? BG back up after remission, troubling symptoms

[Laura Nels]

Hello again
I've been happily out of touch for a few months because my cat Vivian, diabetic from steroids used to treat intestinal disease, was able to go off Lantus and maintain a healthy BG through diet. I've checked her every now and then and she's been okay, on the high normal side, until she started with some new symptoms and I checked her yesterday - BG184 - and today BG 212 -
She vomited in the morning yesterday, very unusual for Vivian, and had diarrhea, not unusual because she has chronic intestinal disease, presumably IBD since her biopsy was negative for cancer. Additionally I thought I heard her squirting out her business - sorry it's gross - in the loft but when I checked nothing was there except two spots of clear liquid with no odor. Didn't think much of it until it happened again this a.m. and I realized she's passing clear odorless mucus with increasing frequency. She's back and forth to the litter box and straining extremely but passing only the mucus. She must have gone upstairs because she couldn't make it down the steep stairs in time to hit the box. Is there any connection between elevated blood glucose - which in itself isn't shocking because she's still on pred - and the straining and urgent passing of clear mucus? Being the weekend, the clinic is closed and I don't have insulin or syringes any longer. I did give her a B-12 shot and put down a tummy friendly dry ID food, as I know the vet would tell me to do, but that will drive her BG up.
thank you
Laura

 

[Anitafrnhamer]

My dog used to have a lot of mucus in his stool, the vet said that indicates colitis. On the other hand, vomiting and diarrhea can both be symptoms of pancreatitis maybe complicated by colitis. What you can do is try to add just a pinch of plain psyllium husk (unflavored) or some plain pumpkin (100% pumpkin not the pie filling with spices) to Vivian's food. If the issue is colitis, then the addition of the fiber will take care of it. But just to be safe I would watch closely and have a fPLI run if the vomiting and diarrhea continue.

 

[Laura Nels]

Thank you Anita. Vivian's intestinal disease is in fact a disease of the colon and presents as colitis. She has had mucus and blood in her stool off and on for a long time, but trips this frequent - every few minutes - to the litter box and accidents outside and just the clear mucus are new. I think the one vomiting episode could have been from straining in the box but not sure. Her fPLI last year was normal but TLI and folate were elevated, cobalamin low.
These were indicators of a malabsorption problem with the possibility for pancreatitis. I guess we ruled out pancreatitis because of a lack of related symptoms. She only vomited that once, but I just made the grim discovery that she has been having diarrhea, who knows how many times, in a opened suitcase upstairs where there is no litter box - all over my winter running clothing. Ugh. I can tell she's exhausted from being up for so long, either feeling too weak or too much urgency to make the trip to the litter box, will keep a close eye on her. She has never eliminated outside of the box in 10 years! Just not sure how suddenly elevated blood glucose fits into it all, since she's not eating much to raise it.

 

[Melanie and Smokey]

I would get her into a vet for some pictures of the abdomen/colon, make sure there isn't a blockage or infection somewhere.
When Chris got sick, the trigger for us was the elevated BGs. Things were not good inside of him. After surgery and getting the infection cleared up, his BGs came back to normal.
Smokey had very few symptoms of pancreatitis just a little bit of vomiting, multiple vets insisted no pain, but her ultrasound said p-titis and she tested very high on the fPLI.
You could be looking at a basic UTI, but with a history of intestinal disease, I'd get things checked out.