New diabetic - doesn't want to eat before shot!

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ericam724

Member Since 2013
Hi everyone!

This is such a great resource! My 12 y/o cat, Macy, was diagnosed following a two-day stay at the emergency vet for ketoacidosis & UTI this week. My biggest worry at this point is that she has always been a grazer and free-feeder (we have 3 cats) and has always preferred dry food over canned (in 12 years I have never seen her eat more than just a little bit at a time). She will eat a little bit of of the prescription diet canned food, but not even close to the 1/4 quarter can recommended by the vet. I've given her injection (1 unit 2x/day) anyway because I was afraid not to. The vet's best advice was that she 'needed to eat' before the injection so as not to induce hypoglycemia but with 3 cats in the home, it is impossible to judge who is eating how much and when. How do you convince your cat to eat enough food before the shot? Are there any good tricks?

Any advice or words of wisdom would be much appreciated! Thank you so much!

Erica
 
Hi Erica and Macy! My kitties are all grazers too. I try to take up food about 2 hours before feeding, which is good for testing anyway. My kitties are more than ready to eat some then! Have you tried that? I'm not sure what else but other people will have more suggestions.

What kind of insulin do you use? Are you home testing?

It gets easier! I'm working on learning too so others with more experience will be more helpful. Don't worry...help is on this board!
 
Welcome to FDMB.

Its ok for her to graze - as the insulin kicks in, she'll become more hungry and eat. As a recent DKA cat, if necessary, you may need to syringe feed her to get her started eating again. Blending the old food gradually with the new food may work better for you than a sudden change. Mixing about 20-25% new food each day switches slowly enough than it is less likely to have inappetance, vomiting, or diarrhea.

Speaking of insulin, what type are you using? The better insulins for cats are Levemir, Lantus, and ProZinc.

We strongly encourage home blood glucose testing to keep your cat safe. An inexpensive human glucometer, test strips, and 27-28 gauge lancets are the minimum you need. The Arkray USA Glucocard 01 or 01 mini from our shopping partner ADW (link at top of page) or the branded version, the WalMart ReliOn Confirm or Confirm Micro are inexpensive and have reasonably priced strips.

This general link to the Cat Info site has tons of info, including tips on transitioning food, as well as a good food list with the percent of calories from each of protein, fat, and carbohydrates. A diet of under 10% calories for carbs, preferably canned, may help get your cat to a diet-controlled state.
 
Thanks everyone! Macy went into the ER on Sunday and I brought her home on Tues night so I haven't yet seen my own vet to start resting at home but I will in the near future. My vet suggested giving her system a couple of weeks to settle down and regulate with the insulin (Lantus) before testing again. I need to find a canned food that she likes better than the prescription diet and then maybe her appetite will improve.

Hardest part is having 2 other cats and a dog waiting to snap up whatever she doesn't and/or pushing her out of the way!
 
Fancy Feast Classic pates seem to work well with picky kitties. Try the turkey and giblet pate.

Options to aid transitioning:
Warm it up a bit to make it stinky.
Put a bit of crushed kibble on it.
Offer it on a finger.
Smear a bit on a paw and she'll lick it off to clean herself.
Tap a bit on the nose.
 
Hi Erica and Macy
I'm also new here and have received invaluable advice from every single person who has responded to my posts, and from reading all the others too.

I had the exact same problem. 3 cats - two on one diet and the 3rd (my sugar cat Errol) whom I had to transition on to wet food asap after diagnosis one month ago.
I kind of did it cold-turkey more by accident than design. What helped me is that I had about 2 yrs previously had to feed my cats separately because Errol would Hoover up everyone else's meals and his own. Molly grew thinner and Errol grew plumper. I heard a vet say put down their food and remove what's not eaten after 15 minutes. I don't necessarily agree with this but it suited me at the time because it prevented Errol from eating everyone's food.
I separate 2 kitties onto the verandah to eat as their appetites are about the same and they eat the same type of food, and I keep the sugar kitty inside near me where I can watch how good his appetite is.

It took almost a week to get him on to wet food completely after a life of addictive dry kibble. I despaired at times of it ever happening, but it did!! He's been eating solely wet food for a couple of weeks now. I had to find a couple of tinned varieties which he would tolerate, and then mix a little of that with his dry kibble, at first I just put them side by side on the plate. Then I crushed a few pellets over his wet food, and eventually phased out the dry food altogether.
I am sure he had an infection and his appetite was impaired, because when his course of antibiotics was over, his appetite returned. Whilst he was on antibiotics I gave him an appetite stimulant from the vet for about 4 days, which helped a lot. As soon as I saw he was regaining his appetite, I stopped with that.

What worked for me in the beginning was not allowing free-feeding (I couldn't, because that would mean Errol would be separated permanently from the other 2 kitties which wouldn't be right). At the moment, he is on 4 small meals / day (slightly more given at night to tide him over until 5am as I keep the other 2 cats separate at night until they're all on the same food [I'm slowly starting to get them to accept some wet food too to transition them over completely] ) and he eats everything I give him in one go more or less.

I am feeding 80% raw food homemade diet with added cat vitamins/minerals/amino acids, with 20% tinned food. I had to transition to canned food and slowly introduce raw food as he did not like the raw meat diet at first but accepted the tinned food more readily.
I will eventually phase out the tinned food altogether and prepare 3 months raw food in advance and freeze it. I believe that to be the healthiest option for my cats - just have a few obstacles to overcome in the meantime.
The above is purely my own experience and not intended as advice - each cat is different. I think Errol was actually quite easy to transition compared to my other kitty who would almost rather starve than eat wet food. I'm taking it a bit slower with him - I've put him and my 3rd cat on Orijens and Acana - it has far lower carbs than other dry food. But, it's still dry, and therefore not suitable for cats so I'll phase it out eventually. One thing at a time :lol:

Best of luck with your Sugar kitty :smile:
 
You can sprinkle some Purebites http://www.purebites.com/products/en/cat/chicken/ on top of their wet food. They're 100% meat with Zero carbs and you can find them at most pet stores or online. My cats were also not too happy without their dry food but this gave them the crunchy texture they liked. They end up eating the wet food as they eat the Purebites. Worked for me!
 
Hi again and Happy New Year!

Thanks so much for all the great advice here! I have tried a number of different flavors of the Friskies canned food and Macy wanted none of it (she scratches the ground next to the bowl when I set it down and the vet said that it likely meant that she didn't like it - "bury it!") I will buy some of the Fancy Feast cans tomorrow and see if she prefers that. I've tried pieces of real tuna, chicken, and beef and she didn't want any of that either. Right now she is free-feeding from the dry diabetic diet food and I fear she isn't eating enough of that (I can tell she has lost a bit of weight).

I'm going to take her to the vet on Monday for a glucose curve and then start home-testing (going on about 10 days post-diagnosis but it feels like longer!) I don't know if it is normal for diabetics to have a loss in appetite for a while? She has always ate well before. I am willing to discontinue the free-feeding but then I fear for her going without eating for any period of time. I'd like her to be on the wet food primarily if it can put her into remission, but right now she wants nothing to do with the wet food.

Thanks for listening to me vent. Nothing more frustrating than trying to make a cat eat!

Best,
Erica
 
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