Hypoglycemia

Yesterday we found a tick on our 12-week-old Yorkshire Terrier and removed it fine, but due to the heat (it's been about 80 here the last two days - air conditioning goes on tomorrow) and the tick, he didn't eat as much as usual.

He was sleeping last night while I was reading, and he jerked and whimpered maybe six times quickly in his sleep. I woke him up to check on him, and while he did wake up, he was having difficulty offering any sort of resistance to my holding him, feeling very limp and apparently having a hard time remaining conscious. His eyes kind of moved in and out and for maybe 15-30 seconds and he seemed unable to register his surroundings. I thought, oh, this is hypoglycemia. I'd heard that Yorkies in particular are suceptible to it, and I suffer from it as well, having passed out myself on three or so occasions. I gave Winston water and 1 1/4 teaspoons of corn syrup, as well as some gatorade. After the water he seemed tired and interested in lying down and resting, obviously lacking in energy, although he did not seem on the verge of passing out like he had earlier. After the syrup he had a natural sugar high and low, but didn't crash particularly hard. He seemed perfectly normal this morning, although he was not very interested in his food (perhaps wishing for syrup instead?) and we gave him 1/4 teaspoon syrup in the morning, to prevent his blood sugar levels from dropping again.

We took him to the vet for the tick and told the receptionist about the hypoglycemic episode, and she freaked out. She told us that he needed his full bloodwork done, he could have a neurological disorder, he was at least going to have to go on a special diet for life, etc. When we talked to the vet about it, he seemed unconcerned, however. He said it was likely hypoglycemia, or maybe even the heat getting to him. He said it was not unheard of for a dog to pass out from heat exposure, or even from the trauma of having the tick making him feel ill all day and then having it removed painfully.

I wanted to ask if anyone's pets have had hypoglycemic episodes and if they seemed similar to what Winston suffered last night. Being hypoglycemic, I felt almost 100% sure that I recognized his symptoms immediately, and I'm not that concerned because the vet said it was likely not a problem, but I would welcome input on how to avoid such attacks in the future. We feed him about a cup of Purina Puppy Chow a day, and his appetite varies. We've been feeding him three times a day at 10, 2, and 7 and not leaving the food out. I figured that he would eat enough to sustain himself, but do I need to monitor his intake more closely? Coax him into eating when his appetite isn't that great? Are there any tricks I should know?

Thanks for any input you can give!

Unfortunately, this is somewhat common in puppies of small breeds & in extremely small adult dogs.

The trick is to have the pup eat many small meals throughout the day. You should also get some Nutrical (high caloric supplement) to have on hand for these episodes. You just put a tiny dab on the tongue. However, make sure that you don't give the product when the dog doesn't truly need it or it will send the blood sugar sky high & then it will drop fast & you begin an ugly pattern of fluctuating blood sugar levels that can cause serious problems.

So I probably should not have given Winston some syrup this morning just in case his blood sugar dropped again. I'll try to avoid that in the future, unless I actually see symptoms.

Is there any indication that his blood sugar is dropping other than the obvious passing out or getting woozy? I read seizures, but I expect he'll get woozy before he goes into convulsions...

I expect that his personal threshold for low blood sugar will depend on his size and own individual needs, but yesterday he had some food, so I'm just wondering how intense this tends to be in most small dogs. I hadn't expected a small lapse in hunger to give him an episode, so I'm just trying to get a feel for how tempermental small-dog hypoglycemia tends to be.

Do I just have to prevent low blood sugar by making sure that he actually eats all of the food that I give him, period? If for some reason (heat, whatever) he doesn't feel like eating one of his meals should I be very concerned about his glucose levels, or will he likely be able to go without one meal?

I apologize for asking a lot of specific questions, but I'm having difficulty finding any information online, other than, "sometimes your dog will pass out. Give him honey. END." I thought some people here might have personal experience or suggestions to share. Again, thank you!

I'm so sorry you had such a scare. It can be extremely serious. I'm so glad he's OK now.

http://www.vipchihuahua.com/healthtips.htm

Just feed him 4, 5 or 6 small meals a day.(protein) If he doesn't feel like eating, try putting a sprinkling of parmessan cheese, (nice and smelly) or a few tidbits of some real meat, maybe a drizzling of chicken broth or a dab of cottage cheese, a tiny bit of scrambled egg. Try to get him to eat a little bit. Later, when he's older, the risk is smaller. Perhaps it depends on muscle mass, size etc. My Chi is a good 6 LBS and I only feed her 2x a day, but she's 6 yrs. old and not skinny. She does get a few treats during the day though.

