Pirogi
Member Since 2022
Hi all,
Here's a quick rundown of what I've typed up, sorry it's a lot to read, but I'm grateful for any advice.
TLDR: Evey became diabetic at age 9 last year. She’s supposed to lose about 2.5lbs, but she’s maintaining. Evey regularly urinates outside her box. Currently it’s likely she is constipated to some degree. The vet hasn’t been that helpful. Please help me, I love my cat and I am at my wits end.
I’ve been having some difficulties with my diabetic cat Evey. She was diagnosed in November of 2021 at age 9. When we first brought her into the vet her glucose levels were sitting at 16.4. We’ve gotten her glucose levels under control since then, she has a unit of Lantus in the morning, and 2 units at night.
One problem we’ve been having with Evey is she’s supposed to be losing weight with her current diet. which is Purina DM wet and dry (I’ve read folks aren’t the biggest fans of that here.)
She gets half a can of wet food a day and a quarter cup of dry food. She’s fed wet food by either myself or my spouse at 9am and 9pm, her dry food is distributed by an auto feeder at 1pm, 5pm, 1am, and 5am. Reason being when we fed her only twice a day she would be crying for food in the afternoons, evening, and overnight. The last few days I’ve been giving her a teaspoon of plain pumpkin puree day to help her with constipation.
When we initially brought Evey into the vet she weighed 10.2lbs(4.46kg), the vet wanted her at 7.7lbs(3.48kg.) I’d say Evey’s on the smaller side for a cat for reference. Since her initial diabetes diagnosis we’ve probably brought Evey into the vet 4 or 5 times. When weighed at the vet she’s still around 10.2lbs, the vet seems happy that Evey’s maintaining and doesn’t suggest altering her diet.
The second problem is she urinates frequently outside her box, occasionally defecates outside of it too. She has sporadic periods of doing this. Initially giving her insulin helped her. The next time she had a period of urinating outside the box she had a bacterial infection, I’m pretty sure it was Leptospirosis. It’s either extremely rare or not found in our province, and Evey’s strictly an indoor cat. We figured she caught it from our shoes and since then have moved any shoes into a closet.
Last time he took her to the vet in June, the vet suspected a UTI, but after testing Evey was found perfectly healthy other than the diabetes. The vet figures it’s possibly a behavioral issue.
There’s been many periods of her urinating for a few days straight outside the box, then she uses her box normally for a couple weeks, or a month, then repeat. Most times we can’t seem to find any reason why she’s doing it.
I’ll mention our go to when she urinates outside her box is to check her glucose levels, which showed she’s in a healthy range.
Now she’s urinating a lot outside of her box regularly, I’m suspecting constipation/hard feces. She normally defecates daily still, but it’s just two small circular balls. When she’s in her box it looks like she’s straining to defecate. Brining it up with the vet she recommended PEG powder, when we gave it to Evey threw up her whole meal. That brought me to the pumpkin puree, today is the fourth day I’ve given it to her. It seemed like it was helping at first she was using her box and her feces looked like her old normal. But then 2 days ago she’s back to urinating outside her box, she still defecates in it though, but her feces are small little balls again.
I don’t know if anyone here has had a similar experience or has any suggestions to help us. My thoughts currently are removing dry food from her diet, or reducing the amount of it, or finding a lower carb dry food so Evey doesn’t howl throughout the day and night for food. We’re also thinking it would be a good idea to get full blood-work done to make sure there’s no cancers or organ issues.
My spouse and I love Evey very much, it hurts to know she’s not feeling well, and we’re also so mentally exhausted with all the urine and lack of answers. It’s soaked through the floor and dripped into the basement many times, the carpeting is going to need replacing entirely. We’re at our wits end, whenever we go to the vet it we get she’s healthy other than diabetes and a bill.
Thank you so much to whoever reads through this whole thing.
Here's a quick rundown of what I've typed up, sorry it's a lot to read, but I'm grateful for any advice.
TLDR: Evey became diabetic at age 9 last year. She’s supposed to lose about 2.5lbs, but she’s maintaining. Evey regularly urinates outside her box. Currently it’s likely she is constipated to some degree. The vet hasn’t been that helpful. Please help me, I love my cat and I am at my wits end.
I’ve been having some difficulties with my diabetic cat Evey. She was diagnosed in November of 2021 at age 9. When we first brought her into the vet her glucose levels were sitting at 16.4. We’ve gotten her glucose levels under control since then, she has a unit of Lantus in the morning, and 2 units at night.
One problem we’ve been having with Evey is she’s supposed to be losing weight with her current diet. which is Purina DM wet and dry (I’ve read folks aren’t the biggest fans of that here.)
She gets half a can of wet food a day and a quarter cup of dry food. She’s fed wet food by either myself or my spouse at 9am and 9pm, her dry food is distributed by an auto feeder at 1pm, 5pm, 1am, and 5am. Reason being when we fed her only twice a day she would be crying for food in the afternoons, evening, and overnight. The last few days I’ve been giving her a teaspoon of plain pumpkin puree day to help her with constipation.
When we initially brought Evey into the vet she weighed 10.2lbs(4.46kg), the vet wanted her at 7.7lbs(3.48kg.) I’d say Evey’s on the smaller side for a cat for reference. Since her initial diabetes diagnosis we’ve probably brought Evey into the vet 4 or 5 times. When weighed at the vet she’s still around 10.2lbs, the vet seems happy that Evey’s maintaining and doesn’t suggest altering her diet.
The second problem is she urinates frequently outside her box, occasionally defecates outside of it too. She has sporadic periods of doing this. Initially giving her insulin helped her. The next time she had a period of urinating outside the box she had a bacterial infection, I’m pretty sure it was Leptospirosis. It’s either extremely rare or not found in our province, and Evey’s strictly an indoor cat. We figured she caught it from our shoes and since then have moved any shoes into a closet.
Last time he took her to the vet in June, the vet suspected a UTI, but after testing Evey was found perfectly healthy other than the diabetes. The vet figures it’s possibly a behavioral issue.
There’s been many periods of her urinating for a few days straight outside the box, then she uses her box normally for a couple weeks, or a month, then repeat. Most times we can’t seem to find any reason why she’s doing it.
I’ll mention our go to when she urinates outside her box is to check her glucose levels, which showed she’s in a healthy range.
Now she’s urinating a lot outside of her box regularly, I’m suspecting constipation/hard feces. She normally defecates daily still, but it’s just two small circular balls. When she’s in her box it looks like she’s straining to defecate. Brining it up with the vet she recommended PEG powder, when we gave it to Evey threw up her whole meal. That brought me to the pumpkin puree, today is the fourth day I’ve given it to her. It seemed like it was helping at first she was using her box and her feces looked like her old normal. But then 2 days ago she’s back to urinating outside her box, she still defecates in it though, but her feces are small little balls again.
I don’t know if anyone here has had a similar experience or has any suggestions to help us. My thoughts currently are removing dry food from her diet, or reducing the amount of it, or finding a lower carb dry food so Evey doesn’t howl throughout the day and night for food. We’re also thinking it would be a good idea to get full blood-work done to make sure there’s no cancers or organ issues.
My spouse and I love Evey very much, it hurts to know she’s not feeling well, and we’re also so mentally exhausted with all the urine and lack of answers. It’s soaked through the floor and dripped into the basement many times, the carpeting is going to need replacing entirely. We’re at our wits end, whenever we go to the vet it we get she’s healthy other than diabetes and a bill.
Thank you so much to whoever reads through this whole thing.
