Not eating!

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Nmplains

Member Since 2010
Hi everyone, I wish I had found thus site much sooner. My friend Spot is 13 and has been diabetic for 2 years, hyper. Lately at his vet visits he has been continuously reading 300 to 400, hours after eating and insulin. He has been doing pretty well aside from that, he has just continued to be really tough to regulate. So I converted from vetsulin to prozinc last month and he has adjusted fine, he has been on 2 units twice daily at his last visit he read around 348 a few hours after insulin and eating. We increased him to 4 units twice daily Friday night. On Monday evening he did not eat all his dinner and Tuesday morning he ate ok..in the past weeks he has been eating everything and wanting more so I have increased what I was giving him only by a small amount I got home Tuesday and there was vomit everywhere and diarrhea in the box and around it. The vomit was a pile in one area and then light brown liquid and a dark liquid in another area. Tuesday evening he ate very little. This morning he would not eat at all, so no shot. I got home and am trying to no avail to get him to eat. He is drinking and I put a little food in his mouth and he sniffed aroundcand ate two bites, untried adding cheese and will try heating it up now. What worries me is he is now not able to jump on the bed as he was last night, he makes it halfway up, he is also staggering alittle and is not himself however he continues to go to get water. He is taking atenolol and tapazole/methimazole as well.. I have also been considering home testing recently but that is for another day..please help..he is going in to the vet first thing in morning..
 
It sounds like you are trying the right things. I have sometimes found that smearing a bit on the roof of my cats mouth works. Even as he tries to spit it out he does swallow some. Just be sure that your finger nail is very short. Sometimes a little tuna juice will also entice a kitty to try a few licks. If you have Fortiflora, try that too. (If not, maybe ask your vet tomorrow and pick up a few envelopes for emergencies.) If there is other food that he likes, try that too - maybe Fancy Feast with gravy or Tender Vittles treats - basically pretty much anything to get a little food into him. Worry about the carbs tomorrow when he is eating and you can test his bg.

And you mentioned the magic words - home testing. It is so simple and gives you so much knowledge to make the best decisions about your kitty. Tests at the vet are normally a lot higher than they would be at home due to stress. I encourage you to pick up a meter and test strips, along with lancets, as soon as you can. If you want advice on which meter to use, just ask. It partly depends on what is available in your area (eg USA or Canada).
 
Get him to the vet tomorrow and make sure they test for Ketones and take blood work just to make sure. My Pringles just passed recently and there had been a decrease in the food she was eating over several days... I took her to the vet and didn't ask about Ketones... 2 days later I was at the emergency vet and they diagnosed DKA and fatty liver, all due to not eating. Just to be safe I'd have them check if possible.
 
Dear Nmplains,

Please offer Spot any of the following:

Deli/Sandwich meats: chicken, turkey, beef -- and ham (not honey) and/or pastrami, if need be...
Cheese: swiss, provolone, cheddar...
Tuna: people kind with water/juice...
Grilled chicken, steak, pork chop...
Yoghurt: Vanilla, peach, blueberry, raspberry...

Basically anything that's in your fridge...

It is so important that Spot eats whatever Spot wants!

Much love and please give us an update when you can kind of hugs,
Deb and Nikki -- and Giz, forever ordering from the menu of my heart...
 
You went from 2 units twice a day to 4 units twice a day? Good chance you are overdosing him then, or at least, that's a good possibility. Please, drop the dose a bit especially while he's inappetant, and make a committment to learning how to test blood glucose levels at home. I was one of the most reluctant of testers, but soon realized that it is absolutely the most important tool you can have, second to the insulin

Jen
 
Thank you all for the replies! Spot has been at the vet since 8 am. He was given sub q fluids and appetite stimulant. His bg was 380. He has not eaten since Tuesday evening and that was not much. Yet his bg is so high. He has been returning to get water about every twenty minutes..I appreciate everyones input thank you again..now its waiting for the phone to ring...I've tried all the food ideas suggested, even yogurt..I had never thought of that. I did mention keytones to the vet too..
 
