LOW BS (26) and we need to travel

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Sarah and Baby

Sarah and Baby

Member Since 2011
Baby just had a low BS of 26. She was drooling and was incontinent on the floor, I believe she had a seizure.

We gave her some Karo syrup and some of the dry diabetic cat food that we have. We didn't give her any high carb food because we didn't have any left from the last time she had a low reading. (5/02)

The big problem that we have right now is that we are getting ready to leave town for the weekend. We are taking her with us and we were planning on giving her something to help her sleep because it severely stresses her out when she rides in the car.

I am not sure what to do right now. We bought children's benadryl to give her and the vet prescribed something but I'm not sure we can afford it. Help!!
 
I think she still needs to be checked out by a vet before travelling. If she's already had a seizure, taking her on the road might well not be safe at this point - you need to know she's out of danger and her BG is in the safe zone and staying there at the very least before driving any distance with her.

And no, I wouldn't give benadryl or anything else that might knock her out at this point. You need to be able to see how she's acting without adding anything that might make her sleepy (or really affect her in any way at all) while she's in hypo numbers and recovering from them.
 
That's still below 50 so she needs more food and you're going to need to keep testing her for awhile

Since your spreadsheet isn't updated, can you tell us when she last had insulin and how much?

I definitely wouldn't be giving her any type of sedative for the reason's April stated above. It's just not safe
 
The problem with that 49 is that it's going to be mostly the syrup...and she's still under 50. She needs to come up a bit further and then still be rising without the influence of syrup or high carb food.
 
She had insulin at 8:30. .5 unit of Levemir.

Is it better for her to be super stressed out and freaking out for the next three hours or to sedate her?

I'm sorry, but we have to take her and we have to go, as there are quite a lot of people depending on us. If we had a choice, we would not be having her travel.
 
Given that those are the only 2 options, having her stressed is really the only choice you've got. She really shouldn't be sedated right now - if she's had a seizure this recently, you have to be able to see how she's feeling and acting and sedating her is going to suppress her natural actions. And the stress might keep her BG up a bit. Can you test her on the road? And bring syrup and high carb food with you? And can you get a list of ER vets along the route you're taking so that you can get her somewhere fast if she has another seizure or her BG keeps dropping when the syrup wears off? And can you get your regular vet to take a look at her before you leave?
 
How long has it been since the shot? 8:30 doesn't tell us anything since we're all in different time zones but with Levemir's later nadir, I'm concerned she still may have a long way to go

I agree....if those are the only choices, I'd choose to leave her as alert as possible so you can gauge how she's really doing without having anything suppress it.

Make sure you take plenty of supplies with you because you're going to want to test her on the road. Some cats actually go lower with stress! (China's one of them)

If you have to stop by your vet anyway, I'd discuss it with them too
 
Actually, any stress may be helpful in bringing up her glucose.
Pick up some Karo or syrup on your way wherever.
Have a towel you can use to drape her crate to help her be calm.
 
I would be VERY careful about giving insulin on the trip. She might be high tonight from stress and syrup, but if this were my cat, I would probably not give any insulin on the trip to avoid going so low on the road. Just my opinion...
 
Her low BS was at +5 after her am shot. We tested her at +7.5 and she was at 122.

I'm really not sure what to do about her shot tonight.
 
It's too early to really say right now, but I'd get a +11 if you can so you'll have an idea of if she's still climbing at PMPS time. She may bounce high or she may stay lower

Either way, it's obvious .5 is too much so she's earned a reduction. The problem is when cats have a symptomatic hypo like Baby did, they can be VERY sensitive to any more insulin, so if you can't test overnight, it's going to be safer to just skip any shot for now
 
You might want to give .25U then ....it looks like she's bouncing off the lows today, but I'd make sure to get some tests in later to make sure she stays safe
 
Would you take the 911 off? Over to the right of your subject line from your first post you'll see "Thread Tools" and you can choose to "Edit" from there...just choose "no prefix"

If you run into trouble again, you can add the 911 again
 
Just checked her at +4 and she is already down to 83. Not in the danger zone yet but we're only +4. Making sure she has food, wondering what else to do.
 
