Joy W
Member Since 2021
Hey folk
What a rollercoaster of a week. Minerva was sent home from the vet on Thursday evening, and she seemed to be doing really well. But it is like 2 steps forward, 1.5 steps back. She ate well Thursday night, ate ok Friday morning, stopped eating Friday night. Vet finally conceded and gave him at home cerenia Saturday afternoon and then she started eating again Saturday evening, but over the course of Sunday stopped again, until about 10.30 when she suddenly ate a bunch of raw kangaroo meat.
I ended up rushing home from my work trip early as I was so worried about both her and Garth (who was incredibly stressed about it all, as was I), so got home late Sunday night, just after she decided to eat the kangaroo.
I spent Monday and Tuesday at home with her. Monday I gave her mirtazapine mid morning and got a bunch of new foods to try, and she actually did pretty well over the course of Monday - still fussy but I could find some things she liked, and she voluntarily went to her bowls and ate food at least 2 or 3 times! But then yesterday, she ate very little. I did finally manage to give her some gabapentin yesterday for the first time in a couple of days; they gave it to us in a powder form to go on her food which would be great if she didn't instantly reject whatever food it was on. Butter was the trick to finally get her to consume it. But then afterwards she was much more subdued and barely ate for the whole day, so not sure if that was the sedating effect or if it was coincidence.
It is nearly midday here and so far she has only had a few mouthfuls of cat milk today and that is about it. I am at our shop as Garth has medical appointments this morning, and then when he gets to the shop I will go home and give her mirtazapine, gabapentin, and see if I can tempt her to eat.
I have tried ALL the things: different foods, different flavours, tinned, raw, warmed up, mushed into paste, pet milk, etc. She ate Recovery in the vet so got some of that - she won't touch it. (I haven't tried baby food as can't find any suitable). She will eat something and then later not even look at it. We had a good run with those gooey squeezy tubes, then I tried to use one to dose her with gabapentin, and she rejected that and hasn't eaten any since.
She is showing a desire to eat: for example last night she woke us at 1am, 1.30am, and 6.30 am loudly demanding food, ran into the kitchen, yelled at us, tail quivering - and then rejected like 5 options in a row. I finally got 1/3 of a tin of fancy feast into her at 1.30 am by offering it to her off my fingers, which she liked. Then when it fell onto the floor she pounced on it and starting eating before I could pick it up, so I spent 5 minutes spooning it off the plate she wouldn't even acknowledge and dropping it on the floor in front of her, before she abruptly decided she was done. At least then I got to sleep until 6.30. I tried the floor trick then and she wouldn't have a bar of it, but she decided she was excited by pet milk and started drinking it like she was starving - and then again abruptly stopped after a few mouthfuls. That was enough to go back to bed for 20 minutes until my alarm went off.
About her sugars: yes they are high, and yes it bothers me. She got down to 2.8/50 at the vet so she earned a decrease from 1.5 to 1.25, but the vet wanted us to drop it even further, to 0.5 if under 20 and 1 if over 20. I was a bit uneasy with that but we rolled with it for a couple of days before I switched to 1.0 for all doses but she has only had one pre-shot under 20 since then anyway. Her readings will be high for a few reasons including that we aren't pulling up her food in the 2 hours before - at this point I don't want to deny her food in the unlikely event she actually wants to eat some - and she is always hungry about an hour before; and also we are focusing on what she will eat and I imagine some of it is a bit higher in carb although we are trying as much as possible to stick to LC options.
Aside from the food she is mostly happy, purring, she even played with Garth on Monday night, she comes for cuddles and is back to sleeping on the bed and most of her behaviours are mostly normal, she just won't eat.
I could scream, and have already cried multiple times. I am sure more experienced people here would be handling this fine but I just don't know what to do.
