New member - advice on cat with infection in nose, lost a lot of weight, and tempting him to eat

[Deadpurl]

The sweet boy in my profile picture is PC. About three months ago we had a scare where I saw blood in his nose. Rushed him to the vet, saw a vet I don't like (we don't have "a" vet, we just see whoever they give us), they sent us home with antibiotics.

A month later I saw blood again. Went to the vet, saw a much better vet - said he was diagnosed with a bad canine last time - which was news to me! This is why I can't stand the other vet, he doesn't talk to me. Anyway, she said it's too risky to pull it because of his age (he's at least 16, maybe 17 - we have had him two months shy of 15), here's some more antibiotics and we ran a senior panel to see why he was down to nine pounds. He's always been about twelve pounds.

His blood work came back saying he was diabetic.

They prescribed one u of prozinc insuin twice a day, suggested we feed him Friskies instead of prescription food (but if we wanted rx food they'd sell it to us), and said he gets two meals a day.

We started doing all that, but two Sunday's ago he stopped eating. Monday he licked his food. Because he hasn't eaten anything I didn't give him any insulin - as per doctors orders. Tuesday morning all he did was drink so I rushed him to the vet.

His sugar was off the charts, so I left him there to get that under control. He also was down to seven pounds.

After that came down he still wasn't eating and started having a lot of nasal discharge. So the vet figures we didn't get the infection from his tooth and it went to the nose.

She gave him an antibiotic shot good for two weeks, anti-nausea medication, and he started to eat some.

He's been home since Thursday and is acting a lot like his old self, a little less animatied but I figure he's not feeling quite well.

He's not eating much still though. We switched him back to his old brand of food, Authority from PetSmart, because he likes the pate, but he's only eating some of it if we spoon feed him.

I figured out if I hold the spoon next to his mouth he'll lick it clean, like he can't smell the food. But he loses interest in general fairly quickly.

I bought him baby food, meat and water only. That he eats. He eats almost an entire small jar of it, a licked spoon at a time.

We figured out that he should eat about 100 calories for each meal if he weighed 9 pounds. A jar of baby food is 90 calories, and we figure he's getting about ten from the wet food.

We were told not to try to check his sugar, although I've seen others here say they do, so I'm thinking I can - I have a meter, if it'll work - I'm diabetic myself.

I have been giving him his full dose of insulin, which is now 1.5 units and checking him after a few hours. He stays alert and easy to wake, and isn't camped out by the water bowl like he is when his sugar is high. I can only assume his sugar is okay right now.

He was quite interested in the food on the plate this morning, but he didn't chew at it. It's just pate so there isn't much to chew. He mostly licked it, and got tired of that soon.

Should I be concerned with getting him to eat - anything - right now and over this infection? And fine tune the diabetes afterward? Should I start checking his sugar on my own now? What other concerns should I be having? Should I dilute his pate with water so when he licks it he's eating too? Should I try syringe feeding? I know baby food isn't a great food long term as it lacks the taurine he needs. But it's all ge'll really eat right now.

Should I be concerned that when he does drink he gets it all over his face and chest? Is that likely because he's still sick and hasn't had enough food over the last week to sustain a body, or is this all pointing to signs that he's saying it's time? We originally planned to give him a week or two, if nothing changes for the worse before making a decision, but I'm out of my element here.

Thanks for any help.

I'm off to read a bunch of faqs and threads now.

 

[Veronica & Babu-chiri]

Hi, sorry to hear about all you've been through.

First of all a cat needs to eat, and at a certain point it really doesn't matter what but he needs food because if he doesn't have any food this triggers a mechanism that is sometimes called panicky liver and that is seriously dangerous that being said is always good to try and give him the diabetic appropriate food first and if not well... anything he accepts and even consider to assist feed him with a syringe if everything else fails.

Are you home testing him for his blood glucose levels? Considering his situation this is of vital importance, that you start testing him at home because with him eating very little it can be really dangerous to give insulin without knowing his real values, going too low could actually kill a cat but with an infection he needs insulin.

