insulin page under forums that you can read. It will help tremendously. Hopefully, someone else will jump on here. When are you going to the vet?
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Going to the animal er in…. an hour and a half. He’s walking around like normal except he hasn’t jumped on the counter since last night when he got sick.

Jet eats half a can of Hills m/d and a handful of Glycobalance kibble twice a day.
 
StaciNadia said:
I do not have a home meter, though we are planning on talking to his regular vet about one. We have an appointment next Wednesday for an all-day glucose monitoring to see his levels during different hours of the day. Last night when he was brought to the animal er, his level was 34.
Click to expand...
You do not need to wait until your vet appointment to get a meter. Many of us use human glucose meters to test. If you are in the US, the Walmart Relion meter is a good option.
 
I’m going to tag someone with vetsulin experience @FrostD, @Suzanne & Darcy. I see Melissa has just posted.
I don’t think 1 unit in the mornings and then 3 units in the evenings sounds a good idea at all.
Did you give insulin again this morning befor the second seizure?
I would definitely not be giving any insulin without testing first. It is not hard to learn to do it and your kitty will not mind. It usually takes a few days for you both to get used to it.
If you are hometesting, hypos can be avoided completely.
 
Why can’t his regular vet see him? If a diabetic cat has had a seizure, that is an emergency and I would seriously be thinking of changing my vet if he would not see my cat if something like that happened.
 
After experiencing a symptomatic hypo event, kitties can be very sensitive to insulin, and seeing that it occurred again today on a small dose makes me concerned. I hope the ER vet helps. As others have mentioned, testing blood sugar levels at home is key. I hope Jet is ok.
 
Bron and Sheba (GA) said:
I’m going to tag someone with vetsulin experience @FrostD, @Suzanne & Darcy. I see Melissa has just posted.
I don’t think 1 unit in the mornings and then 3 units in the evenings sounds a good idea at all.
Did you give insulin again this morning befor the second seizure?
I would definitely not be giving any insulin without testing first. It is not hard to learn to do it and your kitty will not mind. It usually takes a few days for you both to get used to it.
If you are hometesting, hypos can be avoided completely.
Click to expand...
He despised being tested. He yowled as they attempted to prick his ear for a drop of blood. He does mind the insulin shots, but he doesn’t like the glucose testing at all.

the 1 and 3 was just temporary and would have been 3 and 3 after that. Until circumstances changed.
 
Bron and Sheba (GA) said:
Why can’t his regular vet see him? If a diabetic cat has had a seizure, that is an emergency and I would seriously be thinking of changing my vet if he would not see my cat if something like that happened.
Click to expand...
The vet himself left at 5. There would have been no one to see him. Just nurses after a certain time. Animal er opens an hour after the vets leave regular vet. That’s why they couldn’t.
 
Update. Jet seized this morning at 7:30am, many many hours after insulin. We went to regular vet’s. Sugar levels were good and he said to keep him at 3 and 3. After that, I gave his3 units because he ate just before. And he seized 10 minutes after that. He’s now on anti-seizure medicine and 2 and 2 units starting tomorrow, and the vet thinks he has a brain lesion…
 
I'm so sorry it happened again , poor baby.just breaks my heart
Tyler's brothers who was not diabetic ( passed 2 years ago from kidney disease) used to have seizures but the didn't last very long.
He was put on phenobarbital is that what they put Jet on?
Eventually they had to add Keppra to it also.
Never knew what caused them. As the years went on we were able to lower the phenobarbital and the Keppra . He never had any since then, but it was the kidney disease that got him
I hope the meds help :bighug::bighug::bighug:
 
It is possible that the seizures have nothing to do with his glucose levels. Phenobarbital will help. I used to have a dog that had seizures and she went from having them daily to just a few times a month.

You still should consider home testing and also possibly changing to a better insulin. We can help you learn how to test even a difficult cat. Most cats are very sensitive to our feelings. If you are nervous they will pick up on it and react the same way. That may be what is happening. We can help you learn how to overcome that.

Vetsulin is not the best insulin for cats. In most cats ir has very steep drops in glucose levels and wears of quickly. Better insulins are long acting ones laie Lantus, Levemir and Prozinc. These insulins last longer in a cats body and do not have steep drops in levels like short insulin types.
 
Given the 34 at the ER and the effort it took to get him back up, I'd say the dose is still too high. The split dosing also is not a good idea. Without any testing my best guess is 2U both AM and PM - but I cannot say for sure whether that is too high or too low. So I guess that lines up with what vet is saying.

If it is not enough insulin, DKA is a risk so be sure to check ketones a few times a week. If it is too much insulin, you risk another hypo.

So sorry you're dealing with this!
 
Thank you, everyone, for your responses. Wednesday he just seized every 10 minutes to an hour. He passed on Thursday right before we had an appointment to bring him to the rainbow bridge.
 
Oh no I'm so so sorry for your loss. My heart breaks for you .
Fly high sweet Jet, you will be missed . Take care of yourself Staci :bighug::bighug::bighug:
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