? Update: now not eating or keeping water down

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ja9390

ja9390

Member Since 2016
Day two of this cat refusing food. Got home a little while ago, saw him on the bed with a sickish expression in his eyes and immediately checked his BG. 168. This morning it was 200 before any food, really pushed the issue of him eating and it went up to 256 after about a half can of FF. I gave him only a 0.5 u dose of his insulin and headed out, leaving both wet and dry food out today. He's never been anywhere near 200 so I didn't know how far his meds would take him today and didn't dare give a whole dose.

I'm assuming he ate some of the wet food because it's gone, although I have two cats. Right now he is nibbling on Friskies but lately he has been interested in licking off the juice, taking a few bites and walking off. He used to gobble down half a can of Friskies or a whole can of FF for each feeding until he got full. What's the deal? Shortly after I got home and shoved a bowl of food in his face, he jumped off the bed and puked up a quarter sized amount of foamy fluid.

I have left a message with a tech about 30 minutes ago regarding a switch to his insulin (as suggested by the ER vet this weekend) and waiting on a call back before they close. He is awake and alert but quite cuddly with me tonight. Keeps following me around wherever I go, and I've been holding him. Reminds me of a sick baby who just wants mom. Anyone elses cat do this?
 
Typically, white foam indicates stomach acid. You can give 1/4 of a 10 mg famotidine (Plain Pepcid) for the acid. It is best given before bed. If necessary you can give twice a day for a couple of days. You can also raise the food bowl so his head isn't hanging down. It might also be beneficial to ask your vet for Cerenia to help with nausea.

It is imperative that your cat eat. Cats who don't eat can develop fatty liver disease in a very short period of time. Just to spark the appetite you can feed plain baby food meat (ones that don't contain onion, garlic, or vegetables). You can also mix Tuna water with the food you give, or try to sprinkle a little grated parmesan cheese on top. Another option is to put the food in a blender with a little water and blend the heck out of it until it is like a gravy consistency.
 
He has eaten, but since two days ago he's been pretty reluctant and then when he does, he won't eat much. I'm worried about dehydration, but I do see him drink from his water bowl. NOT excessively anymore...knock on wood. So at least that's a positive thing. Right now I have a bowl out of FF mixed with water, and bowl of just plain Friskies. He took a couple bites of the friskies
 
In my time here - just over 18 months - I've seen several kitties (my own included) have eating wobbles in the early days of insulin treatment. I looked online and there is anecdotal evidence that humans can experience digestive upsets when they're being treated with insulin but I've not yet come across any formal studies into the subject.

Anita's suggestion about asking your vet tomorrow for a Cerenia injection is a good one. Also the famotidine is a good suggestion. The problem with appetite wobbles is that they can set up a vicious circle: cat feals queasy, doesn't eat enough, stomach acid builds up, cat feels queasy, still won't eat, vomits ... etc., etc.). Anti-nausea meds can be very effective in breaking the cycle.

Here are links to some very useful pages from Tanya's Site:

Nausea/excess stomach acid symptoms and treatments

Persuading your cat to eat

Keep an eye to how much water you're adding to the FF; if Saoirse's anything to go by adding too much water may make the food taste less appealing.


Mogs
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I will try the pepcid. I was told his doctor would return my call before close at 7 and its 7:14 so...

This is the second time they just never returned my call and should know by now that I'm crazy enough to show up there personally without the cat to talk to someone and get an answer, which is what I did last time.
 
Good to know that it's not just him that has issues with not wanting to eat. Hoping it will level out and he'll be back to eating full meals again. I can't give him his whole dose of insulin until he does because his numbers have been too low. It is good to see lower numbers for a chance. Hoping that it's long-lived and not just because of those sub-q fluids he got on Sunday.
 
Right before IttyBit was diagnosed he would go from plate to plate, kick everyone off their food and eat it all if we let him. (in hindsight that should have been my first clue that something wasn't right)
One time we had to leave the house for an extended period of time and left enough wet food out for everyone for the day (two feedings plus extra) and when we got home he looked like Templeton from Charlotte's Web after the fair.
After he was put on insulin his appetite decreased dramatically to where I would have to follow him around and keep sticking the plate of food under his nose to get enough food in him to give him his shot. He is in remission now and still eats a little bit at at time. The way he always used to.
Is Diego eating less now than he was before the Diabetes hit? Or is he just back to eating the way he did before Diabetes?
 
