8/20 Tiberious PMPS 208 +2 188, +4 107,+5 135-Hypo! @ +6/7

Yesterday's Condo.


Hi all!!
I hope everyone is doing well today. Tiberious had an interesting evening to say the least, being on his first dose of Tramadol. I don't think he liked the experience to much. It seemed like he had bouts of hallucination's and sleeplessness. However,it did seem to help slightly with his breathing ( maybe easing the pain ). I will be calling my vet to see if maybe the dose should be lowered or not.

Have a good weekend!!

 

Re: 8/20 Tiberious AMPS 306

Susan:

I linked info on Tramadol in your condo from yesterday.

 

Re: 8/20 Tiberious AMPS 306

Are you going to ask for buprenex??? Glad he is doing better today, Susan.

 

Re: 8/20 Tiberious AMPS 306

I will if the lowered dose of Tamradol doesn't work!

 

Re: 8/20 Tiberious AMPS 306

hi susan, just stopping by to see how Tiberious is doing. tramadol hallucinations sound horrible!

hope you're having a nice saturday! or caturday! :lol:

 

Re: 8/20 Tiberious PMPS 208 +2 188, +4 107

Thanks Julie!! :smile:

 

Re: 8/20 Tiberious PMPS 208 +2 188, +4 107

Tiberious' numbers are looking FABULOUS!!! It seems he's feeling better!!! I'm so happy for you!!

 

Re: 8/20 Tiberious PMPS 208 +2 188, +4 107

Nice evening for this very handsome guy. HOpe he's feeling better and the reduced dose of tramadol is working!!

 

Re: 8/20 Tiberious PMPS 208 +2 188, +4 107

♥ Thanks Patty!!

 

Re: 8/20 Tiberious PMPS 208 +2 188, +4 107

He seems to be handling it a little better. He was actually a tiny bit mobile and came and laid on my feet. Grant it, it was only for 4-5 minutes then right back to his kitty bed! Hopefully he's feeling a little bit better!! Thanks for checking in on us!! Have a good day tomorrow :smile:

 

Re: 8/20 Tiberious PMPS 208 +2 188, +4 107,+6 135

look at his +6! wowser - tiberious is doing great! you are too - doing all that testing takes some getting used to. i've gotten addicted to the information flow and if i don't get it, the world feels wrong! :lol: my 3 hr testing schedule assures me how punkin's doing and i don't have to wonder.

hope you get to sleep tonight! tiberious is having a perfect cycle!

 

Re: 8/20 Tiberious PMPS 208 +2 188, +4 107,+6 135

Hello Susan, just dropping in to say hello to you and Tiberious - what a great name and such a handsome kitty! You are doing so great with testing! It took me a couple of months before I was mentally prepared to do home testing. I also give my kitty Zobaline for peripheral neuropathy and will be interested in how you find it working for Tiberious. Loving those blue numbers! :smile:

 

Re: 8/20 Tiberious PMPS 208 +2 188, +4 107,+6 135

I happen to be up late with Hubby and thought Tiberious was sleeping, went to pet him non responsive- Yikes Hypo!! nailbite_smile
gv karo and high carb ff grilled chicken. by the time I brought him around which was very quickly, I tested his BB and it was 99.
I'm wondering if I should back off the dose @ night, since this happened the first night (8/16) and again tonight. I just don't want to worry that this might happen when I'm sleeping and can't catch it. Suggestions?

 

Re: 8/20 Tiberious PMPS 208 +2 188, +4 107,+5 135-Hypo! @ +6

Hi Susan,

I just saw your post and hope Tiberious is OK. If his BG was 99, I would think he was not hypo, maybe medication?? I have no idea, but am up because Tess was BG 47 an hour ago. So am staying up to get another test.

John

 

Re: 8/20 Tiberious PMPS 208 +2 188, +4 107,+5 135-Hypo! @ +6

The 99 was after I had my wits about me to take the BG. After the Karo/High Card Food. So I don't know where his Bg was at the time of the hypo. His + 5 was 135 so I felt I had no reason to suspect a hypo event. Hmmm still confused.
Thanks for the post. I ended up not giving any pain meds tonight, so I know he was in hypo. Completely like a rag doll in my arms and them once karo was given and then food he seemed to be fine.

 

Re: 8/20 Tiberious PMPS 208 +2 188, +4 107,+5 135-Hypo! @ +6

Sorry Susan, I'm no expert, hopefully someone will give you some advice later this morning. Tess just had a 43 so had to feed her some MC and a touch of honey. I'm surprised Tiberious had a problem with numbers over 100. How is he now?

 

Re: 8/20 Tiberious PMPS 208 +2 188, +4 107,+5 135-Hypo! @ +6

how is tiberious this morning?

if you think he dropped too low, please reduce the dose this morning. you can always take the dose back up if necessary.

some have reported seeing a blood glucose lowering effect after starting tramadol. please read through this Think Tank thread:

Tramadol and its effect on Blood Glucose.

i do not have any first-hand experience with tramadol, but i would follow jess' advice to test frequently whenever starting a new medication.

