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Necronomicat

Necronomicat

Member Since 2018
Pretty sure my kitty just went into a mild Hypo :(. I fed him and gave him syrup and he seems to be ok now. I have no way at all to get him to a vet tonight> Any suggestion? Is he gonna be ok? He walking around now and jumping up on his chair but just seems a little tired.

Thank you.
 
he is on Lantus and his last shot was at 625 and he is at 3 units. He has been on this dose since January. Im wondering if he is heading into a remission
 
Where do you live? It's 8:07 where I live, so I don't know if you are in the same time zone or not - how long ago was the shot in hours?

You have been shooting 3 units without testing since January? Do you take him to the vet for curves?

Remission doesn't happen all of a sudden (except in very rare cases). Generally the pancreas starts to work again, slowly, a bit at a time, and insulin needs decrease. By monitoring the blood glucose and recording the numbers on a spreadsheet, you can see how he is reacting and know when to reduce. Once his dose gets down to a drop (literally), the next step is stopping insulin altogether. If he's on three units, you have a long way to go.

I urge you to purchase a meter and start testing. We can help you figure out what's going on, once we can see his numbers.

Meanwhile, if it's been over 7 or 8 hours since you gave insulin, and he seems fine, chances are he'll be okay tonight. If you're on Pacific Time, that's only a couple of hours and you have a long way to go before you can be sure he won't drop again. Food and syrup wear off after about 2 hours. But if it was a hypo, he needs a dose reduction. Next time you might not be there to catch it.
 
it has been about 4 hours. He is walking around and seems alert. I am still so new to all of this and I will forsure be purchasing a meter. This shook me up big time!!. With everything being closed tomorrow I wont be able to get him to his vet until Saturday at the earliest. Do you suggest that I lower his morning dose? I really appreciate your help. I am terrified right now.
 
Can you stay up and watch him for a few more hours? Two or three should be good. I would give him a snack of his regular food before going to bed.

Drug stores and Walmart should be open tomorrow. I would go get a meter, test strips and lancets in the morning. If you have a Walmart nearby, the Relion Prime is a popular meter here and the strips aren't too terribly expensive. I would definitely reduce the dose in the morning if you aren't able to test first. I can't believe vets don't tell people to always test before giving insulin, that's how some of them are. Once you get a meter, we can help you learn how to test (there are tips and videos on this site) and set up a spreadsheet to keep track of his numbers. Just be sure he's eating before you give the insulin in the morning.
 
Absolutely. I’m not leaving his side. My vet actually said I didn’t really need to test. I think I may need a new vet. Thank you again for helping me through this. I’m certain I won’t be sleeping a wink tonight until I know he is forsure ok.
 
When you get your meter, post for help and we'll help you with the spreadsheet and testing tips. Here's a post that will help you get started: http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/hometesting-links-and-tips.287/.

To be fair to your vet, they only get about 5 hours of training in vet school on diabetes, and that covers both cats and dogs. Many people don't want to be bothered with testing, so they don't encourage it. You're in the right place to learn how to help your boy now.
 
How have you got on this morning?

Hope Mayhem is ok and you managed to get some sleep.


Tricia put out a call for some of us to look out for you when he is due his shot.


I have to say I like Sandy's suggestion of skipping altogether today until you get a meter and have a chance to get some testing under your belt.

Even if you shoot a much reduced dose there's still a real risk of his blood glucose bottoming out because of the depot still being in play.
 
He seems fine this morning. I’m just seeing this now and had already given him. A reduced dose. I’m here with him all day so I will be able to keep a close eye on things. I have someone ready to take us to the vet today if things begin to escalate. He was acting like his normal self this morning which was reassuring. This is all so terrifying. He has been fine for months and nothing has changed.
 
Necronomicat said:
He seems fine this morning. I’m just seeing this now and had already given him. A reduced dose. I’m here with him all day so I will be able to keep a close eye on things. I have someone ready to take us to the vet today if things begin to escalate. He was acting like his normal self this morning which was reassuring. This is all so terrifying. He has been fine for months and nothing has changed.
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Did you get a meter? How much did you shoot?
 
OK, good-- so hopefully pretty soon you'll be set up to start testing!

Just so we know what kind of supplies you have at home, do you have any high-carb foods (e.g. "gravy" type canned foods) in addition to the syrup you used yesterday?
 
Yes he had some dry vet food, canned as well and the syrup. If anything happens today I’m prepared to get him to the vets right away. I checked on him every hour last night and I’m exhausted but he’s ok that’s all I care about. Thank you for your advice and support though this.
 
Can you get to a pharmacy and purchase a human meter?

By the time some cats show signs of a hypothetical they can be dangerously low and it can be extremely hard to get their blood glucose up.

Its far better/healthier for your cat to take preventive action before they are showing symptoms of hypo.

