Cat eating less on insulin

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Marti

Marti

Member Since 2015
I started my cat on Vetsulin about a month ago and I was also trying to modify his diet to a healthier one. Boyo is a very temperamental easily agitated kitty. He began to refuse to eat and started loosing weight. After 2 weeks the vet suggested I stop the insulin for 1 week and put him back on his free feeding and original food to see if he would eat again. After 1 week of portioned food left out twice a day he started eating normally again. I restarted his insulin on Wednesday and over the course of just 4 days he is eating less every day again and he looks like he feels worse instead of better. My question is can he be having an adverse reactions to the insulin? Right now his dose is very conservative .4 once a day until the vet does a glucose curve. Thanks for any help you can give me.
Marti
 
Is Boyo showing any signs of nausea? Tanya's site has a good symptom checker here. If you could let us know whether he has any nausea symptoms then there are many people here dealing with nausea problems who'll be able to help.

FWIW, based on what I've observed in posts here I think that insulin may very well cause digestive upsets in some cats. (It did with Saoirse.)

Also, Caninsulin (same as Vetsulin, different brand name) was the first insulin Saoirse was treated with. It absolutely hammered her system overall. She was miserable, withdrawn and lethargic for 9-10 hours of every 12-hour insulin cycle because of the big BG swings typical of that insulin. She did much better on the gentler insulin, Lantus.
 
it sounds like it could be the insulin being used.
Would you be able to switch to a gentler one?

also... if you changed foods when you started insulin, a flavor they might have liked the first time.... doesn't necessarily mean they will eat it again.
You have to find the foods that keep them interested or use some of the additives to get them going. ( like fortiflora, or parmesan, or crumbled treats)


If nauseous, they will often want to eat, ask to eat, and then when you put the food in front of them... they kind of smack their lips and turn away.
If so, you might want some ondansetron for nausea. ( it's a human prescription) generally, 1 mg ( comes in 4 mg pill)
 
Marti said:
I started my cat on Vetsulin about a month ago and I was also trying to modify his diet to a healthier one. Boyo is a very temperamental easily agitated kitty. He began to refuse to eat and started loosing weight. After 2 weeks the vet suggested I stop the insulin for 1 week and put him back on his free feeding and original food to see if he would eat again. After 1 week of portioned food left out twice a day he started eating normally again. I restarted his insulin on Wednesday and over the course of just 4 days he is eating less every day again and he looks like he feels worse instead of better. My question is can he be having an adverse reactions to the insulin? Right now his dose is very conservative .4 once a day until the vet does a glucose curve. Thanks for any help you can give me.
Marti
Click to expand...
vet checked and he didn't have keytones.
 
rhiannon and shadow said:
it sounds like it could be the insulin being used.
Would you be able to switch to a gentler one?

also... if you changed foods when you started insulin, a flavor they might have liked the first time.... doesn't necessarily mean they will eat it again.
You have to find the foods that keep them interested or use some of the additives to get them going. ( like fortiflora, or parmesan, or crumbled treats)


If nauseous, they will often want to eat, ask to eat, and then when you put the food in front of them... they kind of smack their lips and turn away.
If so, you might want some ondansetron for nausea. ( it's a human prescription) generally, 1 mg ( comes in 4 mg pill)
Click to expand...
He eats just less. Where he finished all his food before next feeding now there is food left in his bowl and he seems to be losing weight
 
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ketones can develop at any time.... it's better if you can check yourself..... especially if he won't eat.

could he use a little reminding that he has food?
mine is almost 14 and I swear she's gone senile..... she'll come pester me to eat something, and I take her to her bowl....and ..... oh yeah, I have food.....
it helps if you add water to the food, it can sit out longer without getting crusty ( mine won't eat it if it goes crusty)
I often make a tiny moat....around it.... keeps it fresher longer.

I must open 4-5 cans per day.... but mine has other issues that affect her eating.

you might also read the caloric content of what you are feeding....
some cans are higher, some are lower, and you want to make sure you are giving enough.
And while they are in higher numbers, the diabetes is keeping their body from getting all the nutrition of what they eat, so they can be hungry all the time....
so they are starving....
it's okay to give them a little more until you get numbers consistently under 200.....
 
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