mintealette
Member Since 2024
Hello everyone,
My little girl, Zoey (8 y/o) was just diagnosed last month on January 30, after a blood test in December showed an abnormally high glucose.
The vet attributed it to stress/anxiety at first & prescribed her an anxiety medication. She was due back for another glucose check in March to see if the meds helped bring it back down, but around mid-January she started drinking & peeing in excessive amounts. Her old vet was completely booked & the wait time would've been well over 2 weeks out, so I took her to a different vet closer to where I live.
They came back immediately with the results. Her glucose was sitting at just below 500 (it had nearly doubled since December), & they wanted to start her on Bexacat immediately. They'd also put her on an antibiotic called AmoxiClav, which was supposed to help with the burns she'd gotten from peeing so much.
Everything was fine at first. The first couple days were a bit rocky - the Bexacat was causing her to have liquid diarrhea & she didn't have much of an appetite. But once we got into a routine, she did really well & was starting to act more like herself. She went in for a spot check a week after starting on the Bexacat & both her glucose & ketone levels were completely normal. The staff at the vet were all so happy for her, & it was a huge relief for me as well. But it's like her behavior changed completely overnight - The very next day, she started experiencing nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, lethargy, & her appetite was practically non-existent. I'd also noticed that she seemed to be biting at her bottom a lot more & scooting across the floor after having a BM (she was still experiencing liquid diarrhea at the time). When I looked, it appeared as though she'd rubbed the skin raw, & she was experiencing a bit of leakage as well.
I took her back to the vet on February 13, & they did another spot check. Her BG & ketones were still normal, her weight hadn't changed, & while a rectal exam showed some inflammation, her doctor said it wasn't anything too serious & that we'd just need to get the diarrhea back under control to give that area a chance to heal itself. They also put a lot of emphasis on making sure I was giving her the Bexacat with food (which I told them I had been doing), as not doing so could cause diarrhea & vomiting.
After giving her some SQ fluids to ensure she wasn't dehydrated & instructing me to skip the Bexacat for a day & resume treatment the next, they sent us home with:
The Cerenia has done nothing to help with the nausea - she's still gagging but not actually throwing anything up, & instead just swallows it back down. The FortiFlora helped a little at first? She still had diarrhea, but it went from being completely liquid to having almost a soft serve ice cream sort of consistency. However, it's been 2 days since her last BM & it's starting to concern me.
She's shown some interest in wet food & I've been slowly transitioning her from a dry to wet diet. But as I said before, she's so suspicious of anything I give her. She won't eat wet food from the bowl, but (& this is a bit gross) she'll eat it out of my hand.
I leave out a tiny bit of dry food in her bowl in case she wants to nibble a little between meals, but she doesn't touch it - even though the other cats eat the same food, she only wants it from their bowl & not her own.
I talked to the vet & now they want to prescribe her even MORE medicine. I'm starting to wonder - if she needs all of these new medications just to manage the side effects from the Bexacat, is it really the best thing for her? Sure, all the testing they've done so far shows that she's doing well physically, but at home she just seems so miserable. I don't know what to do for her. She never wants to spend time with me anymore & prefers to spend the day hiding in other rooms away from me. If she's in my room, she's under the bed. I miss her lots.
At this point, would insulin or some other alternative be better for her? Am I doing something wrong? I'm at a complete loss & could use some advice from those with more experience.
My little girl, Zoey (8 y/o) was just diagnosed last month on January 30, after a blood test in December showed an abnormally high glucose.
The vet attributed it to stress/anxiety at first & prescribed her an anxiety medication. She was due back for another glucose check in March to see if the meds helped bring it back down, but around mid-January she started drinking & peeing in excessive amounts. Her old vet was completely booked & the wait time would've been well over 2 weeks out, so I took her to a different vet closer to where I live.
They came back immediately with the results. Her glucose was sitting at just below 500 (it had nearly doubled since December), & they wanted to start her on Bexacat immediately. They'd also put her on an antibiotic called AmoxiClav, which was supposed to help with the burns she'd gotten from peeing so much.
Everything was fine at first. The first couple days were a bit rocky - the Bexacat was causing her to have liquid diarrhea & she didn't have much of an appetite. But once we got into a routine, she did really well & was starting to act more like herself. She went in for a spot check a week after starting on the Bexacat & both her glucose & ketone levels were completely normal. The staff at the vet were all so happy for her, & it was a huge relief for me as well. But it's like her behavior changed completely overnight - The very next day, she started experiencing nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, lethargy, & her appetite was practically non-existent. I'd also noticed that she seemed to be biting at her bottom a lot more & scooting across the floor after having a BM (she was still experiencing liquid diarrhea at the time). When I looked, it appeared as though she'd rubbed the skin raw, & she was experiencing a bit of leakage as well.
I took her back to the vet on February 13, & they did another spot check. Her BG & ketones were still normal, her weight hadn't changed, & while a rectal exam showed some inflammation, her doctor said it wasn't anything too serious & that we'd just need to get the diarrhea back under control to give that area a chance to heal itself. They also put a lot of emphasis on making sure I was giving her the Bexacat with food (which I told them I had been doing), as not doing so could cause diarrhea & vomiting.
After giving her some SQ fluids to ensure she wasn't dehydrated & instructing me to skip the Bexacat for a day & resume treatment the next, they sent us home with:
- Cerenia - 2 tablets, to be cut in half & taken once every 24 hours, over 4 days. This was supposed to help with the nausea.
- Purina FortiFlora - A probiotic supplement they said was supposed to help with the diarrhea.
- 2 cans of Purina Pro Plan E/N canned wet food - Feed 1/4 can with the Bexacat
The Cerenia has done nothing to help with the nausea - she's still gagging but not actually throwing anything up, & instead just swallows it back down. The FortiFlora helped a little at first? She still had diarrhea, but it went from being completely liquid to having almost a soft serve ice cream sort of consistency. However, it's been 2 days since her last BM & it's starting to concern me.
She's shown some interest in wet food & I've been slowly transitioning her from a dry to wet diet. But as I said before, she's so suspicious of anything I give her. She won't eat wet food from the bowl, but (& this is a bit gross) she'll eat it out of my hand.
I leave out a tiny bit of dry food in her bowl in case she wants to nibble a little between meals, but she doesn't touch it - even though the other cats eat the same food, she only wants it from their bowl & not her own.
I talked to the vet & now they want to prescribe her even MORE medicine. I'm starting to wonder - if she needs all of these new medications just to manage the side effects from the Bexacat, is it really the best thing for her? Sure, all the testing they've done so far shows that she's doing well physically, but at home she just seems so miserable. I don't know what to do for her. She never wants to spend time with me anymore & prefers to spend the day hiding in other rooms away from me. If she's in my room, she's under the bed. I miss her lots.
At this point, would insulin or some other alternative be better for her? Am I doing something wrong? I'm at a complete loss & could use some advice from those with more experience.
