I'm in the uk and Fudge is a 13 year old neutered male who was diagnosed diabetic in march this year. After many blood tests and changes of insulin dose, his last fructosamine test showed his diabetes is under good to tight control. He is on 4 units of caninsulin twice a day.
So all seemed well until today. He had his insulin jab this morning at 8am as normal after he had eaten a little of his food (he is a grazer and never eats all his food at once) Both my husband and me were in and out most of the morning and early afternoon, but when we returned at about half 2 fudge came in and started to act really oddly. He was walking around the edge of the room and sniffing the walls. If anything was in his path he climbed over it instead of walking around it. When we approached him it was like he wasn't really aware of us and not looking up when we called his name. I was straight on the internet as i recalled that pacing and restlessness could be an early sign of a hypo. We offered him his normal wet food and even a few of his biscuits but it was like he didn't even notice the food let alone smell it. This behaviour continued for half an hour and all the advice on the web seemed to say get some sugar into him just in case. We gave him honey, about a teaspoonfull over about 20 minutes or so and rang the vet. Well, being a saturday afternoon our vet was closed so we ended up talking to a central vet surgery who covers the weekends and evenings/night. He seemed to think his symptoms could mean lots of different things and honey may not have been the right thing. But to watch fudge for half an hour and if it was a hypo the honey would make a difference and his symptoms would lessen. 40 minutes later and fudge was still pacing so we took him to the vet. He gave him a full examination and did a blood glucose test and a urine test. Fudge's blood glucose was 4 which the vet said was low but not low enough to cause a hypo. He also did a blood test to make sure there wasn't an underlying infection. all test were normal levels. He said it could be the beginning of dementia. He said we should take him home and not give him insulin this evening but if he eats today and in the morning, to give him his insulin in the morning but miss out tomorrow evenings insulin and take him to our usual vet on monday. We came home and fudge continued to pace around but ate some of his normal food, little and often over an hour or so and soon returned to his normal self. So we think the vet was wrong and it was a mild hypo. The blood glucose test he did could have been at 4 because of the honey or stress couldn't it? Also did a urine test at home 4 hours after fudge started pacing and it was only 2. Was this vet wrong do you think?
So all seemed well until today. He had his insulin jab this morning at 8am as normal after he had eaten a little of his food (he is a grazer and never eats all his food at once) Both my husband and me were in and out most of the morning and early afternoon, but when we returned at about half 2 fudge came in and started to act really oddly. He was walking around the edge of the room and sniffing the walls. If anything was in his path he climbed over it instead of walking around it. When we approached him it was like he wasn't really aware of us and not looking up when we called his name. I was straight on the internet as i recalled that pacing and restlessness could be an early sign of a hypo. We offered him his normal wet food and even a few of his biscuits but it was like he didn't even notice the food let alone smell it. This behaviour continued for half an hour and all the advice on the web seemed to say get some sugar into him just in case. We gave him honey, about a teaspoonfull over about 20 minutes or so and rang the vet. Well, being a saturday afternoon our vet was closed so we ended up talking to a central vet surgery who covers the weekends and evenings/night. He seemed to think his symptoms could mean lots of different things and honey may not have been the right thing. But to watch fudge for half an hour and if it was a hypo the honey would make a difference and his symptoms would lessen. 40 minutes later and fudge was still pacing so we took him to the vet. He gave him a full examination and did a blood glucose test and a urine test. Fudge's blood glucose was 4 which the vet said was low but not low enough to cause a hypo. He also did a blood test to make sure there wasn't an underlying infection. all test were normal levels. He said it could be the beginning of dementia. He said we should take him home and not give him insulin this evening but if he eats today and in the morning, to give him his insulin in the morning but miss out tomorrow evenings insulin and take him to our usual vet on monday. We came home and fudge continued to pace around but ate some of his normal food, little and often over an hour or so and soon returned to his normal self. So we think the vet was wrong and it was a mild hypo. The blood glucose test he did could have been at 4 because of the honey or stress couldn't it? Also did a urine test at home 4 hours after fudge started pacing and it was only 2. Was this vet wrong do you think?
There is a new insulin on the market in the UK called Prozinc.This has been developed for cats and is available in the UK.We have had a number of poepl start to use it and some good feedback.