Butterball
Member Since 2018
I first posted here in January about help with my newly diagnosed Rocky. Since then he's been doing pretty well. But for the past 3-4 weeks, several times a week, he's been howling and craving food late at night.
At first I thought it was because his BG was dropping too low too fast (he's on Novolin) and it's usually always 3-4 hours after his shot when he reaches his nadir. This can be typical behavior for him, I feed him, he's fine afterwards. But these past few weeks it hasn't been enough. He'll be content for a few moments but begin howling again. It's also accompanied by erratic, hyperactive behavior such as sprinting through the house, playing with random objects, and coming into my bedroom staring at the ceiling while yowling. The staring at the ceiling in an agitated state is a new thing, he just spent a few minutes doing it tonight (which is why I'm up at 3 in the morning typing this). I don't remember this kind of behavior this consistently in the weeks before he was diagnosed with diabetes. This happens almost always at night, a few hours after his shot. Very rarely during the day. In fact the only time he exhibited this same behavior during the day was a few days ago. It's also accompanied by an increased appetite. Though it's usually a picky increased appetite as he only picks at his wet food and eat all the dry food I'll give him (Which I am totally not a fan of doing, but I've been desperate to figure out what's wrong with him). Typically when his BG is getting too low he'll eat anything and not be picky about it.
This all led me to wonder if he had developed hyperthyroidism. So about two weeks ago we took him to the vet and showed him the spreadsheet I had been keeping, described all the symptoms. He felt that Rocky was doing this because his BG had been too high. I considered it a possibility, because we had still been using a vial of insulin we got in January (vet said at this point the insulin may have been at half potency) and we stopped testing him in the middle of the day for a while, so didn't truly know if he was being regulated. I assumed he was because the mid-day numbers were good when we stopped testing. He advised us to give him 1.5 units, and increase by 0.5 units every 5 days if things didn't change (and get a new vial of insulin which we did). I asked him if he felt we should do a blood test to check for hyperthyroid and he said he didn't think it was necessary. As he didn't exhibit symptoms of weight loss, and his hunger only seemed enhanced during these episodes at night (he's relatively normal during the day), and the blood results in January were all normal aside from BG. So we didn't do blood. In hindsight I don't know why we didn't anyway. We were already there and it wouldn't hurt anything
But we've begun testing mid-day again recently, and he's been in the double digits. So is it possible Rocky could be behaving like this because his BG might be too low? Months ago his BG would be double digits during the day with higher doses I've been giving him now and he didn't act this way. Is it possible for a cat to develop hyperthyroidism in 5-6 months from their last normal blood test?
It's a double frustrating situation because I don't know what's wrong with him, what to do with him, and when these episodes occur I hardly get any sleep at night. What do you guys think? Have any of you ever experienced these issues before? I've read about cat cognitive disorder but I don't think that might be the problem. His behavior outside of these episodes hasn't changed and the distress is typically all focused around me (or anyone passing him by) giving him some dry food.
I considered one night if his numbers aren't too high I just skip a dose and see how he reacts to it. Is that a good idea?
If he continues doing it through the week I'll probably take him next week to get the blood test no matter what the vet says
At first I thought it was because his BG was dropping too low too fast (he's on Novolin) and it's usually always 3-4 hours after his shot when he reaches his nadir. This can be typical behavior for him, I feed him, he's fine afterwards. But these past few weeks it hasn't been enough. He'll be content for a few moments but begin howling again. It's also accompanied by erratic, hyperactive behavior such as sprinting through the house, playing with random objects, and coming into my bedroom staring at the ceiling while yowling. The staring at the ceiling in an agitated state is a new thing, he just spent a few minutes doing it tonight (which is why I'm up at 3 in the morning typing this). I don't remember this kind of behavior this consistently in the weeks before he was diagnosed with diabetes. This happens almost always at night, a few hours after his shot. Very rarely during the day. In fact the only time he exhibited this same behavior during the day was a few days ago. It's also accompanied by an increased appetite. Though it's usually a picky increased appetite as he only picks at his wet food and eat all the dry food I'll give him (Which I am totally not a fan of doing, but I've been desperate to figure out what's wrong with him). Typically when his BG is getting too low he'll eat anything and not be picky about it.
This all led me to wonder if he had developed hyperthyroidism. So about two weeks ago we took him to the vet and showed him the spreadsheet I had been keeping, described all the symptoms. He felt that Rocky was doing this because his BG had been too high. I considered it a possibility, because we had still been using a vial of insulin we got in January (vet said at this point the insulin may have been at half potency) and we stopped testing him in the middle of the day for a while, so didn't truly know if he was being regulated. I assumed he was because the mid-day numbers were good when we stopped testing. He advised us to give him 1.5 units, and increase by 0.5 units every 5 days if things didn't change (and get a new vial of insulin which we did). I asked him if he felt we should do a blood test to check for hyperthyroid and he said he didn't think it was necessary. As he didn't exhibit symptoms of weight loss, and his hunger only seemed enhanced during these episodes at night (he's relatively normal during the day), and the blood results in January were all normal aside from BG. So we didn't do blood. In hindsight I don't know why we didn't anyway. We were already there and it wouldn't hurt anything
But we've begun testing mid-day again recently, and he's been in the double digits. So is it possible Rocky could be behaving like this because his BG might be too low? Months ago his BG would be double digits during the day with higher doses I've been giving him now and he didn't act this way. Is it possible for a cat to develop hyperthyroidism in 5-6 months from their last normal blood test?
It's a double frustrating situation because I don't know what's wrong with him, what to do with him, and when these episodes occur I hardly get any sleep at night. What do you guys think? Have any of you ever experienced these issues before? I've read about cat cognitive disorder but I don't think that might be the problem. His behavior outside of these episodes hasn't changed and the distress is typically all focused around me (or anyone passing him by) giving him some dry food.
I considered one night if his numbers aren't too high I just skip a dose and see how he reacts to it. Is that a good idea?
If he continues doing it through the week I'll probably take him next week to get the blood test no matter what the vet says
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