7/7 Miss Meows PMPS 191, +2 228, PMPS 189, +2 168

[missMeows]

Good morning!

Yesterday

Work elevators working today (yay!) and it looks to be a hot and humid one. Which got me thinking, I've seen the question posted in passing a few times but haven't really seen anyone answer. Does heat affect BG levels?

I just keep staring at Miss Meows spreadsheet and can't help but think that something is off. Although there isn't too much deviation from her numbers during our vacation dose and now, there were definitely times when on 2u, she had much lower preshot numbers then when she was/is on 3u. For example, June 8th and 14th.

There are two things that come to mind that could cause this drop:
1.) FMIL accidentally gave too much insulin, but she is a competent woman so I find that unlikely that it could have been more then a "fat" dose which shouldn't have caused that drop.
2.) FMIL's house is air conditioned. We hold off on turning the AC on for as long as we can. We're on the first floor and it usually doesn't get bad until mid July. There was also a "cold" snap right before we left for vacay.

So I'm now wondering, has anyone else noticed higher numbers when it gets hot? Or am I seeing things that aren't quite there

 

[Chris/China (GA)/Garfield]

Yes....weather can effect our kitties BG numbers! Being hot can also effect their appetites which can effect their numbers too (although usually it makes them not hungry, so the numbers go down because there's not enough food on board for the insulin to work on)

What also might have been going on at FMIL's is that Angel wasn't eating as much (which is pretty normal when they're in strange surroundings) and that's why she had some lower numbers

 

[Sienne and Gabby (GA)]

The difficulty with knowing whether your MIL's air conditioning was having any effect is that there are no mid-cycle tests. While it is reasonable to think that the nadir was lower than the pre-shot, there's just no way to know for certain. As for heat having an effect on BG, I think the data is anecdotal. There are some cats who live in hot climates and I'm betting that there's not an over abundance of FD in those cats. I suspect that there are some cats who like it hotter and some cats who like it cooler. Years ago, I had a tiled sunroom. One of my cats would sleep in the sun on the tile and the other would sleep in the sun on a carpeted step. They have their preferences. If your cat is too hot, that may be a source of stress and thereby raise BG. Otherwise, it could simply be coincidence or chance. I haven't seen any research but it's a good question.

 

[missMeows]

Yes....weather can effect our kitties BG numbers! Being hot can also effect their appetites which can effect their numbers too (although usually it makes them not hungry, so the numbers go down because there's not enough food on board for the insulin to work on)

What also might have been going on at FMIL's is that Angel wasn't eating as much (which is pretty normal when they're in strange surroundings) and that's why she had some lower numbers

Thanks for the ideas Chris! Fortunately (or unfortunately) kitty is ALWAYS hungry. Like, she drives me nuts with excessive complaining, hungry And FMIL said she was always finished her food and it was a race to shoot before she was done! Plus she got soooo many treats while FMIL was testing. So as far as I can tell, her appetite had not been compromised.

The difficulty with knowing whether your MIL's air conditioning was having any effect is that there are no mid-cycle tests. While it is reasonable to think that the nadir was lower than the pre-shot, there's just no way to know for certain. As for heat having an effect on BG, I think the data is anecdotal. There are some cats who live in hot climates and I'm betting that there's not an over abundance of FD in those cats. I suspect that there are some cats who like it hotter and some cats who like it cooler. Years ago, I had a tiled sunroom. One of my cats would sleep in the sun on the tile and the other would sleep in the sun on a carpeted step. They have their preferences. If your cat is too hot, that may be a source of stress and thereby raise BG. Otherwise, it could simply be coincidence or chance. I haven't seen any research but it's a good question.

True, about not having all the numbers and yes, this is very anecdotal. I tried looking up "heat and diabetes" in good ol' google, but not only is it really just human diabetes they talk about, but it is very inconclusive. Some say yes, and others no. If yes, mostly they said that diabetic people need to watch out for over heating and sunburn. Not quite was I was looking for

I'll continue to poke around here and there and I'll definitely post any findings that would seem to benefit this community. Until then, thanks for talking it over with me!