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Marie.and.Zuko

Marie.and.Zuko

Member Since 2023
Hello everyone. I’m feeling pretty frustrated and not sure what else to do. This is a long post.

First, introductions: I’m Marie, and my sugar kitty Zuko is approx. 7 years old. My husband and I rescued him at age four, and he underwent surgery from what we assume is a cat fight, giving him a scar above his eye… so we named him after the ATLA character lol.
He was diagnosed diabetic April of 2022. He is prescribed Lantus, and since diagnosis he has increased his dosage over time and is now at 3 1/2 units, twice daily. We first gave him prescription dry food, but currently give him prescription wet food: Purina Pro Plan DM. (I plan to get him on something more affordable soon, life has just been crazy lately and we haven’t had the availability to try new foods).

NOW on to today.
My normal routine with my boy is he yells in my face in the morning until I get up and feed him at 11am. I give him his insulin as he eats. When he was first diagnosed I tried to do it after and that just didn’t work out, so we do it this way and it’s never been an issue. Well today he only took a few bites, and after I administered his insulin he decided he didn’t want anymore food. 30 minutes later he threw up a hairball and the little he did eat. He used the litter box (poop and pee). Then an hour later threw up clear frothy liquid (stomach fluid I’m pretty sure). At this point I called the vet, and they took him in 2 hours after that. I told them my concern was his throwing up and that he had recieved his insulin dose but won’t eat & could go hypo. During this time I tried to get him to eat again and also tried to get him to lick some honey, but had no luck. I was panicking.

The vet did blood work and said it looked good. They took his BG four times from 2:30-530 and numbers were 129, 112, 120, then 144. They gave him fluids, but couldn’t get him to produce urine to test it. They gave him anti-nausea medicine and now we are back home, with instructions to collect a urine sample and come back in the morning.

Baby boy still won’t touch any food and I’m not sure what else to do. I’m sure he’s hungry from not eating all day! but he isn’t going near it.

If you read this far, thank you. Even if you don’t have any advice thank you for reading my frustrations!
 
Hi and welcome to the forum Marie and Zuko
Did the vet say what blood work he did?
Do you know if they checked for ketones in the blood?
  • What I would do today is offer him any food he will eat at all. Don’t worry if it is not diabetic friendly. It is more important that he eat something. Cats need to eat. Even dry food is Ok at this point. You could go out and buy some ordinary canned food from the store and offer him that.
  • I would also go out to Walmart or a pharmacy and buy a bottle of Ketostix to test the urine for ketones. We need to find out if he has any ketones in the urine…there should be none.
  • I would ask the vet tomorrow to test for pancreatitis. To do that you can do either a snap fPL test which the vet can do in-house and will tell you yes or no. Or a spec fPL which is sent off site and you will find out the next day and that gives you a number. The pancreatic test is not in the routine blood tests. If he does have pancreatitis, he may need pain meds and antinausea meds for longer and some sub Q fluids. Cats with pancreatitis have nausea and pain and can get dehydrated, so those issues need to be addressed.
  • When is the next dose of insulin due? We don’t really want you skipping that….you could possibly give a half dose. Let us know when due.
It sounds as if you are not hometesting the blood glucose…I would like to tell you more about that later after we have sorted out Zuko not eating. please let us know if you are able to get him to eat something.
Bron
 
The vet didn’t say what the blood work was, just that it looked okay.
The next dose of insulin is supposed to be now (11pm EST), but he still hasn’t eaten much. I’m waiting to make sure he keeps it down before offering more and then figuring out if I should give full or half dose of insulin.
We have been home from the vet for 5 hours and he hasn’t gone to the litter box yet. I have it set up to take a urine sample, but he hasn’t gone near it yet.

I will ask the vet tomorrow to test for a pancreatitis, thank you. And yes, I’d love more info on home testing once this is sorted!
 
Sorry I haven't answered you sooner. I have been out at a lunch.
Did you manage to get Zuko to eat any more food and what did you decide to do about the insulin dose?
How does he seem generally? Is he lethargic?
 
So last night I got him to eat I think about a meals worth of dry food, but gave him a half dose of insulin just incase he didn’t keep it down.
This morning he is more vocal and seems a bit better spirited, but didn’t use the litter box last night at all, so I couldn’t get a urine sample, and now I’m concerned about that. We are back at the vet now for his follow up, I’ll keep the thread updated with what the vet says.
 
Zuko's mom - sorry that I don't have any great insights for you. I have been struggling with my girl not eating much as well. Similar to the previous advice, my vet said it is more important for them to eat something vs the "right" foods. Sometimes with Pixie I have recently had to open up 3-4 different cans to get even a decent amount in her. Anti-nausea shot seemed to help. The belly filler Fancy Feast cans seem to entice her more than the more expensive premium offerings.
Good luck with Zuko.
 
Thanks Pixies mom. He hasn’t had an issue of not eating since before his diagnosis, so I was taken totally off guard. I was hoping the anti-nausea would help last night, but didn’t help all that much compared to previous vet visits. I’ll try to keep some FF / cheaper smellier alternatives on hand for him if this ever happens again.
 
Zuko's mom - I understand. Pixie never had a problem eating either. In fact, even after initial diagnosis late Dec she remained food focused until about mid Feb. And then limited eating. She likes the "concept" of eating but maybe eats a few bites before walking away. The transdermal appetite stimulant (Mirataz) seems to be helping a bit; just picked up more anti nausea pills as well. Sorry you are going through this. It is just more stress on top of the diabetes stress.
 
Late reply, but vet said he was negative for pancreatitis. She said “Bloodwork the previous day tested liver, kidney, white & red blood cells. He had elevated cholesterol & ?? (Didn’t catch what she said) which indicates inflammatory response.”
Her prognosis when she gave him back to me was “a diabetic episode” ??? Uhg. What is that supposed to mean.
It’s been several days now and he is eating, but very very slowly and not finishing his whole serving. Now this morning he threw his food up again. I love my boy but it’s so frustrating to figure this out on top of other life stuff.
 
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