Is Diabetes causing my cat to be obsessed with licking me?

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Tigger12

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Hello,
I'm new here, my cat has been diabetic for about 5 years now and has always taken a pill for it, Glipizide. About a year ago he started licking my face all the time, obsessively. I don't work and he tries, all day long, to lick my face. We use to
snuggle all the time and it's now become inpossable to do so cause all he wants to do is lick me & I can't get him to stop!!! I even avoid sitting down cause everytime I do he tries to lick me, anyways I think u clearly get my point, it's bad! Mabey I'm wrong but I'm convinced it has something to do with his diabetes, have any of u had a diabetic cat with this symptom? I know are skin has salt on it and am also wondering if craving salt is a symptom of diabetes? Should I be worried that it's a symptom of something more serious? Any help would be MUCH appreciated, it's ruining are relationship and I miss cuddling and sleeping together : ( Plus it's extemely annoying and driving me crazy!!! Thank u so much to everyone who has taken the time to read this.

-Laura & tigger
 
No idea, sorry!

But on the topic of diabetes, I've never heard of a cat being on glipizide for so long; how is he doing?
 
It's my understanding that the pills don't work well for cats and it's best to inject insulin. Can you share some more information about your cat and why you are using pills as opposed to injectable insulin?

Regarding the licking, sorry no clue.
 
Tiggers been on Glipizide for 5 years and has always done wonderfull on it, never a problem. He was started on it other then insulin cause it was what the vet who diagnosed him recommended. Every vet since then has been amazed it was working so well. Not untill reading on this site had I ever heard that glipizide was a poor choice for cats, so now I'm concerned. Even though it's worked so well should I switch to insulin? I only pay $4 a month for the glipzide and have little money + i hate needles, but i'm willing to do anything for the health of my cat. Also from what I've read on this site I can't believe all of his vets have had me feeding him purina DM dry cat food! As soon as I recieve a meter for him in the mail I'm immediately switching to wet food only, however I have no idea how much I should feed him this way? I'd appreciate any recommendations, he's about 14 pounds. Thanks

-Laura & Tigger
 
Hi Laura,

As you have read, there is a concern that Glipizide is taxing to the pancreas. It will be good for you to get some numbers when you get your meter. That will really help you get a picture of what is actually happening.

DO NOT CHANGE TO WET FOOD UNTIL YOU ARE HOMETESTING. Since you don't know what his levels are, you don't want to risk them getting too low with a change in diet. When we changed Oliver from dry to wet, he came down 100 points overnight. When you get some numbers, you can start with the wetfood and keep track of what is happening.

Oliver had always been overweight (the lovely Science diet...). We started him on 2.5 cans of Fancy Feast a day when he was unregulated. (They can be very hungry when unregulated, literally starving.) We cut back to 2 cans when his weight stablized at 15 pounds (Maine Coon, big cat) We froze food and put it in a timed automatic feeder so he could eat a number of smaller meals. That really helped his pancreas help and eventually got him off insulin.

Will be watching for your numbers when you start hometesting. You will be happy at how in control you will feel.
 
Just an update,
Tigger has been diet controlled and off Glipizide for 4 days now, keeping my fingers crossed it will continue. When I started hometesting his numbers were very low, between 36-48 so I stopped giving him Glipizide. Since then his blood glucose numbers have been 70-90 which if I'm correct are good numbers. Here's the weird part, since he's been off his meds his licking problem has almost stopped!
-Laura & Tigger
 
Tigger12 said:
Just an update,
Tigger has been diet controlled and off Glipizide for 4 days now, keeping my fingers crossed it will continue. When I started hometesting his numbers were very low, between 36-48 so I stopped giving him Glipizide. Since then his blood glucose numbers have been 70-90 which if I'm correct are good numbers. Here's the weird part, since he's been off his meds his licking problem has almost stopped!
-Laura & Tigger
Click to expand...

Glip is known to cause lots of side effects and problems. I wouldn't doubt maybe it was causing a problem. Wouldn't hurt to do a blood panel to make sure all is good, if you haven't already.
 
I'm glad that it appears that Tigger is now diet controlled. For information, it might be useful for others and me if you posest some BG values when hi was still on Glip and the dry DM. Just wondering what the BG would be on Glip and the dry DM
 
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