13yo not eating and copying badly with hypoglicemia

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Francesca Fichera

Member Since 2021
Hello everybody. My 13yo cat was diagnosed with diabetes on Wed (5 days ago): he was hospitalized for 2 days, then they let us take him home but without any significant instructions about how to deal with this disease exactly. We had to take him to the ER because he was having a crisis, he was found hyperglicemic with a level of 600! During the hospitalization, they gave him Lantus (which is what we're trying to give him now) and rehydrated him, but he was not eating. He also tested negative for ketones.
He was back on Thursday and since then he has only eaten once, yesterday at 11.00 (I gave him a can of tuna fish), while in the evening we gave him a syringe of baby food. We're constantly monitoring him. The main issue is that his reaction to insulin consists in hypoglicemia, which gives him such a lethargic state and let us think to reduce its amount from 1 to 1/2 unit. I know he needs to eat but he refuses to, and I don't know how to solve this problem. The switches between hypo and hyper are very hard for him, please please please help me! He has lost weight so fast and I don't want to waste any precious time.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
 
I would take him back to the vet. Not eating for that length of time is an emergency, and needs to be addressed.

Things to check for/talk about with the vet:

-- nausea. There are good anti-nausea medications for cats, and if that's the problem you should have them on hand to deal with this, but the vets should also be investigating the underlying cause. Possible causes include:

-- constipation. Has he been using the litter box since he's been back?

-- pancreatitis. Very common with diabetic cats. In addition to nausea, this condition causes severe pain. Pain meds are a must. There are simple tests they can do to check for it but they aren't routine so you have to ask

-- kidney disease can also make them feel lousy, but I'm guessing that they would have picked that up with routine tests during his vet stay last week


When you say he was in a "crisis" last week, that makes me suspect a pancreatitis attack (just high blood sugar usually isn't enough to make them feel that lousy, cats tolerate high BG better than humans in general), but it's also possible that he has some other problem (like a UTI) that is making him feel rotten.

The vet should try to identify the cause, but in the short term it's critical to just get some food into him. Once they stop eating like this, it can be self-reinforcing, and you run the risk of hepatic lipidosis and other serious problems.

If the insulin dose is causing hypoglycemia, it's too high. We can help you to figure out the right dose for him, but job #1 right now is to get some food into him so he feels better. The answer could be as simple as just getting him some anti-nausea meds, but he needs to be seen by a vet to know what's going on.
 
We fixed an appointment for tomorrow, but we're not taking him back to the clinic we went to. We found another vet who is not available today.
In the clinic they didn't find anything wrong with him apparently (all results are good, apart from some that were described as "reactive" lymph nodes), but I don't trust those people, they didn't even explained to us how to properly get a blood drop for the glycemic test (they told us to pierce his beans, when on the ear it's way much easier - which we found out on YOUTUBE, Jeeez!).
In Italy is 4.00 p.m, and our appointment with the new vet is scheduled for 1.30 p.m. tomorrow: since I can't give him meds meanwhile, I have no idea whether to "force" the feeding again by syringe (minced wet food?) or not, I feel like I am a monster.

P.S.: yes, he is using the litter box. And he's drinking.
Thank you!!!
 
Hi!
Yes, you do need to feed. I am sorry it is similar to force feeding, but your kitty needs some calories. Continue syringing the baby food with a calm state of mind, while knowing it is good for him!
You can also dilute whatever food he normally would like.
So glad you will see the vet tomorrow.

I'm sorry the diagnosing vet wasn't more helpful.
 
OK, drinking and using the litterbox are excellent signs!

Francesca Fichera said:
(all results are good, apart from some that were described as "reactive" lymph nodes)
Click to expand...

did they mean that when they touched the nodes he reacted as if they were painful? Hmm.

Francesca Fichera said:
In Italy is 4.00 p.m, and our appointment with the new vet is scheduled for 1.30 p.m. tomorrow: since I can't give him meds meanwhile, I have no idea whether to "force" the feeding again by syringe (minced wet food?) or not, I feel like I am a monster.
Click to expand...

Assist feeling isn't fun, but I agree, it's necessary at this point. I'm so glad he'll be seeing a vet tomorrow, I hope the new vet is able to identify the problem.

One other thing to ask about and check on his records: how exactly was the diabetes diagnosed? Did they do a fructosamine test or just the blood glucose test? 600 is extremely high, but that might have been a temporary response to stress/illness. A fructosamine test gives an average over weeks, and is a more reliable test for true diabetes.
 
