Hypoglycemia aftercare

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Rowan

Rowan

Member Since 2021
Hello,
My little man TJ had to be rushed to the emergency vet yesterday afternoon. Initially the symptoms were muscle weakness, but as I got the carrier ready I believe he had a seizure. I rushed him to the vet after giving him syrup (I couldn't get him to eat anything). They got him on glucose and decided to keep him overnight. Apparently it took a long time before his numbers looked better. I think one of the reasons is he wouldn't eat much with his morning dose, but they were confident his insulin was too high. I have him back at home now. The vet notes from overnight said reduce to 2 units, although the vet who discharged him said 1 unit. Before this, I wanted to keep him on a combo diet for the benefit of the other cat at home and my wallet, but I don't think this will work anymore. I am calling his normal vet when they open tomorrow. For diet, is half a can twice a day of seafood fancy feast a good call for a 7-8 pound cat? Additionally, is there anything more I can be doing for him while I wait for a check in with the vet?
Sorry for any incoherence I haven't been getting much sleep.
 
Hi Rowan,
I would give TJ his main meals and snacks throughout the day and evening. This will help stop the blood glucose from dropping. A half can of FF twice a day doesn’t seem much food to me. Please give the snacks i mentioned.
Are you home testing the blood glucose?
If not I would strongly recommend you do to keep TJ safe. We can help you with that.
How much insulin has he been on? It is very hard to say how much to give when there is no data to look at. But after a hypo episode and a probable seizure, I would be very careful and cautious. When was the last time he had a dose of insulin? Was it before the episode?

if I were you I would go out today and buy a human test meter from a poor Walmart if you are in the US and come home and test the blood glucose. That is really the only way you are going to know if it is safe to give him any insulin.
 
calories per day is 20 calories per pound of ideal weight
So 20x8=160 calories if his ideal weight is 8 lbs
Besides that we don't recommend feeding fish every day
Not enough feeding just one can a day
I would look into other FF pate flavors and look at the calories
 
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If you are willing to home test which is the only way to keep TJ safe
we can suggest a meter you can afford, test strips and lancets from Walmart
if you are in the US
The Relion Prime 9 dollars
17.88 for 100 test strips
A couple bucks for 26 or 28 gauge lancets
Cotton rounds
 
Bron and Sheba (GA) said:
How much insulin has he been on? It is very hard to say how much to give when there is no data to look at. But after a hypo episode and a probable seizure, I would be very careful and cautious. When was the last time he had a dose of insulin? Was it before the episode?
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I was waiting to talk to my vet about home testing because I didn't want to mess it up. I can buy go buy the meter you recommended in the morning. He went up to 3 units of lantus a couple of weeks ago. I do not change his insulin at all from what the vet tells me. As per the emergency vets instructions, I gave him one unit this evening with a meal.

Diane Tyler's Mom said:
I would look into other FF pate flavors and look at the calories
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Okay. I didn't do any wet food at all before he was diagnosed, so I really don't understand what is good in terms of diet for them. Thank you for explaining. My vet never talked to me about this and initially said dry food only would be okay. I will buy a variety and continue keeping his dry food out so he can graze through the day.
 
Please make sure you give some snacks during this current cycle. You don’t need your vets permission to home test to keep TJ safe. I will send you a list of suitable foods which are under10% carbs if you can tell me which country you are in
You need to be testing before swapping over to a low carb diet because the blood glucose can drop over 100 points and you need to be able to adjust the dose of insulin.
I would not increase the dose above 1 unit until you are aware of the blood glucose levels.
 
