My cat goes hypoglycemic on 1 unit of insulin! What do I do

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Saberina

Member Since 2012
Our cat was diagnosed diabetic this past spring. She was on insulin. I ended up at the very expensive emergency hospital at 2AM. The honey we gave her saved her life. BG was at 31 when I got there. She was there for over a week. BG kept dropping extremely low with insulin. She was in remission. Great! She is no longer in remission. BG at 669. We started with prescription canned food. BG still over 450. Then 1 unit of insulin (different type than before)- caused her BG to go to low again. Our vet had her in on Friday for a glucose curve. Her BG went down to 51. Vet says we can't go lower than 1 unit, keep her on the script food and if things get worse, call him at home.

Help, what can I do for her?
 
Re: My cat goes hypoglycemic on 1 unit of insulin! What do

What insulin are you using?
You can does less than one unit. You can purchase U100 insulin syringes with 1/2 unit marking and thus can estimate good 1/4 units of a U100 insulin (human insulins). If you are using a U40 insulin like ProZonc you can dose in 0.1 unit increments
 
Re: My cat goes hypoglycemic on 1 unit of insulin! What do

We don't have any now. I can't remember which one it was. I know it was not the human insulin because that it what she was on before. He didn't charge me for glucose curve and I returned the insulin.
 
Re: My cat goes hypoglycemic on 1 unit of insulin! What do

Then it is likely ProZinc, an insulin for cats only that comes in U40 strength only.
Are the syringes U40 syringes? Does it say for U40 only on the syringe box and syringes? If the needle cap is red (vice orange) it is an U40 40 syringe.

You use human U100 syringes for a U40 insulin. If you draw the insulin up U40 to the 2 1/2 unit marking on a U100 syringe, you have 1 unit of U40 insulin in the U100 syringe.
 
Re: My cat goes hypoglycemic on 1 unit of insulin! What do

In that case, we weren't even giving her a full 1 unit. We have the u100 syringes.
 
Re: My cat goes hypoglycemic on 1 unit of insulin! What do

You most certainly can dose less than one unit, of any kind of insulin. I'm pretty sure there isn't a person here who hasn't done it.

Please find out what type of insulin was used most recently. If you were using u100 syringes, then it most likely wasn't Prozinc. If it was, then your vet should have given you some U40 syringes to go with the insulin. If he gave you U40 insulin without giving you U40 syringes, that borders on negligence.


If it was Prozinc, and you used a U100 syringe, and you only drew it up to the 1u mark on the syringe, then you gave her 4/10ths of a unit of Prozinc.
What was the BG before you shot, and how long after that shot did you see the 51? Also, 51 isn't "too low". You don't want it going any lower, but "normal" on a human glucometer is 40-120.


Carl
 
Re: My cat goes hypoglycemic on 1 unit of insulin! What do

Hello, and welcome to FDMB!

Can I just ask you for clarification about how the situation is right now? I just want to make sure I've understood properly.

So, your cat is back at home, and currently NOT on insulin? Is that correct?
And you are feeding prescription wet food?
Are you testing your cat's blood glucose at home? If so, what numbers are you getting?

It might be that your cat is going back into remission, or that she just needs a tiny dose of insulin. As Carl says, many people shoot less than one unit of insulin, and some folks here are extremely adept at 'micro dosing' quite tiny amounts. So, you will certainly be able to get advice here on that.

Remission (diet-controlled diabetes) can last weeks, months or years. Some cats go in and out of remission. Some stay in remission. Have you recently changed your cat's diet at all? Had she been eating any dry food prior to coming out of remission?
 
Re: My cat goes hypoglycemic on 1 unit of insulin! What do

Smaller doses than 1 unit ARE possible.

As Bob mentioned using a U-100 syringe with a U-40 let's you draw up smaller doses of a U-40 insulin like ProZinc.

Using U-100 syringes with half-unit markings, you can do 'fat' and 'skinny' 0.5 doses where you are just above or just below the line respectively, and a 'fat' 0.0 units. Estimating o.25 isn't too difficult, and you can use 1 syringe that is maked or has colored water in it as a reference.

Callipers may be used as a reference guide in measuring, too.

With the drop method, you fill to 0.5 units and squeeze out uniformly sized drops, until you can reliably get the same number of same-sized drops each time, then dose based on number of drops.

It really helps to have magnifiers for this; check out the Carson Clip and Flip at our shopping partner Amazon (link above at top of page).
 
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