non-diabetic BG of 26?

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Sheila & Beau GA & Jeddie GA

Sheila & Beau GA & Jeddie GA

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This is my aunt's female cat, Joanna. 14 y.o., Hyper-T treated with I-131, T4 low-normal range now.

She has been losing weight and recently hanging her head over the water dish. She was taken to the vet where most labs (senior panel) were normal. Eosinophils, potassium, nitrogen slightly elevated or at top end of normal. She was dehydrated. Creatinine, BUN, RBC, normal. BG was 198 at vet. Vet said gut felt "ropy". She has lost weight, down 1.5 lbs in a little over a year. This was two weeks ago.

Normal diet was FF classics and a small amount of Blue Buffalo Wilderness dry. We began changing both cats to Wellness/EVO canned by mixing with FF 50/50 to get better quality proteins.

Today, I helped take my aunt's other cat (Joanna's brother) to vet for regular check up, senior panel, nail trimming, so I took my meter over to her house and tested Joanna and was stunned by the 26. We fed some gravy FF and 45 mins later she was 52.

Vet is thinking IBD and that she could use fluids and corticosteroids. My aunt can't do fluids by herself so that would fall on me and I live 30 mins away (so an hour just to go and come back). I don't even know if Joanna would let me do sub-Q more than about twice. She can become a whirling ball of claws and teeth at the slightest provocation, but is weak now, so I could probably get a few administrations in.

Any thoughts?
 
Sheila & Beau & Jeddie said:
This is my aunt's female cat, Joanna. 14 y.o., Hyper-T treated with I-131, T4 low-normal range now.

She has been losing weight and recently hanging her head over the water dish. She was taken to the vet where most labs (senior panel) were normal. Eosinophils, potassium, nitrogen slightly elevated or at top end of normal. She was dehydrated. Creatinine, BUN, RBC, normal. BG was 198 at vet. Vet said gut felt "ropy". She has lost weight, down 1.5 lbs in a little over a year. This was two weeks ago.

Normal diet was FF classics and a small amount of Blue Buffalo Wilderness dry. We began changing both cats to Wellness/EVO canned by mixing with FF 50/50 to get better quality proteins.

Today, I helped take my aunt's other cat (Joanna's brother) to vet for regular check up, senior panel, nail trimming, so I took my meter over to her house and tested Joanna and was stunned by the 26. We fed some gravy FF and 45 mins later she was 52.

Vet is thinking IBD and that she could use fluids and corticosteroids. My aunt can't do fluids by herself so that would fall on me and I live 30 mins away (so an hour just to go and come back). I don't even know if Joanna would let me do sub-Q more than about twice. She can become a whirling ball of claws and teeth at the slightest provocation, but is weak now, so I could probably get a few administrations in.

Any thoughts?
Click to expand...

Could she have gone in the opposite direction with the I-131 treatment and she is now Hypothyroid even with her 'new range'?? I don't know what else to add. You would think she would be gaining weight if that were the case. But then again if she just feels crappy and doesn't want to eat....although you didn't say she wasn't eating (does she have an appetite at all?), but you said that she was losing weight and was getting weak. :?:

Not much help I know. I hope someone else has something more helpful to add Sheila. If nothing else I will at least get this bumped to the top for others to hopefully chime in. I hope you get it figured out for Joanna. :( A raw diet might do wonders, but you knew I would say that. I wish I had more to offer.
 
She has a good appetite. She would probably eat more, and I do worry about my aunt not feeding them enough. She says she split 4 cans of FF between the two of them per day, and is now mixing 2 cans of FF with 1 6tox can of Wellness/day, so that should be enough. I keep telling her "6oz each per day". Today I told her to feed an additional can of FF to Joanna, split between mid morning and mid afternoon.

If she has IBD, yes a raw diet would probably help a lot. I am not sure I can get my aunt to go for it though. But IBD doesn't explain a BG of 26.

The one thing my vet mentioned, that is extremely rare, is an insulinoma - insulin producing tumor in the pancreas beta cells - there are only 5 reported cases of feline insulinoma in the literature.
 
