Cat laying by litter box.

[Danoodle009]

Pinky has been having some more recent trouble with eating (most recent post https://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/at-my-wits-end.274303/#post-3046999 ) but I finally got him to where he is eating on his own today. He's much more bright-eyed, but I wouldn't say he's back to his 100% self.

I have noticed that he is starting to lay by the litter box this afternoon. I haven't seen him do this before. He is using the litter box normally; I wouldn't say it's an excessive amount, he's not straining, etc. Is this cause for immediate concern?

One thing to note is that our litter box is by the back door, and he used to be an outdoor cat. I don't know if this behavior is him wanting to go outside. However, he usually scratches at the door, he doesn't typically lay by the litter box.

Edit to add: I realize this might be silly, but I would rather be silly than have ignored something important.

 

[Bron and Sheba (GA)]

There are no silly questions here!
Have you been testing for ketones in the urine? If not I would recommend you do. You will need a bottle of ketostix from Walmart or a pharmacy. Collect a urine sample and dip the test strip into the urine and read the result exactly 15 seconds later against the colours on the dose of the bottle. There should be no ketones. Please let us know the result and contact your vet if there is more than a trace of ketones.

 

[Danoodle009]

There are no silly questions here!
Have you been testing for ketones in the urine? If not I would recommend you do. You will need a bottle of ketostix from Walmart or a pharmacy. Collect a urine sample and dip the test strip into the urine and read the result exactly 15 seconds later against the colours on the dose of the bottle. There should be no ketones. Please let us know the result and contact your vet if there is more than a trace of ketones.

I haven't been testing for that; I can head to walmart now. What do I do in the instance there are ketones? What does treatment look like?

 

[Bron and Sheba (GA)]

Ketones can appear if there is not enough insulin or not enough food. So the treatment is to feed and increase the dose of insulin. As your kitty is not in insulin….if ketones did appear you would have to tell the vet and he would have to look at starting insulin.
I’m not saying this is happening but it is a good think to eliminate if a diabetic kitty is not eating well it is lethargic or seems unwell.

 

[Danoodle009]

Ketones can appear if there is not enough insulin or not enough food. So the treatment is to feed and increase the dose of insulin. As your kitty is not in insulin….if ketones did appear you would have to tell the vet and he would have to look at starting insulin.
I’m not saying this is happening but it is a good think to eliminate if a diabetic kitty is not eating well it is lethargic or seems unwell.

Yes, I am happy to test! I will note that before I left, Pinky passed a very large bowel movement - larger than I've ever seen from him - and he's acting much more like himself. He's also no longer laying by the box. I did abruptly have to change his food to the Hill's Urgent Care food since he wasn't eating his old food, so perhaps he had a tummy ache. Regardless, I have the ketone test strips for the next time he uses the bathroom.

I also picked up some fancy feast classic pate's from the store, so hopefully he will like those enough that we can feed him this permanently.

 

[Bron and Sheba (GA)]

It’s fine for him to eat the Hills urgent care food as well.

 

[Danoodle009]

It’s fine for him to eat the Hills urgent care food as well.

And he loves it! The vet only gave us two cans, though. I'm going to call tomorrow to see if I can get more since he's eating it so well. I just know that, for the future, it would require a prescription/getting it from the vet, and I know that can get expensive.

 

[Bron and Sheba (GA)]

You should not need an appointment to get that food. You should just be able to go into the vet and ask for some.

 

[Danoodle009]

There are no silly questions here!
Have you been testing for ketones in the urine? If not I would recommend you do. You will need a bottle of ketostix from Walmart or a pharmacy. Collect a urine sample and dip the test strip into the urine and read the result exactly 15 seconds later against the colours on the dose of the bottle. There should be no ketones. Please let us know the result and contact your vet if there is more than a trace of ketones.

I just was able to test him! I am up way past my bedtime to try to catch him. The strip indicated negative! Since I have the bottle, I plan to periodically check. He hasn't really tried to lay by the litter box since earlier and hasn't shown any unusual signs since then at all; he has laid in his bed or jumped up on our bed, just like he normally would. I think I panicked because I couldn't find anything through google about a cat laying by the litter box, only how dangerous a sign it is if a cat lays in the litter box. For now, I will chalk it up to him knowing a large bowel movement was coming/or just him wanting to lay in a quiet area for a bit.

Thank you for the insight! As I said, I will continue to monitor with the keto strips now that I have them.

 

[Larry and Kitties]

Pinky passed a very large bowel movement - larger than I've ever seen from him - and he's acting much more like himself.

What was color and consistency of the feces? Maybe Pinky was constipated and something like Miralax is called for.

 

[Melinda and Kitkat]

There are no silly questions here!

We all get nervous when a kitty changes behaviour, or acts strangely. Any Big health issue (not just Diabetes) sure makes us all very vigilant. Small behiourial changes can be worrying, since they can't tell us what is wrong, we can only go on their behavior . Any change IMO is worthy of asking a question