He is eating much less now. We switched from dry to wet food after his diagnosis but he'd eat about 1/2 cup of high protein food per day. He loved any type of treat, loved table food (I would call him my "Cajun Cat" because his favorite tastes of people food was always red beans and rice, gumbo, the chicken out the jambalaya...shame on me I know but he'd be so happy). One of the weirdest things he would lose his mind over was watermelon and cantaloupe. That should have been my indicator right there but instead I was like, "Hey y'all come watch this cat eat cantaloupe!!"

Are you suggesting that he's in a sort of adjustment/healing process? Obviously I don't want him nauseated but no, the smaller meals he's eating aren't normal for him in the twelve years I've had him
 
I noticed a difference too. When his numbers were skyrocketing, obviously he felt like crap but would still eat bigger portions of food at one sitting, even if he did end up puking it all up later. Now he's just plain not interested in his food and I have to really push the issue BUT he's riding low numbers for the second day in a row. Really, really wishing that this isnt a fluke from the meds and fluids he had at the hospital and his glucose stays this way.
 
I was just wondering if maybe the change in his appetite was him going back to his pre-diabetic ways
but that doesn't sound like the case if he was always a big eater.
It's difficult when they won't eat. Keep being persistent, a lot of times they will eat just to please mama.
I find having a scale to keep track of their weight really helps to keep me from freaking out.
I just weighed them all today because I thought IttyBit was looking thinner. No significant change :woot:
The link that Mogs posted has some good tips.
Fingers and paws crossed that Diego starts eating for you and that his numbers continue to improve.
 
Well I offered him a can of food for the third time since I got home. So far he's had a couple of nibbles but mostly licks the juice from it. So I watched a tutorial on how to safely syringe feed, picked up a 10ml child's med syringe and a bottle of plain 10mg famotidine, and a pill splitter. Gave him 2.5mg of the acid blocker 2 hours ago, he seems to have perked up a bit. When he didn't take more than a bite of this food I just offered I pureed it and fed him *roughly* 4tbsp of 9lives pate. Followed by a sponge bath at the sink. I had to get SOMETHING in him. Don't think I'll do any insulin tonight...its already 10pm and our morning schedule will be thrown way off if I shoot tonight. Last I checked him he was 225.
 
I will check it out. He hasn't eaten too much tonight and his blood sugar has been stable at 225 for the last 3+ hours so given those two factors and his tendency to be nauseous lately, I'm not comfortable shooting insulin tonight. Will reevaluate first thing in the am and hopefully he will eat too. Mama has an A&P and a Micro test both coming up in a week and baby is sleeping spread out on my lap peacefully while I study. Hoping this week will be a lot easier on us both than last week.
 
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Stella and Chewys is freeze dried "raw"--
All the cats I know of that have tried it love it-and do not puke it--it is not dry kibble but it is not wet-
You can re-hydrate it but mine will not eat it that way. I just break it up and they eat much better than they have before.
They have many flavors cat and dog--the cat formula has everything a cat needs nutritionally --mine also love the dog beef-
I give them about 75% can and 25% freeze dried but if they refused wet I would give more of the Stella and Chewys--it is a quality product and a very ethical company. I think it is 1 of the best foods on the market as far as quality.
It is not cheap but the relief of him eating may be worth the price--it was for me.:bighug:
 
I alternate between all kind of flavors of FF, Friskies, and 9Lives pates. Only thing I won't feed too much of is any type of seafood flavor, and the Friskies mixed grill I will give privately to my non-diabetic but not to Diego. Too many carbs than what I want him eating. I've done the same thing! Opened about 7 cans of food over the last 24 hours just trying to get him to eat.
 
Sounds just like the menu over here. Mixed grill on the sly to the civvies and attempt to keep fish down to a couple times a week max.
When Buttons was flat out refusing to eat after her teeth were removed I was able to get her to lick baby food from my finger.
Whatever it takes.
 
