OTJ can blood sugar be too low? Just got 33, 36

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Catannc

Catannc

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Can a cat have too low of blood sugar? Cause I just got a 33, retested and got a 36....should I be worried something else is wrong with her?
 
That's what I thought too, and I know meters aren't as accurate in cats when they're below 80. But the 30's just seems to be strangely low, Mr. P has been doing some lines to stay awake from all the partying I think.

*know she's not in danger of hypo, kim, just wondering if there was anything to worry about if she kept running low...other medical issues and such.
 
One more thing to add to this....I assume you are using a Human Blood meter. I have always read that Human blood meters read low blood glucose readings lower than the actual, in an attempt to prompt or "scare" the person into eating or seeking help. So, the 36 that you are getting, is probably lower than the actual reading.

We cannot make this same assumption, due to precautionary reasons, when we think a cat receiving insulin is in hypo numbers. It would be a dangerous assumption. But, in a cat that has received no insulin, it is fair to assume that the BG reading is probably reading lower than the actual.
 
That's interesting, I knew that lower readings were off due to the difference between cat/human blood. Didn't know the meters might be set to give a more dramatic readout......
 
I found this as other possible conditions that lead to low blood sugars in cats.... But truly, I think numbers like you seeing are probably normal in non diabetic cats...BUT, no one tests them, so we have little data!


Here is a copy and paste of what I found....(non of these sound likely to me)

Other Causes


•Fasting before vigorous exercise

•Excessive insulin administration (may occur in cats with diabetes)

•Insulin-producing tumors of the pancreas

•Severe liver disease

•Other tumors that produce insulin-like factors

•Portosystemic shunts

•Hereditary diseases arising from abnormal storage of glucose

•Serious systemic bacterial infection
 
Thanks Kim, I'm gonna keep an eye on her and hopefully it's just normal. I did a search for low BG in cats but hypoglycemia kept popping up, awesome job finding that so quickly!
 
did a search for low BG in cats but hypoglycemia kept popping
Click to expand...

That makes sense because lower than "normal" BG is hypoglycemia. It doesn't mean kitty is done for, just "hypo" is lower than normal, and "hyper" is higher than normal.... not just blood glucose, but any thing blood related. Bob tends to be "hypokalemic" which just means his potassium is lower than normal. So if kitties are below 40, or above 120, they're either hypo or hyper glycemic. But safe bet is that she's just at her natural low state BG-wise, and without insulin, she's not going to drop unless she decides to exercise a bunch, at which point she'd say "hey, I just busted butt, pal, how about some fud?" which would bring her BG right back up to normal.

When we say "hypo", we tend to think "oh crap, BG is dangerously low!!!" but generally, it's just a case of the meter reading below 40 and the cat is asymptomatic other than what we see on the meter. But it just means, "low", litterally. If the meter was calibrated to read cat blood, and it was more accurate than +/- 20%, you'd probably be looking at a 55-60 number and thinking "freaking AWESOME!!!!".. :-D

carl
 
just wanted to chime in that my non-diabetic has had readings in the 30's, she has never been higher than 50 actually. That's why low greens (although when on insulin can be scary) on small doses of insulin in a healthy cat aren't THAT scary!

Congrats!
Kitten is doing great!
 
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