How do we deal with ravening hunger?

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Gaudior

Gaudior

Member Since 2016
Hi! Our cat Lucien (14 year old domestic shorthair) was diagnosed a few months ago, and we think we've finally gotten his blood sugar under control-- we do glucose curves at home, and they've started to look good. He's starting to look better, too-- but the problem is, now that he's got some more energy and is gaining weight, he's driving us nuts by constant food-seeking! He howls for food starting a few hours before mealtimes, he breaks into the fridge and pantry to try to eat anything he can find, and he'll claw at my wife (though oddly enough, not me) when food is put down for him to eat.

Does anyone have advice? We would really appreciate it-- this is exhausting!
 
are you feeding him twice a day only? breaking up the food and feeding ever so many hours seems to work better controlling the hunger. can use automatic feeder as well.
 
I had the same with Rocky - always hungry.
Only now when he is well regulated I don't have this problem.
I started feeding him smaller and regularly more frequent meals, at night time he is guarding his feeding dish until it opens up for him at 2am and Rocky is very quiet in the morning!
I have to say though that his BG is actually normal now, he was terrible when he was a bit high!
 
Are you testing him on a regular basis or just doing curves every so often. Sometimes a ravenous hunger can also be associated with low glucose levels. One of my FD kitties will become "crazy" for food if his glucose drops too low. With him that is a warning sign for me to test the glucose levels.
 
Both Bandit and Orpheus will start tearing my house apart if they don't eat around every 6 hours! That seems to be the magic number with them to keep them happy and not begging for food. I have auto feeders that I set to release the frozen canned food portions when I'm at work or for the late night feeding.
 
Oh, wow, thanks, you guys! This is really useful. We can definitely test his glucose more often, and give him smaller meals more frequently. Also, our vet said that we could give him a little more food than we're giving him (two and a half cans rather than two), so that should help.

Am I right that even with more frequent meals, we should still give him the insulin the same way-- twice a day with meals, at the same dose he was getting before?

Thanks again!
 
@Gaudior
Feeding your cat more often will definitely help with his behaviour. He might be hungry due to high BG or , as Mary Ann observed due to low BG so testing is very important.
Rocky gave me hard time when his BG was high: waking us up very early in the morning, meowing constantly and being aggressive towards his brother Rottweiler/GS cross dog who was petrified of Rocky's angry outbursts. And Rocky was steeling food (anything really like vegetables) in the kitchen and even trying to put his face in my plate when I was eating on the sofa!
I have just recently noticed that his behaviour is completely different, he is calmer, is still asleep in his bed when I get up and waits patiently and quietly for his feeding. And I haven't seen any aggressiveness towards the dog.
The only difference is that his blood sugar levels are very good at the moment.
Regarding insulin - yes, you need to shoot every 12 hours.
Could you please provide more information so we can assist you in this journey:
your name, your cat's name, when diagnosed, what insulin he is on, what food etc.
I've just realised that you only joined yesterday so everything is new for you.
I would like to welcome you very warmly and assure you that you came to the best place ever!
Please read all the info here, it will tell you what to do and start SS (spread sheet with sugar scores of your kitty). You will find an example of that at the bottom of my post in blue, click on that to view.
If you have any questions please ask and somebody will come to the rescue.
Best of luck.
Marlena:):cat::cat::cat:
 
Sorry, I did not realised that you'd already posted in Welcome forum.
As you are using Lantus, I think best option for you would be posting on Lantus/Levemir forum.
There is a lot of very helpful people with oodles of experience to guide you.
:bighug:
 
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