Ah, just realised that the SS isn't showing this cycle's data. (Oops...)
That's quite a drop from a preshot of 190.
A little food now may slow that drop. Are you going to be able to continue to test over the coming hours?
 
Sarah and Baby said:
I know she had her low reading yesterday at +4.
Click to expand...
But you gave karo at that point? That would have raised the numbers so we don't know when her blood glucose nadir is.

If you feel able to continue to monitor then you could see how she goes and take appropriate action to raise her blood glucose if necessary.
If you are not able to monitor then you could give a little higher carb food now and see if you can stop her from dropping any further.

Have you given any food since you last tested?
 
FYI, Be aware that the karo starts working quickly but can also wear off relatively fast.
Food works more slowly but stays in the system longer.
 
We are at +7 and she is at 92. Feeling much more chipper running all over the room and has discovered the cat on the other side of the door. I'm going to leave her until +11 or so now.
 
At +11 she was 102 so we gave her shot at the normal time. Will check her at +4, +5, and +6 to find her nadir.

She's chipper enough to be very unhappy about getting tested.
 
The nadir can move around a bit, it is more of a time range than a fixed number since the shot.
 
Just tested her at +6 and she is at 30. Gave her high carb food. Will be skipping shot tonight. Wondering where we should go from here, if we should just shoot her once a day or give her higher carb food... I feed her Fancy Feast Classic food, averages 4-5 carbs per can.
 
With a 30, I would test again in 15 to 20 minutes after the last test. You don't want her going any lower.
 
Do you have another test yet? Because you are not home and may not be familiar with where the nearest ER vet is, like you would at home, I would look into where they are located and how to get there, just in case, while you're waiting between tests.

Having a symptomatic hypo can make a cat extra sensitive to insulin. And, some cats go lower rather than higher when stressed.

I agree with Maggies Mom, that maybe you can do an OTJ trial once this low cycle is through.

Please update us with the latest test.
 
She is at 52 now, so she is trending upward. Will check in 20 minutes again to see where she's at.

How do I do an OTJ trial?
 
Your spreadsheet isn't updated, so I can't really tell her recent history.
I'm going to try to get some other people to chime in on their thoughts. There are lower doses than 0.25, that might be an alternative to a trial, but she has gone very very low two days in a row now.
Let's see what other people have to say first.
 
Unfortunately, we have not been checking her sugar regularly. That will change immediately. Its a fairly traumatic experience for all involved, so we have been avoiding it.
 
It might be a case of seeing what Baby does next to decide whether to try a trial or whether to go with a reduced dose. I think skipping tonight would be a good idea - if for no other reason than to let you get some sleep and for her body to recover from the low numbers 2 days in a row and clear out some of the depot from the Levemir. After that, you really need to test her before her regular shot time in the morning - if she's above normal numbers, then maybe reducing the dose to 0.1 might be the way to go to see if she can earn another reduction. I think a lot of people here now try to do the lower dose to give the cat's pancreas as much support as possible for a little longer. I finished up doing a tiny, tiny dose of 0.05 for about a month for Rosa (although I did have to skip a number of shots during that time) as even going from 0.1 to OTJ was too much for her in one attempt but I think that's where you have to be guided by the numbers you're getting to work out what to do next.

If you do finish up going with the trial, then you would generally start with a cycle where you get a green pre-shot number. If you get a number within normal range, then you don't need to test again until the next pre-shot time (though obviously without giving the shot). If you get a number that's a little above normal range, then you can feed low carb food and test again about 3-4 hours later to see if her pancreas is able to bring her numbers down on its own. Once you get to 14 days without insulin and with the numbers being in the normal range, then you can class her as being OTJ.
 
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