I was nervous to try the syringe feeding. I knew he needed something more in his belly than a couple bites of food but I wanted to be ethical about it. Thank goodness he participated. Didn't try to run or protest, and for the most part I got the majority of the 4tbsp in him before he decided he wanted a break. I listened to him and refrigerated the leftovers for if he needs some more tomorrow.
 
Liz & IttyBit said:
Diego was given antibiotics recently right? Sometimes antibiotics will put them off their food.
Have you tried offering him different flavors. Mine get bored and what they ate with gusto yesterday, today they won't touch.
Sometimes I have to open multiple cans before I happen upon the flavor of the day for my civvie girl.
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For the antibiotics question--he was. I originally brought him in for a cough but also really pushed the issue that he was drinking and peeing more than a great dane. He was diagnosed that day and sent home with clavamox twice a day for 2 weeks. Started them on 2/2 but stopped them on 2/9 because he became violently sick between starting insulin, the vet stress, and the antibiotics killing off his normal microbiota all at once. Took him off of it immediately. Can't stand antibiotics...most of the time, the pathogen is resistant to them anyway. I rarely even take them myself. I won't start my soapbox on this issue this late at night though :D
 
jayla-n-Drevon said:
sometimes ya gotta bite the bullet-
gerber 2 stage meats only baby food....ham is a favorite of many kittys
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Could I also give packaged deli meats and stuff like that? He loves Hillshire Farms smoked ham and it only has 1 carb in it for a much larger quantity than what I wanted to give him. He even refused that. Maybe he'll like the baby food.
 
the problem we have to watch for with deli meats is the fact that a lot of them contain sugars and salts we don't want our kitties to have

One of the really popular things if you can't get them to eat anything else is KFC chicken....of course just the chicken part....or a lot of stores have roasted chicken now that seem to be pretty popular....of course it's not a complete diet, but it's better than nothing

Edited to add...yeah, ham was China's big favorite in the baby food aisle too!
 
Chris & China said:
the problem we have to watch for with deli meats is the fact that a lot of them contain sugars and salts we don't want our kitties to have

One of the really popular things if you can't get them to eat anything else is KFC chicken....of course just the chicken part....or a lot of stores have roasted chicken now that seem to be pretty popular....of course it's not a complete diet, but it's better than nothing

Edited to add...yeah, ham was China's big favorite in the baby food aisle too!
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Oh, cool. I buy rotisserie chicken all the time because it's cheap and I can pair it with a veggie and its a low-carb meal. Diego can share, minus the vegetable, next time he refuses food before I develop my first aneurysm.
 
Try raising Diego's food and water bowls a few inches. It can help a lot when a cat's feeling queasy.


Mogs
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Critter Mom said:
Try raising Diego's food and water bowls a few inches. It can help a lot when a cat's feeling queasy.


Mogs
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I tried to do a makeshift version of that but he does this thing with his paw where he pulls the edge of the bowl towards him before he drinks...and it all tumbled. The food bowl seemed to do OK though.
 
Update: got in in the middle of the night and puked that food I gave him. This morning he had some water and puked that too. Now dehydration is a real concern for me. Wondering if I should bring him all the way to the vet since they don't seem to take me seriously over the phone until I personally show up there. I did give him 2.5 mg pepcid 12 hours ago.
 
I would consider a trip to the vet if he can't keep water down. Perhaps try another dose of pepcid first, and offer food/water again in an hour?
 
We are at the vet. His regular doctor doesn't work today but we got an endocrine specialist. Asking me tons of questions, answering all of my questions and just took him back for a complete blood profile. She says she recommends Lantus. Looking like we may go home with a prescription today.
 
ja9390 said:
She says she recommends Lantus. Looking like we may go home with a prescription today.
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If you can wait a few days or a week, you can get Lantus much cheaper than from your local pharmacy. Also, it's rumored that wal-mart will sell single pens- but only if that's how the script is written.

Edit to add: You can draw the Lantus from the pen vials with a syringe. Your vet may not know this.


