? Diabetic cat, no appetite/ doesn't like food?

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Krakken and Calypso

Member Since 2022
New here. Krakken has been recently diagnosed with diabetes. We have been doing okay but he hasn't wanted to eat much lately. He seems eager to eat in the morning as in he's at my door seemingly waiting for me to put food down. I'm currently feeding Wellness CORE Skipjack and tuna/ salmon wet food mixed with some of the same brand kibble which my other cat eats. He has devoured the same food in the past ( smaller cans though). he will eagerly eat treats that I try to coax him with. recently we had a vet visit where he was given a Cerenia injection for vomiting and nausea and I was sent home with 24MG tablets with instructions to give him 1/2 of every 24- 48 hours, which we started last night when he didn't want to eat. He did not have markers for a pancreatitis diagnosis but the mark for it was slightly elevated ( I'll get those numbers today).

Question#1 is there a general consensus on a certain high protein Low carb food that generally most cats like?

Question#2 Given his BG numbers on the SS what would be advisable?

His BG levels appear to be fine and not dipping at least when I'm able to test +3 post and pre-shot times. I did skip his PM shot and most likely going to skip this morning shot if I cant get him to eat much. Behaviourly he appears to be fine. I'm new at this and any advice would be greatly appreciated. I have started the spreadsheet. I need to get a copy of his lab work.
 
Hi and welcome. Any time a newly diagnosed diabetic cat doesn't eat or seems eager for food but then barely touches it, the concern is DKA (diabetic keto acidosis). I wouldn't skip shots, insulin is very important in keeping DKA at bay

My boy Hendrick was hospitalized with DKA it was very scary. Do you have a way of checking for ketones?

See more about DKA here:

https://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB...oacidosis-dka-and-blood-ketone-meters.135952/
 
Krakken and Calypso said:
Question#1 is there a general consensus on a certain high protein Low carb food that generally most cats like?

Question#2 Given his BG numbers on the SS what would be advisable?
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1.) a large number of members here feed fancy feast pate or friskies pate. We feed a lot of FF pate, Weruva, Tiki, and Stella and Chewys raw freeze-dried

2.) Lantus likes consistency in dosing, the experts here say. That may be why the numbers are all over the place, I'm not sure. I'll let one of the super smart folk chime in here. They say a decision on dose is not based on the pre-shot number, but on how low the dose is taking the cat. You're doing great with home testing just need more data I think.

I'm sure Diane, Bron, Mellissa or one of the others will be along shortly, I'm still pretty new to all this myself so I am not the expert you need.
 
What does he weigh? That's a large Cerenia dose.

Please do check ketones as soon as you can; the regular urine ketone strips from a pharmacy work fine, but a fair amount of us use blood meters because I don't have time to stalk a cat all day waiting for urine lol I'm assuming the vet checked and there were none, but they can form fast (as Kyle can certainly attest).

The others are better to advise on dose, but I would stick with the 0.5U for now - if he's above 200. If not, stall without feeding for 20 minutes and ask for advice here.

We withhold food 2 hours before the shot to get consistent preshot numbers, have you been doing that? Just want the full picture when I look at the spreadsheet

Also - Lantus onsets (kicks in) around the 3 hr mark, but nadir (the low point) is anywhere from +4 to +8 usually, and that's the area of main concern
 
Hendrick's mom and dad said:
1.) a large number of members here feed fancy feast pate or friskies pate. We feed a lot of FF pate, Weruva, Tiki, and Stella and Chewys raw freeze-dried

2.) Lantus likes consistency in dosing, the experts here say. That may be why the numbers are all over the place, I'm not sure. I'll let one of the super smart folk chime in here. They say a decision on dose is not based on the pre-shot number, but on how low the dose is taking the cat. You're doing great with home testing just need more data I think.

I'm sure Diane, Bron, Mellissa or one of the others will be along shortly, I'm still pretty new to all this myself so I am not the expert you need.
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I can get him to eat a little of the wellness CORE patte I'll give some of the other Pattes a try.

It's difficult to be consistent when he's not eating much, If he eats very little I've opted to give him .5U purely because I don't know how low he's dipping while I'm away at work. I'm really dosing off of AM and PMPS values and how much he's eating.
 
FrostD said:
What does he weigh? That's a large Cerenia dose.

Please do check ketones as soon as you can; the regular urine ketone strips from a pharmacy work fine, but a fair amount of us use blood meters because I don't have time to stalk a cat all day waiting for urine lol I'm assuming the vet checked and there were none, but they can form fast (as Kyle can certainly attest).

