URGENT - Pedey is not eating, should we dose?

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pedeysmom

Member Since 2022
Hi everyone,

I'm so sorry that I haven't had time to put together the spreadsheet, been in and out of the hospital with the pregnancy and just haven't been able to pull it together from our handwritten notes. We've had no issues with Pedey eating until yesterday - switched him to cleanprotein Turkey Dr. Elsey's 3.5 weeks ago without problems, and his insulin dosages after each BG curve (we've been doing Fridays) had to increase by 1 unit to now, when he's at 3 units. We did not increase last week so he has been at 3 units since 4/1/22.

NOTE: We unfortunately had to move out Sunday night due to a sudden emergency renovation and are at an AirBnB about 10 minutes away. Wondering if this is stress related - he seems to be loving the new digs but then is also not eating.

We haven't seen him eat since he had a quarter can of wet food last night around 7:30pm. After that we've been trying to entice him and he'll take a few licks here and there but won't eat, and he's a kibble addict. We are going to buy some Tiki Cat to see if he'll eat it (hoping there are smaller bits of kibble in that).

Last night (4/11) around 10:30pm, his BG levels were 213.
This morning (4/12) at 7:30am, his BG levels were 151.

We've only done 3 BG curves so far but the results are below - these are typically where our numbers were when we randomly tested other days as well.

First curve (3/26) results after 1 unit glargine insulin at 8 am and 1 unit glargine insulin at 8pm for one week:

Blood Glucose Curve thus far on 3/26/22:
7:30am before eating: 325
9:30am: 301
11:30am: 301
1:30pm: 298

Second curve (4/1) results after 2 units glargine insulin at 8 am and 2 units glargine insulin at 8pm for one week):

Blood Glucose Curve thus far on 4/1/22:
7:30am before shot/was hungry: 270
9:30am: 261
11:30am: 234
1:30pm: 227
3:30pm: 220

Third curve (4/8) results after 3 units glargine insulin at 8 am and 3 units glargine insulin at 8pm for one week):

Blood Glucose Curve thus far on 4/8/22:
7:30am before shot: 220
9:45am: 224
12:00pm: 252
1:30pm: 206
3:30pm: 173

We are currently holding off on giving him his 3 unit dose since we can't get him to eat and will call the vet as well. He is acting normally other than the eating, although thinking about it he may also be dehydrated as we haven't seen him drinking much water.

Any advice is majorly welcome as we are so worried.
 
UPDATE: We just gave him water in a different bowl (we'd bought a new one for this trip) and he drank for about 2 minutes, so clearly very thirsty.
 
pedeysmom said:
Hi everyone,

I'm so sorry that I haven't had time to put together the spreadsheet, been in and out of the hospital with the pregnancy and just haven't been able to pull it together from our handwritten notes. We've had no issues with Pedey eating until yesterday - switched him to cleanprotein Turkey Dr. Elsey's 3.5 weeks ago without problems, and his insulin dosages after each BG curve (we've been doing Fridays) had to increase by 1 unit to now, when he's at 3 units. We did not increase last week so he has been at 3 units since 4/1/22.

NOTE: We unfortunately had to move out Sunday night due to a sudden emergency renovation and are at an AirBnB about 10 minutes away. Wondering if this is stress related - he seems to be loving the new digs but then is also not eating.

We haven't seen him eat since he had a quarter can of wet food last night around 7:30pm. After that we've been trying to entice him and he'll take a few licks here and there but won't eat, and he's a kibble addict. We are going to buy some Tiki Cat to see if he'll eat it (hoping there are smaller bits of kibble in that).

Last night (4/11) around 10:30pm, his BG levels were 213.
This morning (4/12) at 7:30am, his BG levels were 151.

We've only done 3 BG curves so far but the results are below - these are typically where our numbers were when we randomly tested other days as well.

