Cat Won't Eat

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aduck

aduck

Member Since 2016
Last year, my cat, Bill, was diagnosed as diabetic. His last glucose curve was in March at which point he was still diabetic. This past weekend, he started acting lethargic and was only eating a tiny bit and occasionally throwing up.

He went to the vet on Monday, got blood work done, an appetite stimulant, had a fever so got an antibiotic, and were told not to give anymore insulin. His blood sugar was quite low. Blood results came back yesterday and everything looked good and determined he's no longer diabetic, but still wasn't eating or drinking. Brought him back to the vet yesterday for fluids and this time x-rays to rule out other issues, and an anti-nausea shot. X-rays didn't show anything else going on and the fever was gone.

Today he is still very weak and will not eat or drink. He'll probably be back at the vet today for fluids and to discuss other options. Yesterday the vet was hoping he's just fighting some sort of virus or something, causing him to not want to eat or drink. I'm wondering if his blood sugar dropping could cause this lack of appetite and energy. I'm kind of at a loss at this point but in case anyone else has experienced anything similar, I thought posting here would be worth a try.

Thanks :)
 
One thing you need to watch is the not eating. Are you force feeding? I recently was helping a relative with a very sick cat that died due to the vet not addressing the not eating issue. you can also do fluids at home.
 
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Force feeding may be your only option right now. You can mix pate with water to make it soupy to feed with a syringe. Blending it in a blender or food processor will make it soupy enough.
 
scoobydoox said:
One thing you need to watch is the not eating. Are you force feeding? I recently was helping a relative with a very sick cat that died due to the vet not addressing the not eating issue. you can also do fluids at home.
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Started force feeding this afternoon. Only a little at a time so far since he hasn't eaten in a few days.
 
Lisa and Witn (GA) said:
Force feeding may be your only option right now. You can mix pate with water to make it soupy to feed with a syringe. Blending it in a blender or food processor will make it soupy enough.
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We've force fed a few times today with a syringe. Mixing with more water and in a blender is a great idea, thank you! Adding water should be good for fluids as well since he hasn't been drinking either. Thank you!
 
Have them show you how to do the sub q fluids at home. its not really hard and would be cheaper and less stressful then going back and forth to vet
 
Please get some food into him, any way you can. It sounds like he has gone several days without food? This is very dangerous and can quickly result in hepatic lipidosis, (fatty liver) which can be fatal. Please ask your vet about it, as well as ketones.
 
scoobydoox said:
Have them show you how to do the sub q fluids at home. its not really hard and would be cheaper and less stressful then going back and forth to vet
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Fluids are not difficult to do and sometimes that also helps to stimulate the appetite because he will be feeling better. If he is not eating much even with syringe feeding, try feeding either canned kitten food or Hill Prescription A/D. Both are higher in calories and will help him from losing much more weight.

Also ask the vet about an appetite stimulant. I have used mirtazapine with several of my cats and it seems to work.
 
Thanks for all of the suggestions! Before he was diabetic, he had kidney issues and received the sub q fluids multiple times a week, so if he continues to not drink, that's definitely a great idea to do at home.

Since my last comment, he's gotten some more canned food. About half a spoonful, but still more than he's had in the last few days. Will continue to give more. We've actually been giving him appetite stimulant pills as well, but those don't seem to be working. He is due for another of those tonight as well as an anti-nausea pill. I'm hoping giving him consistent small amounts of food will help make him feel better and in turn stimulate his appetite.

I'll talk to the vet about the hepatic lipidosis and ketones. Thank you all for the suggestions!
 
aduck said:
Thanks for all of the suggestions! Before he was diabetic, he had kidney issues and received the sub q fluids multiple times a week, so if he continues to not drink, that's definitely a great idea to do at home.

Since my last comment, he's gotten some more canned food. About half a spoonful, but still more than he's had in the last few days. Will continue to give more. We've actually been giving him appetite stimulant pills as well, but those don't seem to be working. He is due for another of those tonight as well as an anti-nausea pill. I'm hoping giving him consistent small amounts of food will help make him feel better and in turn stimulate his appetite.

I'll talk to the vet about the hepatic lipidosis and ketones. Thank you all for the suggestions!
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There is also a feeding tube they can do and you may want to consider that. http://www.catinfo.org/?link=feedingtubes
 
Interesting! I've heard of feeding tubes for cats, but wasn't exactly sure how they worked. If this continues that may be a good option. I'm sure he's stressed enough as it is and force feeding doesn't make it any better. Thank you :)
 
Check for ketones. Any time you stop insulin even if sugars are normal, this is important. You can buy urine test strips at almost all pharmacies. Also, when was the last bowel movement? Constipation is a major cause of poor appetite in an otherwise healthy cat. Severe constipation can lead to obstructions and can be major issues. If you think it might be constipation, they can do an abdominal x-ray and see it.
 
Also if you can do the urine strips for testing ketones you can buy a blood glucose meter that will test for it. They are more expensive though but it is an option.
 
Ah, it's been a stressful few days. We took him back to the vet yesterday as his condition was not getting any better, and maybe even a little worse. Our vet clinic has three different veterinarians, and yesterday he saw a new one who wants to keep him there. He suspects that Bill may have pancreatitis. He's tender in his abdominal cavity and his fever returned. They are giving pain meds, anti-nausea meds, and antibiotics along with fluids and force feeding. They did a test to determine if it's pancreatitis, but I'm told it will be several days before those results are back.

Vet called this morning and said he's at least comfortable and seems a bit perkier than he was yesterday when he was brought in. If it's pancreatitis, the vet said there is the possibility it could be fatal... Bill's a hell of a fighter, though, so I'm not accepting that just yet.

I'll ask about the ketones the next time the vet calls, which should be here directly. As always, thank you for the advice :)
 
Pancreatitis can also be treated depending on severity. Does the vet have a SNAP test in house. It's immediate as to positive or negative for pancreatitis but not tell how bad (GI panel is needed for that and takes awhile for results).
 
I'm not sure about that, he didn't specify the name of the test... he did say that it would take about 5-7 days for results but that they didn't have a test for a definitive diagnosis. So maybe it's the GI panel they're doing.
 
aduck said:
I'm not sure about that, he didn't specify the name of the test... he did say that it would take about 5-7 days for results but that they didn't have a test for a definitive diagnosis. So maybe it's the GI panel they're doing.
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A SNAP they can do in house if they have it. GI panel is sent to Texas and will take that long. Hoping kitty feels better soon.
 
They must not have a SNAP test then :/ thank you for the well wishes and the help! <3
 
The animal health company IDEXX also runs the TAMU Texas A$M University) send-in pancreatitis test. Turnaround is 1-2 days fpr that test.
2493 Spec fPL® Test-Feline* Feline pancreas-specific lipase 1–2 working days
IDEXX also runs a feline GI test that ins that test:
2283 GI Panel 2 with Spec fPL®Test-Feline†* Cobalamin (vitamin B12), folate, trypsin-like immunoreactivity (TLI), Spec fPL®Test. 5–7 working days
Here are TAMU's tsts:
http://vetmed.tamu.edu/gilab/service/assays
 
The test results might be back tomorrow. I would call your vet to check to see if they are. I always have gotten test results back in 1 day. It always amazed me how fast they were, like there were all these people working through the night to help my cat.
Anyway, I hope Bill is feeling his normal self again real soon. In the mean time, here is some information to read Primer on Pancreatitis.
 
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