The others are better to advise on dose, but I would stick with the 0.5U for now - if he's above 200. If not, stall without feeding for 20 minutes and ask for advice here.

We withhold food 2 hours before the shot to get consistent preshot numbers, have you been doing that? Just want the full picture when I look at the spreadsheet

Also - Lantus onsets (kicks in) around the 3 hr mark, but nadir (the low point) is anywhere from +4 to +8 usually, and that's the area of main concern
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Krakken is 13lbs.

Yeah I'm curious how to test urine with a shared cat box. that would be another useful data point to go off of. I may be mistaken but, to my understanding Ketones in the Urine are a marker for ketoacidosis with develops when BG numbers are high for extended periods of time? I don't think we're not on that end of the spectrum, initially when he was diagnosed we were.

With work I can't catch his nadir numbers, which is my concern when he's not eating much and I dose him and leave for work which is why I'm shooting low at the moment.
 
Welcome. To help with dosing we need you to set up a spreadsheet.

I’m wondering if a test fir pancreatitis was done given the appetite issues and nausea. It’s a blood test, SpecfPL.


Cerenia is given every 24 hours for best results. Sounds like it’s not helping enough. I would ask for an RX for ondansetron which works better for many cats if nauseous. Some need both cerenia and ondansetron.
Lantus onsets around +2. If lower than the preshot it might be an active cycle. Cats often go lower at night so can you test more then?
 
tiffmaxee said:
Welcome. To help with dosing we need you to set up a spreadsheet.

I’m wondering if a test fir pancreatitis was done given the appetite issues and nausea. It’s a blood test, SpecfPL.


Cerenia is given every 24 hours for best results. Sounds like it’s not helping enough. I would ask for an RX for ondansetron which works better for many cats if nauseous. Some need both cerenia and ondansetron.
Lantus onsets around +2. If lower than the preshot it might be an active cycle. Cats often go lower at night so can you test more then?
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Spreadsheet is in my signature, I updated his lab info along with google drive links in the SS to the actual documents, Blood work was taken 2 weeks ago and urine little over one week ago.

Krakken ate a good portion of patte this morning, he did get another 12mg Cerenia last night, I gave him 0.5U this morning after his meal.

I can test more often in AM/PMPS +1through+3, I can probably go to +4 in the morning.

For his pancreas SPEC fPL 4.1ug/L target being 0.0-3.5 ug/L, Vet said is slightly higher but did not seem too concerned.
 
With a pet meter reductions are taken if under 68 so 1.5 is definitely too high a dose. I would stick with .50 and see how it goes for 10 cycles unless he jumps high and stays high.

If under 200 at shot time. Stall. DON’T feed, and recheck in 20-30 minutes to see if the BG goes up. Post asking fir dosing advice if it dues t go up on it’s own.

As for the SpecfPL, it’s nothing to worry about. If over the normal range it could be that pancreatitis is causing his inappetence. Chronic pancreatitis comes and goes. Strangely enough, a high number wouldn’t necessarily coincide with a worse case. Max was often more symptomatic with a 9 than a 50! At this point you just treat the symptoms which you are doing with cerenia. If he meatloafs it might mean he’s in pain. With Max a mild case meant all he needed was ondansetron or cerenia. A bad case meant buprenex for pain added and perhaps sub-q fluids.
 
Krakken and Calypso said:
Krakken ate a good portion of patte this morning, he did get another 12mg Cerenia last night, I gave him 0.5U this morning after his meal.

For his pancreas SPEC fPL 4.1ug/L target being 0.0-3.5 ug/L, Vet said is slightly higher but did not seem too concerned.
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I would contact vet and ask why the dose for cerenia is so high. My boy weighs 17.5 pounds and he's only supposed to get half of a 16mg cerenia every 24 hours. His ER doctor gave us a prescription for 16mg every 24 hours and when our regular vet refilled the prescription, he changed it to only half of a tablet (8mg) without telling us. We continued to give him a full tablet without knowing it was too much for him. I freaked out when i realized we had been overdosing him because Cerenia can cause issues in the liver.

My vet also told us that if the SPEC fPL is elevated, then there's a problem with the pancreas. He said the number doesn't really matter, if it's higher than normal, there's inflammation. I would definately start treating at home for pancreatitis. We have had weekly bouts of pancreatitis with Taz, since he was diagnosed in early January. Thankfully (knocking on wood), we have now went just over 2 weeks without an episode. I treat it as soon as I see the signs, and early intervention makes all the difference.

