Taking longer to eat than normal

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SarahD

SarahD

Member Since 2015
My cat Archie is on 0.5 units of Prozinc every 12 hours. I use the AlphaTRAK 2 meter and normal test range is between 4 and 8. I've been doing random spot checks throughout the week around 11am and he is consistently in the normal range at 6.0. I've just noticed the past couple days that he is taking forever to eat. Usually he eats his canned food in the morning in about 5-10 min then I give him his shot. Now he grazes the food...15 min go by and not even half of his serving is eaten. Then he goes away and I bring him back to see if he will eat the rest. He did but it took like 30-45 min for him to finish. Would there be any reason he is all of a sudden not wanting to eat that much? He seems fine otherwise...
 
Hi Sarah,

I'm not familiar with Prozinc but I'm tagging @Sue and Oliver (GA) to see if she might be able to help you when she comes online.

In the meantime here's a useful page from Tanya's Site which might help you to identify symptoms of whether Archie might be nauseated (can put a kitty off their food).

Nausea symptom checker


Mogs
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Hi Sarah. Are you still giving Archie insulin? From those readings it doesn't sound like he needs it.

If he is no longer getting insulin and his eating habits have slowed down since stopping his shots, perhaps it's just that he is no longer as hungry as he was. Unregulated diabetic cats tend to be hungrier than usual and as they get more regulated, they not do crave as much food. What were his eating habits before the diagnosis? Is it possible he's just reverted to his pre-diabetic "normal" eating habits and you've just become so used to him digging in like he was starving?
Although grazing, does he still eat a sufficient amount?
 
Hi! Before being daiagnoswd he was constantly hungry..ravenous for sure. Now..he definitely eats and drinks enough I'm sure of that but he takes way longer to eat. He seems totally healthy otherwise. I actually got a call from my vet today cause he's due for his yearly exam..perfect timing cause I'm just gonna ask her about all this too. I know she thinks he's going into remission..she's had me doing weekly spot checks and he's doing amazing.
I was wondering if maybe he didn't need his insulin anymore either...he barely gets any as is! Fingers crossed! :)
 
If you think way back, was he always one to wolf down his food in record time or did that slowly start to happen just before diagnosis. The excess hunger is often one of the tell tale signs of diabetes but it's onset could slowly increase making it harder to detect than drinking/peeing more.

Sounds like you are still giving insulin sometimes? I hope you are doing pre-shot tests to make sure it's safe to do so if that is the case. But with those spot checks, it really sounds to me like he is just not as hungry anymore as a result of his great BG levels which is great news! We would consider him in remission once he has been able to go 14 days without insulin. Good luck and we hope to get an invite to his OTJ party real soon! :cat: :joyful:(ANTI JINX)
 
Definitely started to happen just before diagnosis. He was always a grazer before.
I never did a pre-shot test before his insulin. Should I do it before he eats to test or after?
 
The routine we follow here and strongly advocate is to always test before every shot. You'd test Archie when his tummy is empty (2 hours minimum after last meal), then feed him and then give insulin. I'm not a user of ProZinc, but I believe you need to wait 20/30 minutes after his mean to give the shot
@Sue and Oliver (GA) can you confirm if it's necessary to wait post meal to shoot with ProZinc for Sarah please/thx.:)

Given the low numbers you are getting with random spot checks, how are you determining when to give insulin now or are you just shooting blindly? :nailbiting::nailbiting: I strongly suggest you DO NOT give insulin without checking his BG first when your random tests are that low. Giving insulin when it's not needed could take his numbers down too low and that is dangerous and could be fatal.
 
No, you don't need to wait with ProZinc to shoot. We usually suggest getting him started on the food so you can be sure he won't balk and eat nothing; many people shoot while their heads are deep in their dinner. It is always best if they have some food in their tummies when the insulin hits.

I would not shoot under 200 until you have data to be sure how he might react. You also want to try to get some tests in 2 - 3 hours after the shot to see if he is dropping faster than expected and then 5 to 7 hours after the shot to see how low the insulin takes him (not below 50 on a human meter or 68'on a pet meter - ranges approaching hypo territory.)

We put together a protocol for ProZinc. It is in my signature in blue.
 
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