Q: Hair loss or reduction in appetite - food change & b12 methyl

Hello!

Two quick questions, wondering if anyone has any experience:

1) Weenie is starting to... shed? Hair loss? Little clumps coming out. She does have a history of food allergies many years back but that manifested itself in itching. So far, no sign of itching. We are now 100% low carb food. Had been wet food forever but was on prescription Z/D. Seriously considering trying all raw tomorrow. Our latest rescue is on all raw. Appreciate any input!

2) Appetite has dropped. I read that B12 methyl can cause loss of appetite in humans. Has anyone seen this happen in cats? Giving her a full crushed Zobaline in the morning and then some extra B12 later in the day with food. She finally made it to the box on her own last night and is standing more, some walking, so I would hate to quit the B12... I know, the regulated BG is probably really what is helping...

Thanks in advance for your help!

 

I would start the raw diet. Heck if youre already feeding it to one might as well try it.

I never noticed a loss of interest in food with Trouble, He got a whole tablet on each meal.

I'm sure youre going to get more replies. so hang in there.

 

Hiya,

When cats are poorly regulated and can't absorb or utilise the nutrients from their food properly, the body shifts available resources to maintenance of the most important functions, the ones that sustain life. Other functions take a back seat, and one of those is replacement of the fur, hence one of the hallmark clinical signs of feline diabetes being poor hair coat condition.

As insulin treatment progresses and glucose regulation improves, as is now the case with Weenie, the body benefits more from the food the kitty is eating and the bodily maintenance functions that previously had to take a back seat now get more energy and nutrients directed toward them.

It is possible that now Weenie is replacing her coat. Hairs that would have dropped quite some time ago are all dropped at once as the body heals. FWIW the same happened to Saoirse. If I looked sideways at her, handfuls of fur would fall out. It really was quite alarming. I thought she might go bald at one stage.

If replacement is what's going on then Weenie's coat condition should show marked improvement over the next few weeks, and you may find her new coat to be much softer.

Unregulated diabetics are normally much hungrier because they're not able to properly utilise the food they're consuming.

Because Weenie's regulation has improved so much, her appetite may be reducing to normal levels because she's now getting the full benefit from the food she's eating.

The best gauge of whether a cat is eating enough is to keep a little daily diary of how much it has eaten, to check weight weekly (a reasonably-priced digital baby scale is ideal for this) and to do a weekly assessment of the cat against a body condition chart. If a kitty's underweight you need to feed a little more to help them gain (assuming that they'll eat all they need!). If they start to put on weight over their ideal then you reduce the daily food allowance by a tiny amount until ideal weight is restored. (Weight loss needs to be done very, very slowly in cats. See the Feline Obesity page at catinfo.org for helpful information on weight management.)

Vitamin B12 is usually a boost to appetite in cats. Other members may have more information on whether it can reduce appetite. It's not a phenomenon I've come across before.

Both the insulin therapy and the B12 supplementation work in concert to resolve the diabetic neuropathy. I'm glad to hear that Weenie's neuropathy symptoms are reducing. The best I can suggest to you is that you monitor her as outlined above for a week or two to ensure she is eating enough and not becoming underweight.

Anti-jinx, but it looks like your girl may be heading for remission. Has the UTI you were treating with the antibiotics cleared up now? Also, is the 'drop shot' reference in Weenie's spreadsheet a skipped dose or are you giving a droplet microdose of insulin each day?

Fingers and paws crossed.

Mogs
.

 

Thank you so much for your post! I was thinking this could be the cause of the hair "issue" but couldn't find anything to back it up. We got worried it was the food allergy but with no sign of itching, I think there is a really good chance this is good news! Paws crossed for sure!

The "D" I am recording is my effort to get as close to a single drop as possible. Of course this is a new source of stress for us as we start to worry is this tiny dose going to cause problems but let's burn that bridge when we get there. I'll keep shooting the drop shot until we read < 100 and then really start to freak out and plan our next steps.

Thanks again!!

 

I'm glad I could offer some bit of reassurance!

When the fur shedding started with Saoirse she had just been through a massive pancreatitis flare. When her coat started coming out in handfuls I thought it was going to be the latest in a long line of awful that she had had happen to her in very quick succession. Thankfully it was something good instead! (((Saoirse))) While the pancreatitis flare was still in progress, this is what Saoirse's coat looked like when the vet saw her:





You can see how badly rusted her once black fur had become. (Chronic pancreatitis also contributed to the rusting.)

About 4-6 weeks later, following some time on Lantus insulin and resolution of the pancreatitis flare I took Saoirse for a check-up. Our vet actually stood back several paces from the examination table when he saw her, because by then she looked exactly like this (a photo taken 5 years earlier):




All her new dark fur was jet black! And beautifully soft. Our vet said that if he'd hadn't seen her before he would never have taken her for a fourteen-year-old.

Fingers and paws crossed that Weenie will have a lovely new coat very soon. Are you getting help from Deb and the gang in the Prozinc group on the insulin side of things? I've not used Prozinc but as a general principle you need to keep a close eye on numbers and get ahead of any upward drift in BG levels when a kitty's 'on the cusp'... Exciting times!


Mogs
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Oh so cute! Looks just like a kitty we lost too young, he was Weenies best friend. I’ll find a picture. Even had the white patch. Definitely getting help from Deb in the Prozinc forum.

 

Best friends

 

A good rule of thumb for daily calorie intake is 20 times ideal weight. Minnie is 16 so 20 times that means she should be eating about 320 calories a day. Has she lost weight or is she at her ideal weight now?

Minnie was and still is on b12 methyl and definitely no loss of apetite at all from it. I was also giving her the equivalent of 2 zobalines a day at first to speed up her recovery and still didn’t affect her apetite ever.

 

Lovely photo above!


Mogs
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We do track everything ... obsessively of course ... weight is good, way back up from earlier issues. Down .1 but will keep an eye on things. Starting to introduce some raw food now. Paws crossed.

 

Awesome. I always say if you’re not a neurotic pet owner you’re not doing it right

 

Any time you're in this neck of the woods I'd be happy to make my own helipad available to you.


Mogs
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Why am I not getting invited for tea and biscuits?

 

You're very welcome, Aleluia! The more the merrier!!


Mogs
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Well my big fear just hit - we have started itching. I think she wasn’t able to actually itch with her back legs until today and now it has started. I really don’t want to go back to the z/d food because of the high carbs. It’s really upsetting to watch. Going to see if we can get her to eat raw, pick a protein she has never really had in the past and see if we can figure out something she isn’t allergic to...

paws crossed as always

 

Awwwwwww sending healing vines and prayers.

 

Fingers and paws crossed over here in the Shire...


Mogs
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