HYPO bg 23 last night!

Status
Not open for further replies.
jillmerg

jillmerg

Member Since 2015
Princess had a +3 BG at 23 last night! I Immediately retested & got 29. I gave her FF w/ gravy with honey on it. Not long after she had diarrhea , but not showing any symptoms of hypo. Tried many times to get a bg but failed miserably . This morning BG was 149 . I gave her some FF classic with it , just a little to see if she'll be ok.
I feel like a total failure since this was all my fault! I gave her pm insulin too early last night & caused ALL of this :( On top of the fact that I couldnt even get a bg during the night, when she needed it the most!
Obviously, no insulin this morning, but when is it save to shoot? Normally, if low in the morning I was told to give 1/2 her dose (1u N). But I'm holding off. I'm tired & feel really,really guilty~ advice?
 
Yikes that must have been scary with a blood sugar of 23 but you did well to get her safely back up. Well done. You shouldn't feel guilty at all. :bighug:You must be feeling really tired from the stress of it all last night.:bighug: But don't beat yourself up about it. You are doing a great job with Princess. No advice with dosing, just a big hug:bighug: more experienced people will be along soon.
 
Thanks, I assumed(hoped) it was a bad read....until the 2nd time and was 29. She's an eater, so I'm sure the diarrhea was a mix of gravy& over eating. She probably thought she died & went to heaven!
I guess I'm mostly wondering how long the carb overload will clear from her system after all this?
 
Take a short break and get some rest.
Because N lasts only about 6-8 hours in the cat, you can shoot late if you need to do so. In fact, good control may take shooting every 8 hours due to the lack of sustained duration.
Have you seen our guide on using N here?

And maybe discuss a longer lasting, more gentle, insulin such as BCP PZI or ProZinc with your vet.
 
When my cat goes low, she also thinks it is great as she gets food she doesn't usually have ( high carb). And she loves her food which is a great help when they drop low!!!
It depends how much high carb food you gave as to how long it hangs around. The first time Sheba dropped really low I over carbed her big time and she was seedy all the next day! That was about a year ago. Now when she drops low I give her a teaspoon or sometimes two depending on the bsl and it has usually worn off in a couple of hours.
Either way it is not going to hurt Princess...the main thing was to get her numbers up and keep her safe which you did.
I think it is a good idea to hold off shooting until someone with experience comes along to advise you as I know when kitties drop really low they can be very sensitive to the insulin after that.
Edit to add..I see BJM has come on to give you advice so you are in good hands
 
jillmerg said:
I'm tired & feel really,really guilty~ advice?
Click to expand...
Jill, it's okay. You did just fine last night. I'm glad to know that it all turned out okay for you and Princess. I have no experience with dosing N, but when I give Hannah's ProZinc a tad early, I try to reduce the dose a bit. Dosing early is equal to giving a larger dose... but then I think you already know that. Don't dwell on what happened, as we've all been in a similar situation. It's just another instance of trying to balance life around a sugar kitty. Stuff happens. Princess' SS looks to me like you're doing a terrific job. If you can, try to get a little rest, today. Things will look better and more positive when you're not so tired and stressed. Best wishes and hugs.
 
Live & Learn, I guess! With the Easter holiday & kids on spring break , her normal insulin times have been off(later than usual). I was hoping to get her back to normal. Since she is on N, I thought I could manipulate her shoot times a little better- nope! She ate like a pig, had explosive diarrhea & is alive. :)
 
update: BG 149 at 9am with some FF. 223 at 11:30 am. I gave her the rest of her breakfast. Is it "safe" to give insulin in 30mins or so?
 
Yes is the short answer. Let me look at the spreadsheet to check the dose.
 
If 2 units on a pre-shot of 178 was too much and 2 units on a pre-shot over 300 mg/dL took her down to the 90s, I'm thinking that you're looking at starting to drop the dose, plus develop a sliding scale, rather than a fixed dose.
How about 0.5 if still around 200-250 and maybe 0.75 if 250-300 mg/dL?
 
Last edited:
Thank you BJM, I'll see where her #'s are in a few & give her a reduced dose. I'll be home today so I'll be able to keep a watchful eye on her too.
 
Update- ever since her low BG reading of 23, Princess hasn't had any really high #'s. I've bumped her units down from 2u to 0.5u . (Please have a look at her SS). Is this just her re-adjusting from her hypo. or is she just doing better on her own. I'm going to give her vet a call tomorrow , i was holding off to see where her #'s were first. tonight before her dinner her pmps was 202! I'm happy, but also nervous bc I HAVE to keep a close watch on her BG since her normal 2u would probably kill her! Thank god for home testing...I don't know how many lives she has left ;) In the past few months she has changed from dry hills rx to low carb canned DM & FF. Maybe thats it, who knows. I've also been giving her small snack/meals with her bg test throughout the day. I wonder if something like Tiki Cat would be good for her since its lower cals. Oh, the drama these sugar babies bring to our lives!!!
 
A hypo can make a cat more sensitive to insulin so that could be what's going on here - she's certainly given you some good numbers off much smaller doses the last couple of days. The change of food and the smaller meals quite likely has helped too. And of course there's the possibility that her pancreas may be starting to work a little and she's dealing with some of it herself! :) I don't know anything about the N insulins in cats - only in people - but it does look as though she's doing well on it right now. :) And I agree, home testing is a life saver - literally. Catching a low number like that gives you the chance to deal with it before it causes permanent damage or worse. The 0.5 looks to be getting her into good numbers from the low 200s so I think you're doing the right thing in keeping the doses smaller.
 
I don't believe NPH insulin is recommended for cats. I keep some around & actually supplement with a tiny dose of it for quick control when I get scary high numbers, but I basically bought it by mistake, quickly found the sliding scales out there for tight control were written for prozinc and glargine and never used it except as I said.

NPH has a really really short duration, at least in my feline. I was finding trough numbers only an hour or two out. That's what gave me the bright idea of giving a unit or so with my prozinc dose when I had a scary high number and it was feeding time. Is anybody really using NPH in felines? Where did you get it? Have you considered going to prozinc?
 
NPH generally lasts only 6-8 hours in the cat with its lowest glucose or nadir around +3 to +4 hours post shot, although that can and does vary. ProZinc lasts around 10-12 hours in the cat, so giving it only twice a day works well for most cats.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top