You need to monitor him for ketones because high levels of blood glucose and little food can also cause him to develop ketones and those are better caught early


There's a liver shake some people here that could help right now this is the link to the thread with the recipe and instructions

http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/the-liver-shake-for-sick-cats.30432/

Also some cats (most of them I think) found hills a/d canned food very appealing, it is a pate so no need for him to chew anything and also you could add a bit of water or chicken broth (cooked without salt or onions and with or anything else pretty much chicken boiled in water, if you leave the skin it gets a bit greasy but they like it better and fat doesn't affect his diabetes) to make it more liquid it can also be fed with syringe and is mid carb so not that bad for his diabetes

This is kind of an emergency situation but you really need to determine what is causing him not to eat, if is a dental problem, then if it were me I think I would consider getting him the proper care even if it's bit risky because of his age (and you didn't mentioned if he has some other health issues) because tooth pain can be seriously bad and he really may be avoiding eating just because of the pain it causes even if he's hungry in the mean time you could also ask your vet to give some pain medication to help with it, that may help him eat.

With a diabetic cat is not really important how many calories he's taking, but if he's eating low carbohydrate food and given his condition don't worry about how many calories he's getting let him have as much food as he accepts and when ever he accepts it don't worry about schedules

 

[Deadpurl]

Thanks for the advice! Someone told me to try tempting him with cheez whiz too, so I'll have my husband also pick up the stuff for the liver shake. I've heard great stuff about that liver shake from kitten rescues, so thanks.

The vet did mention Thursday when he came home that if all goes well for a week or so that we should probably go ahead and pull the tooth even though it's risky at his age. It can't be any more risky than leaving it there.

I am not monitering his levels yet. I was told it was too hard for home users originally, but I am going to start. I have a meter, I just need to know how to draw blood.

The pages on the faq threads here that talk about it don't load (the ones going to sugarcat) but I'll find out how to do it this afternoon somewhere.

Pain. You know, I'm an idiot. I have gabapentin for the pain. I completely forgot about that. I feel like the worst pet owner right now. I'm going to go give him a dose so it'll be kicked in by dinner time.

Thank you!

 

[Veronica & Babu-chiri]

Is not as difficult as the vets tend to think really, I remember my vet saying he did not recommended testing to avoid me stress, quite frankly I told him that it stressed me more the idea of causing a hypo episode (those can kill) or not giving the proper dose for not testing at home.

You will need:
A blood glucose meter (it can be a human one) with it's strips (each meter has it's own strips) try to buy one that uses a very small amount of blood
Lancets for poking the ear ,at the beginning using ones that are 28 gauge is better because a bigger hole makes getting a drop more probable
Usually something to warm the ear before the pokin makes blood circulate more so it's esier to get a drop , some people use a sock filled with rice, I warm a wet cloth that I place in a plastic bag in the microwave I just test it in my wrist like you would baby milk to make sure is not too hot
Some reward that he really really likes so that eventually he looks towards testing happily or at least accepts it as a necessary evil to get the reward
A place where you and him are confortable
And a lot of patience

This is the link to the threat that concentrates a lot of information specifically for home testing and videos you can look at and ask all you want about it there's a lot of people here that can help you with that

http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/hometesting-links-and-tips.287/

 

[CandyH & Catcat]

had to laugh with your description of getting it all over his face and chest -- my Catcat has something not working right with his tongue, he can't curl it to drink as most cats do, so when he laps water, he *does* get it all over his face, sometimes we laughingly call him Chief Rain-in-the-Face

yes do try adding water to pate type food (my cat prefers Fancy Feast over Friskies) and see if he can lap it up, my Catcat does love pate soup, with food chunks he mostly licks them until they squish against the side of the food bowl

most vets don't encourage home testing, most here do it anyway, how else can you monitor his diabetes ????? human meters work, most here use them, but check to see how large a sample of blood that the meter requires -- I had One Touch meters left over but sample size was too large to get from cat's ear, I went with a ReliOn from Walmart -- if by chance you have a Freestyle Lite for your own use, that meter takes a much smaller sample to work, you'd be in luck

 

[Julie and Honey]

Welcome!

I participated in a thread the other day and there were lots of tips for a cat not eating. Including link below in case you had not seen it. Baby food is good for cats that won’t eat, but needs supplementation with cat food for the cat specific nutrients that are not in baby food. Baby food is fine temporarily or as a supplement to other (cat) food. Absolutely better than not eating.

http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/...t-eating-after-diagnosis.214220/#post-2372978

It is a lot in the beginning, but things do get easier.

Testing is important. If you are diabetic, you know this. Honestly don’t know why some vets discourage it. Would you shoot a dose of insulin in yourself without knowing what your glucose level is? I don’t think a vet would shoot insulin in himself or one of his children without checking either.

A bad tooth will significantly increase sugar levels as will higher carb food. If going to low carb food, insulin also needs to be adjusted and people here can help with that.

If you can find a cat dentist, yes, there is such a thing, they may have more experience with treating higher risk patients for dental issues because that is their primary specialty.