Stomach issues

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EmilyB

EmilyB

Member Since 2023
I’m just wondering if there are any links between feline diabetes and having stomach issues? Drew has been doing fairly well lately but now all of the sudden is having diarrhea and throwing up his food. At first I thought it was the flavor of fancy feast, but it has happened on at least 3 different flavors. I tried giving him some dry food to see if anything would change but it happens after that as well.
He is acting totally normal and even playful so I don’t think that he feels bad. He is also hungry and wants to eat. I just wanted to check and see if there is anything from his diabetes diagnosis that would be causing this or if it’s a separate issue.
 
I've not seen any relationship between diabetes and GI issues.

Just like with humans, it's possible for a cat to get some sort of GI bug. The question is whether it will pass in a few days.

One of the issues with Fancy Feast may be what the proteins are. For many of the Fancy Feast flavors, you really need to read the ingredients. A flavor like chicken. may also have fish in it. If your cat is sensitive to fish, he will react.

My thoughts would be to get a probiotic to control the diarrhea. S. boulardii is what I use because it is very helpful for controlling diarrhea. You start with 1/3 to 1/4 of a capsule and mix it into your cat's food.

I would get a couple of cans of novel protein food and see if it helps. It's possible that this is an early stage of inflammatory bowel (IBS) and novel proteins may help. Look for flavors like venison, rabbit, or lamb. I use ZiwiPeak.

If the vomiting and diarrhea continue, it's a trip to the vet.
 
Some cats take longer to switch diet and can have GI issues if you switch too quickly away from dry food to low carb wet. As far as I know, it isn't related to diabetes itself. What dry food was he eating before hand and how long have you been switching him to Fancy Feast? Also, as Sienne said, Fancy Feast does have "meat by products" in some of their flavours and you never know what that means if you have a kitty with allergies. You might want to check the can ingredients and see exactly what is in them.
 
Hi Emily. I'm sorry to hear that Drew has been having GI upset. I agree with what the others have said about food transitions and ingredients. Also, it is possible to have periodic GI bugs that should resolve in a few days. This does happen with my cats from time to time even when we haven't changed a thing about their food. A good probiotic may help. I like Visbiome Vet (although regular human Visbiome can be used as well.) Are you still home testing? Using a Libre? I can't see anything on Drew's spreadsheet. The reason I ask is that you had talked about switching Drew to Lantus/Glargine or ProZinc and I was wondering what the resolution of that had been with the vet? I hope Drew is completely back to normal very soon!
 
Sienne and Gabby (GA) said:
I've not seen any relationship between diabetes and GI issues.

Just like with humans, it's possible for a cat to get some sort of GI bug. The question is whether it will pass in a few days.

One of the issues with Fancy Feast may be what the proteins are. For many of the Fancy Feast flavors, you really need to read the ingredients. A flavor like chicken. may also have fish in it. If your cat is sensitive to fish, he will react.

My thoughts would be to get a probiotic to control the diarrhea. S. boulardii is what I use because it is very helpful for controlling diarrhea. You start with 1/3 to 1/4 of a capsule and mix it into your cat's food.

I would get a couple of cans of novel protein food and see if it helps. It's possible that this is an early stage of inflammatory bowel (IBS) and novel proteins may help. Look for flavors like venison, rabbit, or lamb. I use ZiwiPeak.

If the vomiting and diarrhea continue, it's a trip to the vet.
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Thank you for the response. He has not had diarrhea now since early this morning and has kept his food down so really hoping it was just a random stomach bug. I was just kind of panicked that it was somehow tied to the diabetes and wanted to check with you all here since I wasn’t finding anything by doing basic google searches.
 
Wendy&Neko said:
Some cats take longer to switch diet and can have GI issues if you switch too quickly away from dry food to low carb wet. As far as I know, it isn't related to diabetes itself. What dry food was he eating before hand and how long have you been switching him to Fancy Feast? Also, as Sienne said, Fancy Feast does have "meat by products" in some of their flavours and you never know what that means if you have a kitty with allergies. You might want to check the can ingredients and see exactly what is in them.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the response. We made the switch to wet food about a month ago now & he’d been fine with it, so I don’t think it was that. He has not had diarrhea or thrown up since early this morning (right before I posted this). So I’m hoping it was just a stomach bug or something. I was just worried it was somehow tied to diabetes but wasn’t finding any information so wanted to check with you all!
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
Hi Emily. I'm sorry to hear that Drew has been having GI upset. I agree with what the others have said about food transitions and ingredients. Also, it is possible to have periodic GI bugs that should resolve in a few days. This does happen with my cats from time to time even when we haven't changed a thing about their food. A good probiotic may help. I like Visbiome Vet (although regular human Visbiome can be used as well.) Are you still home testing? Using a Libre? I can't see anything on Drew's spreadsheet. The reason I ask is that you had talked about switching Drew to Lantus/Glargine or ProZinc and I was wondering what the resolution of that had been with the vet? I hope Drew is completely back to normal very soon!
Click to expand...