Francesca Fichera said:
<3 thank you! It's been 5 days and it's already killing me! I want to fight so much against this hideous disease
Click to expand...

it is, at first, a difficult journey that we don't often have much help with. Many of our vets give simplistic instructions and leave us hanging. If I hadn't found this forum when I did, my Tina could have suffered badly. I thought I knew better than the vet, which in some ways I did, and that was BEFORE I found this place! Click on my spreadsheet, for example at the end of my signature, to see how we chart BG numbers. I started in July, 2019. Tina has been off insulin since November 2019. Every person will learn best how to balance caring for their cat and themselves.

The instructions you will find here are excellent (start reading yellow stickies) and ask questions on your thread. :)
Welcome!
 
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Nan & Amber (GA) said:
OK, drinking and using the litterbox are excellent signs!



did they mean that when they touched the nodes he reacted as if they were painful? Hmm.



Assist feeling isn't fun, but I agree, it's necessary at this point. I'm so glad he'll be seeing a vet tomorrow, I hope the new vet is able to identify the problem.

One other thing to ask about and check on his records: how exactly was the diabetes diagnosed? Did they do a fructosamine test or just the blood glucose test? 600 is extremely high, but that might have been a temporary response to stress/illness. A fructosamine test gives an average over weeks, and is a more reliable test for true diabetes.
Click to expand...
Nan & Amber (GA) said:
OK, drinking and using the litterbox are excellent signs!



did they mean that when they touched the nodes he reacted as if they were painful? Hmm.



Assist feeling isn't fun, but I agree, it's necessary at this point. I'm so glad he'll be seeing a vet tomorrow, I hope the new vet is able to identify the problem.

One other thing to ask about and check on his records: how exactly was the diabetes diagnosed? Did they do a fructosamine test or just the blood glucose test? 600 is extremely high, but that might have been a temporary response to stress/illness. A fructosamine test gives an average over weeks, and is a more reliable test for true diabetes.
Click to expand...

So, for "reactive" they meant they were a reaction to the crisis itself.
And I think they only did blood test. I'm gonna ask for fructosamine, thanks again!
And for the record, I gave him baby food via syringe and after some reluctancies he started licking it on his own! <3
Thank you everybody!!! I'll keep you posted
 
Tina Marie and Jan said:
it is, at first, a difficult journey that we don't often have much help with. Many of our vets give simplistic instructions and leave us hanging. If I hadn't found this forum when I did, my Tina could have suffered badly. I thought I knew better than the vet, which in some ways I did, and that was BEFORE I found this place! Click on my spreadsheet, for example at the end of my signature, to see how we chart BG numbers. I started in July, 2019. Tina has been off insulin since November 2019. Every person will learn best how to balance caring for their cat and themselves.

The instructions you will find here are excellent (start reading yellow stickies) and ask questions on your thread. :)
Welcome!
Click to expand...
Your spreadsheet looks BRILLIANT, I guess I'm gonna have to ask you soooo many things
 
Ok guys, yesterday we went to the vet who at fist suggested to try to establish his blood glucose curve without insulin injections. Of course, this was not possible because the values went up, so we did less than 1/2 unit (we're using a 0.3 ml syringe). She also suggested we do some injections of liquids (Ringer's lactate solution, homeopathic remedy nux vomica, Cyanocobalamin and another one for the liver that was not available) in order to rebalance his body functions. Apparently, he has gained appetite; on the other hand, he has had two little episodes of vomit (mainly stomach acid). He tends to eat on his own normal wet food, but we have the impression he has a gastro-intestinal suffering, taking into account the nausea and also the liquidness of the feces. Since hyperglicemia is showing up again, we phoned the vet, who has just told us to give him a very small amount of Metoclopramide; then proceed with feeding and insulin (1 unit).
I'm still thinking of the pancreatitis attack, but the pancreas looks good from the imaging they did to him at the clinic last week. We still don't understand whether diabetes is a primary or a secondary disease, and this stresses me out.

The numbers are the following:

Yesterday
7.00 am - 147
1.00 pm - 161
3.00 pm - meal
5.45 pm - 476
8.00 pm - 506 + meal (wet food, 60-70 g) + insulin 1/2 unit
11.00 pm - 412 + meal (wet food, 80 g)
1.00 am - 225

Today
7.00 am - 267
8.44 am - meal (75-80 g wet food)
10.40 am - 395
1.00 pm - 496
14.15 - meal (about to be fed)
 
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