 

Re: 8/20 Tiberious PMPS 208 +2 188, +4 107,+5 135-Hypo! @ +6

Thanks for the info!!

 

Re: 8/20 Tiberious PMPS 208 +2 188, +4 107,+5 135-Hypo! @ +6

Susan:

Please look at the link that I provided. Tramadol is an opiate. Chances are that this wasn't a hypo but more that Tiberious was out for the count due to the medication. If you've ever taken pain meds, as I recently found out when taking Vicoden, all you want to do is sleep and you can sleep pretty soundly.

 

Re: 8/20 Tiberious PMPS 208 +2 188, +4 107,+5 135-Hypo! @ +6

Sienne,

The one and only dose was on Friday the 19th at around 850pm est. The hypo occurred early this morning at around 245am est. I specific waited more then 24 hrs because I had called the vet on Sat morning to see if i did give it to him again, shd I lower the dose. He said to wait 24 hours (after the first pill) which I did, and if I chose to give him the pain med to cut if in half again. I never gave him another pill as he was sleeping and I didn't want him to have any more crazy hallucinations to keep him awake. I hope I've described the situation as best as I can. Would the drug stay in his system longer then 28-29 Hrs?
Thanks again for all your help.

 

Re: 8/20 Tiberious PMPS 208 +2 188, +4 107,+5 135-Hypo! @ +6

Hi Susan, that must have been scary for you last night. How is Tiberious doing today?

 

Re: 8/20 Tiberious PMPS 208 +2 188, +4 107,+5 135-Hypo! @ +6

That 99 was actually a very nice #, and not a hypo #. You did great, though! And you're still doing great. Good luck, and I'm looking forward to more updates. How's he doing today?

 

Re: 8/20 Tiberious PMPS 208 +2 188, +4 107,+5 135-Hypo! @ +6

He's not feeling very well. He ate and drank but is lying on the kitty bed breathing a little harder then I would like.

 

Re: 8/20 Tiberious PMPS 208 +2 188, +4 107,+5 135-Hypo! @ +6

Hi Susan,

A few things about Tramadol. It's different than your "normal" opiate in that it's centrally acting. This means in theory, it has less potential for addiction and is "gentler" on the patient. With that having been said, there are still some side effects that come with any type of opiate. These side effects come from how Tramadol works. By binding to specific receptor sites, it "blocks" central nervous system reactions....so it blocks pain. When it does that, it also slows down other things the central nervous system controls. The big one is respiratory rate. This is important because it's the big one that needs to be watched for when taking any kind of opiate drug. For Tiberious - it's a welcomed side effect, but again, make sure you are watching to make sure his breathing doesn't go too low.

The other things Tramadol can affect are: slowing the heart rate, lowering blood pressure (which may make him dizzy and lethargic), stomach (most common constipation, but can have diarrhea too), and nausea and vomiting.

In people, we titrate the dose, meaning we start low and increase slowly. This REALLY helps with the side effects and a lot of times, eliminates them all together. I'm going to copy and paste below the info from the drug's Package Insert and maybe you could give this to your Vet to show him/her how it's used in human's to control the side effects (the brand name us ULTRAM, so you will see that referenced here):

Half life is pretty short on this drug....I wouldn't think you would still be seeing effects 24 hours later. I'm also of the thought that it wasn't hypo that you were seeing...but rather too much Tramadol affecting his central nervous system which would slow things wayyyyy down.

I know it sounds scarey, but Tramadol is not a bad drug and if used properly, can really be beneficial. A lot of times, this is the drug of choice for chronic pain because it's been a lot safer and MUCH less addicting than the other pain drugs. Good Luck!!

 

Re: 8/20 Tiberious PMPS 208 +2 188, +4 107,+5 135-Hypo! @ +6

Marjorie, this is Kevin, Susan's husband. I just wanted to let you know how much I appreciated your help with everything you have done for Tiberious, especially the x-rays. I was in shock when Susan told me abt that! This whole ordeal has been very hard on us and I just wanted to thank you myself!

 

Re: 8/20 Tiberious PMPS 208 +2 188, +4 107,+5 135-Hypo! @ +6

good morning kevin & susan,

very curious about what happened last night. the definition of hypoglycemia is low blood sugar. on lantus cats often show no symptoms of hypo til they are under 30 - punkin has been 32 with no physical evidence at all that he had low BG.

i just said hi in mr howell's condo and he was at 41 this morning with no insulin for 8 days now. a non-diabetic cat's bg normally is anywhere from there to 120ish . . . so it's hard to know what happened with tiberious last night. if he hadn't had the tramadol for a day, it might not have been that, but it still might have been something besides a hypoglycemia episode.

if you see another similar episode of non-responsiveness, check his BG right away - although i can imagine you were a little freaked out and i probably would've grabbed the karo first thing as well. it usually takes 15ish minutes for high carbs to show up on a BG test, although karo is the fastest thing we use and it might be a tad faster. i don't know.

hopefully you won't have any more scary moments!

btw, regarding pain - i know a lot of people use gabapentin if they're dealing with a chronic pain. no personal experience with it, though.