Urgent- low numbers and no insulin for 12 days

[The Carter Zoo]

Hi everybody- I apologize for the lack of introduction post. My cat, Albee, was just diagnosed on 8/8/16. I started insulin (Lantus) on her on 8/12/16 and by 8/22/16 my vet gave the all clear for remission. Her last insulin injection was on 8/17/16. The only thing I have been doing since her last insulin injection is feeding her wet Purina DM food two to three times daily and monitoring her behavior for signs of the diabetes returning. Everything has been good until I came home from work tonight. When I got home, I noticed that she had urinated on the floor in front of the litterbox, which is what she started doing right before being diagnosed. (As soon as her blood sugar was normal she stopped urinating on the floor.) She looked fine and acted fine but I immediately checked her blood sugar. She was at 68. (6:30pm) I immediately freaked out, thought it couldn't be right, so I checked her other ear and the reading was 76. I immediately went to my cabinet where I have my hypoglycemic supplies (thanks to this website!) and gave her a can of fancy feast grilled. She ate the entire can. I also left out the regular dry food that I feed my other cats so that she could graze with that. Here are the readings since then-

7:55pm- 100
10:33 pm- 75

I fed her another can of fancy feast, and signed up for the forum to do some reading and ended up posting this. I can't figure out what might be going on, and if this is going to get worse overnight. It just seems odd that this is happening all of a sudden. I'm hoping you all will have some ideas of what might be going on and how I should proceed from here. Unfortunately my vet is off tomorrow so I hope I don't have to take her in to be seen. (also hoping to avoid the ER if possible!) My vet is available by cell but I don't really want to text him until the morning unless its an absolute emergency.

My girl is 14 years old and has only ever had issues with urinary crystals before this. Otherwise been very healthy. I can't think of anything else you all might need to know but just feel free to ask if there is any information you need. I am attaching the spreadsheet of her insulin injections and glucose levels covering the first curve all the way through to the second curve and remission diagnosis.

Natasha- Albee's mom

 

[Chris & China (GA)]

70's are actually nice safe numbers

If she hasn't had any insulin since 8/17, she can't be having a hypo due to insulin....if she pee'd inappropriately, I'd have her checked for a UTI

 

[The Carter Zoo]

Thank you SO much for replying so quickly. That is a huge relief. So could this just be possibly where her normal level might be going forward? I think the reason I panicked so much is because after insulin (provided it was not too much as I learned very quickly she is VERY sensitive to it) she would normally be between 100 and 150. When talking hypoglycemia with the vet (due to too much insulin) he said not to get concerned unless it went below 60. So the initial 68 freaked me out. And I didn't know if they can become hypo even without insulin for some other reason. So do you feel that it is reasonable to leave out the other cats dry food, check her once during the night, and then check again first thing in the morning? I hate sticking her but I don't want to become too lax overnight. And then I can take her in the morning and have her urine checked.

 

[Chris & China (GA)]

If she hasn't had any insulin, there's no reason to test her further tonight at all....she can't go hypo....now there are some very rare tumors that can cause hypoglycemia and some other serious disease processes (like cancer) that can cause low numbers, but I really think you would have seen signs of something like that before now

I wouldn't leave any dry out because all dry food is too high in carbs for a diabetic cat in the first place....it would just pump her numbers up higher....Once a diabetic, always a diabetic...we don't recommend ever feeding high carb food to a diabetic cat ....whether they're in remission or not.....that's a good way to take them out of remission

 

[The Carter Zoo]

Ok, am picking it up now and will continue with her wet Purina DM in the morning as usual and take her in. I feel so much better now and am not in full panic mode. Down to defcon 4 for the night. Thank you so much for helping to calm me down for the night. PS. Your baby is beautiful!

N.

 

[Chris & China (GA)]

I hope you'll come back and learn as much as you can about treating diabetes! We have a pretty good record for getting (and keeping) cats OTJ (Off The Juice)

 

[The Carter Zoo]

I definitely will....this was the only reading source I used when she was diagnosed. I don't know what I would have done without it at the beginning. Now I need to move on to managing her and keeping her in remission.