Dropping quickly...

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Jennifer & Splunk

Jennifer & Splunk

Member Since 2017
Hi everyone,

Wondering if anyone has any advice about Splunk's sugar levels today. He's gone from 22.4 (403) this morning to 6.7 (121) at +4. He's on ProZinc, so I expect him to keep dropping for another 2-3 hours. This is lower than he's been yet, and I'm very worried, especially as I'm supposed to head out to a meeting in about 30 minutes. He's been sick recently, and I had backed off on the insulin because he wasn't eating as much, but his BGL was so high this morning that I gave him a full dose -- 1.0 units (though I made it a little skinny). He's been eating today, but has seemed more subdued than usual. He's still on doxycycline for a suspected lung infection.

Not sure if he'll be ok for me to go out, or if I should cancel my meeting and stay home with him.

Advice much appreciated!
 
4/21 AM cycle shows he didn't drop much from +4 to +7 so he might not drop too much. If you're worried and it makes you more comfortable the tablespoon or teaspoon of his usual food will help. You can do a test right before you leave to determine if he's going down more and decide if he needs more food then too.
 
I am new here and am definitely no expert, I can only tell you my recent experience. My cat was newly diagnosed w/diabetes right before my vet went on Easter vacation. While she was gone, he had a very scary drop while on insulin to 70 suddenly one evening. He was staggering and falling. I had read up (thankfully) about hypo and fed him right away and even rubbed some Karo syrup on his gums, the BG slowly increased.

I was just able to talk to my vet when she returned from vacation. While she was gone I went through some scary stuff. He was diagnosed with an infection at the same time he was diagnosed with diabetes. It might have been too much - I stopped dry food, went to canned, used insulin, had him on antibiotics and then that horrible crash. She said as an infection "resolves cat's glucose levels can get back to to normal". So be aware that as the infection resolves, he may not need as much insulin or any. My cat has been in the normal range since finishing antibiotics and I stopped insulin after that horrendous crash. I believe what happened was a combo of things, stopping carb-busting dry food, infection was resolving w/insulin was just far too much.

In the end the vet should have told me this, I wish I had tried antibiotics w/o insulin first and she should have told me to stop the dry food and then we could have seen where he stood before starting insulin.
 
Hi everyone, thanks much. I think it's fair to say that Splunk's sugars have been a disaster today, but I really appreciate all your thoughts and advice. I did give him some extra food before I left, because I was terrified (I'm too new at this to say whether my terror was justified, but I've never seen his BGL drop like that before). His sugar definitely went up after the food, and tonight it's higher than it's ever been, at 32.1 (583). So now I'm freaking out about it being so high. Since he seems to be very sensitive to the insulin at the moment (maybe it's the antibiotics), I went back to 0.5u for his dose tonight, and I will check his sugar again in a couple of hours to see how it's coming down. Ugh, what a mess. The poor guy. :( If I have more questions I'll take them to the ProZinc forum. Thanks.
 
He is probably just bounce from the blue numbers today; his body isn't used to the "normal" BG levels. Kris & Teasel wrote this to explain bouncing:
Here's how bouncing works:
  1. BG goes low OR lower than usual OR drops too quickly.
  2. Kitty's body panics and thinks there's danger (OMG! My BG is too low!).
  3. Complex physiologic processes take glycogen stored in the liver (I think of it as "bounce fuel"), convert it to glucose and dump it into the bloodstream to counteract the perceived dangerously low BG.
  4. These processes go into overdrive in kitties who are bounce prone and keep the BG propped up varying lengths of time (AKA bouncing).
  5. Bounce prone kitty repeats this until his body learns that healthy low numbers are safe. Some kitties are slow learners.
  6. Too high a dose of insulin can keep them bouncing over and over until the " bounce fuel" runs out and they crash - ie., have a hypo episode. That's why we worry so much about kitties that have had too high a starting dose prescribed by the vet and the owner isn't home testing.
  7. Many vets have little/no understanding of the bouncing phenomenon.
 
Jennifer & Splunk said:
Hi everyone, thanks much. I think it's fair to say that Splunk's sugars have been a disaster today, but I really appreciate all your thoughts and advice. I did give him some extra food before I left, because I was terrified (I'm too new at this to say whether my terror was justified, but I've never seen his BGL drop like that before). His sugar definitely went up after the food, and tonight it's higher than it's ever been, at 32.1 (583). So now I'm freaking out about it being so high. Since he seems to be very sensitive to the insulin at the moment (maybe it's the antibiotics), I went back to 0.5u for his dose tonight, and I will check his sugar again in a couple of hours to see how it's coming down. Ugh, what a mess. The poor guy. :( If I have more questions I'll take them to the ProZinc forum. Thanks.
Click to expand...
Welcome to the world of bouncy prozinc kitties. You're in good company.:bighug::)
 
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