Like Bron said you need to be testing before swapping over to an all low carb diet.
What are you feeding now, is it all wet seafood fancy feast or both FF seafood and dry?
You should also have on hand the following in case he drops to low and you need to bring his BG up to safe numbers. If you are still feeding dry food for him to graze on keep feeding him that until you start to home test


med and high carb food on hand in case he drops too low and you need to bring his BG up to safe numbers
Fancy Feast Gravy Lovers Gourmet Beef Feast in Gravy 20% High Carbs



Fancy Feast Gravy Lovers Gourmet Chicken Feast in Gravy. 15% Med Carbs




Fancy Feast Gravy Lovers Turkey Feast in Gravy. 15% Med Carbs


Fancy Feast Gravy Lovers Chicken and Beef Feast in Gravy 15% Med Carbs
 
Always aim for the sweet spot warm the ears up first, you can put rice in a sock and put it in the microwave, test it on the inside of your wrist to be sure it's not to hot, like you would test a babies bottle. You can fill a pill bottle with warm water and roll it on the ears also.Just keep rubbing the ears with your fingers to warm them up
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6. As the ears get used to bleeding and grow more capilares, it gets easier to get the amount of blood you need on the first try. If he won’t stand still, you can get the blood onto a clean finger nail and test from there.
When you do get some blood you can try milking the ear.
Get you finger and gently push up toward the blood , more will appear
You will put the cotton round behind his ear in case you poke your finger, after you are done testing you will fold the cotton round over his ear to stop the bleeding , press gently for about 20 seconds until it stops
 
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VIDEO: How to test your cat's blood sugar
Here is a video that one of our members made testing her cat, she is using a pet meter but like we suggested to buy the Relion Prime, you won't have to do anything with it, just put your test strip in it and go. Our numbers are based on human meters
anyway
 
We all want to help you and TJ , once you buy the meter we will ask you to set up a spreadsheet to track TJ BG and enter it on the SS . It's at the end of everyone's posts. Mine says Tyler's spreadsheet, you can take a look at mine , right now my cat is in remission thanks to the members here.

Before that you can see how much I tested Tyler to be sure it was safe to shoot insulin.
I will give you the link on how to set it up and it will also explain how to use the spreadsheet
If you have trouble setting it up just post and ask for help
We have members here that will be glad to do it for you
Please let us know if you live in the US, you can add that where you have your information

https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/how-to-create-a-spreadsheet.241706/
 
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Hi, sorry I'm in the US. I am buying the reccomended glucose meter. For food, he still has Iams hairball control (dry) left out at all times of day. His wet food was friskies meaty bits with gravy, but I recently ran out and replaced it with Fancy Feast grilled seafood. Honestly he is very finicky and has been not wanting to eat his dry food because he likes the gravy in wet food better. This is what I've been struggling with in his diet. If I understand correctly, low carb and insulin is correcting too much, and he needs access to high carb to raise blood sugar in emergencies? I will temporarily suspend insulin until testing indicates high numbers.
 
Rowan said:
Hi, sorry I'm in the US. I am buying the reccomended glucose meter. For food, he still has Iams hairball control (dry) left out at all times of day. His wet food was friskies meaty bits with gravy, but I recently ran out and replaced it with Fancy Feast grilled seafood. Honestly he is very finicky and has been not wanting to eat his dry food because he likes the gravy in wet food better. This is what I've been struggling with in his diet. If I understand correctly, low carb and insulin is correcting too much, and he needs access to high carb to raise blood sugar in emergencies? I will temporarily suspend insulin until testing indicates high numbers.
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I don't know how many carbs were in the friskies meaty bits with gravy
We try to stay under 10% carbs , I sent you the link to look at the food list above
Fancy Feast classic pates are fine , there are many flavors , hopefully he will like one of them
also look at the food list some of the other fancy feast or friskies that are under 10% carbs he might like , please look at it

When you say low carb and insulin is correcting too much
He went hypo because he was getting too much insulin
I see you were told to start with 1 unit , I'm glad you did
You don't have to stop the insulin, you need the meter asap so you can let us know what he tests in the AM and PM so we can tell you if it's a safe number to shoot

Yes the FF gravy lovers is for when you are testing him a couple times after you give the insulin to see how low the insulin is working for him and how low
 
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Hi Rowan
Diane is correct. You need to be testing the BGs to see if it is safe to give the insulin,
Too much insulin was the problem.
Please don’t stop the insulin. That is not a good idea at all. You need to be testing the BG and seeing what the BG is and adjusting the dose if needed, not stopping it. You will run into other problems if you stop the insulin.
Have you bought the meter yet and started testing?
I would also recommend setting up a spreadsheet to enter the data onto. Here is a link
https://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/forums/spreadsheets-tech-support-testing-area.6/

Until you have a meter and are testing I would not try and change over his food as you don’t know how it is affecting his BG.
 
