Need to give insulin, but kitty has an empty tummy

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Lals

Member Since 2017
My cat quit eating two days ago and seems nauseated (vomiting clear fluid). We had taken her off of insulin and she was doing fine, but I am now wondering if she needs to be back on the insulin. Maybe it will stimulate her appetite if her bgl is lowered?

I will blood test her this evening and if she is high, would like to administer insulin. How can I do that safely if she has an empty stomach? I have Novolin insulin for her. Should I try to "spike" her glucose by force feeding her some corn syrup so she doesn't crash after the insulin?

Thoughts, please.
 
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DO NOT give insulin if your cat is not eating! Not eating for two days is dangerous for a cat as they can develop hepatic lipidosis which is a life threatening and expensive condition to treat. If I were you, I'd take your cat to the vet ASAP. Also if kitty's BG has gone up due to lack of insulin and starts throwing ketones, she could also end up with DKA another life threatening and expensive condition. Please get your cat to the vet ASAP. This is not something you can handle at home. You need to find out what is going on and get appropriate help for your cat.
 
Thank you all. I will see if I can get ahold of a vet to help us out. Unfortunately, we are in a very rural, isolated area and I may not be able to do so promptly.
 
Has she eaten absolutely nothing? Will she drink water? She may have pancratitis. Until you can get her to a vet, water down some pate and assist feed her with a needeless syringe.
 
JanetNJ said:
Until you can get her to a vet, water down some pate and assist feed her with a needeless syringe.
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If getting to a vet is not working I'm with JanetNJ, about getting some food into her. The less sensitive thing to call assist feed is "Force Feed". Don't let your emotions get the best of you. It may be unpleasant but it saved my Andrews life. Some pharmacies may have a syringe you can adapt to your cats size. Good luck but remember you may get to a point where minutes count as far as getting to a vet. Do you have any vets in your area that do house calls?
 
Thank you all for your support and for pushing for us to locate a vet ASAP. We were able to get kitty to the vet this morning and she is staying the weekend. Based on blood test results, ketones are fine, there are no thyroid issues, liver enzymes (?) are high, and bgl was very high. The vet is optimistic that by hydrating her, giving her IV nutrition, and insulin that she will recover. We will be visiting with the vet early next week to revise our current treatment plan to hopefully allow our kitty a better. healthier life with diabetes.
 
Thank goodness you got her into the vet!!

With the elevated liver enzymes, it does sound like some HL was setting in.....Hopefully they will also get her eating because that's the most important thing! They can syringe feed or place a tube to get food into her if they have to, but she MUST eat
 
Lals, So glad you got her to the vet and they are looking after her. Sounds like hepatic lipidosis but I'd make sure the vet checked for pancreatitis which could be the root cause of her vomiting and lack of eating. There's a simple snap test they can do in house. If pancreatitis is in the picture, you should get anti-nausea med, an appetite stimulant and possibly some pain medication for use when you bring her home. It's important to try to figure out why she stopped eating so you can deal with it appropriately going forward.
 
I'm so glad you got her to the vet! She really needed help you couldn't give her at home. Prayers that the vet can figure out what caused her to stop eating and get her back on the right track.

:bighug::bighug::bighug:
 
See how quickly things change Lals? You joined Thursday, first post was Friday night and by Saturday night you've got a bunch of people you never knew before pulling for you and your Baby. Now you can get some guilt free sleep!
 
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