Return from Holiday Problem

On return from a 2.5 week holiday our diabetic female (18 years old) cats was not using her rear legs and her eyes and head were moving from side to side. Rush to vets and blood glucose was 25. She is on 2.5mils of insulin twice per day.
The food was a bit stale and lots left over, also it was a very hot day. Just wondering if the insulin was not given correctly or given with not much food being eating.
Next day level was down to 10.5 and movements all OK now.
The vet thinks injection perhaps given into fur (in and out) hence the high reading.

She has been on the med for 16 months now and no other problems.

It was a neighbour that was feeding and giving meds while we were away. No cattery will take in a diabetic cat of that age in this area of the UK.

Any comments welcome.

Graham.

 

We use the US system for blood glucose -- the 25 translates to 450 (you multiply by 18).

While that is a high number, it's not off the charts.. Did the vet test for ketones?

One of the issues with travel, is that some cats just do not eat well if their caretaker isn't home. Are you home testing? If not, I'd urge you to do so. Also, I would go to great lengths to insure that the person caring for my cat knew exactly what to do. I would leave a sample syringe with the dose of insulin drawn up using a colored liquid so the amount was obvious. I'd also send a photo of the syringe to my petsitter. (We've seen too many times when someone's cat was to receive 0.5u of insulin and the person caring for the cat gave a dose of 5.0u.)

 

This happened to me recently too. We came back from vacation on 7/11 and George’s number was 501 (yikes). Prior to us leaving he had been having pretty good numbers. We had left a sample syringe of colored liquid as suggested in the previous post, so for us I suspect it may have been the cat sitter giving a fur shot, probably combined with the reduced dose plus stress from us being gone. He came down again nicely once we were back though. It’s definitely hard being away and not being able to control and monitor what’s going on with injections and numbers!

 

No we are not home testing as want to un stress our cats; we had 4 at the start of the year; 1 19 and the others 18 and with medical conditions and sadly now down to 2 cats. Jess is good with injections (with me) and every 6 months a trip to the vets (1/2 mile away) for blood checks is done, again to reduce the stress.

In the past our son or daughter would give the injections if at home that time we are away, but both live far away usually.

Very difficult to find someone that will feed and inject Jess while we are away, this neighbour will not want to do it again!

The vet gave an injection to improve stability so don't know about ketones, but I expect so as the bill was high.

So can I assume that the high reading was due to a fur shot rather than a shot after not eating very much?

 

I know what it means to have a stressed cat but not testing is not doing your cat any favors. Sorry, I'm not giving you a lesson in ethics, every cat is different and I'm not there, easier said than done but you're playing with fire.
We've all had the vacation problem, I got lucky with a great vet just down the street. You've made the commitment to take the best care of Jess, wouldn't you expect the same from him? It's never easy but "forever" has to mean something.

 

I can't emphasize enough how important home testing is. On our Facebook counterpart page, there is a document by a member who came home to find her cat nearly dead due to a severe hypoglycemic event. The cat survived but with notable limitations. Home testing is the only way to insure your cat is safe. There are many members here who will attest to how their cat will run to their test spot and wait for a test purring the entire time because their kitty knows that tests = treats. Obviously, this is your choice but it is something we encourage given that insulin can be dangerous. I don't know of any human diabetics who do not home test for exactly the same reason.

You might want to check with your vet's practice and see if any of the vet techs do pet sitting on the side.

 

Hi Graham,
I just wanted to share that I experienced this with my cat Nico a few weeks ago. His number went high (617) after a hypo event, he was very disoriented, eyes darting back and forth, very dizzy and unable to use his back legs.
When I had him checked at the emergency vets, it was all related to a horrible case of neuropathy. It was in part due to him dealing with a few days of severe bounces.
It took about a week for him to come back around, but he did get better.
I hope kitty is feeling better now, sending positive thoughts!

Bella and Nico

 

Thanks for your posts and information. Yes will look into home testing and try and find someone who understands the insulin situation.