Double Insulin Injection - Should I be Concerned

I am new hear, my 11 year old cat was diagnosed with Kidney failure and diabetes earlier this year, and we have been doing well so far. But for the first time he was given his insulin injection 2 time with in an hour of each other because one person di d not know what the other had done. He takes 1 unit of insulin twice a day. Tonight he was given 2 units, this was about an hour ago, so far nothing about him seems odd as if it has affected him. I am not sure if I should go to sleep and assume he will be okay until in the morning or if I should try to find an emergency clinic immediately. Please if someone has had this issue before it would be very helpful if you could let me know what i may need to do.

Thanks
Ashtongray

 

Hi. Are you hometesting? Also what insulin do you use?
Here's the post on symptoms of hypos to look for and some suggestions on what to do about them.

viewtopic.php?f=28&t=15887

You're probably going to need to stay up and watch the kitty for a good while. Some other folks will be along, but do look at that post. Do you have karo syrup and/or high carb wet food on hand just in case?

 

I do not home test. I did not even know I could until I found this site tonight. I use Lantus Insulin and no I do not have high carb wet food. He is on a prescription dry food that is high carb to treat the kidney problem. I do not have Karo syrup (also something I was not aware of until tonight) but from what i read i can use pancake syrup or table sugar mixed with water. Please let me know if I am wrong. This is all very new to me, we have only been dealing with the diabetes for approx 8 months and everything has been going fairly smooth.

 

Is there anyone else there with you who could run out and get some high carb food with gravy? Also a glucometer to try and test? Walmart has an inexpensive one called Relion.

 

Do you know what the blood sugar has been running and when the last time was that it was checked? Do you have any curve results from the vet that might tell when your kitty reaches nadir, which is usually the lowest point in the cycle?

 

Yes, you can use honey and syrup - and anything else that is high in sugar and you can get rubbed on the cat's gums in case of emergency. I would suggest that, while your cat seems to be OK, now is the time to gather things you may need in the event of a hypo. That would include not only the honey or syrup, but also high carb food that you can syringe feed if necessary. Unfortunately, the honey or syrup is short-acting - so you will need to get high carb food in your kitty to keep his BG levels moving up if a hypo should occur.

Also, every cat is different - so your cat may have hypo symptoms that another cat does not. In fact, some cats show very few outward symptoms but are still hypo and still in danger. Is there anyway you can get a home glucometer now? Do you have the necessary high carb wet food on hand? If not, and in an effort to be prepared, I would strongly suggest you try and get these things tonight.

 

unfortunately i'm going to have to say that yep, you need to be concerned. you're gonna have to check on him thru the night to make sure he does not go hypo. read thru the symptoms of hypo so that you know what to watch for.

if there's going to be a problem you probably won't see anything for about i'd say 4-8 hours after the shots were given. can you check on him thru the night, like possibly hourly at that point?

by chance do you live in a bigger city? one with 24 hour stores, etc....? i ask because if it's possible to get your hands on a glucose meter tonight that would be fantastic.

 

I'm fairly new to FDMB but I do know you definitely came to the right place. yes you need to be very vigilant tonight .You should get a meter asap as Ginger said its the only way to know where your kitty's blood sugar is going and what you need to feed. If you have an all night Walmart you can get one there unless they are locked in the pharmacy. Otherwise an all night walgreens or Cve would have them .
Yes maple syrup works I had to give to my cat this weekend when his blood sugar went to 41 and he ate it on turkey lunch meat. I know your kitty has CRF and can't eat too much protein so if you can get some cat food with gravy then you could let him lap the gravy. I bought Iams gravy for dogs to use if I got in a bind and he wouldn't eat any of his food. Good luck tonight and if you can't get a meter go by how he acts and feed him snacks every hour. Kathy

 

The absolute safest option is to go the vet ER and let them monitor for the night. Could be that nothing happens but your kitty would be safe through the night. This is not a high dose, necessarily, but it's double what your kitty is used to and it's just hard to predict whether something will happen. Going to the ER would be proactive like hometesting is. They would test and watch the kitty all night.

If you were able to hometest and had the gravy food on hand that kitty would slurp up, it would be okay to monitor all night at home to determine whether the kitty needs to go to the vet. Since you haven't been hometesting (and this is not a criticism-I know some vets just don't tell people about that), all you can do is watch for symptoms AFTER they start rather than being able to catch them before they begin.


Is everything still alright?

 

Hi Ashtongray, you will need to monitor your cat tonight. There are lots of peeps here to help. High carb wet food and testing are really important at this point.

Where are you located? There may be someone near who can give you help with testing.

 

Hey, you guys got this? Just got up to do a +7 test on Spot and saw this 911....is it ok for me to go back to bed?

 

I'm about to go to bed myself, but I was waiting for an update. She's not online, so I hope everything is alright. I'll probably be checking on and off for another hour.

 

agreed with all said below.. please keep an eye on your kitty through the night. The safest option would be an ER facility where your kitty can be monitored, and be safe.

I hope everything is all right.

and ditto on the checking back.

 

ok....I'm not sure I'll be checking back tho...got to get up for work in 4.5 hours. I hope all is ok and she is out getting strips or what not.
Nite girls....I'll say a prayer before falling back to sleep.

 

A trick that I learned for me when my cat ran really low on blood surgar was baby food "ham and gravy." This quickly raises the blood surger when it was really low. Worked like a charm every time.

 

I'm going to bed, but if you return, AshtonGray, I hope all is well.

We can help you learn to hometest so that if you're faced with something like this in the future, you'll be equipped to handle it very well.

 

Folks

the cat is on a high carb dry food....chances are, the 2 units will not do any damage. Of course, there is no way to know but.....

WHen the original poster (OP) comes back, perhaps we can talk more about diet and hometesting..you might be surprised but unless your cat is in renal failure there is no need to restrict protein, dry food is NOT good for any cat let alone a cat with kidney issues, and hometesting can save your cat's life.

Please come back

Jen

 

Yes the cat is on high carb dry food but without any knowledge of whether or not the cat was already on a higher dose than it needed and the fact that there was no hometesting going like you said there was no way to know so I think what was suggested was the right thing to do.
It may have turned out to be nothing and it may have become a dangerous situation but without any data there is just no way of telling.