? Recovery from Hypoglycemic episode

[reluctant cat]

Hi- I'm new here, and I'm not sure if I'm doing this correctly, but here goes.. My Kitty, a 12-ish year old feral outdoor cat was recently diagnosed as diabetic. The vet prescribed insulin, but since she's outdoor mostly and not really on a schedule, and I travel, I thought perhaps I could try to manage her diabetes by adjusting her diet. She gained some weight and seemed to be doing better, but seemed to be hungry all the time. So, I thought she must need the insulin to get her body to absorb all the food she was ingesting, so I started giving her the injections a few days ago. Yesterday I woke to find her basically comatose on the driveway. I thought she was dead, but when I touched her she moaned. I ran inside and got some maple syrup and rubbed in on her gums and put some in her mouth and scooped her up and raced her to the vet. I made it in time, and they put her on an IV of glucose and fluids etc. I was able to bring her home last evening. She ate at the vets and again at home (two or 3 small meals) but she's pretty knocked out. She's eaten today a couple times, but about half what she normally does, and is just layed out. The vet said we wouldn't give her insulin for now. I wonder if anyone has had any experience with recovery from this sort of episode. My poor baby. She's pretty knocked out, but still eats and drinks... Thank you.

 

[Sharon14]

My kitty has never had a serious hypo episode, but I imagine it takes a lot out of them. You say she’s feral, but it sounds like you have her pretty friendly now since you could give shots. If you’re interested in learning to test her blood sugars you can see if she needs insulin and keep her safe. Here’s some info
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/hometesting-links-and-tips.287/

 

[Olive & Paula]

It's really hard to say. There isn't enough history on her. How much insulin was given? What insulin was it? Did you test her before giving insulin? Any chance she can be an indoor cat from now on, it would take a lot of guessing out of the equation.

 

[JanetNJ]

I can tell you after my cats hypo in January she was very sensitive to insulin for a couple of weeks.


Which insulin? How much did you give? What are you feeding?

 

[reluctant cat]

Thanks for your replies-- Kitty seems more like her old self as of last night. She woke me up at 547a this morning hungry, and she's much more alert. For now, we're not going to do insulin. It was Lantus Solostar, 1 unit every 12 hours... I had only just started it, so have stopped it. We'll see how we manage with diet for now... She couldn't really become an indoor cat. I tried to put out a litter box, but she didn't know what it was, and she loves to roll in the grass and hunt critters and prowl her territory...

 

[Sandi and Toby]

Welcome, and bless you for taking such good care of a feral kitty

No answer for you here, I have never had a symptomatic hypo with either of my diabetics, but I am glad she is looking better already!

Best,
Sandi.

 

[Mags920]

I just went thru this a week ago. Houston (a former stray) has not received insulin since. Because he was on Lantus it took quite a while for him to come around & he spent 36 hrs in the hospital. He is doing great now, trying to maintain with diet only. Have started checking his #'s 3x daily to get an idea of where he's at. He has returned to the kitty he was when I rescued him 7 yrs ago. Good luck & feel free to contact me anytime.

 

[alexthecat]

Cleo had a hypo episode about a week and a half after her diagnosis. We had increased her dosage from 1 unit to 1.5. It didn't go well for her. She spent a day at the vet clinic and, when she left, she was 175 on the vet's glucometer.

I didn't start her back on insulin until she was acting and eating normally again. I think it was 5 days. By that time, I'd made a trip to Wal-Mart and was ready to start testing her at home. I'll never shoot blind again!