To give you an example, George got down to 27 one day, and he looked totally fine, it took me 4hours and 9oz of high carb food(fed over the 4hourd) to get his BG to stay above 50, and I had taken the dose up slowly and consistently, with Mayhem we have the added complication that his glucose has been taken up fast, without appropriate monitoring, so it's entirely possible that he has been overdosed at 3u.


Please, please, please make it a top priority to get a human meter it really is the only way you can be sure to keep him safe.
Necronomicat said:
2u instead of 3. I’m wait until my bf gets here so I have a car.
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Great I'm glad you'll be able to get to the shops to get the meter.

It might be a good idea to give Mayhem some snacks in the early part of his cycle, experience tells at that this can help prevent the BG tanking when the insulin onsets. If he is a good eater, perhaps a teaspoon or two at +1 +2+3+4 ? Do you think he would go for that.


Ps wrote the above before you posted/ but then couldn't get onto the forum, kept getting an error.

Sounds like you've tried to preempte the situation with the dry/and extra sugar. Try not to fill him up too much just incase you need to get him to eat layer today.
 
Necronomicat said:
I can’t thank you enough!! I will lower his morning does that off to shoppers to pick up a meter. I’ll test him right away and see what’s going on. This has been very overwhelming, but I’m glad I was home and he’s ok now.
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You mentioned Shoppers so you must be in Canada. All meter test strips are expensive here and Canadian Walmart doesn't carry the ReliOn brand of meter so many US people recommend. You can get a meter free at Shoppers if you buy a box of 100 strips. I can't be certain that's true for all types of meter but it is for the Freestyle Lite that I have. The cost of its strips is high (similar for other brands) - about $90 CAD at Shoppers and Rexall Pharmaplus. It might be cheaper at Costco, Walmart or a supermarket pharmacy. Unfortunately many places are closed today but a Shoppers somewhere will be open. You can call Costco, Walmart and other supermarket pharmacies tomorrow.
 
Ended up with the freestyle lite. Educating myself on it now. I hope I can figure this out. Mayhem has being doing great since his am shot. He’s going on hour 7 now with no signs of being dangerously low. I’ve been giving him snacks to help keep his levels up a bit. I hoping I can get a decent reading to determine if I should give him his pm shot or not bother. I really appreciate everyone’s help so much with all of this. This is the first time I have had him become so low.
 
Necronomicat said:
So I did it no problem!!! Now he is reading at 6.6 on a human meter. Does this need to be translated for feline readings?
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That is a lovely number! No need to translate it to anything other than into US units by multiplying it by 18. Please think about setting up the FDMB spreadsheet to log all your BG numbers. It’s the best reference for other members to look at if you need advice.
 
Necronomicat said:
Awesome!!! That’s great news!! Should I continue with his lower dose tonight still?
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It’s impossible to know without data to look at on a spreadsheet. Context is everything in this FD business. Post here for advice when you have this evening’s preshot test number. Take all food away at least 2 hours before the test so it isn’t influencing the number.
 
Hello and welcome from yet another Canadian. I too started with the Freestyle. It needs a smaller blood drop than most others here, so good for learning to test.

For the people used to reading US numbers, tang first test is a 119. Most of the people posting here are from the US, so we translate for them. Fortunately the World version of the spreadsheet does the translations for you. Our dosing methods use numbers from the human meters, so no need for translation.

As Kris said, we use data to help us figure out how to dose. Maybe take a test 1/2 hour before your normal shot time, and post here so that gives us time to figure out what to suggest for tonight. One question, are you using 1/2 unit marked syringes or the pen needles for giving the insulin?
 
Thank you. I have just been reading up about the spreadsheet and how to get it set up and I will likely be doing that later tonight. My syringes are full units.
 
You can get the BD Ultrafine II syringes with half unit markings at most pharmacies. It's the box with the purple and yellow on it. We make changes by 0.25 units at a time, so having those half units markings will help. Depending where you live, I found the Safeway Pharmacy the cheapest for diabetic supples, insulin, syringes and lancets. Costco and Canadian Superstore were the second best prices. Shoppers the most expensive, even after the discount.
 
That’s the plan. I’m likely gonna skip his morning shot tomorrow as well since I will be at work all day and can’t risk anything happening. I’ll do a reading and see where he’s at when I get up. I’m calling his vet tomorrow to fill him in on the whole situation and try to get him in on Monday. I can’t thank everyone enough for all the wonderful help and advice. Thank you for taking time out of your weekend to help me through this. My cats are my world.
 
I can’t wait to do the spreadsheet actually right now I just track his times and does etc. I feel like it will make my life easier. I’m off to work for the day, but hope to get it set up ASAP. Thank again for all the wonderful help.
 
And, once you have your spreadsheet set up, start a new thread!

We encourage people to have 'one condo (i.e., thread) per cat per day.' You then copy and paste in the link to the previous day's thread/condo into the new post so everything in linked together. It's much easier to read one day's worth of information tan to have to scroll through really, really long posts for information.
 
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