What is a “hypo” and why is everyone so afraid of it?
When someone talks about a “hypo” episode, what they are usually talking about is the clinical signs we see in cats when the brain does not get enough glucose, including weakness and even seizures. This can happen at many different levels of blood glucose, sometimes a cat will have these signs at levels that are not that low, say 70, and other cats show absolutely no signs whatsoever at blood glucose levels as low as 20! Therefore, the absolute number is not the whole story, not by a long shot. The cat’s liver is just as important to the control of blood glucose as the pancreas is. The liver and pancreas work together, with the pancreas keeping the blood glucose from going too high and the liver keeping the blood glucose from going too low. The cat on high carbohydrate foods loses both its normal liver function and its normal pancreatic function. This loss of normal liver function is what causes the signs of hypoglycemia. When a diabetic cat is consuming low carb foods instead of high
