Phoebe - Neuro Symptoms - not sure what to do

Maggie&Phoebe

Maggie&Phoebe

Member Since 2020
Hey All - original thread here.

Short story - Phoebe (11) was diagnosed last Friday. She was started on Lantus Monday evening (1ml 2x per day).

She has been getting progressively more wobbly, culminating in her falling over 3 times while eating this evening, and falling off the bedside table. I have thus far held off on given her second dose.

I'm getting more and more worried that we screwed up by switching her off her normal food regimen (free feeding HC dry food with 'treats' of a spoonful of wet food with water added a couple times per day) to LC every thing (FF and DM dry food as "treats") and then giving her insulin too.

Just got off the phone with a vet tech who basically confirmed my worst suspicion, which is that she should be 'ideally' be eating at least half her calories before she gets her first shot of the day - that means 1 can of FF, and frankly, with my girl, that's impossible. I really, really don't know what to do or how I'm ever going to get her to eat enough to safely start the insulin. Honestly, I'm feeling quite hopeless :(
 
Hello,

reading through your posts, I see you haven’t tested blood glucose levels. Do you have the equipment that you could try?

you said 1ml of lantus in your post. Do you mean 1 unit? What syringes are you using? Can you upload a picture?

If kitty is unwell, you may need to take to the ER. There are other issues that could be causing the behaviour, but I am not a vet. If concerned, I would take her to the Emergency vet.
 
Maggie, do not give any insulin tonight, I am worried for you, that may be symptoms of hypoglycaemia, but without having any test data, it is impossible to say. Switching from dry cause a drop in insulin requirements, some kitties end up not needing insulin at all. As far as what the vet tech said, that's not entirely true since Lantus is a long acting insulin, so we test, feed and shoot insulin within around 10 minutes or so. Lantus tends to kick in around 2 hours after shot.

You have said 1ml, 2 x per day, do you mean 1unit? What insulin needles are you using? Can you take a picture?

We believe very strongly here in testing blood glucose at home, most of us use human BG monitors. We can give you more info on that later.

It may be time to consider taking her into an emergency vet, to test her blood glucose levels, if you can't at home. Since I can't see her, I don't know whether I can offer any additional advice in what she may be doing.
 
We just found out on Monday, so have not gotten a glucometer to test her at home, but that is changing tomorrow. She just finished most of her wet food (1/2 a can of FF), and I'm thinking about seeing if she will eat some of her HC kibble too, just to get her out of whatever she's dealing with.

Yes, 1 unit. we are using U100 3/10mL syringes. We are not giving her the shot tonight. Last shot was 8:40AM. Honestly, I don't think I want to give her any more shots until we do get the glucometer and start testing her at home. I'm so mad at myself that I didn't do that from the beginning. I'm also angry that the vet wasn't more clear about the amount of calories we needed her to consume before giving the shots every day.

Had two long phone calls with the vet tech (who also spoke with the vet in the interim). She said as long as we feel okay monitoring her at home, and she's eating, we don't have to bring her in. Unfortunately, we already had a scary moment this weekend which required an overnight stay, and we are not financially able to bring her in if they are telling us it's okay for her to stay home.
 
If you stopped the hc dry food but did not lower insulin, did not test before giving insulin, cat could be having symptomatic hypoglycemic episode. ER is needed. I don't know what 1 ml of insulin is as it's measured in units.

Do you have honey, karo syrup, pure maple syrup available?
 
Of you have a Wal-Mart near by, you can get a human meter and strips there tomorrow. You do not need a pet specific meter. A lot of people use Wal-Mart brand Relion, as the strips are less costly and that is what you use most with diabetic cat.
 
Olive & Paula said:
Of you have a Wal-Mart near by, you can get a human meter and strips there tomorrow. You do not need a pet specific meter. A lot of people use Wal-Mart brand Relion, as the strips are less costly and that is what you use most with diabetic cat.
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Yes, unfortunately, all of the Wal-Marts near us are closed right now (it's past 10:30PM). that is where I'm going as soon as I'm able tomorrow.

She just ate some of her old kibble. I'm hoping that will help.
 
Maggie&Phoebe said:
Yes, unfortunately, all of the Wal-Marts near us are closed right now (it's past 10:30PM). that is where I'm going as soon as I'm able tomorrow.

