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cimoreneSnookums has been in treatment for diabetes regularly for several years now, so he has had low blood sugar a few times, and I knew that it was bad. When a diabetic cat starts to get low blood sugar, they start by acting a bit confused and simultaneously hungry, and at that point, we have always given him treats and a little bit of honey, which fixes him right up.
I'd read about scary hypoglycemic episodes before but I suppose we're a bit lucky that today at 3 am was the first time. I woke up because Snookums walked over me, and I thought he was trying to burrow under the blanket, but when I picked him up I found he was just licking compulsively and sort of turning his head back and forth. I carried him downstairs and did a blood glucose test - it wasn't dramatically lower than it's ever been before, but it was in the 'give honey and/or yogurt or other dairy product' range. He seemed completely unaware of his surroundings and kept non-specifically straining to lean out of my embrace. He couldn't even move his head towards a spoonful of yogurt; I had to dab it onto his nose and mouth repeatedly so he could lick it off his face before he could manage to lick at the spoon. I mixed a spoonful of honey with a spoonful of yogurt and got that into him and tried a couple more spoonfuls of yogurt, but the blind licking and head-turning continued. I couldn't remember exactly what the steps for this were supposed to be, I'd left my phone upstairs by the bed, and when I tried to put the cat down on his cushion by the windowsill, he immediately sort of lurched up against the window and then started to fall into the crack between the window and the table so I had to pick him up again.
I carried him upstairs to wake Wax up and ask for some help and she held the cat and dabbed another fingerful of honey on his gums while I consulted my diabetes bookmarks (ie Diabetes in Cats for Beginners) and learned that these are still mild-moderate symptoms and that after the cat starts to show increased coordination, you can give a treat (like cheese or warm milk) with sugar content, and then after half an hour or so a small serving of food, and then continue checking on them for a few hours to make sure it doesn't crash again.
It's important to monitor the cat past the point where their blood sugar will be at its lowest (this varies by cat, but you know it from past blood glucose measurements... I haven't recorded a whole blood glucose curve (12-hour glucose level chart) since late last year, but his have been reasonably consistent in the past so hopefully the 6-8 hours post insulin injection rule is still true). The next most severe symptom that we didn't see was seizures, followed by diabetic coma, so this is really up there in scariness!
But Snookums became coordinated again and I was able to give him some catfood and Wax got to go back to bed, but I needed to stay up for a couple of hours to make sure he remains okay. He accepted a few little shreds of cheese and some of his favorite freeze-dried chicken treats and then settled down to nap on a cushion.
I'd read about scary hypoglycemic episodes before but I suppose we're a bit lucky that today at 3 am was the first time. I woke up because Snookums walked over me, and I thought he was trying to burrow under the blanket, but when I picked him up I found he was just licking compulsively and sort of turning his head back and forth. I carried him downstairs and did a blood glucose test - it wasn't dramatically lower than it's ever been before, but it was in the 'give honey and/or yogurt or other dairy product' range. He seemed completely unaware of his surroundings and kept non-specifically straining to lean out of my embrace. He couldn't even move his head towards a spoonful of yogurt; I had to dab it onto his nose and mouth repeatedly so he could lick it off his face before he could manage to lick at the spoon. I mixed a spoonful of honey with a spoonful of yogurt and got that into him and tried a couple more spoonfuls of yogurt, but the blind licking and head-turning continued. I couldn't remember exactly what the steps for this were supposed to be, I'd left my phone upstairs by the bed, and when I tried to put the cat down on his cushion by the windowsill, he immediately sort of lurched up against the window and then started to fall into the crack between the window and the table so I had to pick him up again.
I carried him upstairs to wake Wax up and ask for some help and she held the cat and dabbed another fingerful of honey on his gums while I consulted my diabetes bookmarks (ie Diabetes in Cats for Beginners) and learned that these are still mild-moderate symptoms and that after the cat starts to show increased coordination, you can give a treat (like cheese or warm milk) with sugar content, and then after half an hour or so a small serving of food, and then continue checking on them for a few hours to make sure it doesn't crash again.
It's important to monitor the cat past the point where their blood sugar will be at its lowest (this varies by cat, but you know it from past blood glucose measurements... I haven't recorded a whole blood glucose curve (12-hour glucose level chart) since late last year, but his have been reasonably consistent in the past so hopefully the 6-8 hours post insulin injection rule is still true). The next most severe symptom that we didn't see was seizures, followed by diabetic coma, so this is really up there in scariness!
But Snookums became coordinated again and I was able to give him some catfood and Wax got to go back to bed, but I needed to stay up for a couple of hours to make sure he remains okay. He accepted a few little shreds of cheese and some of his favorite freeze-dried chicken treats and then settled down to nap on a cushion.