It may be a relatively simple reason why he isn't eating..high bgs can make cats inappetant. They need to eat though to get insulin. So. In my case, I gave Squeak an appetite stimulant and forcefed him watered down babyfood and canned food. Otherwise, they are at high risk for developing hepatic lipidosis and ketones, very very nasty complications

Jen
 
Thank you everyone. Spot came home the same day in the evening and Friday and Saturday were tough, he was very lethargic but started to show interest in food. I made the decision to start home testing bg. I bought the ReliOn Confirm and strips. Each were 9.99 at walmart. I have been monitoring since Friday night. It is going pretty smoothly. This morning (Sunday) he was a beast hungry for everything and meowing and running around. He seems really good so far. I'm trying to get a hang on deciphering his bg readings vs. Insulin etc. but it feels good knowing where he is at. Now to make a spread sheet of all these readings...
 
Did your vet give you advice about the insulin dose when he sent your kitty home? I don't use prozinc, but I do know that the advice is always start low and go slow (as in slow increases - sometimes less than a half unit). I'm sure that others will have advice regarding his insulin when you are able to share some numbers.

So glad to hear that he is home and looking better.
 
Well we put him up to 6 units twice daily as long as he was eating Thursday evening...But what I have noticed after testing bg since Friday is that he is going down to 54 at 6 hours from 246. So I am hesitant to continue at 6 b.I.d.. Four days before all of this not eating he was at mid 300 bg at his Friday appointment and he was loosing weight. So insulin was increased from 2 b.i.d. to 4 b.i.d. So thinking all of this out I feel 6 is too much, 2 was too little, 4 sent him into this and he registered at the vet this past Thursday at 340 or 380 so 3 may be the best answer, with very strict 12 hour timing, I'm going to keep an eye on everything wait for him to resume his normal diet and keep taking notes and get together with my vet. So worrisome, but nice to know there are so many nice people to help! Spot is actually my second diabetic his brother Harley, brother by blood literally ;-) was also hyperglycemic. Wish I had known of this resource with him...
 
Nmplains said:
Well we put him up to 6 units twice daily as long as he was eating Thursday evening... .
Click to expand...


He's been on Prozinc for a month and you're already up to 6 units? Based on what data? That is crazy fast and just asking for trouble. If he's already dropping as low as 54 mid-cycle, you're well on the way to serious insulun overdose. You are aware that those can be fatal, right?

You need to back off on that dose and make increases in smaller increments based on more valid data than spot checks. What you're doing now is very dangerous for your cat.
 
He was on vetsulin prior and actually was recently diet controlled. The 6 units bid was at the veterinarians direction. I am well aware that the low bg is very dangerous, hence why I've been worried and have begun home testing and recording everything. I appreciate the urgency and importance of what is going on...When Spot converted to prozinc he started at 2 units bid and then went to 4 and then 6 as of Friday as directed by veternarian. I am decreasing as obviously this is too high a dose.
 
insulin doses should not be raised by more thank 0.5 units at a time....so you have been doing massive increases which are not safe

jen
 
The 2 to 4 increase preceding the not eating scare is probably to blame then. Everything seems to fit together now with the low and slow methodology. I'm glad to have you all, thank you. Again please know I was not freelancing, I was following my veterinarian's directions with the dose changes.
 
Sounds like you're overdosing Spot quite a lot. When you get really high and really low readings in the same 12-hour cycle, it's because he has way too much insulin. The neuropathy you're describing is because his diabetes is not controlled whatsoever. If it were me, I'd cut your dose in half immediately. Thank goodness you're hometesting - it's the only way you can find out what dose is right for Spot. It's going to take a while to compile the data, so hopefully you can hang in there.

Hopefully his numbers won't bounce around as much on a lower dose - and you may end up lowering it more & more...

On another note, if you feel you need more direction from a vet regarding diabetes management, I would suggest you look for someone else - this vet's direction is really, really dangerous and the exact opposite of what's needed to regulate Spot.
 
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