Help with hypoglycemia symptoms

[Cara & Sabrina]

Hi! Sabrina was lying on the wood floor yesterday (Sunday) and when she tried to get up, she stumbled a few times. Never having seen this before, I rushed to some high carb can food and within 1 minute she was eating it. Then I thought of how I should check her BG. It was 307. She had only been eating for 2-3 minutes. Since she was 307, I thought perhaps she was just slipping on the floor and it was not diabetes related. But then at +4.25 my 22 year old daughter texted that Sabrina acted woozy, nearly fell off the couch, and continued to look dazed, so she gave her some food with honey in it. My daughter is visiting for a few weeks and doesn't know how to check BG. We haven't seen any other symptoms since then.

I'm confused and more worried now. Why was she woozy but was at 307? Would a little bit of food change her number that quickly? I started giving only LC can food on Saturday, so that could be the cause. And maybe I didn't give her enough?

I also received the syringes I ordered and used those instead of the Basaglar pen needles on Sat night and Sun morning. Being new to syringes and reading the stopper, and the lines being so small and close together, I may have given her closer to 1.5 units on Sunday morning. I have gone back to using the pen needles for the moment, to be on the safe side. I feel so bad! And now I'm quite worried about doing something wrong with her dose, her food, or something, and causing her harm. :-( Please help me with the syringes. I got 3/10 mL, 29G, 1/2". There is such a miniscule difference between 1, 1.5 and 2. 1st question, how should the stopper line up to the desired unit mark? 2nd question, if dosing from a glargine pen, should I be doing anything to make sure there aren't air bubbles? Is there a narrower option of syringe, with possibly fewer units, so the markings are father apart?

Lastly, it could be that the pen hasn't been actually giving her 1 unit all this time, or that I've been missing and giving some fur shots without knowing it. Or too shallow, if that's a thing. I pet the injection area after and haven't felt wetness, but 1 unit is so little liquid. The syringe needles are longer, so with her long hair, I liked this idea better than the 8 mm needle pens.

Another question, with hypoglycemia symptoms, should we treat it first, then test? The sheet on what to do doesn't address testing (that I saw).

 

[Librarianista]

Given what her BG was, she was probablt not having a hypoglycemic event. It’s possible her wobblyness is related to diabetic neuropathy - a condition where cats who are HYPERglycemic for too long have trouble with their legs usually. The good news is that this mostly goes away once their BG is under control and is not permanent.


My Chloe had a hard time lying down and getting up, but after a few weeks I’ve noticed a huge improvement. Other cats end up kind of walking flat-footed (like rabbits). It’s one of the first noticeable signs a cat might be diabetic.

 

[Librarianista]

If you suspect hypoglycemia, testing should happen first to confirm. Then feed/give sugar and continue testing every 10-15 minutes or so to make sure BG is rising.
This is stickied in the Lantus forum on how to handle low numbers:
https://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/dont-panic-or-how-to-handle-low-numbers.210109/


Regarding your syringes and fine dosing, this sticky (also in the Lantus forum) might be helpful to you:
https://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB...info-proper-handling-drawing-fine-dosing.151/

 

[Red & Rover (GA)]

Measure 1 unit from the pen and squirt on the counter. Measure 1 unit with the syringes and squirt it on the counter and then compare.

At some point, you may want to purchase a set of calipers (only works with the syringes) for complete accuracy.

• Dosing with Calipers

 

[Bron and Sheba (GA)]

If you can I would test first to see what the BG is. But in saying that, it takes time for the food to take effect on the BG. honey acts more quickly, so you could feed and then test if it is one straight after the other. It depends on the symptoms as well.
It seems unlikely it was a hypo if the BG was 307 if she had only eaten 3 minutes before.
It is possibly something else that is causing the wobbliness.
It could have been neuropathy on a slippery floor. does she have neuropathy?
One suggestion would be to get more tests in. At the moment you don’t have many at all in either the am or the pm cycles, so we don’t really know how low the dose is taking Sabrina. The BG can start off at 300 or 400 or higher and drop into green numbers and then back up to the 300 or 400s by the next preshot. If you are not testing, you won’t know.
I would get into the habit of getting a before bed test in every night. And if that test is lower than the preshot, I would set the alarm and get up and test later to see the BG has not dropped too low.