She just ate some of her old kibble. I'm hoping that will help.
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Dry food takes time to kick in. Continue to give some wet food also.
 
Looking at the chart, C/D is 23 carbs, S/O is 20, and the UR is 12 (but that's also the one we've had the toughest time getting her to eat).
 
And hills cd?

According to the food chart both CD and SO are above 20%, so high carb foods. You could put a tsp of one of the HC foods down.

This could be pain, a tooth problem (head shaking), infection, blood sugar issue or otherwise. I really don’t know.

How is kitty feeling at the moment? Did she eat the kibble?

can you still take a picture of the insulin syringe to show us where you filled the 1 unit to?
 
thebigfuzz said:
And hills cd?

According to the food chart both CD and SO are above 20%, so high carb foods. You could put a tsp of one of the HC foods down.

This could be pain, a tooth problem (head shaking), infection, blood sugar issue or otherwise. I really don’t know.

How is kitty feeling at the moment? Did she eat the kibble?

can you still take a picture of the insulin syringe to show us where you filled the 1 unit to?
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she did eat the kibble (probably 15-20). She legitimately has always eaten one at a time.

after eating the kibble she laid down again - she tried to groom herself, but could tell she was losing her balance so stopped. She did do a head shake before laying down and managed to stay upright (for this first time in a couple of hours). still wobbly though.

BRB - trying the S/O. Will get back to you on the picture syringe - but I'm 100% positive we didn't give her more than what she was "supposed" to get.
 
She ate about 1/4 of the tsp of S/O and has left the bed for the first time since 8PM (3 hours). but she's now sitting in the middle of the living room, not moving around that much and is uncharacteristically quiet.
 
Hope the evening/night goes ok. If you are planning on monitoring at home, and it is going ok, you could take the 911 down unless you still need it. You can always put it back up again, if things get worrisome.
 
She just successfully got in and out of the litter box (and used it) without falling over, so I'm counting that as a win.
 
If she continues to improve with food it’s very likely she was hypoglycemic. Just switching to low carb food can lower the insulin needs. Some cats even become diet controlled and don’t need insulin. I not saying that is happening but her insulin dose very likely needs to be lowered.
 
Syringes - the first pic is the line we are using (these do have the .5 unit lines too)
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Maggie&Phoebe said:
Syringes - the first pic is the line we are using (these do have the .5 unit lines too)
View attachment 57722 View attachment 57723
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Please start a new thread/condo today so we can follow along.

Set the title up like this: 10/30 Phoebe AMPS ### (the first number you can get once you get your hands on a glucometer and strips).

No insulin until after that.

It could also be an ear infection you're dealing with. Let's see what the glucometer says before making any other decisions or guesses about what might be the issue with her balance.

And for what it's worth, vets know so little about diabetes, I'm not surprised about the things they're saying to you...

Did anyone send you the info about setting up your Spreadsheet so you can record the blood glucose numbers? If not, here's the info:
https://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/fdmb-spreadsheet-instructions.130337/ If you're having trouble with that - add this to your Title for 10/30 - Need Help with SS setup please - it'll get the attention of members who have experience and the ability to help you with that.

Looking forward to seeing your new post today :bighug:
 
@Sue and Luci - it is likely that the first test number would not be Phoebe's AMPS. I'd also give Maggie a chance to get the spreadsheet figured out.

Maggie - if you need a hand with the spreadsheet, @Bandit's Mom can give you a hand. I agree that getting some blood glucose readings would be helpful.

If the symptoms have not cleared up by this morning, I would take Phoebe to the vet. The high carb food should have addressed the problem if Phoebe was in low numbers, especially if you did not give insulin. There are other explanations for the symptoms that need to be addressed if Phoebe still isn't herself today. Please don't "wait and see" for too long.
 
Sorry, I fell asleep last night. Glad to hear there are some improvements. Hope you are out getting meter, strips, lancets. Also pick up some antibiotic ointment with pain relief (for ears), cat food with gravy, honey, karo, or pure maple syrup.

Can you get the records from vet when she was diagnosed? What method was use to determine it. It's possible the glucose was elevated due to stress, one test would not be reliable. Vet starts insulin and cat is in hospital fighting for its life. Yes it has happened.

Will be looking for new post today.
 
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