HYPO question...

[Angel and Ducky]

Hi all, not sure where to put this, but I have a question about HYPO. Is it possible for a cat to experience an episode and then pull out of it on their own? The only reason I ask is that sometimes due to our work schedules we can't test Ducky as often as we would like, and he seems to ride low numbers between testings on occasion. As we are unsure of his numbers between, say, a 95 +1 and a 94 +7, but he seems fine and active at +7, is it something we would need to worry about?

To be clear, I don't think this HAS happened, but I am just curious about it.

Tim

 

[kate and lucky]

A lot of cats are able to feed low numbers if food is available.

It is when kitty rides below 50 (40 in older diagnosed cats) that can be a bit dodgy and kitty better off ahving a higher carb food available.
If you think he might drop low and you can't be there to test you can either give a slightly reduced shot or leave out slightly higher carb food (case of knowing your cat and will they feed themselves if they get low)

In LL land call the reduced shot BCS dose. Lots of beans have to do it sometimes, especially if the preshot number is low and they have to get off to work.

Other thing to do is get a curve when you are at home so you can get a clear pic of his cycle on that dose. I used to get up in the night if I knew I couldn't get day checks-just as ECID (Every cat is different) so is every bean and their life.

 

[JJ & Gwyn [GA]]

It *is* possible for a cat to pull out of a hypo /near-hypo on their own; that's something called rebound. Basically, the body notices that the blood sugar is going too low, panicks, and dumps a bunch of stored sugar into the blood. The danger is that, If the cat is experiencing chronic rebound, the body will eventually run out of stored sugar and go into a full-blown you-need-to-fix-this-NOW hypo. Depending on when the body reacts to the situation, how bad things are, and when you happen to get your blood tests, it's possible for you to pull two similar numbers but have the cat be not-healthy in between.

That said: I'm not familiar with what a rebound looks like on a Lantus cat. In *general*, rebound will manifest through higher pre-shot numbers. oft-times significantly higher pre-shot numbers. That's because dumping large amounts of sugar into the bloodstream to prevent a hypo isn't really a good way to control diabetes If your pre-shot haven't been steadily creeping up and aren't wildly out of spec, I'd be less concerned about rebound.

Also (and, again, not a Lantus user), rebound will generally show up on a BG curve. If you're worried about rebound, you might try doing a curve when you have a day free -- perhaps sometime this weekend?

 

[Angel and Ducky]

OK, thanks! I'm pretty sure everything's kosher, but we'll try and test his cycle this weekend to get a better idea. He's been doing so well it's hard to get a handle on his numbers. Which isn't all that bad!