Cat is hungry but won't eat, I'm out of ideas

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Kraft

Member Since 2018
I'm at my wits end. Its extreamly frustrating!!
My cat, 5 years old, diagnosed with diabetes October 16th 2018. 4 units caninsulin twice a day.
When we switched her diet over to Purina's DM wet canned food and dry, she ate it fine!
Lately she has been extreamly fussy about her food. She stopped eating the wet DM food a month ago. I started giving her different friskies wet canned food, from tasty treasures to concoctions! Mostly all ranges of flavors too! I even tried special kitty! I have tried fancy feast pate in all the available flavours!! She only seems to like a freshly cracked can, but eats very little of it. I warm up her food and try to give it to her but she refuses to eat it. I have tried parmesan cheese on top, tuna juice on top, putting the gravy from the chunky on top. Nothing works!
She will not eat her dry food anymore either.
She will only lick the gravy off of the chunky canned food. Therefore I have only been giving her pate, but she wont eat it now.
I'm going to call the vets on Monday.

She meows and begs for human food like chicken and fish. She goes nuts over canned tuna but I am not sure if that would be good for her, we've only been pouring the juice on top of her food.
Because she is not eating i am monitoring her glucose level before I give insulin. The vet instructed me last time, that if her glucose was under 10, dont give her insulin. But it's always been high so i give her the insulin and try again with food later.
I dont know what to do, it's so frustrating and i have no more ideas on how to get her to eat.
I'm extreamly upset over it as well and stressed out because nothing seems to be going right anymore.
-long exasperated sigh-
 
Nausea can cause this - looking as though they want to eat but then they walk away. Could she have a dental problem that's making eating painful?
 
Oh my gosh. This was exactly what Todd did for weeks before I got his pancreatitis, IBD, and diabetes under control. He was so nauseous, but he wanted to eat so badly. It was heartbreaking. I agree with the above poster - sounds like your little girl is nauseous! If you can get your hands on some anti nausea meds - ondansetron (Zofran) she should be a new kitty. 4mg tablets, snapped in half, so 2mg, every 12 hours. It is the same prescription people use; my vet had it filled at Walgreens and it wasn't expensive.

My heart goes out to you. Last spring I spent days sitting on the floor with Todd, trying EVERYTHING - different cans, different varieties, plain baked chicken, and low-sodium plain deli turkey. And if I gave him wet food with pieces in gravy, all he ate was the gravy! *sigh* I totally feel your pain. It's ok that your girl isn't eating dry food, since that has more carbs and vets say that isn't as great for diabetics. But she needs to start eating wet food soon! Going a few days without much food can cause hepatic lipidosis (fatty liver disease) and that is sometimes a struggle to come back from. Vets always told me eating ANYTHING was better than nothing, since hepatic lipidosis was a concern. So like I said, baked chicken and deli turkey was what I gave Todd till he started to feel better. Not that you want to start this habit, but Todd was also more inclined to eat when I would sit with him and spoon his Fancy Feast pate from the can, and he could lick it off the spoon. I tried anything.

I am curious - are you in the United States? Or, what type of glucose monitor are you using? If your cats BG is below 10, that is fatally low.... Maybe it is a typo and you meant 100? I agree, don't give insulin if it's too low, since she is not eating.

Keep us posted. I can't stress enough that I know exactly how you feel. It's so wretched and heartbreaking when our babies don't eat. BUT, get some Zofran for her. I have a feeling that will help a lot.
 
Have her teeth checked. Could also be nausea. (Pancratitis? Cerenia may help...ask vet) Maybe FortiFlora sprinkled on top would entice her? If she doesn't eat she may need to have food syringed into her mouth.
 
Todd's mom Heather said:
Oh my gosh. This was exactly what Todd did for weeks before I got his pancreatitis, IBD, and diabetes under control. He was so nauseous, but he wanted to eat so badly. It was heartbreaking. I agree with the above poster - sounds like your little girl is nauseous! If you can get your hands on some anti nausea meds - ondansetron (Zofran) she should be a new kitty. 4mg tablets, snapped in half, so 2mg, every 12 hours. It is the same prescription people use; my vet had it filled at Walgreens and it wasn't expensive.

