Merlin's introduction

Hello from Nebraska!

Merlin is my 13 year old Maine coon loverboy. Over a year ago he definitely let us know he was diabetic... he would drink his water dish empty and leave the litter box full of urine. After doing some research here and on other websites I immediately changed him to a wet food diet and he physically did a 180. He went from a sluggish 25 pounds down to a 10 pound little guy over the course of a few months, and the energy he had - Holy Cow! (I know 10 pounds is small but he would only eat enough to maintain him at that weight so I just figured that was his ideal weight.)

And he managed to stay that in that condition for nearly a year, until Christmas...

We ended up boarding him over the new year holiday and when we got back we were told that Merlin had developed a case of diarrhea and for the first time they were just now noticing all the weight he had lost, so they wanted to test him for diabetes. I was able to convince the vet to let me take him home, get him over the diarrhea, and see if he stabilized bloods sugar after a while. Well it didn't seem to work... he slowly got over the diarrhea but he never seem to be the same. I let the doctor do the testing and she eventually sent us home with insulin, 1 unit twice a day. He did seem to do better on it and when I took him in for a curve the vet lowered his dose and even told me that we maybe able to get him into remission. I was ecstatic! She was still worried about his weight as it really hadn't picked much since the diarrhea so she suggested I give him some dry food along with the wet. I whole heartily agreed, bought a bag of SD DM and was on my way.

Most of you probably can guess where this is going... As of today Merlin will not touch wet food unless you mix a bunch of dry in with it, and sometimes not even then.

He also seems to be suffering from
*a massive hairball that has moved down his system (so no more vomiting) but I think might be doing a number on his digestive system. I can't tell if his stomach has gotten bigger from gaining weight due to the dry food or if he's bloating because of the hairball.
*as we all know when cats don't feel good they sometimes blame it on the litter box... thank goodness he still urinates in it but for some reason will no longer poo in it! ohmygod_smile This morning he went so far as to squat down right in front of me and pooped. RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME! Thankfully he only does it on the linoleum, and not the carpet, so it's easy to clean up.

What's got me worried the most right now is as of the last few days he's also not eating as much as he should so much so that I've skipped a few shots because I know he hasn't eaten..... bad I know but at this point I really don't know what to do.

He's going to the vet tomorrow so hopefully I'll know more soon but if anyone has any suggestions I am all ears!

Shoshana

 

Hi Shoshana and welcome to you and Merlin.

So is Merlin not taking insulin now?

Do you know how to hometest blood sugar?

The fact that he pooped on the floor in front of you makes me think he's trying to tell you something. Was the poop harder than usual? Did he strain?

How do you feel about mixing less dry into the canned and slowly working on transitioning to canned?

Is the vet doing an xray tomorrow to see if there is any blockage? Also doing bloodwork and checking urine, I assume.

Others will be able to give you more advice, and hopefully you will have a long list of questions for your vet tomorrow

 

Agreeing with Jen here; that potential blockage needs immediate attention and then his diabetes must be more tightly managed. Insulin, food and hometesting as well as urine testing for ketones.