Change of diet for a non diabetic cat

My first cat, Tinkerbell, was diagnosed with diabetes.

In preparation, I bought different wet foods from the approved UK list.

I have changed my non diabetic cat, Patch, to this diet.

I can tell exactly what they are both eating because they both like different foods from the UK list.

They have both been on this diet for 2 weeks, since Tinkerbell came out of the vets with her diagnosis.

When Tinkerbell first came out, Patch didn’t eat for a couple of days. I thought Patch might have been stressed and therefore not eaten because she was initially hissing at Tinkerbell.

Patch was then eating normally, 2 pouches per day.

Since yesterday, Patch hasn’t eaten much. She only ate half a pouch yesterday morning and half a pouch last night. Today she has eaten nothing at all. She has been lethargic all day. This evening, I saw her heaving and a hair ball came up. This was around 2 hours ago and she hasn’t eaten anything since even though I’ve offered 2 wet foods that she likes, dry food as a one off and tuna.

I even tested her glucose levels and they were 4.1.

Do you think this could be anything to do with the change of diet?

Edit: forgot to add, both of them were eating half a pouch in the morning each and biscuits the rest of the day, before Tinkerbell got diabetes.

Edit again: she just turned 3 this month. No health problems except 1 seizure when she was a kitten.

 

Now she’s just been heaving again and just foam came out.

 

Just phoned an emergency vets and they asked if she has been drinking and I said no, not that I’ve seen, but I don’t often see her drinking much since her new diet anyway. They suggested I syringe feed her some water so I have done. They said I can bring her in but they wouldn’t necessarily suggest that I do.
As I’ve just taken out pet insurance for the both of them and it doesn’t come into play until 14 days.
Does anyone here reckon I should take her to the emergency vets?

 

I'm thinking she had an upset tummy from the hairball

 

That’s what I’m hoping too.
It’s just this was how Tinkerbell started showing signs of being ill; she was dry heaving. Then my vet gave her 3 steroids which I think induced diabetes.
Now I’ve been googling and am worried it could be an intestinal blockage.
I just don’t know what to do maybe I should just take her to be safe rather than sorry. But insist on no steroids being given.

 

If you're worried get her a checkup tomorrow.

 

How is she this morning, Fiona? If the symptoms are mostly lethargy and not eating, it may just be the warm weather making her feel a bit off. Janet's suggestion of a hairball could well be right. My cat sometimes doesn't eat much for a day or two but then suddenly gets her appetite back.
Vomiting foam often means acid in the stomach due to not eating, not in itself a medical emergency unless there are other worrying symptoms. Keep trying to get her to eat something, try the usual tricks, that might perk her up. But if you're worried get her checked over - maybe your normal vet is open on a Saturday and you wouldn't have to go to the emergency one?

 

I’m not going to take her to my normal vet because he gave a steroid to Tinkerbell on the same symptoms, which most likely caused the diabetes. She’s sicked up foam twice this morning. I’m going to take her to another vets. She still won’t eat this morning.

 

Let us know how you get on Fiona.

 

I just got back.

This vet said she wouldn’t go straight in with a steroid with those symptoms.

She has given hairball paste and an anti sickness injection which lasts 24 hours.

If she’s not better on Monday or Tuesday, she will go back and they will take a blood sample.

They felt her, listened to her heart and checked her temperature and all was fine.

 

Sounds ok... I know what it's like to get anxious and I'd be seeking vet advice too if non-eating went on beyond a day. Hopefully she'll start to get peckish soon. Keep tempting her with tasty morsels. Try not to worry too much, easily said I know but but maybe you're (understandably) even more so given Tinkerbell's recent experience...let's hope this will resolve itself very soon.

 

Thanks @Diana&Tom

 

I’ve given her hair ball paste today and yesterday. She still hasn’t eaten or drunk anything since Thursday, which wasn’t much

I’ve syringe fed her water 3 times but she really hates it. Unlike my other cat, she really hates being held.

The vet told me to take her back Monday or Tuesday however I’m wondering whether you all think I should take her to the emergency vets today? They can perform blood tests and get the results straight away like they did for my diabetic cat.

