Skye walking like drunk

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popposgrl

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It's 3:30 and Skye just came out of his room walking like he was drunk. I gave him a can of food which he is scarfing down but he's not due for his shot until 5:45-6:00pm. What do I do??? Besides PANIC???
 
are you hometesting? if so test ASAP. if under 40, do you have syrup or honey or karo on hand? if so, take a little on your finger and rub it on his gums

and don't forget to post back
 
Are you able to test Skye's blood sugar as it sounds like he's having a hypo / blood sugar has fallen too low. Don't give him any insulin until you know what his blood glucose is and it's high enough for a shot. Rubbing a small amount of syrup/honey in his mouth will give him a quick boost of carbohydrate.

There is thread on dealing with hypos, I'll find it and post it
 
Patti,
Has he eaten well today before now?
What was his BG at this morning's shot?
Was the dose 3u of Prozinc?
How is he looking?
Carl
 
Carl & Bob in SC said:
Patti,
Has he eaten well today before now?
What was his BG at this morning's shot?
Was the dose 3u of Prozinc?
How is he looking?
Carl
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DIDN'T GET THIS AM'S AS IT WAS 5AM AND i'VE BEEN SICK.Sorry, not yelling. He got 3u of PZ, he looks like hell.
 
Get a bg level now. When was the 232? Feeding him was good and may bring up his numbers if they are low. Depending on the bg level, you may need to rub some Karo on his gums.
 
Sue and Oliver (GA) said:
Get a bg level now. When was the 232? Feeding him was good and may bring up his numbers if they are low. Depending on the bg level, you may need to rub some Karo on his gums.
Click to expand...
Hey SUE!!!
it was 282 only 10 minutes ago, he's laying down but still looks bad...
 
Okay. That isn't a low number, unless the reading is off. Just to be safe, it might be good to take another test. (When the number isn't making sense, always test again.) Is this after some high carb food or did you already do some syrup? It sounds like hypo symptoms but the number doesn't match.

Do you have ketone strips so you could test his urine too?

Normal is above 50-40. We worry at 40 and below. 282 is a pretty average number.
 
Sue and Oliver (GA) said:
Okay. That isn't a low number, unless the reading is off. Just to be safe, it might be good to take another test. (When the number isn't making sense, always test again.) Is this after some high carb food or did you already do some syrup? It sounds like hypo symptoms but the number doesn't match.

Do you have ketone strips so you could test his urine too?

Normal is above 50-40. We worry at 40 and below. 282 is a pretty average number.
Click to expand...
ok, so DO NOT give his insulin early, right? Yes, I have urine strips too, problem is, Skye doesn't urinate that much (at least where we can tell) The vet when he calibrated our Relion Confirm he said we needed to add 60 points to our reading to be on with his pet one. Which would put us at 342, I just did his bg and it is reading 277 which adding 60 puts us at 337?
 
How is he acting now? This doesn't sound like a hypo, unless you really gave him a lot of high carb food and/or syrup and it brought his number up already. That isn't very likely.

Could he gotten into anything like human medicine or fertilizer on the lawn (thinking of things that might impact his balance)
 
No, he is an indoor only now, unless someone is watching him. He sleeps in between his shots, he is still fighting that ear infection that has closed his left eye. I did not give him anything other than Fancy feast classic tuna. For the last three days he has been eating at 5:30am and getting his shot by 6am, then he sleeps until 3:30 and wants to eat again, so I feed him and then feed him again at 5:30 so that I can give his shot. I am not good at keeping a record, but will from now on. I don't understand how I'm supposed to monitor his bg and give his shots accordingly if I don't understand what his "norm" is. His bg dropped 5 points in 15 minutes, is that normal?
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR BEING THERE AGAIN, SUE!!! YOU TOO CARL, CINDY, AND MOOCH...waiting for a reply when you are in panic mode is horrendous... forever grateful mommy!!!
 
There was a discussion the other night about another cat possibly catching/eating something that may not have agreed with him or could've even been toxic. I don't know...just eavesdropping and now thinking 'out loud.'

The BG change of 5 points is actually still the same number. Human meters can have a variance of +/- 20%.

You've got some SUPER people helping you out. Try to stay calm...I know...easier said than done sometimes -

Libby (and Hershey, too!)
 
It could be the ear infection. Not sure about cats, but with my baby daugher, she scared us one day by walking across the floor tilted to one side and crashing into the wall. She had an ear infection.

I'll get that out and next post have some Diabetes 101 stuff.
 
Patti,
The meter isn't 100% perfect. The FDA allows human meters to be accurate only within a 20% variance. So 5 points is well within the meter's margin of error. I have tested Bob twice within 2 minutes and gotten a difference of 20 points a lot of times. Basically, the two numbers you got 5 points apart are identical.

For the last three days he has been eating at 5:30am and getting his shot by 6am, then he sleeps until 3:30 and wants to eat again, so I feed him and then feed him again at 5:30 so that I can give his shot.
Click to expand...

