Possible hypo- 1st time and day 3 on Glargine/Lantus

Anchor was given 1 unit of Glargine at 8.30am. Cat dad didn’t test first- we are only day 3 of diagnoses/insulin and vet didn’t recommend to home test.

Believed to be steroid induced diabetes.

At 12pm he began walking strangely, kept running to the litter to urinate but couldn’t get anything out. He kept trying to urinate on items. He the managed a few drops on something and was meowing. I did a home reading which was 3.1 and immediately fed him some high carb food. Waiting to test again.

Last night he was 16.6.

Our vet is closed today but we have access to an ($$$$$$) emergency vet. At what point would we need to take him in vs managing at home and should he have more insulin tonight?

 

Intro post , lots of info here about Anchor
https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/newly-diagnosed-very-overwhelmed.287774/

 

Let me tag some members for you
@Bron and Sheba (GA)
@Suzanne & Darcy
@tiffmaxee

 

Hello. How far are you from his insulin shot? We count in hours since the shot, since there are members from all over the world and all time zones, it helps if you can tell us this way.
Can you test him again? How long ago was the 3.1 reading? If you can, feed him some food, maybe mix some of the high carb food if you still have some with the low carb you are using now, and re-test about 15 mn later. You want him stable, not going down.
If he acts more normally and his blood glucose stabilizes with food, you do not need the ER, but if he keeps acting strangely or has seizures, then take him there.
As for giving him insulin tonight, I will leave that to more experienced members. You can stall or give a lower dose. It also depends if you can monitor him after his shots. But let's take care of his low blood sugar now. I'll come back soon to check, can you keep giving us news so we know how he is doing?

 

Are you using a pet or human meter? If using a human meter, 3.1 is not considered a low BG; it is in the normal range.

The symptoms you describe sound more like a urinary tract infection although cats can also show the same symptoms and it’s not an infection; in the latter case, it’s caused by stress and no treatment is needed. However, diabetic cats can be prone to UTIs due to increased sugar in their urine so I would take him to emergency. The reason is because infections + not enough insulin + not enough food/water can set a cat up to develop diabetic ketoacidosis which can be fatal.

You should test him again now. I’m going to take the 911 down since there are members watching.

 

hank y

Thank you so much.
This has happened 3.5 hours after his insulin injection.
12.05pm- 3.1- fed some high carb food
12.25pm- 3.2- fed more
12.40pm- 3.1- more food
Waiting to test again

I understand it’s just within normal range but coupled with the symptoms we’re very concerned. The emergency vet suggested to go in anyway, it’s better to be safe than sorry plus we need some further instructions on what to do from here. It’s only our third day of insulin so we’re very new to it all!

 

We are using a human meter. Last night he was reading at 16.6 and it’s only day 3 of insulin so we’re very new to this. I will take him to the emergency vet just to be checked over and incase it’s a UTI.

He’s remained stable at 3.1-3.2 over the past hour with high carb food. Big concern is that he can’t urinate now.

 

Please just tell us the BG in hours since the last shot as time means nothing to us as we are all in different time zones.

If he isn’t urinating but is trying, he definitely needs to go to the ER.

I’m moving this post to Main Health as this forum for Lantus is advanced and we need to help you get a spreadsheet, etc before you move here. We can address all that after he’s better. Please keep us posted.

 

Ayme --

How is Anchor doing?

 

I am also curious as to what the ER said and how he is today.