? 9/8 Penny (OTJ day 6) Still in the green -starting meds for possible ear infection

I need a bit of help here. Penny’s BG was 60 this morning. A few hours after eating (FF naturals, 0 carb) she was still at 60 and started to have some head tremors. It kind of looked like Parkinson’s. I immediately gave her more food with a bit higher carb level (5-7%) and a few bites of a (%15) and the tremors seemed to stop. I retested and she was at 76 and a while later was up to 83. Thoughts? Mild hypo even though she hasn’t had insulin in days?

This same thing happened in July before she was diagnosed. I gave her food then too and it seemed to stop them after a while. The vet wrote it off as an inner ear infection, gave a shot of antibiotics, and that was that. I do have a video of the tremors from July but I can’t attach it here.

I will say that she does seem to have an ongoing issue with her ears. She will have a little freak out every once in a while and shake her head and paw at her ears. However the vet has never actually seen signs of bacteria in her ears.

 

I can't see a correlation between the 60 and the tremors.
Waiting to see what others have to say.

 

It maybe could have been but I think the vet is probably right. 60 is a "take action" number but you did the right thing by feeding the LC if it continues to go lower then the higher carb...and so on. My Zoe has head tremors but shes not diabetic.

 

It’s just curious to me that both times the tremors have stopped almost immediately after I gave her food. This time I gave her food as soon as I noticed. The first time she tremored for 15 minutes before I gave her food and the stopped right away after that.

 

Also, she definitely had some sort of infection in July as her armpit lymph node was big and swollen. That went away within 2 days of the antibiotics.

 

It is curious...But that lower reading "shouldnt" have caused tremors of any kind. BUT then again ECID usually rules the day.
I would just keep a close eye on her and test when you think something is off.
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Thanks. She seems fine now. She ventured upstairs on her own and is happily snoozing in the office.

 

Thats good to hear. When shes awake give her ears a sniff. If something smells off its off to the vet! Ear infections are notoriously tough to get rid of. Maybe she needs a different AB?

 

Interesting. I’ll give her a sniff in a bit.

They gave her Convenia last time, which I am NOT a fan of. I was overtired and didn’t realize what they were giving her until after. I’m much rather do oral antibiotics.

 

Ear infections are tough. They need to culture and find the right AB to get rid of them.

 

i think that’s the problem. They couldn’t actually find any bacteria last time so there was nothing to culture.

 

awwww. Well I hope Penny isnt developing an infection

 

Some info on involuntary muscle trembling:

https://wagwalking.com/cat/condition/involuntary-muscle-trembling

It does list low blood sugar as one potential cause.

PDSA, the UK veterinary charity, recommends taking a cat with head tremors to be seen by a vet ASAP.


Mogs
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Just to be clear, Penny is on an OTJ trial, correct? If so, since you're not giving insulin, insulin isn't going to be dropping Penny's BG numbers. She may be sensitive to lower numbers (just like humans who haven't eaten in a while) but it's not likely there's a problem. If it doesn't seem to improve and your vet can't see bacteria, you may want to ask if it's neurological or an inner ear problem.

 

Yes, I’ll be calling first thing tomorrow. It’s a holiday today in the US so they’re not open.

She’s been ok since this morning. The tremor only lasted a few seconds and hasn’t happened again.

 

Yes, she’s otj and hasn’t had insulin in 5 days.

 

That's good but no harm to give the vet a quick phone call to be on the safe side.

Be sure to let us know how you get on.


Mogs
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Well, she’s definitely not feeling well as she didn’t eat much of her dinner at all. Her BG was back down to 63.

She did have a few snacks throughout the day so she’s not running on empty but she’s usually a really good eater so her not wanting much food is unusual.

I just gave her a bit of CBD oil in case she has some sort of pain somewhere. I used to give it to her all the time for her arthritis. Hopefully that helps so I can get some more food in her tonight.

 

Finger and paws crossed for successful eating!

 

I got her to eat almost half of her dinner. Her dad will try to get her to eat more later before he does to bed.

she usually eats about 3/4 of a ff can and then finishes the rest sometime over night.

 

OTJ trial day 6. Still doing good BG wise. Appetite has picked up a bit, as long as I'm offering a food that she likes (chopped grill was a hit today!)

Vet agrees that she's basically in remission but is a bit concerned that her numbers got so low so quickly. She's thinking it might be that her pancreas kicked in to high gear and is overproducing a bit and that things will even out in the next few days as she continues to regulate herself. Right now I'm making sure that she's eating something every 3-4 hours to try and keep her BG more level. It seems like she feels the best when she is in the 80-90 range.

I'm picking up Tresaderm from the vet this afternoon to treat her possible ear infection. Will continue to monitor BG closely as we aren't sure if the Tresaderm from July is what kicked off her diabetes or not. Seems unlikely since the steroid dose is so low, but who knows. If I see any BG spikes or numbers start trending back up we'll reevaluate at that point.

 

Ohhh fingers and paws crossed it doesnt affect her BG's

 

Sounds like Allison's Mouse, who also seems to feel best in that sort of range.

Fingers 'n' paws crossed that the ear infection treatment won't mess with Penny's numbers.


Mogs
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