Too low, kinda high, to too low. Advice!

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christyaran

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Coco is a weird cat... Some mat have read about him from this thread- viewtopic.php?f=28&t=67669

He's been home for about 2 weeks already. He came home once they got his BG somewhat controlled but not after spending $3200 in 6 days in the hospital. He came home & was still lethargic & not eating on his own. We were changed to lantus at 2.5 units twice a day... He seemd fine for the first couple days & seemed to get better each passing day, til last monday, hubby woke up & every time he would pass by Coco would give this really ugly meow. He woke me up & I went to see him. As I picked him up he was cold & I noticed he was slightly trembling. I knew he was about to get a seizure so we got ready & flew to the ER, but not before he had a full on seizure. I figured his BG got way too low... So be it it was at 26. They stabilized him & we were able to move him to Banfield. They have been seeing him everyday since. Doing minor curves while there.

He's been at a stable 300's to dip down to mid 100's to go back up but most of the time off the lantus for at least 2-3 days. Recently we would give him 1 UD a day & the next morning he would dip down to the mid 40's. Where I fly him to banfield. They are able to stabilize him & get him back up to the low 300... & that's where he stays. The vet did 1/2 UD this afternoon & I just tested him & he's 48.

Anyone have experience with this? Could he be in remission? But if so then why does he bounce up to the 300's? I mean even 1/2 is doing this is crazy??

I just gave him a gd chunk of high calorie booster (copy cat nutrical)... Should I buy him actual glucose that us humans consume when our BG is this low? All the suggestions alive would be helpful.

Thanks.

Btw... After his seizure he returned to his old self, it's like he needed to have that seizure to feel better. Weird huh?
 
Hi,
Some cats need very little of the longer acting insulins to do well and go into remission. The vet was right to lower to .5u, but you might consider giving even less. 40s are an indication the dose is still too high. The 300s you see later in the cycle are a reaction of hormones released from the pancreas and liver trying to protect him from another hypo. Please read http://petdiabetes.wikia.com/wiki/Rebound

Have you changed his diet to low carb food? If so, that is probably why he is needing less and less insulin. If you have not, changing him to a low carb, canned food diet would probably help him get off insulin altogether.

Also sometimes a hypo can make them much more sensitive to insulin. And you don't need special glucose like human diabetics use. Please see our "How to treat Hypos" post in the announcements section above the board posts.
 
Thanks for the response... He's been on M/d for a while, but as soon as he started he had the DKA & spent those days in the hospital... After that we've had him on a/d, where now I started him on the wet m/d mixed with some a/d since he doesn't seem to be a fan of it... He's eating the dry m/d, but very little of it.

I am going to test now in about 30mins to see if it's gone up at all.

Any other advice would be helpful.
 
With the 300 without insulin, I wouldn't think remission just yet. Some cats are just very sensitive to insulin. My cat, Mikey, is one of those. We had scary numbers at 1U. Dropped to .75U, still got scary low. Ditto at .5 and .25. He finally became regulated on 0.1U and is doing great on that dose. Even so, I do have to monitor carefully because he can drop into the 40's.

You also need a hypo kit at home. High carb canned food, like Fancy Feast gravy lover's, Karo syrup or honey, a small oral syringe to draw the gravy off the food as that's the part you want to give. You can syringe a teaspoon og gravy or a few drops of honey or Karo if the cat is conscious and alert. Nutrical is pretty good as well if teh cat will eat it; it's mostly corn syrup. If they are not fuly alert, rub the Karo or honey on the gums as syringe feeding it could make the cat choke. There is a great guide to print out at the top of the forum, though I find it recommends a little more syrup than you need sometimes.
 
christyaran said:
Thanks for the response... He's been on M/d for a while, but as soon as he started he had the DKA & spent those days in the hospital... After that we've had him on a/d, where now I started him on the wet m/d mixed with some a/d since he doesn't seem to be a fan of it... He's eating the dry m/d, but very little of it.
Click to expand...

The A/D is pretty high fat and a smidge over the 10% calories from carbs we suggest. Something you may not know - digestion can break apart molecules of fat to create carbohydrate, as needed, so the fat and higher carbs may be making it difficult for him to attain a stable glucose level.

I'd be inclined to go with the info given you in your previous post - get some over the counter, low carb canned food, ditch the dry, ditch the D/M. Fancy Feast Classic Turkey and Giblet Pate, for example, is safe to feed.

The swings in glucose level may be a combination of factors
- if you give more insulin than the cat needs, the liver compensates by breaking down a form of stored energy called glycogen and converts it into glucose.
- if you give a big serving of the A/D, the fat and carb in that will swing the glucose up in some cats; it certainly did in Spitzer (up in the 400s or higher!)
- dry food has some starches in it to hold it together; it takes a few hours to start raising the glucose, but then that can persist until it clears the system.
 
Thanks for all the updates... Last night I did give honey, I assume I gave a lil too much, (2 fingers worth) bc his BG this morning at the vet was 526 first thing... They gave him insulin at 10am & by 4 he was down to 64... He's been on fluids all day. They said he came back positive for the beginning stages of a UTI but negative on Ketone. They asked me to maintain the m/d mostly wet bc he won't eat the dry food right now unless it's his wellness.

As of 5 mins ago his BG is 112... The dr suggested I change the machine I use, what do u guys think? I am using a CVs or Walgreens kind.
 
Many of us use the WalMart reliOn - inexpensive, reasonably consistent, uses very small bllod drop ... and if you don't want to buy from WalMart, you can get the unbranded version as both are made by Arkray USA. The generic one is called the Glucocard 01, available from our shopping partner, American Diabetes (link above)

Completely ditch the dry - he doesn't need it at all. The low carb canned is where you should focus. Up to you if you want to spend it on the Rx stuff; we've demonstrated numerous times that over the counter canned low carb food works just as well, and in some cases has better ingredients - more muscle meat, and fewer byproducts.
 
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