Preventing hypo - please read asap

Hi there, I need some quick advice. I am lowering Bacardi's dosage almost daily as he seems to be improving with his new, wet only diet. He was at almost his lowest +11 tonight and I was hesitant to shot him, but I did (trying to stay consistent). But I had a hunch that he would drop low and now we're +2 and he's already only 4.3 mmol/L. Still 2 to 3 hours left to nadir. I am just feeding him Sheba with Lamb (hoping for it to be higher in carbs, there is no info on it), he ate the whole pouch and also stole a bit of dry kibble from my other cat while I am typing this. The question is - I don't want him to drop any lower. What should I do? Test again in an hour? Or two? Is he going to be OK after his meal? Please any advice highly appreciated.

(I am going to lower his dosage again this morning).

 

Hi Kate, looking at your SS you've shot on a falling number, and it looks like your cat may be dropping out of a bounce also. (My cat had his first ever hypo that way...)
The dry kibble may take a while to raise the blood glucose. It could be helpful to get another test at this point, and if it's still falling to give a few drops of syrup or honey, to see if you can steer him through the next couple of hours (hopefully!). If he needs more you can give more. It would be nice not to rob him of good numbers, but the most important thing is to keep him safe from hypo...

Eliz

 

Hi Eliz, thank you for your fast reply. He also ate a pouch of wet meal in gravy - that should work faster, shouldn't it? I'll test him again in a bit

Could you please tell me more about this? I am still so new to cat diabetes and honestly don't know what exactly it means. As for his bounces - he bounces every day, that's our main problem at the moment..it's getting better, but it simply has never been any different, so I don't know how it really affects him. For now I know that he'll probably needs a lowed dosage, or?

 

he tsted 4.9 now..going higher. Thats good. I'll test him in @ +4 again - the food he just ate shoul keep him going for an hour and a half, right?

Edit: still eager to know what you think about his bouncing! The more opinions the better, I am learning

 

Found this explanation of a bounce over in the Lantus/Levimir ISG forum.

• Bouncing - Bouncing is simply a natural reaction to what the cat's system perceives as a BG value that is "too low". "Too low" is relative. If a cat is used to BGs in the 200's, 300's, or higher for a long time, then even a BG that drops to 150 can trigger a "bounce". Bouncing can also be triggered if the blood glucose drops too low and/or too fast.The pancreas, then the liver, release glucogon, glycogen and counter-regulatory hormones. The end result is a dumping of "sugar" into the bloodstream to save the cat from going hypoglycemic from a perceived low. The action is often referred to as "liver panic" or "panicky liver". *Usually*, a bounce will clear kitty's system within 3 days (6 cycles).

Even though this was talking about Lantus, that 'too low' can then trigger a much higher number with any type of insulin.

Bicardi simply isn't used to being in a 'normal glucose range' (those green and blue numbers) so there is an attempt by his system to compensate and get him higher.

Changing from a higher carb food to a lower carb food can dramatically decrease the need for insulin. Good to see that you are dropping the dose down, but you may need to keep doing that for a while.

i remember when I finally got my dry food addict Wink to realize that lower carb wet food was yummy and his BG numbers dropped and dropped again and kept dropping. Scary to deal with, but very glad at the time that I was home testing, so could monitor.

 

Next time you get a number you're not sure about shooting, it's better to stall, don't feed and post for help.

Test again in 20-30 minutes to see if the number continues to drop or starts to come up on it's own without any influence of food.

If it comes up without food, that's a pretty good indication that the last shot is wearing off ….but if they continue to drop, that changes things!!

We don't suggest shooting Caninsulin if they're under 200 (11.1) until you have more data and experience on how your cat reacts to both food and insulin. Since Caninsulin usually hits hard and fast, it's just not safe until you know more about your cat.

 

thank you @Deb & Wink for the explanation. We moved houses a week ago, since then Bacardi had lived with my mum and 8 other cats, and she was unable to control his diet - so the horrible numbers had been probably caused by that rather than low values (he had been to high all the time, plus my vet told my mum to increase his dosage multiple times - he even was on 7 units, then 5 units for quite a long time and seldomly home tested - what a horrible time it must have been for him, I think he compensated for that by excessive eating and gained a lot of weight again). Now the bounces are "finally" from going too low and I am glad that we are reducing his insulin intake almost daily!

@Chris & China I will do that next time. He was 10.7 @ +11, so I assumed that considering his curve he would make it over 11.1 in the last hour. My bad..

Anyway, I'll test him again in 30 minutes, which will be almost +5 and if he's up I'll assume that there is no crisis and will go to bed - hooray

Thank you all for your help, it really helps me a lot when I know that there are experienced people here watching over me & Baccardi

 

Yeah it's never a good idea to assume anything when it comes to these unpredictable kitties we love!!

 

So tested 4.0 @+5 .. a bit lower again. I am giving him another little snack of higher carb wet food and going to bed..I know that

but I am going to assume that we're at or past his nadir and hopefully he'll be fine till the morning. He's felling good, I had to disturb his play to get the test done. So, I hope he's safe now...