Freaked out over hypo incident

[CathyandLucy]

Hi,

My cat Lucy has been fairly stable, so I haven't been on the board lately.

I just got back from a conference in Vegas Thursday afternoon, just in time for Lucy to get hypoglycemic on Friday morning. She is fine now, but it was really scary. Within a few minutes of my taking a shower I heard her doing something downstairs, and I thought she was just messing with some boxes. Now I think she must have been having a seizure. When I got downstairs she was walking the perimeter of the room sniffing the walls -- I thought she had gone blind.

It finally occurred to me to test her blood sugar and it was at 46, just 3 hours after a one unit injection. So I scooped her into her carrier and got her to the vet in about 10 minutes. They gave her IV fluids with dextrose and now it's like nothing happened. So she doesn't need insulin for a while again - her fructosamine is at 297. I feel bad because I meant to test her blood sugar before I went to Las Vegas but I couldn't get a good sample, and thought "oh well I just try again when I get back". It's really lucky I was there.

Cathy

 

[heidi]

I'm glad Lucy is okay!
Heidi and Frodo

 

[julie & punkin (ga)]

hi cathy, i don't usually check out the relaxed lantus forum, but your subject line caught my eye. i read through your last post from september and you said then that she has transient diabetes and you were giving her insulin once a day.

i think we could help you understand more about how lantus works in cats. they have an extremely high metabolism and need shots twice a day. in september, when you saw the 587 after a number in the 80's right before, that's a bounce. it means the cat's body hit the 80's, a number it wasn't used to, and the liver thought the cat was hypo and let loose stored sugars and counter-regulatory hormones to save lucy's life.

just from the 2 posts you've had it sounds like she might be getting too much insulin.

if you see this and want some help, post again. we all have diabetic cats and do this 24/7/365. we'd be glad to help you get her regulated so you're not having hypo incidents and she stays safe.

 

[Venita]

Hi Cathy,

I am so sorry about this hypo incident for Lucy and you.

Just a suggestion that you test Lucy more frequently, if you can. It would help Lucy if you got a bit more regimented with the testing and dosing. Is your cat sitter willing to test? If so, that would be a big plus because "blind dosing" can be dangerous for Lucy.

I would think that it is less expensive to test Lucy each preshot than to take her to the vet to treat a hypo. And much better for Lucy not to have to go through a hypo episode.