Good luck to you and your boy.
 
tiffmaxee said:
With a pet meter reductions are taken if under 68 so 1.5 is definitely too high a dose. I would stick with .50 and see how it goes for 10 cycles unless he jumps high and stays high.

If under 200 at shot time. Stall. DON’T feed, and recheck in 20-30 minutes to see if the BG goes up. Post asking fir dosing advice if it dues t go up on it’s own.

As for the SpecfPL, it’s nothing to worry about. If over the normal range it could be that pancreatitis is causing his inappetence. Chronic pancreatitis comes and goes. Strangely enough, a high number wouldn’t necessarily coincide with a worse case. Max was often more symptomatic with a 9 than a 50! At this point you just treat the symptoms which you are doing with cerenia. If he meatloafs it might mean he’s in pain. With Max a mild case meant all he needed was ondansetron or cerenia. A bad case meant buprenex for pain added and perhaps sub-q fluids.
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His original insulin dose he was prescribed was 3U and i've been lowering it since.

What is it that would cause BG to rise at AM/PMPS, just BG coming up after his lowest during peak insulin? between yesterday and today he's been in the 100s up until I feed him and then I typically shoot him 30 mins after he eats. at a certain point I wont be able to wait for it to increase to 200 before I head of to work.

Do you give Max any Probiotics or other supplements for his pancreas?
 
SaraMV said:
I would contact vet and ask why the dose for cerenia is so high. My boy weighs 17.5 pounds and he's only supposed to get half of a 16mg cerenia every 24 hours. His ER doctor gave us a prescription for 16mg every 24 hours and when our regular vet refilled the prescription, he changed it to only half of a tablet (8mg) without telling us. We continued to give him a full tablet without knowing it was too much for him. I freaked out when i realized we had been overdosing him because Cerenia can cause issues in the liver.

My vet also told us that if the SPEC fPL is elevated, then there's a problem with the pancreas. He said the number doesn't really matter, if it's higher than normal, there's inflammation. I would definately start treating at home for pancreatitis. We have had weekly bouts of pancreatitis with Taz, since he was diagnosed in early January. Thankfully (knocking on wood), we have now went just over 2 weeks without an episode. I treat it as soon as I see the signs, and early intervention makes all the difference.

Good luck to you and your boy.
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Iv'e read elsewhere that 1mg per lb of body weight is suggested dose for Cerenia tablets. I wonder if it decreases with severity of the nausea/ vomiting.

What at home Pancreatitis treatments are you giving Taz?
 
Krakken and Calypso said:
What at home Pancreatitis treatments are you giving Taz?
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I have completely changed his feeding routine. With pancreatitis, small frequent meals are a lot better than less frequent larger meals. Taz originally got fed...1/2 of a can of moist for his insulin meal, and 1/8 of a can snack at both his +3 and his +5. But I decided to cut his 1/2 portion into three smaller meals (he gets a third of it at insulin time, +1, and +3). He also gets 1/8 of a can at both his +5 and +8. I've found that this makes it so his pancreas isn't overloaded by having too much food put on it at one time, and since I've began feeding him like that, he hasn't had a flare up yet (knocking real hard on wood). It has also helped his indigestion (throwing up acid before a meal) quite a bit. Not to mention, he LOVES to eat and this way he's eating 10 times a day and getting plenty of exercise running to his automatic feeder. :)

At the first sign of discomfort (meatloafing, laying down carefully/slowly, licking lips, turning away from food or not finishing it), I always start off with putting a little water in his meals. Not too much, but enough to make a little gravy. The pancreas needs the extra fluid and that's why an i.v. is beneficial. If he still acts uncomfortable, I start giving cerenia and bupe. Once he skips two meals, I know it's worse and I immediately begin syringe feeding him. It usually takes about 3 days, and then he'll start eating again on his own. I had a $6,000 ER vet bill when he was first diagnosed and I'm trying my hardest to prevent that from happening again.
 
Max had chronic pancreatitis fir a few years before becoming diabetic. We have a diabetic handbook I suggest you read. Treatment is based upon symptoms. Food is not considered to be an issue like with people and cats. There are other things that can raise the SpecFPL. So it’s usually diagnose if slightly elevated but symptoms.
 
Bounces occur fro going lower than housed to or dropping too fast. That’s what happened on 3/28. Today nice blues.
 
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