? Jag 6/1: Back to low appetite :(

Here's the link to my previous thread: http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/jag-not-eating-losing-weight-vet-visit.196107/

Jag came home from the vet Tuesday. He was very alert on the way home, and at home too. He ate well Tuesday night into Wednesday. Then, Wednesday night started to eat much less again. Maybe 1/4 can of food Wednesday night, and refused food Thursday morning. (Unless you count a few licks)

I called the specialty vet, and they said to dose 1.5U (normal dose is 3), as long as his BG is 300+. So I did that. They also said to stop the potassium powder, since sometimes kitties will refuse to eat since they notice it's there.

I gave him Cerenia and 1/4 pill of mirtazapine. I was hoping the mirtazapine would work, but he had no reaction at all to it.

They said if he's not eating on Friday, most likely I will need to bring him in and they will give me SubQ to do at home for the hydration concerns.

I've tried all kinds of wet food. The most I get out of him is a handful of licks, then he walks away and lays down.


I was reading the boards, and a few posts were talking about teeth. How can you tell if kitty has a tooth problem?

He does have a lot of tartar on the back teeth, looks like a dark brown coating that is rough. I'm kind of curious if he may have a teeth issue, since wet food is much stickier, and also I gave him a few treats. I noticed he would chew them differently. Not sure if just coincidence noticing this, or if this could be the root of the problem or not.



The only thing that's different from the vet treatment versus home treatment: IV fluids for hydration, Protonix injections, ampicillin injections, buprenex injections, potassium injections (powder at home, but not eating the food to take it in).

At home treatment, but not at vet: Clavamox 125mg twice daily at home.

 

I have a cat with hyperthyroidism and I was advised to give her 1/4 10mg Zyrtec as it’s a appetite stimulate for cats and it works! She weighs 6lbs and needs to gain weight because of Hyper T now is eating 3 cans a day, I hope others weigh in on this for you and make sure it’s ok with what is going on with your kitty I’m letting you know what worked for Bella’s sister to get her to eat more. Hope he gets to feeling better soon

 

Tagging @Sandy and Black Kitty

It is important to get calories in. The recipe for DKA is not enough insulin+not enough calories+infection/inflammation.

Sounds like he is on an antibiotic but those teeth can be a real issue and may need to be addressed when Jag is stable. As well that AB might be upsetting his tummy as well. Do you have any slippery elm bark? That might help calm down the digestive tract.

Is there any food he will eat? Maybe some cooked up chicken breast cut up for him. Do you have some higher carb treats you can crush up and put onto his food? Parmesan cheese sprinkled on top may work. Heating Jag's food up for 5 seconds in the microwave may help as well.

The mirtazapine should work witin a couple of hours. You can try Cyproheptadine instead.

I hope Jag eats for you soon!

 

Hi--can you share with me how you treat her hyperthyroidism? Is she also diabetic? What are the treatments ie meds and food etc for her hyper and also if she is diabetic? What do the labs show on her that shows she is hyper and how often do you monitor her hyper? What levels did they say it needs to be on her hyper for her tests? Which tests? Anything that you can share to help me out as I have a diabetic cat that may be hyper now and want to be sure that I am doing the right thing for her and not making it worse. She has lost weight and is peeing a lot but we dropped her insulin as the vet thought she might be going into remission but doesn't seem the case and since this drop she has been peeing more. She has been losing weight over the past 3 months. We are increasing her insulin to back where she was but the vet tech called to say her thyroid level was 11...I know that is high as I am hypo myself...Chloe and I thank you.

 

No, she is not diabetic, but she lost a lot of weight and vet said possible hyperthyroidism so they tested her T4 and they were so high, they put her on Methimazole pills started with 2.5mg am and 2.5mg pm, we retested in 4 weeks, it was still high so they increased it to 5mg am and 5mg pm, she got really sick, she couldn’t take that high of a dose,she was puking and diarrhea so we switched to transdermal gel on her ears, started with 2.5mg am and pm, seemed ok so I increased dose to 5mg am and pm, you put it on with a latex thing on ur finger, her ears got red, hot and she started scratching them, made them bleed and she didn’t seem herself, took to vet they said quit giving it to her, I suggested putting it on back of neck so we shaved 2 places and it seemed to be ok, I let her ears heal. and I talked to some others who have hyperthyroid cats and they said maybe allergic to latex so after her ears healed I started back on 2.5mg am and pm using a qtip to put on and she was fine, until I increased her back to 5mg am and pm, she was down to 6lbs! It was suggested to give her 1/4 Zyrtec a day for appetite and it works! She’s eating 3 or 4 cans a day, so since she can’t take the meds( a very very low % can’t tolerate the meds) of course I had to have one, so anyway, she is scheduled for this Tuesday to have the right thyroid removed
If you think your kitty has it you really really need to have her checked, it causes all kinds of damage, vet said it to me like this, he said it’s like getting in ur car and reving up the engine and leaving it, Abby’s heart rate is very high, she had started mouth breathing, it was starting to cause damage so please if u think so take her in, the test was 40.00 where I am

 

Do you have a spreadsheet set up? I don’t see it.
Diabetes will also cause weight loss, the peeing a lot, are you testing her

 

A few thoughts....

From how you describe Jag approaching his food, taking a few licks, then walking away, it could be that he's nauseated. Some cats will do well on a combination of Cerenia and ondansatron. They are both anti-nausea/anti-vomiting meds and can be taken in tandem. If Jag is nauseated and you're giving him an appetite stimulant, it can cause a food aversion. (Who wants to eat if they're nauseous even if on an appetite stimulant?)

Did the vet ever run the SDMA to rule out any kidney issues.

Just an FYI, potassium tastes AWFUL. And, it can cause a stomach upset. Ask anyone who has to take a potassium supplement, the liquid makes most people gag and it is much better to take the pills on a full stomach to avoid nausea and/or vomiting.

Another FYI, sometimes you can get a false negative on an fPLI. If a cat is not in the midst of an acute episode of pancreatitis, you may get a normal value for the test.

What you're describing does sound like at the very least, Jag needs a dental. The only way to know if there's more than tarter there is with dental X-rays. They should be done before a dental procedure as well as after if there are extractions.

You need blood work to test for hyperthyroidism. Most vets will run a total T4 and other tests (e.g., free T4) if the T4 is borderline. This is a good link that discusses feline hyperthyroidism.

 

I had her tested last week but I have not seen the labs...they called yesterday and said she was hypo. They never tested her before until I said something....I had already switched vets before as felt Chloe was on too much insulin and now this. They ran labs 3 weeks ago and didn't include the thyroid tests to check her glucose and other panels..that was $173.50 and the current cost is $224.25...crazy!! I am not looking forward to giving her this methimazole as have been reading about all of these side effects..her liver panel is already raised and she is already on heart meds...I don't know if the thyroid condition was there for awhile or not as she was 10 lbs back on April 8th and now she is at 7.2 lbs. Back in 2016 she was 13.8 lbs and in 2014 11.2 lbs....she has never been fat and she has a lot of hair as she is mixed persian and another fluffy breed. When she was diagnosed with diabetes in September 2014 her thyroid panel then was ok.... I am very concerned about starting this regiment along with her diabetes...this is very tough to manage and trying to figure out how bad the thyroid is and if it will get back on track. I have no idea if she has a nodule as they didn't test for that...what kind of test did the vet did to see if there were nodules, etc.? Did they try that radioiodine treatment? Thank you...Chloe and Cheryl

 

They can feel the thyroid, I had taken Abby to vet for something else and they said looks like she has hyperthyroidism the right one, they could feel it, I can’t afford the i131