 

Could you ring the emergency vet in the first instance and say she hasn't eaten now for several days and ask them if they think you should take her in? Not eating is a worry, especially if this is unusual for her.

 

Fiona, is your kitty pooping OK?

Furballs can make them feel a bit rough sometimes. And maybe she's got some in her gut that is working its way through...
.

 

I agree, giving the ER vet a call sounds like a good idea.
.

 

I agree with calling the ER vet. Regardless of the reason a kitty who won’t eat is at risk of developing hepatic lipidosis. Good luck and let us know what happens.

 

Thanks for all your responses. I’ve taken her to the vets and they have phoned me with the results of a blood test. All is fine except her red blood cell count is slightly higher and 1 of her white blood cell counts is slightly on the low side.
Taking her in the morning and dropping her off for them to do another blood test on her pancreas and an ultrasound of the abdomen. After this, they said they may need to sedate and x Ray her.
I’m trying to get the pate food in the syringe as they said I should feed her via the syringe however it won’t go into the syringe.

 

She doesn’t seem to have since Friday but she hasn’t been eating.

 

Poor you, Fiona, another worry just as Tinkerbell's doing so well. The vet seems to know what they're doing, which is basically ruling things out one by one. Meanwhile, as for syringing food, maybe if you mixed it with something more liquidy it would go in the syringe? Tuna water for example???

 

Thanks for the tip. I tried mixing it with water and it wouldn’t go in. I tried pulling the needle out too, even with tweezers and it wouldn’t budge.
Yeah I really like this vets. It’s actually the same one I went to yesterday, didn’t realise they opened Sunday’s! They are called Vets 4 Pets and seem to be a chain.
I’ve tried Patch with 3 different wet foods, 2 different dried foods this evening. She had about 6 mouthfuls of the wet hills kd, which the old vet gave me for Tinkerbell but I have never given her.
I’m unsure what to do next. I can either not feed her past 9pm tonight so she could potentially be sedated tomorrow or persevere and temporarily? Cancel tomorrow’s appointment.
It’s just that it’s going to cost up to £500 tomorrow, was £250 over the last 2 days and £1500 on Tinkerbell’s bills. This new lot has all gone on my credit card. Obviously if she needs it, I’ll pay for it, but I’m moving this week and will start my job search once I move so money will be tight.

 

Just saw her in the bed, put the bowl in and watched and she had roughly another 6 mouthfuls.

 

Well that's very good that Patch has eaten a good few mouthfuls, much better than nothing. It might however be worth starting a new thread titled Help With Syringe Feeding Please, or similar. Other members have probably had similar experiences and may be able to help more. You may not need it after all for now but it's all good info in case you need to know another time. And I'm sure you know about the search box here - just type 'syringe feeding' and see what comes up.

If she continues to eat into this evening and in the morning, the pressure is off ref a vet visit tomorrow, isn't it... see how she does in the next 12 hours and if she's still eating even small amounts, you could hold off the vets, or phone them to explain and ask their opinion. I'd be inclined to say that if today's bloodwork was ok, there shouldn't be an urgent problem, and as it was the lack of eating that was your main concern and that's now not the issue, just keep a close eye and see how she goes this week.

Yes of course you don't want to shell out hundreds of pounds unless you really have to... sometimes we just have to trust our gut instinct to tell us when something is urgent and needs vet intervention, and when it's just one of those "cat being a cat" episode!

Good luck and keep us posted.

 

Hi Fiona, how are things today?

 

Hi thanks for asking
Patch is now eating fine so I did not take her this morning!
Tinkerbell’s levels are beginning to rise but I’ll post in the other thread.
As for myself, I have had difficulty breathing since last night so I went to the doctors today. They listened to my lungs etc and don’t think it’s asthma related but stress related instead. I’ve also been having hypnic jerks and feeling dizzy since this all begun.
So Patch is well and I reckon it must have been an upset stomach.

 

Glad Patch is ok, I'm sure it was just an off couple of days which we all have now and then.
Tinkerbell's numbers aren't rising much - don't be too concerned at the moment, there's not much difference really.
Sounds as if you need to take some anti-stress measures - all this is exhausting so do look after yourself.