Hypoglycaemia with no insulin

HI everyone. I thought I'd outline our recent experience to see if anyone has experienced the same or can offer insight. We had to say goodbye to our beloved Orfeo on April 2 after two nights of hypoglycaemia with severe grand Mal seizures. He was 14 years old.

He was diagnosed with diabetes in 2015 and on insulin. We moved him to solely wet Wellness Chicken and Turkey that brought down his sugar levels and in 2017, the vet said he was in remission. He was taken off insulin.
He was tested every 6 months and diabetes was in check. Remission or because his diet?

This summer, we moved to a mix of Wellness (that he wasn't eating) and dried Tikicat food.

On March 29 2022 he had his first bout of hypoglycaemia in the evening. We rubbed honey on his gums but wasn't working so took him to the emergency vet. His sugar was 1.8. They gave him glucose via IV, and we felt he was stable enough and we brought him home and watched for further signs. We fed him all he could eat. It started to reoccur the next morning and took him to his regular vet for the morning. They fed him and brought his sugar up. The vet also gave him an injection to increase his appetite and sent him home with us with instructions to let him eat whatever he wanted and so we did. However, it became clear his sugar was dropping. We administered many doses of corn syrup to his gums and it didn't seem to have any effect. That night and morning we stayed with him - the seizures were traumatic - he'd curl his head back, his tail would get fluffy and he would run across the room and try to climb the wall. The first time. I held him the other times so he wouldn't run and hurt himself. That morning the seizures became more frequent and we made the difficult decision to say goodbye.

what would have caused his sugar to drop so low? and so quickly.

 

I am so sorry for your loss, that sounds very traumatic! I can only offer my extreme sympathies, I haven't heard of such a thing before. It sounds like his pancreas was overproducing insulin, which I didn't know was a thing.

{edit}

I found this -- could be a cause?

https://www.acvs.org/small-animal/insulinoma

 

So sorry you had to go through all that but it does sound like it might have been an insulinoma.

Fly free sweet Orfeo and land softly. There are lots of friends at the bridge to keep you company until the time comes for you to be together with your loving humans again, forever

 

I am so sorry you all had to go through this. Poor little Orfeo.
I agree with Chris, it does sound like an insulinoma.

 

Had Orfeo been exposed to any toxins, human foods or medications, supplements, or given over-the-counter flea/tick meds recently?

For example, Xylitol is an artificial sweetener that is in many human foods these days and is extremely toxic to dogs and cats (can cause low blood sugar, amongst other things). Supplement labels also need to be scrutinized. I believe in some locations, Xylitol is also known as “birch sugar” (or wood sugar, birch bark extract, etc) which sounds deceptively innocuous.

I’d definitely do a mental exercise about anything that might have changed in your home or any potential exposure, especially if you have other cats/dogs, just to be safe.

Which came first … the low blood sugar or the seizures? I have faint recollection of reading that seizures can be metabolic disrupters and affect BG, but I don’t recall in what way. Nor do I remember a friend who had an epileptic cat ever talking about the seizures causing any problems with low BG. But many things other than low BG can cause seizures, so just throwing it out there.

As previously mentioned, a functioning insulinoma can trigger low BG, but they are exceedingly rare in cats (more common in dogs). Anything is possible, but I’d rack my brain about other possibilities, such as foods/toxins, before assuming it was a pancreatic tumor.

@Trent Newmeyer My deepest condolences for your loss. It’s always hard, but especially when it’s so unexpected.

 

I'm so very sorry for your loss and you had to go through such a tramstic experience. Fly high sweet Orfeo you will be missed ♥