Diabetic cat has kidney infection now too

[IMTREE]

My precious little princess Emma is diabetic and now she has a kidney infection. She's been on Orbax liquid for just over 3 weeks now and it must be working as she's gone from drinking about 3 cups of water a day and peeing up a storm (like 10 times a day) down to drinking about 1.5 cups of water a day and about 4 or 5 pees. She is also on amolidpine, as she ended up with high blood pressure, which came from getting the kidney infection. Poor thing's retinas had detached but I caught it quick enough where God bless her they reattached. And that's how we eventually found out she had a kidney infection. Oh yea and she's on Enalapril too.

Anyhow, I am just looking for advice from folks on a couple of items:

1.) Her appetite has not been that good since just before she went on all the meds, but she is eating some. She used to devour 3/4 Fancy Feast in the am and 3/4 can Fancy Feast in the PM along with a little Wellness Core dry. But now, I am lucky if she eats 1/2 can of Fancy Feast all day with some Wellness Core dry. Vet had given her cypro to stimulate her appetite and she turned into a garbage disposal after 2 days so I stopped it. I stopped giving it to her because she was overeating. Anyhow, have you folks had cats who's appetites have gone down on meds?

2.) Although she has seemed happy around me, she has now taken to using my bed as her litterbox She started peeing on my bed last week once and this week 4 times. So I am doing tons of laundry...putting Anti Icky Poo in it too...and now I've ordered Feliway diffusers and spray to see if that helps. Her litterbox is SO clean as I am a litter box clean freak. So I am not sure why she is doing it. Maybe because she's not feeling well? I love her so much but it is SO frustrating. And now I can relate to all the pee stories I am hearing/reading about...LOL! What I am starting to do is have my bedroom door closed until I know she has peed in her litterbox, of which I have praised her and she purrs away. But darn it today, I forgot to close my door and there is the little pee stain Any advice on what I can do to make things better for her, or why she is like this now? I am chocking it up to her illness, and pray it gets better.

Any advice is greatly appreciated! I will try anything! I am thinking of maybe buying some baby food with no onion in it to see if she'll eat that. But she is SO fussy about what she eats now. She used to devour her Fancy Feast and now I am opening up all the 4 different flavors she likes with different results...sometimes good..sometimes not so good.

Thanks for listening,
Tree

 

[Blue]

How are you treating her diabetes now? You had posted in the past about dosing Prozinc 2.5u BID I think.... are you home testing? If not, it would help you to know what's going on with her BG ... her peeing on your stuff is a sign that something's not right at all. If you are home testing, what are some of her BG results? It could be that the dose needs adjusting and that's the reason for the peeing location problems. Without out testing her BG, you won't know if she needs more insulin or even less insulin.

I really don't think it's a litter box issue unless you have made a big change in the litter or the box or its location.
If you know some certain times when she pees, why not put her into the LB and get her to stay for a bit to see if she will pee. I was doing this first thing in the morn for my Shadoe, and she would pee in the LB; she has short legs and her problem went away when I put a step in front of the LB and she was better able to get in and out.

For the appetite, my vet had given me something else, he said better than cypro, but I was giving it to Oliver every few days.... are you giving the cypro every day? Maybe cut the dose down and give every couple of days and see if you have better results.

 

[IMTREE]

Hi Gayle. Thanks for your response. I read a few of your adventures so I learn so much from all of you out here.

I do not perform home monitoring of her blood sugar as one of her ears is a little mangled from an injury when she was attacked outside. I adopted her from a shelter and knew her history. And I tried a few times to extract blood out the other ear a few times and that did not go well. So she's been to the vet for glucose checks and it's been normal.

I am going to take your advice that after she eats and pees and I see her heading upstairs, I'll follow and pop her in the litterbox. For now, I'll keep my bedroom door closed too unless I know she peed. Go figure I just went into what I call her room, as that is where I kept her when I first got her and kept her there until I introduced her to my other cat Sparky. And she was purring up a storm, happy to see me and loved my kisses. She is sweet to me although she just about hates everyone...LOL!

As for the cypro, I only gave it to her for 2 days after she completely stopped eating. I stopped it 3 weeks ago and was thinking of starting again. But my friend Marie said that because she is still eating some that I should just leave her be. I'll keep an eye on her this weekend and if her appetite doesn't get better, I'll call vet and probably do the cypro thing again. I just can't wait to finish the antibiotics as I am thinking it's making her nauseous as I know my stomach doesn't feel good when I am on antibiotics. And Orbax liquid has been a God send because she hasn't thrown it up and no diarrhea. When I tried pilling her with Baytril, she threw it up 1/2 the time. Poor thing.

 

[BJM]

Antiobiotics often cause stomach upset.

It might be possible to reduce the appetitite stimulant dose; check with the vet.

Check with the vet - was a culture and sensitivity done? If not, the antibiotic may not be helping. A culture and sensitivy help determine what type of bacteria are overgrowing.

Also, some cats have a non-bacterial condition called interstitial cystitis. If the vet thinks that is a possibility, some folks have found cosequin to be helpful.