? 5/25 Radar - eating but not enough which is worrisome

[Jan Radar (GA)]

So far this has been a crazy week and I don't think I've posted since Sunday...

Radar is having lots of troubles with eating in the past several days..... In no particular order... I heat the food, drown it in bonito flakes, raise the dish, try the smorgasbord method of putting a little food from several of his sometimes favorites to see which one he will eat now and anything else I can do to get him to eat a reasonable portion. Sometimes he will eat a few bites and sometimes the whole dish of food disappears in an instant.

For the last few days I've fed him when he will eat without sticking to the rule of no food 2 hours before a shot. It has seemed more important that he eats. Tonight I will attempt to give him the appetite stimulant the vet prescribed. We've never pilled him so it should be interesting.... I have a pill shooter and I've watched the videos on YouTube so I hope we can do it successfully. I'm hopeful that this will help him turn a corner and start eating more consistently.

Today's numbers: amps 347
+9/211.
Because he didn't eat much while I was at work today I don't know how to interpret this number... Wouldn't the small amount of food he's eaten today drop the BG in addition to the action of the Lantus??? Thoughts???

 

[rhiannon and shadow (GA)]

which stimulant do you have?

when you try to get him to eat, does he ever ask for food, smell it, and turn away , maybe even smacking his lips just a bit.... it's very subtle and after you experience it, you learn to recognize it.
That is nausea and often why kitties don't eat.
adding a stimulant without addressing the nausea often leads to vomiting. Each cat is different.


acid tummy happens when they haven't eaten in a while, such as overnight.... and then they have that foamy
morning vomit..... for that we give, 1/4 of a 10 mg pepcid ac .... just the simple plain version....

for nausea, ask your vet for a prescription for Ondansetron...
it is a human drug so you'll have to take it to your own pharmacy. the dosage is 1/4 of a 4 mg pill twice a day.
give this half an hour before the stimulant.
the stimulant i prefer is cyproheptadine....
many vets give mirtzapine which can make some cats fussy hungry.... it didn't work well on my cat.

his cycle today looks a lot like 2 days ago.... so he may have had a blue in the middle again.....


I learned to be fast and nimble giving pets pills....
I just think about it, often buttered it a tad, and just thrust with my fingers....
it's good if you have a way to squirt water chaser .... but some cats run away by then.
Just keep an eye on him to see that it did go down, many of us find the pill down the hall later.....

 

[Tricia Cinco(GA) & Harvey]

They are really good at putting the pill in their cheek and spitting it out later. I can't count how many pills I've found hours or even days later.

 

[Marje and Gracie]

I'm so sorry Radar is not eating, Jan. Don't worry about feeding him two hours befo his shot time. It's more important that he eat. You've been here long enough that you could handle any food spike numbers.

Rhiannon has some really good points about addressing nausea.

You've probably seen this post on how to stimulate the appetite. Sending good appy vines.

 

[Tricia Cinco(GA) & Harvey]

I don't always pull up Harvey's food two hours before shot. With his intestinal lymphoma, we need him to eat as much as he can. You just have to keep that in mind when assessing the PS numbers.

 

[Julie and Eleanor (GA)]

I often feed Eleanor within 2 hours of shot or tests. I know how much the food will spike her and take that into account.
I'm sorry if you have already discussed this, I can't remember anything - can you put small bites of food in Radar's mouth? That is how I have to feed Eleanor much of the time, force feeding, or as I call it "stuffing". Of course that dies not help when you aren't home or awake.