Loosing weight

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mjtrup

mjtrup

Member Since 2014
My maine coon was diagnosed 15 months ago with diabetes at vet visit. Overweight, stressed at vet, and some dry food in diet. Now raw and only can with no carbos, she is active, but slow loss of weight. She acts hungry all the time. I have checked the blood sugar and range is 200 to 150. Her potty habits are normal. Not sure what to do small dose of insulin or just continue with quality diet.
 
Its typical to have some weight loss over a long period when you switch from dry to all wet food. The diabetes too, however can cause an unhealthy weight loss, so it's important to figure out if it's normal or not. Do you track blood sugar at home? Her diabetes may be not controlled as well as it could be (which would also increase hunger). Also, she may not be getting enough calories in her diet to maintain her weight. Diabetic cats often need a little more than a normal cat. Most cats are around 200-250 calories a day for a medium sized cat, 300 calories a day for a very large cat, and maine coons tend to be large. Most canned food is around 150-180 calories for a 5.5 oz can, so roughly 1.5-2 of the large cans or 3-4 of the smaller cans a day. You can usually find the actual calorie count somewhere on the label.

Is she currently on insulin? In diabetics, the insulin serves 2 purposes: 1. normalizing the blood sugar. 2. Allowing cells to use glucose for energy.

If she's not on insulin and her sugars are slightly high, it may be a sign that her metabolism is not able to use glucose converted from food efficiently for energy. This will cause her to burn her fat stores instead of the food she eats, and lead to weight loss. A low dose insulin can also help cats go into remission, diabetes generally progresses if left untreated.
 
mjtrup said:
My maine coon was diagnosed 15 months ago with diabetes at vet visit. Overweight, stressed at vet, and some dry food in diet. Now raw and only can with no carbos, she is active, but slow loss of weight. She acts hungry all the time. I have checked the blood sugar and range is 200 to 150. Her potty habits are normal. Not sure what to do small dose of insulin or just continue with quality diet.
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Thanks for the valuable input. My vet was concerned about hypoglycemia to put her on insulin since she is just above normal at 150. Maybe I should feed her more. I have started feeding her 3X's a day when home. The blood sugar meter is for human use.
 
Given that those are human meter readings, her 'proper' blood glucose will be a bit higher in real terms and that increases the likelihood that her body may be struggling to get enough energy into the cells for proper metabolism.

It is good that your vet is being careful, but that 150 is on the high side. It's actually the top of the normal range for a pet-calibrated meter. Top of the normal range on a human meter is approximately 120.

Was it just a diet change that led to the reduction in blood glucose after diagnosis, or was your kitty treated with insulin? If insulin was given can you let us know which one, please?

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She was 24 lbs. when identified with high blood sugar. We live in the country and the vet is an hour in car away. Jammie just freaks out. The sugar level was 300 at the vets. I could not understand why she had no diabetic symptoms. I purchased the blood glucometer and put her on Rad Cat raw diet and periodic canned food with no carbohydrates. Now 16 months later she is 12.8 lbs. always hungry with a sugar level 190 most tests. Never over 200 and active. Glossy coat. She has never been on insulin.
 
Purely speculating here - Jammie's blood sugars are on the high side. The normal healthy blood glucose range for a non-diabetic is c. 70-150 on a pet-calibrated meter, c. 50-120 on a human meter. Is it possible that she might be pre-diabetic? FWIW, the first symptoms Saoirse showed were increasing hunger (polyphagia) and weight loss.

It's good to hear that Jammie's coat condition is good. Deterioration in coat condition is a text book symptom of diabetes.

My instinct would be to get the vet to do a full exam and blood workup to see whether there is anything other than elevated blood sugar levels going on. I had a quick look online for info on polyphagia and found this. The view there is also that a comprehensive veterinary assessment is in order.

That's a lot of weight to lose. What is her ideal weight? How does her appearance rank on this body condition chart?
 
Thanks so much for the input.
She is thin on the body chart. I suspect that the borderline high blood sugar is the culprit.
I think the lantis or levin insulin would be best since it is slow acting.
The challenge is taking her to the vet. It is not down the block and she really has a difficult time going in a car for 2 hours not counting the time at the vet. I will try adding more calories, and see if that will help. It still boggles my mind because she is active, and has no other symptom except the weight loss and hunger.
 
Here's the link to the Roomp/Rand published study with the TR dosing protocol. Might be an idea to use that as a basis for discussion with your vet. It might be that following the Start Low/Go Slow protocol might be better, but that has not been published in any journals (as far as I am aware) and may not have as much clout with your vet. And talking of your vet, what a trek! Poor girl. :(

Re monitoring body condition, I find that my best guide to how Saoirse's doing is to keep an eye on her hips. If they start to look like they're getting thinner then I become concerned about how well/badly she's absorbing and utilising the nutrients in her food. If Jammie's that underweight then you need to feed her more but I still think that won't be a substitute for a vet exam - I think you really should check for other things that might possibly contribute to weight loss, if only to rule them out.

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Had you considered desensitizing her to travel in the car? It could make vet visits much less difficult. The general process is to break the activity into tiny, tiny steps, use a positive reinforcement such as a low carb treat, brushing (if enjoyed), or a toy, and spend a good week or so on each step until it can be done with minimal to no stress.
Step 1 would be leaving the carrier out all the time, with a comfy blanket, toy, good view out a window, maybe a spritz of Feliway Comfort Zone or catnip. Every time you find her in it, praise her and give her the reinforcement.
 
I like BJM's idea of desensitization and the use of Feliway and I also think it sounds like your kitty needs a checkup with CBC and complete chem panel to make sure nothing else is going on causing that weight loss. I don't see your location, is there perhaps a traveling vet that could come to your place? I'm just concerned about the weight loss at a high rate, I know others who fed a raw diet(and I do know Radcat is considered one of the top quality foods!) and sometimes it isn't a good fit without tweaking.

Dr. Lisa Pierson wrote a really good article on Feline Obesity; you'll need to scroll down to the part where she discusses the safe rate of weightloss and also how to recognize when a loss of muscle mass is becoming a serious problem for the kitty. I have purchased this scale, which may be helpful for you as well. Please keep us posted how you're doing!
 
I give CJ calming chews before vet visits. It relaxes her enough to cope with being in the car and at the vet.
 
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