Andre' went Hypo last evening !

[George and Bert]

Andre' has been on almost the exact same dose for years with little change. He always seems perfect. But last night he started acting strange. He was not exhibiting what I would call classic Hypo signs. He was circling the house sniffing and squeezing behind things, in the tightest places and sometimes knocking things over trying to get by. He seemed like he was on the hunt for a mouse. Then his sniffing got so loud I had to pay closer attention. Then me stretched out and with eyes half closed moved his head back and forth like a mechanical toy. His body felt soft and limp so I ran for the tester. Normally he does not allow me to test him so I take him occasionally to the vet to see where we are. Last night he offered no resistance ( initially ) and I pulled a 38 !
From then on it was giving him as much Karo laced food as I could and using some high carb wet
( FF Grilled 18 % ). I even syringes some in his mouth. It was hours of feeding him constantly whatever I could get in him. Also dealing with the eleven other pain in the necks trying to horn in. After four hours he started to come around and casting better. This morning he is wiped out. He's probably in the clouds from the syrup.

I'm going to wait till Monday to see what number the Vet gets and go from there. I obviously did not dose him last eve and won't until I see where we are. Since he is not getting insulin I would think he was out of danger. I'm putting him back on his low carb diet until then.

Last week he exhibited similar traits so he may have been on the danger line then. However, it was not so extreme and obvious.

 

[Squalliesmom]

Wow, super-scary! Glad you caught it in time!!! Do you test for ketones? You might want to check him for ketones, just to be safe. Please keep us posted on his progress!

 

[Sandi and Toby]

Whew, at least now you know what to watch for, and maybe you can try to test him periodically more often now if he'll allow it!

My first diabetic kitty got insulin for a short time, but then became diet controlled. But we kept him (and all of his brothers and sisters) on low carb all the time after that. And sometimes after vacations when the cat sitter couldn't feed as strictly as we did, he would have to go back on insulin for short periods (weeks) afterwards before we could take him back off again once we got back into our normal groove.

So by the way you phrased it, was he back on a higher carb diet now? Sorry that I don't know Andre's history.

 

[Mogmom and Goofus]

It's really important to test before every shot as you'll never know when remission will occur. If he goes into remission and you're still shooting, you could kill your kitty. If you can't test the ears, try the paw pads, very little feeling and they bleed very easily.

The numbers at the vet won't be as accurate due to the stress of a vet visit, and he should ALWAYS be on a low carb diet. The more consistent you are with testing and feeding, the easier it'll get.

 

[George and Bert]

I placed this post to simply warn others look for odd behaviors as things are not always what they seem. Hypo may not exhibit classic symptoms. As observant as I am I almost missed it.
What's bothersome is that for six years and four cats over time and giving close to 6500 injections and seven hundred tests I still nearly missed it.