Thank you for the response. He has not had diarrhea or thrown up since early this morning right before I made the original post. So crossing my fingers it was just a random stomach bug or something. I should get that probiotic you mentioned to have on hand. I know a probiotic helped him earlier this year when he was having stomach issues.
Yes we are still home resting and just had our first at-home application of a Libre. It was successful, thank goodness! We have not switched his insulin yet but I think that’s my next route to go down. Things got a little tough during the holidays…for myself. It’s a lot to keep up with/wrap my head around with all of the constant information/learning. I was just feeling really overwhelmed and defeated even though he was fine. Thank you for checking in.
 
Basic's Mom said:
Previous post for continuity: https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/spreadsheet-posted-thoughts.284628/

I'm sorry that Drew isn’t feeling well. I'm not familiar with a correlation between diabetes and an upset stomach.

I'll tag some people that may be able to ask you a few questions to try and help determine what may be going on with him. He's very handsome, by the way.

@Sienne and Gabby (GA) @Wendy&Neko @Suzanne & Darcy
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Thank you! He knows he’s handsome too
 
EmilyB said:
Thank you for the response. He has not had diarrhea or thrown up since early this morning right before I made the original post. So crossing my fingers it was just a random stomach bug or something. I should get that probiotic you mentioned to have on hand. I know a probiotic helped him earlier this year when he was having stomach issues.
Yes we are still home resting and just had our first at-home application of a Libre. It was successful, thank goodness! We have not switched his insulin yet but I think that’s my next route to go down. Things got a little tough during the holidays…for myself. It’s a lot to keep up with/wrap my head around with all of the constant information/learning. I was just feeling really overwhelmed and defeated even though he was fine. Thank you for checking in.
Click to expand...
I know exactly what you mean by feeling overwhelmed and defeated. Boy do I remember that feeling! I was ready to give up on more than one occasion, but I loved my boy too much to quit. There is a lot to learn, but I bet you already understand more than you give yourself credit for - things that you didn’t know before his diagnosis. Everything does not have to be learned in a day or a week. I do hope that you will be able to switch insulin though. I didn’t like to see the way the Vetsulin left him in high numbers for too long and then pushed him way down at times (just going by the data you plugged into the spreadsheet in December.). Those are big swings — but are pretty typical for a cat on Vetsulin since it doesn’t last long in a cat (it works better in dogs than cats.)

Anyway, I am really glad that Drew seems to be doing better since this morning. What a relief. If you do find that you would like to switch insulin and that you might like a little help/support, I am around here. I promise to try to not overwhelm you!
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
I know exactly what you mean by feeling overwhelmed and defeated. Boy do I remember that feeling! I was ready to give up on more than one occasion, but I loved my boy too much to quit. There is a lot to learn, but I bet you already understand more than you give yourself credit for - things that you didn’t know before his diagnosis. Everything does not have to be learned in a day or a week. I do hope that you will be able to switch insulin though. I didn’t like to see the way the Vetsulin left him in high numbers for too long and then pushed him way down at times (just going by the data you plugged into the spreadsheet in December.). Those are big swings — but are pretty typical for a cat on Vetsulin since it doesn’t last long in a cat (it works better in dogs than cats.)

Anyway, I am really glad that Drew seems to be doing better since this morning. What a relief. If you do find that you would like to switch insulin and that you might like a little help/support, I am around here. I promise to try to not overwhelm you!
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Thank you! You all have definitely made me not feel so alone in all of it. And the wealth of information this place provides is just amazing.

Do you have any tips to switching insulin? I feel like someone told me I can’t switch until I apply a new Libre - so that would be in about 2 weeks. But maybe I made that up? But what should I know before/during switching to a new insulin? I have a note for myself that said I was going to switch to ProZinc. Is there a pros and cons between it and Lantus? If you wanted to point me to a thread where I could read up on anything I should know, I would be so appreciative! Or I can just do a little digging.
Thank you again so much!
 
I don’t think I would worry about waiting until you put on a new Libre sensor. Are you pretty much replacing them every two weeks? Do you apply them yourself? You have a backup handheld blood glucose monitor it looks like.

when transitioning to a new insulin you normally would just continue with the same dose you are currently using as long as there is data to show how your cat is doing on the current dose and it doesn’t look like he’s dropping too low on the current dose.
 
We'd need to see that last weeks worth of data on Vetsulin to help you with a new Prozinc or Lantus dose. I don't see anything on the spreadsheet after mid December.

As far as Prozinc vs. Lantus, there are several things to consider. One is what your vet is most comfortable with. We do have more people on Lantus so you'll be able to get more help here if you have questions on it. We don't really have a list of pros and cons of one vs the other. Though we have had more people switch from Prozinc to Lantus than the other way around. For some cats however, Prozinc works just fine.
 
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