Possible Hypo

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I've removed the 911. I think he's out of the woods.

I will set my alarm for every hour to check on him. I'll probably be awake but just in case I do fall asleep.

Thank you so much for your help. I'm seeing the Vet 1st thing tomorrow morning.
 
Do you have an emergency hospital or vet? If you are out of strips and no way of getting more, itmight be probably the smartest and safest option at this point.
 
Eliza unfortunatley dear woman you are not out of the woods with that particular insulin..what you have is just a sugar high..it won't last...
i know the headache must be awful...and likely all of us comin at you does'nt help.
keep the food machine going hon, we've seen this before with Lantus and in an hour he could be back down to 35 again. :roll: it is more than 50/50 that he will.
 
NO. HE IS NOT OUT OF THE WOODS. This may be a food spike from the high carb. Just so you are aware, a true hypo on Lantus can require 16 hours or more of constant monitoring.

If there is any way to get strips, get them. If there is anywhere open, even if it means buying another meter, you need to be able to test if at all possible.

If you can't get strips, your safest bet may be to go to an emergency vet and have them monitor your cat until they feel it is safe for him to be back home. Without strips, there is no way to manage this at home.


However, we don't know if this is a true hypo or if your cat was simply running in low numbers. A 35 at 12 hours could be a late nadir. If you were shooting overlapping doses, we don't know what's going on. It could be a hypo or it might not.

I know that you said you have had good instruction and are knowledgeable in the use of Lantus. However, I want to underscore that once this situation is under control, that you read the starred sticky notes in the Lantus forum. I'm not convinced that you have all the information you need about the use of Lantus at your disposal.

(NB: in my earlier post, I was NOT suggesting that you use a short acting insulin. If you think Lantus can be tricky, a short acting insulin used incorrectly can be lethal.)
 
folks let's work with what she had.. it's 2am and the nearest pharmacy is an hour away. things like this can happen. or worse. keep the food coming..small amounts, morning will be here soon and it's possible that she may aquire strips then.
until then..Eliza keep him eatting and awake. do you know the carb count of the canned food you have? do you even have canned food?
if not...find something other than sweets in your house he will like that we know to be high carb.
let's acknowledge her limitations ok.
 
and she's gone....
we can't jump of folks in this kind of emergency. don't you think it's best to work with what she has then to overwhelm and guilt her for what she cannot do.
hope she comes back soon.
 
OK, I've just now had time to read all the posts and responses.

I found some soft jelly foods ( I thought I had given it to my sister fortunately I didn't)

I have high calorie kibble (Whiskas)

I have syrup.

I will stay up and feed him intermittently small doses and give him syrup a little a time.

There is no-one in both our families or circle of friends who are diabetic.

I will leave for the pharmacy at 05h00 (it's in 2 and a half hours) for more strips, I will test him when I come back. (it's not safe to travel at night here) No way hubby will allow any midnight trips with our high crime rate. If I had a pharmacy in my town it would have been different.

I will keep you guys posted.

As for the DKA, he was admitted April 2009, he'd lost weight and hiss diabetes had resurfaced and on his invoice it said also said asthma, I can't remember the exact circumstances as we had just lost our 4th baby and I was knee deep in grief. Although they never tested his ketones ( I checked his invoice) he did need a drip and there was a day or so where it didn't look like he was going to survive. In the midst of all this he had an almighty asthma attack which they tried to ease with the inhaler, but had to give him a cortisone shot (the vet was freaked out! for the 1st time they believed me when I told them his asthma was bad, Why do people not take me seriously?)and he took a turn for the worst.

I'm thinking although not dianosed as such it could have been DKA? But we'll never know because he was never tested.

I am going to ask the vet to test his ketones in the AM as well as looking to see if I can find a ketone testing device.
 
No test strips, then I would say take kitty to ER. You are not going to keep kitty safe by stuffing kitty with food and not testing.
 
well if you can't get out than not stuffing but keeping the food going is the best you can do.. we can only do our best Eliza.
we will be here.
altho' i won't as i have to leave in 10 minutes.
please don't panic or suffer guilt, i know what it's like...if you can't get out than hypo's have been handled in far bleeker circumstances than this...you may have been snowed in or such.
 
