I just gave the wrong cat insulin!

Hi Martica,

I have been reading all your posts about Benji, but did you ever remember to give the shot to the foster, BamBam? I am sure you probably did, but did not see if you mentioned that.

Hope all turns out okay. Sending prayers to you and Benji!

Jean and Charcoal (GA)

Hi Jean
YEs, I IDID give Bam Bam his shot last night after I accidentally gave it to Benji

BUT I don't think he got anything this morning..although I want to give it a few hours before I reshoot just to make sure...in case there was some residual or something in Sebastians....So he may spike into the high 400s or worse by the time I give it to him, but under the circumstances I think we will all survive this past 24 hrs!

Benji just peed and is now wshing himself...hopefully his own insulin is now kicking in and regulating his high numbers Am not going to test till later today, give his ear a break, plus I have to leave now for my meeting...

sigh.

Give yourself a break - you've very sleep-deprived at this time!

To prevent future mixups, you might color code your syringes with some easy peel sticky tape, or post-its. Or maybe have color coded boxes to put the prepared syringe in.

I think that I need to put a collar on the diabetic cats. (I have several grey cats--obviously because I miss my angel Fred) and my nightmare is if a cat sitter did the same thing..They are all indoor so no collars, but I guess now, they get collars, and yet maybe different shot times too for the 2, I was trying to get more efficient about it, but maybe that is obviusly a bad idea.

OK so at +20 Benji is now 98....So he dropped from 232 to 98 in 6 hours, and presumably this is from his own endogenous insuin kicking in to regulate himself. He is hungry now so I'm gonna feed.

Bam Bam--who I think entirely missed the shot is only at 416...so only raised 17 pts on 6hrs...not as bad as I feared....not sure if that's the 'shed' offering residual protection or what...but anyway, hopefully all will be back to normal. sigh.

thanks everybody for your help and support! this board is a godsend!

martica

thats what I was thinking. Colour coordinate everything. I have two diabetic cats.. one gets 0.1IU and the other 7Iu. I mess it up and it would be really really bad so I am super careful.. and always worried!!

When I was a kid, we had a couple of black cats no one could tell apart. My brothers solved the problem by taking one of them and snipping the hair off the tip of their tail. Thus one had a "flattop" on the end of their tail, and the other didn't. That might be one way to "color-code" your cats!

good idea about the tail clip, Ithought I could tell them apart because Bam Bam is pretty boney, but obviously he's filling out in the past 3 weeks since he's now being treated and well hydrated, etc.

I'm just getting around to reading this thread, Martica. Yikes! I'm so glad the only casualties were Benji's ear and your sleep. You and the crew here at FDMB did a great job.

Hi Martica,

Oh, my heart really went out to you when I read your first post here....

I remember this happening to somebody on FDMB a few years back, and at the time I thought, '"Well that's just crazy; how could anyone make a mistake like that?" And then, just a couple of months later, I almost injected the wrong cat.... :shock:

It was a real 'wake-up' call (as well as a lesson in humility....) And the cat I almost injected looks nothing like Bert. Bert is black and the one I nearly injected is tabby and white!!! I recall that all the (5) cats were eating their breakfast...I filled the insulin syringe to give to Bert...bent down into the huddle of cats, and then I thought...."Oh, Bert seems to have lost a bit of weight..." and suddenly realised that I was holding onto tabby and white fur.... I think I was still shaking when I went to bed that night, not quite able to comprehend the mistake that I almost made....

Huge (((hugs))) to you from the UK, Martica. I know how easily that kind of thing can happen...

Elizabeth x

Wow! Just read your post. That must have been a night mare for you! Glad your kittys came out okay. Close call there. I like the idea about snipping the end of the tail.

Thank you Debby, Elizabeth and Sue.

Now after last week's fiasco, Bam Bam, the cat who was supposed to get that shot last week--has been diagnosed with pancreatitis and is not eating...did another post elsewhere...sigh. I have too many cats. No more cat rescue for me, I can't handle this!