Ritchie has low numbers tonight 31 and now 44

JohnWNC

JohnWNC

Member Since 2021
He acts completely normal. He was 153 this morning so I gave him 1 unit of Baslagar which was obviously too much. I have squirted karo syrup in his mouth and he's eaten so maybe he will be ok. He's not showing any of the symptoms of hypoglycemia but I'm afraid I have almost killed my cat through negligence.
I don't know what to do anymore. He has been well regulated for 2 years thanks to the advice on this forum. About 6 weeks ago I had to go out of town for 4 nights and I couldn't find anyone that I could trust to test him and administer the shots. I left him alone and when I got home he tested 308 but quickly returned to his normal range. Then about a week later he started acting very lethargic. I took him to the vet and he couldn't find anything wrong with him and he seemed to recover after a few days.
Since then he's been eating only about 30% as much as he used to and he's lost a lot of weight. He had a couple of readings in the 40's and I've drastically reduced the amount of insulin I give him. I've taken him back to the vet who still has no answers. He says that his heart sounds good and his gums look healthy and he doesn't feel any tumors.
I guess I haven't been following the advice from this forum about dosing but the way that I was doing it seemed to work for him. Obviously, that is no longer true.
 
Please test him again, 20-30 minutes after he ate food. You want to make sure he goes above 50 and stays there. Details on how to keep him safe in here:
Don't Panic! or How to Handle Low Numbers

Since you are feeding young again food, a dry food, that means following the SLGS dosing method. Skip tonight, and maybe try 0.5 units tomorrow morning, regardless of his preshot test value. I think you need to start getting a few more mid cycle tests numbers, as it's possible he's been going lower then and you've missed it.

Is it possible Richie has grown tired of the Young Again? Will he eat wet food? If not, Dr. Elsey's Clean protein chicken is a lower carb option.

Has the vet mentioned the possibility of an ultrasound? You can't always feel what's going on inside.
 
Thanks for responding so quickly. I just tested him again and he's now 42. It's been about 30 minutes since he ate and 45 minutes since I tested and he was 44.
He won't eat anything but dry food. I've tried before but because of his recent issues last week I went to the pet store and bought 8 different brands and also liquid and dry treats. The canned food sits in his dish until it turns hard and I throw it away. He'll lick one of the brands of liquid treats a little bit and the other two he won't touch.
 
I didn't think that he would but he ate about half a tube of this Inaba Churu liquid treat. I tried another package of kitten food with gravy and he won't touch that. Thank you. I'll test him again in 30 minutes.
 
The Churu treats aren't high carb, but you can add a drop of honey, karo, or syrup to it to make it higher carb. In case he's not up enough next test.
 
He's 61 now. I'll try to test him again later but that's a big relief. Thank you. I'll order some of the Dr. Elsey's food tomorrow.
 
Good luck with the new food. Near me, I can pick up the Dr. Elsey's at Petsmart. Might be faster than ordering.

If he keeps not eating enough, I'd go back to the vet and insist he do more tests, or refer you to someone who can.
 
He's doing fine this morning. He was only 83 so I didn't give him a shot again. I don't think I'll be giving him more than .5 from now on and I'll test a lot more. He is a big cat and weighed 18 pounds when I took this picture. He weighed 13.8 about 6 weeks ago. He weighs 10 now. Something is not right but he acts completely normal.
 
That's too fast to be losing weight. Time for a vet revisit, or try another vet. A GI ultrasound might help identify if he's got an absorption problem. You can also get a GI panel blood test that might provide some clues. Good luck.
 
That's good advice. I just made an appointment for Wednesday with a different vet who can do ultrasounds and blood tests. I've known my vet for a long time and he's a friend but he's kind of an old country doctor and doesn't do blood tests or ultrasounds.
He was not much help when Ritchie got diabetes. He prescribed vetsulin and kept telling me to increase the dose until one day Ritchie was hypoglycemic. And he told me the food didn't matter and discouraged me from testing at home. When Ritchie lost most of his ability to walk because of neuropathy I found this forum and changed his food to young again and his insulin to Baslagar from Marks marine pharmacy and it really saved his life.
I probably should have found a new vet then but Ritchie was doing very well and like I said I've known my vet for a long time and we are friends and also he was mainly just giving him vaccines every year.
I really panicked when he tested at 31 last night. Thank you again for responding so quickly and for the advice.
 
He definitely prefers Dr. Elsey's food to young again so maybe that was part of it. We're still going to the new vet this afternoon.
 
Good luck with the vet visit. I'm glad you found something he likes to eat. That can make a big difference.
 
I want to thank you again for the advice and reassurance the other night. I was happy with the new vet though I won't know the results of all of the blood tests until Friday. The promising news is that she thinks based on his history that I was able to provide in detail because of the spreadsheet from this forum that he may be in remission.

She wants me to not give him insulin at all unless he goes above 250 and if that happens to start back at .5 units twice a day as long as he is between 150 and 250. If he's below 150 she wants me to not give him that dose and wait until the next day to check again. She said that with glargine some cats may only need .5 units once a day instead of dosing twice a day. I guess you know that but it is reassuring for me to hear that from her.

My old vet was not much use with that kind of advice and my impression from my research here is that I want him to be between about 70 and 130. I got complacent about testing between doses because I thought I knew how much each shot would bring him down. I was wrong about that. I am hoping that he doesn't go above 250 again but we will see..

The worse news is that she suspects kidney disease or possibly hyper thyroidism or liver disease but I will find out about that Friday. She did not think that an ultrasound is necessary just yet.
 
We've seen a few people try dosing glargine once a day. It doesn't work as well as two shots. Better to gut the dose in half and dose twice. Your goal at this point is to try to heal the pancreas, and to do that, you want to keep his numbers as normal as possible, which is more like 50-120. Giving only one shot a day is more likely to cause high swings as the insulin wears off.

Are you sure your vet is aware you are using a human meter? The numbers she mentioned seemed to be more like those from a pet meter, which generally read higher.

Paws crossed for good blood work results and something easily treatable.
 
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