@tiffmaxee I finally asked and yes the pancreatitis test they did was SNAP; it was negative but they decided to treat as positive for pancreatitis
https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/13-july-minerva-update-from-vet-mixed-news.265743/
What a rollercoaster of a week. Minerva was sent home from the vet on Thursday evening, and she seemed to be doing really well. But it is like 2 steps forward, 1.5 steps back. She ate well Thursday night, ate ok Friday morning, stopped eating Friday night. Vet finally conceded and gave him at home cerenia Saturday afternoon and then she started eating again Saturday evening, but over the course of Sunday stopped again, until about 10.30 when she suddenly ate a bunch of raw kangaroo meat.
I ended up rushing home from my work trip early as I was so worried about both her and Garth (who was incredibly stressed about it all, as was I), so got home late Sunday night, just after she decided to eat the kangaroo.
I spent Monday and Tuesday at home with her. Monday I gave her mirtazapine mid morning and got a bunch of new foods to try, and she actually did pretty well over the course of Monday - still fussy but I could find some things she liked, and she voluntarily went to her bowls and ate food at least 2 or 3 times! But then yesterday, she ate very little. I did finally manage to give her some gabapentin yesterday for the first time in a couple of days; they gave it to us in a powder form to go on her food which would be great if she didn't instantly reject whatever food it was on. Butter was the trick to finally get her to consume it. But then afterwards she was much more subdued and barely ate for the whole day, so not sure if that was the sedating effect or if it was coincidence.
It is nearly midday here and so far she has only had a few mouthfuls of cat milk today and that is about it. I am at our shop as Garth has medical appointments this morning, and then when he gets to the shop I will go home and give her mirtazapine, gabapentin, and see if I can tempt her to eat.
I have tried ALL the things: different foods, different flavours, tinned, raw, warmed up, mushed into paste, pet milk, etc. She ate Recovery in the vet so got some of that - she won't touch it. (I haven't tried baby food as can't find any suitable). She will eat something and then later not even look at it. We had a good run with those gooey squeezy tubes, then I tried to use one to dose her with gabapentin, and she rejected that and hasn't eaten any since.
She is showing a desire to eat: for example last night she woke us at 1am, 1.30am, and 6.30 am loudly demanding food, ran into the kitchen, yelled at us, tail quivering - and then rejected like 5 options in a row. I finally got 1/3 of a tin of fancy feast into her at 1.30 am by offering it to her off my fingers, which she liked. Then when it fell onto the floor she pounced on it and starting eating before I could pick it up, so I spent 5 minutes spooning it off the plate she wouldn't even acknowledge and dropping it on the floor in front of her, before she abruptly decided she was done. At least then I got to sleep until 6.30. I tried the floor trick then and she wouldn't have a bar of it, but she decided she was excited by pet milk and started drinking it like she was starving - and then again abruptly stopped after a few mouthfuls. That was enough to go back to bed for 20 minutes until my alarm went off.
About her sugars: yes they are high, and yes it bothers me. She got down to 2.8/50 at the vet so she earned a decrease from 1.5 to 1.25, but the vet wanted us to drop it even further, to 0.5 if under 20 and 1 if over 20. I was a bit uneasy with that but we rolled with it for a couple of days before I switched to 1.0 for all doses but she has only had one pre-shot under 20 since then anyway. Her readings will be high for a few reasons including that we aren't pulling up her food in the 2 hours before - at this point I don't want to deny her food in the unlikely event she actually wants to eat some - and she is always hungry about an hour before; and also we are focusing on what she will eat and I imagine some of it is a bit higher in carb although we are trying as much as possible to stick to LC options.
Aside from the food she is mostly happy, purring, she even played with Garth on Monday night, she comes for cuddles and is back to sleeping on the bed and most of her behaviours are mostly normal, she just won't eat.
I could scream, and have already cried multiple times. I am sure more experienced people here would be handling this fine but I just don't know what to do.
@tiffmaxee I finally asked and yes the pancreatitis test they did was SNAP; it was negative but they decided to treat as positive for pancreatitis
https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/13-july-minerva-update-from-vet-mixed-news.265743/
So I guess capsules it is!