My heart goes out to you. Last spring I spent days sitting on the floor with Todd, trying EVERYTHING - different cans, different varieties, plain baked chicken, and low-sodium plain deli turkey. And if I gave him wet food with pieces in gravy, all he ate was the gravy! *sigh* I totally feel your pain. It's ok that your girl isn't eating dry food, since that has more carbs and vets say that isn't as great for diabetics. But she needs to start eating wet food soon! Going a few days without much food can cause hepatic lipidosis (fatty liver disease) and that is sometimes a struggle to come back from. Vets always told me eating ANYTHING was better than nothing, since hepatic lipidosis was a concern. So like I said, baked chicken and deli turkey was what I gave Todd till he started to feel better. Not that you want to start this habit, but Todd was also more inclined to eat when I would sit with him and spoon his Fancy Feast pate from the can, and he could lick it off the spoon. I tried anything.

I am curious - are you in the United States? Or, what type of glucose monitor are you using? If your cats BG is below 10, that is fatally low.... Maybe it is a typo and you meant 100? I agree, don't give insulin if it's too low, since she is not eating.

Keep us posted. I can't stress enough that I know exactly how you feel. It's so wretched and heartbreaking when our babies don't eat. BUT, get some Zofran for her. I have a feeling that will help a lot.
Click to expand...

Thank you, I will ask the vet tomorrow about her possibly being nauseated and about medication for that.
I'm from canada. Our glucose monitor is set to mmol/l. I'm using the AlphaTrak 2 and the strips by the same brand.
I'll try and see if she will eat some plain cooked chicken since she seems more willing to eat human food. I always keep her dry food out and give fresh water and offer wet food every few hours. But I'll try some chicken.
I'll update tomorrow after the vets.
Again thank you.
 
Kris & Teasel said:
Nausea can cause this - looking as though they want to eat but then they walk away. Could she have a dental problem that's making eating painful?
Click to expand...
I'll look into the nausea and ask the vet tomorrow about it as well.
I'll have a look at her teeth as well.
Thank you
 
JanetNJ said:
Have her teeth checked. Could also be nausea. (Pancratitis? Cerenia may help...ask vet) Maybe FortiFlora sprinkled on top would entice her? If she doesn't eat she may need to have food syringed into her mouth.
Click to expand...
I've heard of Fortiflora before but I have never looked into it. Can you buy it at a pet store?
I'll try and get her to eat some chicken and call the vet tomorrow and possibly bring her in to get checked out.
Thank you for the input!
 
Kraft said:
I've heard of Fortiflora before but I have never looked into it. Can you buy it at a pet store?
I'll try and get her to eat some chicken and call the vet tomorrow and possibly bring her in to get checked out.
Thank you for the input!
Click to expand...
You can get it on amazon, chewy, Adwdiabetes.com... Not sure if it's in pet stores
 
If you try pepcid, hide it somehow. Wrap it in a pill pocket or cheese or similar. It tastes HORRIBLE. It will help if the problem is stomach acid. You can also try raising the food dish a little.
 
With Rhubarb when she wasn't eating enough, I would just keep putting the dish in front of her. She seemed to eat better when it was under her cat tree or on rug. Just make sure to tell any others in the house where the dish is if you do that so they don't step in it!
 
I buy pole-caught canned tuna, it's either low or no sodium, no more than 90mg and I keep adding filtered water to the tuna/juice to further water it down to reduce the sodium. Also, poach chicken in no sodium broth, flake it up and see if she'll eat the broth, if not both and add a little cheese - watch to NOT overload on sodium.

1/4 of a 10mg Pepcid, with Cerenia or another aunti-nausea med, and raise the prowl a bit - exactly what was said above.
 
Update:
Hello everyone, thank you for all the suggestions I really appreciate it!
Monday we called the vet and were told to keep her posted about how my cat is doing through out the week and if she doesnt eat anything at all to give her a call so we can set up an appointment.
Then she suggested we try Orijen Acana, but my kitty would not touch dry food, so we got a sample bag of just the Orijen. And surprisingly she ate it! I kept it down for her in my room so that I could make sure our other cat didnt eat it.
The pet store also gave us some raw food to sample. It's called spring meadows natural pet food, in chicken and beef. I fed a little bit to her a few minutes ago and she ate it up no problem. I also gave her a little of the dry Orijen food as well.
The store gave us some Almo Nature pet food + amore samples to try. It was suggested to put it on top of dry food or into a separate bowl. I have not tried it yet.
Hopefully she will continue to eat and have no problems. I'll still keep watching her closely.

Again, thank you everyone!
 
Yeah my guess is nausea - which could be pancreatitis or hairballs, or teeth. Or bowels too! How are her bowel movements...?
 
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