Suddenly picky eater/not eating?

[soreto]

2 months into diagnosis. Previously, Kitty was begging for food every few hours & I had to feed multiple meals all day long.

However, the past few days, he's become an increasingly picky eater. I put out food, he eats a few bites & then leaves the rest. I thought maybe the food was a bad batch, so I've been trying to feed him a few different foods- all of them he is ignoring, or having very little of. Today is the first day I don't feel comfortable giving him his insulin because while he ate about 6oz of wet food early this morning, he has not eaten all day & did not eat the food I set out tonight. He sniffs at it, licked a little & then leaves it behind. He's been doing it all day. His BG is 122 & I've decided to skip insulin.

He does not appear sick or hypoglycemic. In fact, he seems to still be begging for food, but when I put it out, he won't eat it. Any ideas what is going on?

His dosage- he is currently holding at 2u b.i.d. because I got some BG #s in the 90s. However, his BG still goes up to 200-300 every once in a while:

BG > 500 (black)

400-499 (red)

300-399 (purple)

200-299 (yellow)

100-199 (blue)

68-99 (green)

<68 (lime)

date	u		+1	+2	+3	+4	+5	+6	+7	+8	+9	+10	+11		+1	+2	+3	+4	+5	+6	+7	+8	+9	+10
9/21	1.75	352				265								466
9/22	1.75	386					387							457
9/23	2	267			467									284
9/24	2	477				289								336
9/25	2	?			307									381
9/26	2	350					342							419
9/27	2	154			223									334
9/28	2	163												171
9/29	2	194												303
9/30	2	158												254
10/1	2	128			146									143										113
10/2	2	126						142						265
10/3	2	120												248
10/4	2	127												168
10/5	2	140				124								304
10/6	2	99				95								186
10/7	2	222												222
10/8	2	138								153				221
10/9	2	?				125								92			94
10/10	2	309												142
10/11	2	126												126
10/12	2	259												167
10/13	2	148												310
10/14	2	281												230
10/15	2	130												152
10/16	2	199												122

 

[soreto]

update: it looks like he did eat overnight & he ate again this morning. BG was 238 so I gave his insulin as usual.

Would still love some ideas on why this would happen though- does lower BG cause less appetite?

Also, is not shooting in this circumstance the right thing to do?

 

[Wendy&Neko]

Yes, lower BG's can reduce the hunger. With high BG's, the insulin isn't helping get food into his cells, but he's getting satisfied when in better numbers. 6 oz at a sitting is a LOT of food! My kitty ate less than that the entire day.

Having said that, asking for food, sniffing and/or licking it then turning away can be a sign of nausea. Anything else going on with Soreto?

The answer to the question of not shooting is "it depends". Depends if kitty has been recently diagnosed with DKA or is showing ketones? You testing for those at home? It also depends how much experience and data the caregiver has and their ability to monitor. You have shot lower preshots, but from what I can see, not much data showing what happens the rest of the cycle. And finally, even kitties getting anaesthesia who cannot eat, can get a half dose of insulin. So there are some situations where giving a partial dose may be OK.

We can better answer questions if you could get data onto a spreadsheet that we can look at and comment on. That includes the colour coding that we are used to. Those of us who have looked at spreadsheets for years can see patterns in the colours. New? How You Can Help Us Help You! This post has details on how to put together the spreadsheet.

 

[soreto]

@Wendy&Neko

thanks for the info!

lol yes at healthy weight, he would be a 15 lb cat (he's only 10 lb now), so i'm used to him chowing down. before, i felt ok with shooting even with his BG being in the 90s because he is such a ravenous eater. yesterday was the first time he straight up was not interested in food, so i didn't feel comfortable shooting.

i deleted google a while ago & i dont know that i want to make a new account. I wish there was a way to do the spreadsheet without google. i went back & color-coded the chart, so maybe it is a little easier to read for the advisers here. (there is no pink option though, so i had to use purple.)

my vet advised that i didnt need to test for ketones if his numbers are under 300. if i did test for it, how would that affect how much insulin to give?