Maybe a stupid question or not

Just a maybe off the wall question.

When you give a feline too much insulin for a long period of time. Besides the hypo's, what other side effects can happen to the feline?

Just curious?
Thanx
David

 

What happens is the cats body tries to save itself...leading to somogyi rebound, until it cant do it anymore and has a hypo event. This will explain it better than I can.. but if have questions let us know..
http://www.indulgedfurries.com/petdiabetes/somogyi.htm
http://www.felinediabetes.com/concurrent-somogyi.htm

 

David, I know a cat that was in somogyi rebound for, well, we don't know how long but we think years. (He was on insulin for 5 years when I met him.) He's shown at the bottom of my profile (hit the world www button under my avatar). Freddie was on 5 units of insulin twice a day for almost 5 years. And he was eating low carb foods. He was a big orange cat that was always lazy so the fact that he got a little bit more lazy wasn't noted by anyone. He was being cat sat by a neighbour of mine for a month while the parents were in Mexico. My neighbour, such a good guy, is allergic to cats and we live 3-hours from their home, but he said he'd do it.

Well, after about 4 days (Freddie was 17 at the time and my neighbour had known him since he was a kitten), my neighbour thought that the laziness and a few other things were off so he stopped the insulin. He just happened to mention it to me on the second day without insulin and I said that I should test the poor kitty in case his bg was high. The neighbour said that Freddie was more alert but still let him vacuum him... so he thought he was relaxed enough for home testing.

So, I went down and tested him. Over 24 hours after his last shot, he was at 4.5 (81) (the 4.5 is mmol/L which is how we measure the BG outside the US). I tested him the next day and for several days after and he was always between 4 and 5... (multiply by 18 to get the US BG number). He no longer needed insulin. We don't know for how long he was in somogyi rebound but the owners said that they had him tested at the vet office regularly and he was always high and his fructosamine was always high... from his body producing sugar to fight the insulin. The body is so incredible sometimes.

Anyway... I've not talked to the neighbour about Freddie in a year or so but will next time I see him... When we last spoke, Freddie was doing well still - and that would put him at an age of about 20 at the time.

I'm just relaying this story because it seems that even with prolonged overdose once the body is cleared of the insulin, it can heal and be well.