I have Chihuahuas and only once, when I was away and my niece was taking care of my smallest one, she refused to eat much of anything for like three days. It never occured to me that she wouldn't eat on account of my being gone. I neglected to warn my niece about hypoglycemia because I never had a problem before, plus she wasn't a puppy. (my mistake) She got very weak and my niece took her to the vet where she got an injection. You can also get this food from the vet which is very, very soft and pureed. Dogs can not refuse it. I think it might be Science Diet, not sure. Normally, I would NEVER recommend Science Diet, but a can or two to keep on hand wouldn't hurt. It's not the regular Science Diet....it's some kind of pate. (sp?) Hey, that's an idea...liver pate. Anyhow, something irresistable, just small amounts, 4-6 times a day will prevent hypoglycemia.

PS...Purina isn't very good dog food. There are some premium foods which are so much more nutritious. Check out some threads in the food forum for ideas, if you want.

What kind of syrup are you referring to? If your dog is hypoglycemic, your vet should have told you not to give him syrup as a regular food if it has sugar in it. Syrup is good to have on hand for when blood sugar drops unexpectedly, but his general diet should be altered with the assistance of a vet to moderate his problem. With hypoglycemia, what happens is that that blood sugar drops significantly if you eat a meal that is mostly carbohydrates and not backed up with a significant amount of protein or fat. You should never eat sugar, because that will make hypoglycemia worse when the sugar "drops off", since there is no fat or protein to back it up. It works very similarly with humans. A lot of people think that low blood sugar means they should just eat sugar, but that is completely false. According to several vets, the first approach is to first split up his food into several small meals a day (similar to humans). It may also be necessary to change his diet.
I hope your dog feels better soon. I am hypoglycemia, and I've seen the condition in dogs. It can certainly be scary. Good Luck

Did your vet go ahead and do the bloodwork to verify that this is indeed the problem?

Thanks so much for all the responses to this.

We had not been putting food in his crate when we crated him, but the crate came with an attachable tray and we've started putting food in it so he has constant access if he gets hungry. We're also going to start feeding him a couple more times a day and monitoring how much he's taking in a bit more closely.

We had Winston on Purina because we've only had him for about a week and a half and we didn't want to add to the shock of moving homes. We think we're going to slowly transition him to Canidae (did I spell that correctly?), although we're going to do a bit more research before making a final decision. We do need to get him on a better food, though. I'm not all that well-versed in dog food nutrition, so if anyone has suggestions to add to my research, it's always helpful.

Okay, I think I understand this better now. I know that personally, when I have an attack I need sugar immediately or I'm going to faint, so I eat some honey or syrup or even soda to get enough strength back to actually prepare a meal. Then I make a sandwich or pasta or whatever and eat that. I know the sugar makes me shakier and it's actually the food after that makes me feel better. With Winston we gave him some syrup the night he had the attack and then he had dog food, too, and he felt better. I gave him sugar in the morning because he didn't have any food in the morning and I didn't want him to crash while we were out. We brought dog food and hand-fed it to him while we were out anyway, so he didn't just have sugar. I had done it as a preventative measure. From now on, though, I'll feed him only real food, unless he's having an attack. Thanks for letting me know not to do that. I had no idea - I've even done it myself as a preventative measure when I've been feeling kind of faint!

He's due for vaccinations next week, so we're going to go in and re-check up with the vet. The vet said that it didn't sound dangerous and could have been anything, especially after the tick and the sudden heatwave, so there was no need to worry.

I actually think that Winston hasn't been eating because our landlord hadn't switched the furnace from heat to A/C so our apartment has been upwards of 85 and 90 degrees the last three days. We had been taking Winston to air-conditioned places and setting him in the wake of a large fan, but he still wasn't in the mood to eat and was constantly sluggish and legargic, understandably so. We got the A/C turned on earlier today, though, and he's been much better, eating lots of food and returning to his normal energetic self. I don't think the vet is planning on doing bloodwork, unless we see more complications. I was actually shocked that the receptionist would make comments like the ones she did because they seemed kind of rash and hysterical. We're just going to monitor his behavior and eating habits for the next week and then the vet will tell us if he thinks we should have bloodwork done.