Anything I tried to search for, including hyperinsulinemia, or overproduction of insulin, lead back to diabetes. Hyperinsulinemia is essentially pre-diabetes! But she has lost weight so that doesn't make sense with what I read.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperinsulinemia

In dogs, there was mention of pancreatic tumor. I could find very little regarding hyperinsulinemia relating to cats, it all seemed to lead back to diabetes, with the term hyperinsulinemia being mentioned only as a precursor to diabetes in cats. Apparently it can lead to weight gain, as insulin-resistance does in people. That was in a paper by Deb Zoran.

Did they check the free T4 levels? Tigget has never had high levels of T4 and was IMO Hyper-T for over a year before we began the methimazole. She was symptomatic with weight loss, hunger and excessive drinking before it showed in her free T4. Your aunt's cat sounds symptomatic, especially with the water drinking.

I was wondering if they have taken a blood pressure on her? I don't remember where, but in trying to find something about this, I read something about higher blood pressure involved. I think that's true in hyper-T and causes it to affect the kidneys and mask kidney disease.

Sorry, no other ideas for you. Not sure about the hypO-T, why would that cause her to need water and become dehydrated? Glad she's getting good food and eating OK. That's a plus.
 
Sheila & Beau & Jeddie said:
Today, I helped take my aunt's other cat (Joanna's brother) to vet for regular check up, senior panel, nail trimming, so I took my meter over to her house and tested Joanna and was stunned by the 26. We fed some gravy FF and 45 mins later she was 52.

Any thoughts?
Click to expand...

What meter are you using? The reason I ask is, my cat wasn't eating normal one day a while ago and when I tested her she was at 30. I asked in the honeymooners forum, what was too low for a diet controlled diabetic and someone told me that the meter I use (ReliOn) reads low. And when I took her to the vet for her T4 check (HyperT) a few weeks later and told him about the BG of 30, he said it may actually have been 40 or 50 but to keep check of how often it goes there. He also mentioned the possibility of an overactive pancreus (maybe the condition you mention, but he didn't give me the techinical name or if he did, I don't remember) and the tumor you talk about, but it is very rare. Hope it's not that, for both of us...And thank you for the link on it.
About the other cat losing weight, and "hovering" over the water bowl: is she drinking it? More than usual? That is a symptom of HyperT, along with losing weight. May be a freeT4 is in order, as Vicky mentioned, and also gaining weight would be HypoT, not losing. Maybe you are right in that they are being fed a "losing weight" diet....
Good luck.
 
Re: non-diabetic BG of 26? Update 4-26

I tested her BG over the weekend - 43. I also tested her brother (litter mate) and he was 49. He had a checkup and senior panel last week and was 272 on their lab tests. He is a BIG vet stresser, usually throws up or poops on the way there he gets so upset.

A few years ago they had check ups and their BG's at the vet were upper 200s and lower 300s, so the vet said a fasting BG needed to be done. (to which I say, "Huh? On a cat? You'll never get a true BG at the vet") Anyway, I brought my meter over and tested them at my aunt's house 30 mins after eating and they were 48 and 73. So, both of these kitties seem to run at the lower range of normal BGs, but the 26 is really low.

My meter is a Bayer Contour. I have yet to look up what it's tendencies are for accuracy in the lower numbers. My previous meter (True Test) tended to be lower on the low end (below 50) and higher on the high end (above 400) if I remember the comparison charts correctly.

As to if she is drinking more, I can't tell. I have seen her sitting, or laying, next to the water dish with her chin resting on the rim, but not drinking. My aunt says she is drinking more often, but doesn't know if she is peeing more. She has two cats and three litter boxes, so it's hard to tell.

Joanna does have a good appetite and they are both being fed more food with water added in. Both of them had T4 levels "below the gray area". They were both 1.something (Mathew was 1.7, I can't remember her number) and the "gray area" is 2.3-4.7. This gray area thing is new for the lab. I guess they are calling out the range where a free T4 would be recommended.

We are starting her on prednisone today for possible IBD. Tablet form so dose can be adjusted or stopped as needed. She will get sid dosing for a week then go to every other day for a couple of weeks - that is the plan, anyway.
 
I don't see the terrible C mentioned, but I have read that cancer can feed off of glucose and produce lower BGs than normal. Has the vet looked for signs of masses?
 
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