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It sounds like a cool band name or some sort of SFnal plot twist, yeah? Not really, but it is pretty cool.
We did a glucose curve on Isis yesterday. Her fasting reading was 307, then we fed her and gave her insulin, and 2 hours later it was 347. That's not incredibly unusual, to see a sustained increase in blood sugar after eating. In a non-diabetic, the BG will approximate normal at 2 hours. I considered, upon seeing her high fasting sugar, whether there was any Somogyi effect going on, and I kept that in mind throughout the day.
We continued to check her sugar every two hours, and over the course of the day, it continued trending downward. Before dinner, it was 160, then at 8 pm it was 140, then before bed it was 93.
Normal range in humans is 80-110; in cats it's similar. In diabetic cats, they want it between 130 and 200.
I didn't like the look of that, so we gave her a few Wildside Salmon treats (freeze-dried salmon; the cats LOVE it) and some dry food before bed. We checked her sugar before breakfast today: 143. To me, that indicates yesterday's morning reading was likely due to Somogyi.
So what the hell is this Somogyi I keep talking about? First, a little biochemistry. When you sleep, you're not consuming any sugars, though you're not really exerting yourself, either. Your body is still metabolically active, keeping your heart going and your brain going and your breathing going, doing cellular repairs, that sort of thing. This requires energy. The liver stores glycogen, which are basically long-chain sugar molecules, and it releases glycogen when your body signals "hey, we could use a little sugar here" at 3 am. (Glycogen also plays a role in distance running and other endurance events.)
In diabetes, when the BG drops too low overnight, the liver can overreact and dump more glycogen stores than it needs to, leading to a spike in BG in the morning. This is the Somogyi effect.
Ben is sending the spreadsheet I made of Isis' BG readings yesterday to our vet, and hopefully there'll be discussion of how to manage this. We can't really go down further on her nighttime insulin - she only gets 1 unit, so skipping it entirely or giving her kibble before bed are likely to be good options. We'll see what our vet says.
I really would prefer not having to stick her ear and get a BG reading every night, though. She's none too thrilled about it, and we're crap at making the kitty burrito.
I also haven't heard back on the additional testing from the spleen aspirate to see if she has cancer. I asked Ben to ask if they'd heard anything on that yet.
We did a glucose curve on Isis yesterday. Her fasting reading was 307, then we fed her and gave her insulin, and 2 hours later it was 347. That's not incredibly unusual, to see a sustained increase in blood sugar after eating. In a non-diabetic, the BG will approximate normal at 2 hours. I considered, upon seeing her high fasting sugar, whether there was any Somogyi effect going on, and I kept that in mind throughout the day.
We continued to check her sugar every two hours, and over the course of the day, it continued trending downward. Before dinner, it was 160, then at 8 pm it was 140, then before bed it was 93.
Normal range in humans is 80-110; in cats it's similar. In diabetic cats, they want it between 130 and 200.
I didn't like the look of that, so we gave her a few Wildside Salmon treats (freeze-dried salmon; the cats LOVE it) and some dry food before bed. We checked her sugar before breakfast today: 143. To me, that indicates yesterday's morning reading was likely due to Somogyi.
So what the hell is this Somogyi I keep talking about? First, a little biochemistry. When you sleep, you're not consuming any sugars, though you're not really exerting yourself, either. Your body is still metabolically active, keeping your heart going and your brain going and your breathing going, doing cellular repairs, that sort of thing. This requires energy. The liver stores glycogen, which are basically long-chain sugar molecules, and it releases glycogen when your body signals "hey, we could use a little sugar here" at 3 am. (Glycogen also plays a role in distance running and other endurance events.)
In diabetes, when the BG drops too low overnight, the liver can overreact and dump more glycogen stores than it needs to, leading to a spike in BG in the morning. This is the Somogyi effect.
Ben is sending the spreadsheet I made of Isis' BG readings yesterday to our vet, and hopefully there'll be discussion of how to manage this. We can't really go down further on her nighttime insulin - she only gets 1 unit, so skipping it entirely or giving her kibble before bed are likely to be good options. We'll see what our vet says.
I really would prefer not having to stick her ear and get a BG reading every night, though. She's none too thrilled about it, and we're crap at making the kitty burrito.
I also haven't heard back on the additional testing from the spleen aspirate to see if she has cancer. I asked Ben to ask if they'd heard anything on that yet.