First curve (3/26) results after 1 unit glargine insulin at 8 am and 1 unit glargine insulin at 8pm for one week:

Blood Glucose Curve thus far on 3/26/22:
7:30am before eating: 325
9:30am: 301
11:30am: 301
1:30pm: 298

Second curve (4/1) results after 2 units glargine insulin at 8 am and 2 units glargine insulin at 8pm for one week):

Blood Glucose Curve thus far on 4/1/22:
7:30am before shot/was hungry: 270
9:30am: 261
11:30am: 234
1:30pm: 227
3:30pm: 220

Third curve (4/8) results after 3 units glargine insulin at 8 am and 3 units glargine insulin at 8pm for one week):

Blood Glucose Curve thus far on 4/8/22:
7:30am before shot: 220
9:45am: 224
12:00pm: 252
1:30pm: 206
3:30pm: 173

We are currently holding off on giving him his 3 unit dose since we can't get him to eat and will call the vet as well. He is acting normally other than the eating, although thinking about it he may also be dehydrated as we haven't seen him drinking much water.

Any advice is majorly welcome as we are so worried.
Click to expand...
I tagged a couple of experienced people to help you. Hopefully they jump on soon to help you. How are you & Pedey doing today?
 
What did you end up doing this morning?

With glargine, and his numbers, it is usually ok to give almost the full dose even if not eating much. The trouble is without a spreadsheet I can't say that with real certainty for Pedey. You could do a half dose if you're worried, but obviously continue to monitor. Skipping insulin in an unregulated cat comes with the risk of DKA.

Does he seem in pain at all? Meatloaf position, hiding, ears pinned? Or nauseous? Licking lips, hanging by bowl but not eating?
 
Thought I posted this last night (4/13)!

Thank you everyone for the responses. We didn't give him the dose this morning as my husband was managing toddler alone and was worried he wouldn't be able to monitor him properly for hypoglycemia (I had a few doctor's appts) but reading the risk of DKA will not do that again. Encouraged him to eat and got some new foods in case he was having a dental issue and didn't want to eat the larger Dr. Elsey's kibble - well, he was so affronted by the new Tiki Cat that he ate some Dr. Elsey's! Remembered from my first cat that passed at 20 due to cancer that she would drink at the end from water glasses (the fancier the better) so put a bunch of those around and saw him drinking a few times. Luckily this Airbnb has quite the assortment of ornate glassware (I'm not sure they intended it for this purpose but whatever helps Pedey!).

We tested before his evening food/shot and he was at 221, so went ahead and gave him the 3 unit shot. He ate some wet food right before the shot so we are really hopeful this was a stress related/exhausted 48 hours and he'll revert back to normal.

Update from 4/14:

Unfortunately we did not get a reading this morning before Pedey's shot, but this evening pre-shot after eating and drinking normally today he was at 90 (a number we have never seen before) and so we did not give the shot. Despite everything we have going on we desperately need to get more consistent with the testing and get a spreadsheet together.
 
Edit from above - we are not planning on giving the shot per my reading of the SLGS guidelines but if anyone has other advice we welcome it!
 
You are right to skip without any further data, but I will tag @Wendy&Neko @tiffmaxee @Bandit's Mom

We really cannot give dose advice without the spreadsheet/more data, but one thing is for sure, you do need to reduce your dose. I wouldn't keep skipping, but consider a reduction somewhere from 2-2.75U. Again, without numbers I cannot tell you what is safe - just that 3U is too high at the moment
 
Please set up a spreadsheet. Just add the last week of bg for now. With SLGS a reduction is earned for being under 90. I suspect that has happened. You never want to shoot under 150 for now. It was good you skipped.
 
Spreadsheet has been updated (and please forgive us for being so spotty on our testing - we are working really hard on getting better at all of this).

Thank you all for any advice you can offer, including how much you would recommend reducing the 3 unit dose. We will definitely try testing before Pedey eats tomorrow both morning and evening so that we can get some more useful numbers.
 
We would not have advised you to increase by a full unit, especially when feeding dry food. I’d go back to 2 units as long as he’s over 150 in the morning. Then you will hold that dose 7 days unless his bg is under 90. If it is under 90 you reduce. Please test before every shot. Do a curve in 7 days and try and get some spot checks.
 
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