Cat on vetsulin with pancreatitis episode Very Low BG

nsm

Member Since 2026
This is my first post. My cat is 12 years old and was returned to the humane society by his owners when he was found to have diabetes. I am special needs myself and I adopted him a year and a half ago.
The humane society had him on 2 units of vetsulin 2 x Day after food. He was somewhat regulated when I adopted him and his numbers were generally between 100 and 300 for highs and lows. I test him every now and then but not everyday and not every time before a shot as I know some people do. He is not compliant for getting blood glucose readings so I generally do my own curve on a weekend when I'm home and it's not so stressful trying to get blood out of him before I'm trying to get dressed and ready to work all day.
Friday night he started to vomit and vomited through to 7:00 a.m. I called the vet as soon as they opened and got an appointment for 9:00. I brought him in and they said he was having a pancreatitis episode and he was dehydrated and needed $1,000 worth of tests and an x-ray.
They gave him fluids and anti-vomit meds and an appetite accelerant gel for his ears. They said to only give him chicken fancy feast and nothing else. No dry.... Which is what he loves most and I was giving him a half a cup of Dr. Elsie's chicken a day in addition to his fancy feast.
His BG numbers during the vomiting episodes was 90 BG at midnight ,122 BG at 3:00 a.m. , 161 at 7:00 a.m. And then the vet did his BG around 3:00 p.m. And it was 260. They did not give him insulin and said to give him his insulin 30 minutes after meal at 6:00 p.m. after
I admit I was exhausted and did not test him in the morning this morning he ate this morning but no dry. I gave him a little bit lower dose ... 2 units instead of 2.5. at noon his BG was 121. He got no snacks or anything in between. At 5:00 p.m. his BG was 65. These are numbers that were on a human meter, not a pet meter. So I've been told those numbers are higher than what would be on a pet meter so that scared me. I don't think I've ever seen a number on him of 65.

Now I'm freaking out. Fed him and put some chicken broth on it to get him to want to eat it. Which he did. I did not give any insulin. I'm going to test him again at 6:30. Are his numbers so low because I stopped giving him dry like he normally gets,? Maybe he shouldn't have been having dry all along. But until I adopted him all he ate was dry and he was on hills prescription dry. I changed him to Dr. Elsie's dry over 2 weeks ago.

He seemed to really like it up until Friday when he started vomiting everything. Not just the dry. He vomited up all his wet food as well. Does anyone have any information they can share. At what point do you take a cat to the emergency vet? He seems like his normal self except for that he isn't as active as normal... But not extremely inactive.
 
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This is my first post. My cat is 12 years old and was returned to the humane society by his owners when he was found to have diabetes. I am special needs myself and I adopted him a year and a half ago.
The humane society had him on 2 units of vetsulin 2 x Day after food. He was somewhat regulated when I adopted him and his numbers were generally between 100 and 300 for highs and lows. I test him every now and then but not everyday and not every time before a shot as I know some people do. He is not compliant for getting blood glucose readings so I generally do my own curve on a weekend when I'm home and it's not so stressful trying to get blood out of him before I'm trying to get dressed and ready to work all day.
Friday night he started to vomit and vomited through to 7:00 a.m. I called the vet as soon as they opened and got an appointment for 9:00. I brought him in and they said he was having a pancreatitis episode and he was dehydrated and needed $1,000 worth of tests and an x-ray.
They gave him fluids and anti-vomit meds and an appetite accelerant gel for his ears. They said to only give him chicken fancy feast and nothing else. No dry.... Which is what he loves most and I was giving him a half a cup of Dr. Elsie's chicken a day in addition to his fancy feast.
His BG numbers during the vomiting episodes was 90 BG at midnight ,122 BG at 3:00 a.m. , 161 at 7:00 a.m. And then the vet did his BG around 3:00 p.m. And it was 260. They did not give him insulin and said to give him his insulin 30 minutes after meal at 6:00 p.m. after
I admit I was exhausted and did not test him in the morning this morning he ate this morning but no dry. I gave him a little bit lower dose ... 2 units instead of 2.5. at noon his BG was 121. He got no snacks or anything in between. At 5:00 p.m. his BG was 65. These are numbers that were on a human meter, not a pet meter. So I've been told those numbers are higher than what would be on a pet meter so that scared me. I don't think I've ever seen a number on him of 65.

Now I'm freaking out. Fed him and put some chicken broth on it to get him to want to eat it. Which he did. I did not give any insulin. I'm going to test him again at 6:30. Are his numbers so low because I stopped giving him dry like he normally gets,? Maybe he shouldn't have been having dry all along. But until I adopted him all he ate was dry and he was on hills prescription dry. I changed him to Dr. Elsie's dry over 2 weeks ago.

He seemed to really like it up until Friday when he started vomiting everything. Not just the dry. He vomited up all his wet food as well. Does anyone have any information they can share. At what point do you take a cat to the emergency vet? He seems like his normal self except for that he isn't as active as normal... But not extremely inactive.
Welcome to FDMB
Youm did an awesome task of greatness adopting a diabetic cast from the shelter when his own parents let go of him, Congratulations there should be more people like you in this world, !! ;) 🌹 Vetsulin, also known as Caninsulin is a dog insulin it hits the cat hard and fast, the best insulins for cats are Lantus and ProZinc they are a 12-hour insulin that easy on the cats' system. Did you change foods immediately? transitioning from high carbs to low carbs needs to be a slow transition to avoid upset stomach (this could be the cause for vomiting) and a fast dive in glucose levels, (this could be the 65), transition has to be done slow a tsp at a time. Diabetic cats need to have a diet of wet can or raw foods between 0-10% cabs, Most member use Fancy Feast pates most feed up to 5%. the vet is correct, cats are also carb dry addicts, dry foods or "prescribed foods" are between 20-30% carbs, cats cannot digest carbs, the dose is not adjusted according to the glucose level, the same dose needs to be given at every shot unless the decision has been made not to shoot, it takes about 3 days for the system to adjust to the new dose, and you want to stabilize your cat. since you work, you might want to consider a wet food feeder some have chips some cameras, a diabetic needs to eat between 3-4 small meals during the day and the two main meals before shot to keep the insulin in check. you may also want to consider the CGM LIBRE by ABBOTT, the sensors last 14 days, you can replace them yourself, and good to have a few handy, just like anything men made it has its flaws, they read low numbers lower than reality, so is good to re test manually if you see two digit numbers, and always take the manual reading as true value, please continue to post all your concerns, you are not alone we are here to help 🤗

Also testing before shots is not a good idea, you want to know your cats' glucose level before shot to avoid a hypoglycemic episode, is not a pretty site as well as dangerous, and when transitioning you need to test
Getting Started With Continuous Glucose Monitors (CGMs) for Diabetic Cats
 
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