Just did my first test, had to run back out because we forgot a piece. I also spoke with my vet on the phone, she had an appointment open up in a couple of hours. Right now I'm setting up my spreadsheet. I have his first marked down. I don't understand the numbers well yet, but I feel much better now that I've done it once.
 
The Iam's dry food is very high in carbohydrates. The Friskies is medium carb - 13 to 14% carb and the FF grilled seafood is 12% -- also medium carb. It's not a surprise that his numbers may have dropped if he hadn't eaten well. All of the higher carb food has been propping up his blood glucose levels.

I'm going to add to the chorus. The best way to keep your cat safe is to home test.

One other consideration is that after a symptomatic hypoglycemic episode, many cats are very sensitive to insulin. Please go out and get a meter. I doubt you want another trip to the ER.
 
Rowan said:
Just did my first test, had to run back out because we forgot a piece. I also spoke with my vet on the phone, she had an appointment open up in a couple of hours. Right now I'm setting up my spreadsheet. I have his first marked down. I don't understand the numbers well yet, but I feel much better now that I've done it once.
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Hi Rowan good jib testing and setting up the SS
I'm a little confused you said you tested , I see the test @+10 of 171 on 5-2. Night time In your remarks area I don't know what that means

You didn't give any insulin this morning?

Please look at the food chart I gave you the link
All of the FF classics Pates are fine, just don't give him fish that often
If he's not crazy about the pates you can try
Fancy Feast Roasted/Flaked/ or Chunky they are OK, again don't feed fish that often

Friskies Classic Pates are fine
Just look at the food chart
 
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Bron and Sheba (GA) said:
Hi Rowan
Diane is correct. You need to be testing the BGs to see if it is safe to give the insulin,
Too much insulin was the problem.
Please don’t stop the insulin. That is not a good idea at all. You need to be testing the BG and seeing what the BG is and adjusting the dose if needed, not stopping it. You will run into other problems if you stop the insulin.
Have you bought the meter yet and started testing?
I would also recommend setting up a spreadsheet to enter the data onto. Here is a link
https://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/forums/spreadsheets-tech-support-testing-area.6/

Until you have a meter and are testing I would not try and change over his food as you don’t know how it is affecting his BG.
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Hi Bron I'm so glad you got on , I ran out for awhile, I didn't want to give him any wrong advice, what were you doing up so early, what time was it in Australia when you posted this . When I got back home I saw you posted and said thank god lol
He set up his SS but I asked him a few questions about it see #19
Thank you Bron
 
Diane Tyler's Mom said:
I'm a little confused you said you tested , I see the test @+10 of 171 on 5-2. Night time In your remarks area I don't know what that means
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Sorry about it being confusing. Due to my evening job, I have to give him insulin at 11am/11pm. I did a test this morning at 9 am, which is +10 for his evening dose. I'm thinking about reversing the order so I can write times as -X and have the dates show up correctly. He didn't get the morning dose because the I just got done at the vets. And she wants me to do 2 units in the evening.
 
Rowan said:
Sorry about it being confusing. Due to my evening job, I have to give him insulin at 11am/11pm. I did a test this morning at 9 am, which is +10 for his evening dose. I'm thinking about reversing the order so I can write times as -X and have the dates show up correctly. He didn't get the morning dose because the I just got done at the vets. And she wants me to do 2 units in the evening.
Click to expand...

What are you talking about putting x's lol

You test at 11:00 AM and then shoot correct that goes in the AMPS cell
Then you test at 11:00 PM and shoot correct that goes in your PMPS cell

Any tests after that means Let's say you test 3 hours after giving insulin that would go in the @+3 cells
@+4. four hours after giving insulin goes in the @+4 cells and do on
So you are gone from 11 AM until 11 PM?


Also please add the meter to your signature
By the way TJ is adorable and always add water to his wet food

Let's see what
@Bron and Sheba (GA) thinks about starting with 2 units instead of 1 unit
 
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