Don't worry Lori, I'm not over sensitive, I know everyone is just concerned.

But I'm signing off now, hubby needs to sleep (he sleeps in the spare room) I will stay awake with my cat and monitor him. He has been hypo before so I do know exactly what to look out for, but saying that, I WILL KEEP UP HIS FOOD AND SYRUP intake.

He will be OK.

I will let you know as soon as have more news and I'm able to test again.

I have phoned the emergency number at my Vet's practice. I'm waiting for their response. We don't have open clinics anywhere near us, I am dependent on my vet's emergency number.
 
staying calm and focused is key here. breathing, explaining things and keeping things un-chaotic will make this a lot easier.

elize, i understand about the safety concerns. i have several customers who do missionary work in south africa and have encountered some extremely dangerous situations so, like i said above, we probably just have to work with what we've got for now.

as long as you can stay awake and keep an eye out for symptoms like stumbling, glazing eyes, twitching, hiding, etc.....we can most likely do this. it is only 4:45pm here where i am so i can easily stick around for several hours. if you want to read, ask questions, or just chat, we're here to do that with you to keep you awake ok. if you don't want to hang around the board, please check in as you can and certainly if you see any of those symptoms k
 
You will do the best you can with what you have, Elize. It sounds like it would be too dangerous to go anywhere. Just be sure you feed small amounts so he doesn't get full and refuse to eat. Put some syrup on if you see any symptoms. We will holding you close and hoping hard that things will be fine.

And don't give insulin tomorrow - even if he is sky high. Which he probably will be with all the high carbs he is getting.
 
Not sure this helps, but we have another member in South Africa - Hout Bay area...? "Jack & Jane"

Might be like saying Pennsylvania and Florida are near each other because they're both in the US, I'm sure South Africa is a huge place.... but Jane may know of places to get strips in a hurry for future reference. In the States, many of us have Walmarts somewhere within reach.
 
Hi,
Glad that went OK!!

Our cat was on Hills m/d dry for a short time -- and getting 8 units BID. We pulled him off the Hills and put him on Fancy Feast and his insulin requirements dropped very rapidly to less than 3 units BID. It required a lot of management and testing and early intervention to prevent hypos. Far easier is to make the change in food gradual (but that's not necessarily easy). If he's off insulin at the moment, then great time to change food now and start back at a low dose. Plenty of advice on details from others here.

The other huge difference is that it was very difficult to control Ocat on the Hills m/d -- wild swings in BG at any time of day. Once on Fancy Feast there was a world of difference, besides the huge reduction in insulin required, the wild swings were completely gone and his diabetes was completely under control very quickly and his insulin requirements dropped almost every day for some time after that.

Good luck!
-Craig
 
Hi all,

OK Rocky looks a lot better! We managed to get some tests this morning and tested and his BG was 140 (7.8). Unfortunately Jack & Jane live in a different province and they are very far away from me. I'm just getting ready to go to the vet. I will keep you posted on what he said.

PS. The rice sock works so well!
 
Wow! that's not a bad number given how long it's been since the last insulin was given. interesting.

glad to hear you guys came thru ok. i'm heading to bed myself now but will anxiously look for an update when i get up in the morning
 
Elize,

So glad you both made it through the night.

Be aware that you got a low number considering all the carbs he had yesterday - not a shootable number. When cats are tested at the vet, their numbers can be much higher that they are at home. Stress raises bg levels and most cats are stressed at the vet - with the strange noises and smells and people.

Watching for your post vet post.
 
Just want to mention now that it's wise to have plenty of strips on hand.

Always have at least one extra package of strips.

You might check if there is some sort of mail-order source in South Africa.

Sometimes it can be cheaper to buy several packages at a time,
mail order, and keep a supply on hand.

If no mail order source, then stock up each time you get to your source.
 
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