Cat refuses to eat on a schedule

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Tia's Mom

Tia's Mom

Member Since 2016
My newly diagnosed cat Tia is refusing to eat on schedule. She has always eaten the bulk of her food while everyone sleeps. I have tried treats and not allowing her to graze but to no avail.
My question is, at our last vets visit she was 3.2. Her dosage was decreased to one unit every 12 hours. I have now missed three injections but she is happy, not drinking a lot and not looking for food. I have an appointment to learn to check her big at home on Wednesday. Any thoughts?
 
Yes blood gloucose was taken at the vets Wednesday. Tia is on Cannisulin, one unit every twelve hours.
 
When my cat was on Vetsulin, which is another name for Canninsulin, he ate on his schedule which seemed to be very related to when the insulin dose lowered his BG. Testing his BG at home told me when that was. Like your cat, he had always been a grazer and had always liked eating a lot at night before FD. In my limited experience, with my cat, I felt more comfortable letting him eat whenever he needed to and I trusted him to just "know" when that might be. Although the vet told me to limit him to eating at the same time as his insulin shot 12 hours apart, I did not do that. I found that he preferred to eat about every 2-3 hours.
 
I had a similar experience as Jan when my cat was on Caninsulin. You could tell when the various actions of the insulin took place depending on his habit. He would eat his normal meal pre-shot, then would come back exactly two hours later for another mini-meal, when the insulin really started to take effect. (You could set your watch by this - if the shot was three minutes later than usual, this snack would also be three minutes later than usual). He would then come back for more food around nadir at around +4.5 - +4.75.

I think the important thing with Caninsulin is to know your cat will eat. Does she eat anything before the shot? Even some food will act as a buffer for that first drop.
 
Catticus Maximus said:
then would come back exactly two hours later for another mini-meal,
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I observed similar marked appetite upticks in Saoirse when she was on Caninsulin. I used the behaviour as a signal to monitor her BG more closely to catch her nadir. Indeed, as her BG numbers began to improve with Caninsulin treatment after she was switched to a low carb wet diet I noticed that the onset appetite upticks became progressively earlier in the cycle.

(For others reading this thread whose cats are on Lantus I've also observed appetite upticks in her at dose onset with Lantus but they're nothing like as pronounced as when she was on the harsher Caninsulin. When Saoirse was nearing remission the appetite upticks happened significantly earlier in the cycle and these observations helped me to catch it when her pancreas started really kicking in after meals. Keeping the daily journal of behaviours alongside the home testing helped me to keep her safe. :) )


Mogs
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There is information HERE about home testing and I would strongly encourage you to not wait until next Wednesday to start doing so with a BG of 3.2 at the vet's. If Tia had a BG that low at the vet's office where many cats experience elevated glucose readings, she may not need any insulin and the only way to know is to home test. You indicated you missed 3 shots. Was that because Tia wouldn't eat or based on her behaviour (not excessively hungry or thirsty)?
 
Tia's Mom said:
Yes blood gloucose was taken at the vets Wednesday. Tia is on Cannisulin, one unit every twelve hours.
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With 3.2 mmol/L on a pet-calibrated meter that's too low. Given that that reading was done at the vets and, as Linda has already remarked, may have been temporarily elevated due to travel/vet stress I must admit I'm very relieved that you withheld those insulin doses. I strongly second Linda's suggestion that you get preshot tests before administering further Caninsulin. Have a chat with your vets and be sure to tell them about the positive clinical signs (drinking and eating).

Caninsulin can drop BG like a rock (even on a 0.1 unit microdose) if the cat is running in lower ranges. This was my experience when treating Saoirse with Caninsulin after the diet switch. She was not in remission but because of the steep drops that insulin produced it became no longer safe to continue treating her with Caninsulin so I asked our vets to switch her to a gentler-acting insulin (Lantus in our case). The gentler action allowed me to safely continue treating Saoirse and she achieved remission a couple of months later (might have been sooner if she had not had a bad pancreatitis flare).


Mogs
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MrWorfMen's Mom said:
There is information HERE about home testing and I would strongly encourage you to not wait until next Wednesday to start doing so with a BG of 3.2 at the vet's. If Tia had a BG that low at the vet's office where many cats experience elevated glucose readings, she may not need any insulin and the only way to know is to home test. You indicated you missed 3 shots. Was that because Tia wouldn't eat or based on her behaviour (not excessively hungry or thirsty)?
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I didn't inject because she didn't eat. She isn't showing any signs of excessive hunger or thirst.
 
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