Just so I make sure I understand... In the afternoon, he fusses for food and you feed him at 3:30, then you test, feed again, and shoot at 5:30?

Carl
 
Just some basics

You take a bg level before every shot, before feeding. We generally tell new diabetics not to shoot under 200, but to wait 20 minutes without feeding and retest. We want to make sure the number is going up, not down. We like new diabetics to start with one unit, do a lot of testing so they have the data to help them figure out whether that dose is too low or too high (depending on whether the numbers go down or stay up) You get a number about 6 hours after the shot so you know how low the insulin took him. That helps you adjust the dose.

That is why we have been concerned with the 3 units. We don't know whether it is too high or too low. I know you have been ill. Maybe now that you are feeling better, you can get some more numbers for us to look at.

One complicating factor is that cats rebound when they are on too much insulin. Here is some info: http://petdiabetes.wikia.com/wiki/Somogyi_rebound When you can get some mid cycle numbers, that will help us see if he is possibly rebounding from dose to dose.
 
A little more: A regulated cat, on insulin, might be in the 250 range at preshot, go down below 100 at midcycle (but not into the 40-50 range) and then come back up to the 250s 12 hours later. That's a pretty normal, smile shaped curve for PZI. Most regulated cats are getting 1 unit or less of insulin twice daily. (There are exceptions.) A cat in remission can run from 40 - 120, off insulin, with the majority of the time spent in double digits.

I can set you up with a spreadsheet if you want. That makes it easy for you to see what range he is in at any given time and what changes in dosage do for his blood sugars. (It's color coded so easy to see quickly how the insulin is working.)

If you would like something to put you to sleep at night, here is a huge document all about PZI: http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=32799
 
Carl & Bob in SC said:
Patti,
The meter isn't 100% perfect. The FDA allows human meters to be accurate only within a 20% variance. So 5 points is well within the meter's margin of error. I have tested Bob twice within 2 minutes and gotten a difference of 20 points a lot of times. Basically, the two numbers you got 5 points apart are identical.

For the last three days he has been eating at 5:30am and getting his shot by 6am, then he sleeps until 3:30 and wants to eat again, so I feed him and then feed him again at 5:30 so that I can give his shot.
Click to expand...

Just so I make sure I understand... In the afternoon, he fusses for food and you feed him at 3:30, then you test, feed again, and shoot at 5:30?

Carl
Click to expand...
ONLY THE LAST THREE days he has been asking for the 3:30 feeding. My cats were grazers, their dry food stayed out all day. Now that Skye is eating wet food, the dry food comes up 30 minutes after they are fed. I have 4 cats total. I just started testing before feeding a few days ago. I did not test at the 3:30 feeding. It's a 3 oz fancy feast can, and he used to eat the 8oz Friskies in the am and pm, and eat dry food during the day. No, he was not obese(people usually think he would be) he weighed 11 pounds before the infection started in his ear, went into his mouth and he's down to 9.2 lbs. He had his teeth cleaned and a tooth removed tuesday of this last week. We've been fighting the infection for 3 weeks now. They said they pulled a ton of pus out of his ear while he was under...then put him on stronger antibiotics and ear drops. So I thought the extra feeding was just his appetite coming back...poor cat, has to suffer with a dingy mommy...thank you for answering my 911! ~Patti
 
Sue and Oliver (GA) said:
A little more: A regulated cat, on insulin, might be in the 250 range at preshot, go down below 100 at midcycle (but not into the 40-50 range) and then come back up to the 250s 12 hours later. That's a pretty normal, smile shaped curve for PZI. Most regulated cats are getting 1 unit or less of insulin twice daily. (There are exceptions.) A cat in remission can run from 40 - 120, off insulin, with the majority of the time spent in double digits.

I can set you up with a spreadsheet if you want. That makes it easy for you to see what range he is in at any given time and what changes in dosage do for his blood sugars. (It's color coded so easy to see quickly how the insulin is working.)

If you would like something to put you to sleep at night, here is a huge document all about PZI: http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=32799
Click to expand...


We just took it again and it was 298, so he is eating and Mike is getting ready to give him his shot. I will get a spreadsheet started...if you will show me how...please and thank you!!!
 
How much are you planning to give? Have you ever given 3 units in the low 300s? It seems like a lot of insulin for that number.

I'll send you a pm about the spreadsheet. Look up at the top of the page. Click on "1 new message"
 
Patti,

I believe Sue meant to write "a lot of " not "low of " insulin (hit the wrong key). I almost lost my Pudge because an ignorant vet asked me to inject him with 4 units of ProZinc. Much too much, in Pudge's case!!! Please, please watch the high units. Pudge is now in remission. Best wishes and hugs, Sophie
 
the ear infection can cause the drunk walking.

can you look closely at his eyes? watch them carefully and see if they are twitching back and forth, maybe even faster to one side than the other? if they are it's called nystagmus and he's trying to get things to stop moving from being off kilter due to the ear infection
 
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