atajev
Active Member
My cat, Mona, was in remission and OTJ for about 9 months, and then jumped back on the insulin train last summer after she got ahold of some dry dog food (we have a dog who also needs a specialized diet and his happens to be dry). She's been poorly regulated since, but recently she's been pretty steady with preshot BG #s around 300-350, and nadirs around 100-150 (sorry, my spreadsheet is way out of date, but that's the current state). A year ago (when she was OTJ) she was 11 lbs. Now she is all skin and bones at 6 lbs, though she's been steady at that weight for several months now. I test for ketones regularly and she's never had any more than a trace so far.
I'm feeding her a quarter can of 9Lives pate at breakfast and midday, and a half can at night. That's the same food, quantity, and schedule she was able to regulate and go into remission on originally.
While her BG numbers are settling down a bit into at least a consistent pattern, she is clearly starving and has developed polyphasia. She eats EVERYTHING edible that she can get to and we don't know how to live with this particular symptom at this point. We have small children and she needs to be locked in a room anytime we have any food or even used dishes out. She has learned to open our toaster oven and keeps burning herself to get to things being cooked. She has clawed open sacks of flour and eaten it. She jumps on the table and literally steals food out of our children's mouths. She will eat meat, grains, fruit, vegetables, candy, dairy, leaves, dirt, paper...literally everything to try to satiate her hunger. I feel so terrible keeping her locked up multiple times a day (she hates it), but she absolutely can't be out if even a cup of orange juice is anywhere in the house.
Everything I can find says very simply that polyphasia is a symptom of diabetes and that the underlying medial issue needs to be treated. Well, duh. That's not helpful. Since I'm already treating the underlying diabetes as well as I can, how do I treat this symptom and help her to feel better while she's experiencing this?
Should I try increasing her food (and insulin accordingly as needed)? Or will that not help once they're to this stage? Any other advice?
I'm feeding her a quarter can of 9Lives pate at breakfast and midday, and a half can at night. That's the same food, quantity, and schedule she was able to regulate and go into remission on originally.
While her BG numbers are settling down a bit into at least a consistent pattern, she is clearly starving and has developed polyphasia. She eats EVERYTHING edible that she can get to and we don't know how to live with this particular symptom at this point. We have small children and she needs to be locked in a room anytime we have any food or even used dishes out. She has learned to open our toaster oven and keeps burning herself to get to things being cooked. She has clawed open sacks of flour and eaten it. She jumps on the table and literally steals food out of our children's mouths. She will eat meat, grains, fruit, vegetables, candy, dairy, leaves, dirt, paper...literally everything to try to satiate her hunger. I feel so terrible keeping her locked up multiple times a day (she hates it), but she absolutely can't be out if even a cup of orange juice is anywhere in the house.
Everything I can find says very simply that polyphasia is a symptom of diabetes and that the underlying medial issue needs to be treated. Well, duh. That's not helpful. Since I'm already treating the underlying diabetes as well as I can, how do I treat this symptom and help her to feel better while she's experiencing this?
Should I try increasing her food (and insulin accordingly as needed)? Or will that not help once they're to this stage? Any other advice?
Or more likely, they're just really lazy indoor cats!
. >>>>>>CLOSET EATER!<<<<<< Park a tablet in there, and watch Netflix while you eat, and turn up the volume so you can't hear him screaming at you through the closet door.