Glad you're at the vet, please keep us updated:bighug:
 
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The marks Canadian pharmacy said 2-3 weeks, so I may just end up paying the American price for it at SAMS and the next time I'll order from them, unless they can rush deliver it. Really it depends on the severity of his status and what this doctor says
 
She wants him on 2 u Novolin twice a day. She said we really don't know much about him at all at this point and he hasn't been well regulated so our goal is to get him better and get him regulated. She wants us to stay on the Novolin for now rather than making his body adjust to an entirely new insulin. She said his blood and his urine is beautiful, only thing high is glucose. She ran an entire Chem panel, thyroid panel, and checked other organ functions and all came back clean. She really pushed the hills canned diet because she says it's proven and its been studied in diabetic cats but there's no way I will be able to afford this until after I graduate so...a good 2+ years. She said its a huge component to actually getting him better and right now he's just deteriorating. I mentioned that the over the counter canned foods are low carb as well and she said in 27 yeats its been hard to get her diabetic cats regulated on that which sounded weird to me because low carb is low carb is low carb. Now if Diego had a renal condition and he needed a food low in phosphorus, that would be reason not to use friskies and go the prescription route but he doesnt.

She thinks he has IBS which has caused the ongoing digestive upset. Sent me home with flagyl and she taught me how to do sub-q fluids at home for maintenance when he refuses food like this again. $170 later and we're going home. I'll get this cat regulated even if I have to spend the next 3 months eating beans and ramen.
 
Woodsywife said:
Poor Diego, how lucky for you, that you got the endocrinologist. So hope you are given a script for Lantus.

Feel better Diego.
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I was really hoping we'd get a script today too but, nope. I liked her reasoning behind it though. We have no idea how he responds to 2x/day Novolin because he's never successfully had a single day where nothing went wrong that halted me from shooting insulin. So why fix something before you know for sure if it's broken? I can respect that logic. I gave him his first flagyl for the day. Poor little lamb. He was a warrior and I popped some food in his mouth afterwards to dilute the taste. We're snuggling now. I tasted a fingertip of it before I gave it and good god it's nasty...if human babies can have bubblegum flavored medicine than why can't animals?
 
Typed the following earlier but hit the wrong button and it didn't post in time. Still applies if Diego's not eating tomorrow. So sorry for screwing up. :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: Glad you got to see the IM specialist and that she did such a thorough work-up.

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I would take Diego to the vets. A Cerenia injection (helps with both nausea and vomiting) and a dose of B12 might help him. If possible try to bring samples of stool and vomitus with you. Just to be on the safe side ask them to run a SNAP fPL test to rule out pancreatitis. (Did this for my civvie recently.) Look at the following page from Tanya's Site for other treatments you might wish to discuss with the vet. (The site may be dedicated to CKD but the informatio about treatments is applicable for cats with similar GI issues not CKD-related.)

http://felinecrf.org/nausea_vomiting_stomach_acid.htm



Mogs
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How's Diego? My sad little cat was recently diagnosed with DKA and is on an antibiotic which I suspect is the reason for his loss of appetite and his throwing up the few treats he ate a little while ago. I'm doing the smorgasbord and running through many cans of food hoping something will peak his interest. Tempted to take him off the Clavaseptin as nausea and loss of appetite are common side effects. All the best.
 
Hasn't eaten all day. He got fluids and Cerenia earlier today and his little self has been sleeping for most of the day since. I was finishing some stuff up for school and was hoping he would have eaten at least a little on his own by the time I finished but he hasn't, so I'm just about to finger-feed him some FF a little at a time. He also started an antibiotic which I HATE but I refused it once already and his condition hasn't really improved so the vet told me to try him on the Flagyl. She thinks he may have some IBS going on. I just know it's going to make his nausea and inappetite 10x worse than what it already is. More stress for me.

When he was on Clavamox, I did take him off early. Stopped him on day 7 of a 14 day course because he was throwing up so violently that I couldn't ethically give him another dose and be OK with it. I'm not familiar with the antibiotic your cat is on but if he gets to be like Diego where he was puking 6, 7, 8 times a day, I'd either take him off or call the vet and ask for a switch.
 
That's terrible; so sorry to hear. The antibiotic Boo is taking has amoxicillin in it which causes nausea as well; debating taking him of it. He did eat this evening but it just added to the collection of open, partially eaten or wasted cans in the fridge. I read cats take a bit of Pepcid to help with their stomach - you might want to search for comments on it. All the best to you and Diego.
 
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