Let me introduce myself. I'm Carol and my cat is Kitty. Kitty has been getting 1 unit of Lantus every 12 hours with food. That was working well, till today (just started the insulin last Sat.) and now Kitty won't eat anything, even though its been well over 12 hours since her last meal, at which she only ate about half the amount she usually gets. I offered chicken, but she won't eat that either. I offered some Fancy Feast, but she barely finished 1/8 of a small can. I don't think she ate enough to giver her a shot...She last ate at 10 pm last night. This morning at 11 am her BG was 137, at 2 pm it was 129. And she just ate the 1/8 can at 2:15. I'm not sure what to do. Any suggestions? She's not vomiting.
I'm a newbie; my Kitty won't eat!
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Sue and Oliver (GA)
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Some ideas that sometimes work: heat it up in microwave until nice and stinky, pour tuna juice (not packed in oil) over it, add some hot water, either sprinkle or hide some lo carb treats on it (pure bites work well crumbled up, so do Bonito flakes)
Have you recently changed to wet lo carb? If so, even crushing up and sprinkling some of the dry might help. You do want her to eat, even if it means feeding some dry along with the wet.
Have you recently changed to wet lo carb? If so, even crushing up and sprinkling some of the dry might help. You do want her to eat, even if it means feeding some dry along with the wet.
nancy and payne
Very Active Member
Hi Carol and welcome!
Could you give us some history? how did you find out Kitty has diabetes? has she ever thrown off ketones? Are you giving insulin when her BG is under 200? When a cat quits eating it usually means something, have you changed her food? It is important you not give insulin if she is not eating but you need to find out why. Is she hiding? interacting? is she herself?
Nancy and Payne (who woke up when I typed ketones .... weird
Could you give us some history? how did you find out Kitty has diabetes? has she ever thrown off ketones? Are you giving insulin when her BG is under 200? When a cat quits eating it usually means something, have you changed her food? It is important you not give insulin if she is not eating but you need to find out why. Is she hiding? interacting? is she herself?
Nancy and Payne (who woke up when I typed ketones .... weird
I found out Kitty has diabetes when she lost a lot of weight fast after I put her on Iams reduced calorie food--which I now know has more carbs than the regular food. I think it triggered her diabetes. I put her since diagnosis on Nature's Variety Instinct canned food. Before she was diagnosed, I noticed she was more lethargic and her breath smelled funny--almost chemically, maybe you could call it fruity. Maybe she was throwing ketones...but I haven't been able to obtain a urine sample, though I do have the ketones strips. Any tips for getting a urine sample? Since treatment her breath is normal. I tested her BG again at 6:30 after she ate a small amount again at 3 pm, and it had gone up only slightly, 10 pts, to 111. Still seems too low to dose her. I'll keep testing every few hours tonight and see what's going on. I did 3 tests today--Kitty is still getting used to the routine...and so am I. Seems hard to get enough blood to come out of her ears. But I'm still getting the hang of it. The warm washcloth in a baggie seems to help.
LynnLee + Mousie
Very Active Member
ketones is what pops out at me about this whole thing too. especially in the beginning. that smell you describe is the perfect description of ketones.
you gotta get a ketone test sooner than later i think. is she peeing at all? if so, you can get a long handled spoon of some sort and reach in and get a urine sample that way. dip the strips in it and compare.
if she's not peeing, you're not going to get a test unless you go buy a test meter that tests both glucose levels and for ketones. those use blood and obviously blood is a lot easier to get. the two meters are the Precision Xtra which I know you can get at Walmart, and the NovaMax meter but i'm not sure where you get that one. ok, just googled that one and came up with all these places you can get it at http://www.novacares.com/retailers/#1
the other option is to get her to a vet and request that they test her for ketones.
is she drinking at all? walking at all? any diarhea or anything else out of the norm?
the bg levels are great, and agree, not numbers you would normally shoot insulin on buttttt, if she's got ketones, insulin may be necessary, just very tricky, and honestly, possibly too tricky to handle at home. bg levels don't always have to be high for ketones to appear. another member, Carolynn, just took in a foster and he threw them when his bg's were only in the 200's if i remember correctly.
and fwiw, like Sue said, if she'll eat the old food, let her have it. it's critical that they eat. even if it's the bad stuff for a bit. might just have to go back to the old stuff and slowly transition over to new stuff
other thoughts that come to mind, have you been hometesting all along or did you just start? possibly if you haven't been since day one the insulin was actually too much and making her go too low, causing her to feel yucky, thus not wanting to eat? just a thought but if you've been testing all along and her numbers haven't been dropping drastically or too low, that's probably not the issue.
you gotta get a ketone test sooner than later i think. is she peeing at all? if so, you can get a long handled spoon of some sort and reach in and get a urine sample that way. dip the strips in it and compare.
if she's not peeing, you're not going to get a test unless you go buy a test meter that tests both glucose levels and for ketones. those use blood and obviously blood is a lot easier to get. the two meters are the Precision Xtra which I know you can get at Walmart, and the NovaMax meter but i'm not sure where you get that one. ok, just googled that one and came up with all these places you can get it at http://www.novacares.com/retailers/#1
the other option is to get her to a vet and request that they test her for ketones.
is she drinking at all? walking at all? any diarhea or anything else out of the norm?
the bg levels are great, and agree, not numbers you would normally shoot insulin on buttttt, if she's got ketones, insulin may be necessary, just very tricky, and honestly, possibly too tricky to handle at home. bg levels don't always have to be high for ketones to appear. another member, Carolynn, just took in a foster and he threw them when his bg's were only in the 200's if i remember correctly.
and fwiw, like Sue said, if she'll eat the old food, let her have it. it's critical that they eat. even if it's the bad stuff for a bit. might just have to go back to the old stuff and slowly transition over to new stuff
other thoughts that come to mind, have you been hometesting all along or did you just start? possibly if you haven't been since day one the insulin was actually too much and making her go too low, causing her to feel yucky, thus not wanting to eat? just a thought but if you've been testing all along and her numbers haven't been dropping drastically or too low, that's probably not the issue.
Sue and Oliver (GA)
Very Active Member
The only way we could test urine was to put some aquarium gravel in a clean litter box, leave him alone with it and listen. He couldn't stand the clean box so it didn't take long. Then we'd swoop in and stick the strip in. He would not go while we were watching.
Other people use torn newspaper or lentils.
Other people use torn newspaper or lentils.
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