Suddenly picky eater/not eating? | Feline Diabetes Message Board - FDMB

Suddenly picky eater/not eating?

S

soreto

Member since 2025
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)


dateu+1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8+9+10+11+1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8+9+10
9/211.75352265466
9/221.75386387457
9/232267467284
9/242477289336
9/252?307381
9/262350342419
9/272154223334
9/282163171
9/292194303
9/302158254
10/12128146143113
10/22126142265
10/32120248
10/42127168
10/52140124304
10/629995186
10/72222222
10/82138153221
10/92?1259294
10/102309142
10/112126126
10/122259167
10/132148310
10/142281230
10/152130152
10/162199122
 
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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?
 
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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.
 
@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?
 
If showing ketones there’s a danger of dka which can be life threatening. Not enough insulin and not eating or drinking enough and if there’s any infection ketones can progress to dka.
 
With respect to your chart, you need to get at least one test every night. PM tests are important since many cats experience lower numbers at night. Soreto may be in dose reduction territory (or dangerously low) and you won't know without a test. We suggest getting a test before you head off to bed.

Quite honestly, those of us who provide input on dosing will not do so without benefit of a spreadsheet. It's the only way to know how your cat is responding to insulin. We use the Google spreadsheet because not everyone uses Excel and Excel is more complicated. We also tend to be able to get a better sense of trends when the cells are in color-coded blocks.
 
@Sienne and Gabby (GA)

what do you mean by 'PM test'? i test & shoot at 12PM & 12AM (aka before bedtime). are you saying I should test again sometime after 12AM to see how much the insulin drops his BG?

the pattern i have noticed is that he is always higher at night than morning/noon, so i've not really worried about him dropping too low overnight. he also eats all day (instead of set mealtimes), which may contribute to his number being higher at night.

i suppose i could do another glucose curve, but since my vet told me to hold at 2u, i thought i'd see if his numbers become more stable/regular before i did another curve. if i went by what the vet said, i should hold him at 2u & not try to get his BG lower than this. (she said diabetic cats should just be kept at 180-220 BG to avoid hypo) i was doing the low & slow method with the goal to get to 80-120 BG. But now that she has said that, I'm not totally sure how to proceed.
 
A lot depends on what your goals are. Diabetic cats are able to go into remission although the greatest chance of remission is during the first year after diagnosis. The alternative is a well regulated/tightly regulated profile. This means that cats are in closer to normal numbers and below renal threshold -- think of this as seeing a lot more blue and green numbers. Normal blood glucose is 50 - 120. Your vet is suggesting that you keep Soreto's numbers higher to avoid hypoglycemia. Often vets will take this approach because most of their clients do not home test. Your goal of getting Soreto to the 80 - 120 range is perfect providing you're not aiming for remission.

With regard to food, it's fine to let your cat graze. However, you should not be feeding Soreto during the 2 hours prior to a shot. You don't want to have the pre-shot numbers (either your AM or PM test value at shot time) influenced by food. If those numbers are influenced by food, you don't know if it's safe to give insulin.

Cat's insulin needs vary. Holding a dose that isn't doing a good job of getting numbers into a reasonable range sets up a condition called glucose toxicity. Basically, what it means is your cat's system becomes accustomed to sitting in higher blood glucose numbers which can predispose your cat to problems like kidney issues, ketoacidosis, as well as make it harder to get the numbers into a better range. With the Start Low Go Slow (SLGS) approach, if your cat's numbers drop below 90, you reduce the dose by 0.25u.

The other thing to consider is that you may be a really good observer of your cat's patterns. My cat was prone to having her lowest numbers early in the cycle -- except when she didn't. It's a cat's nature to not be predictable. It's another reason why testing is important.
 
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