Elkie not eating or keeping food down, do I need to call emergency vet?

[Alyce & Elkie]

Just posted this in the Facebook group, people are saying he may have pancreatitis and it may be a medical emergency? Since posting this an hour ago he peed a small amount, I also syringe fed him a small amount of Fancy Feast pate which he's kept down so far. He's supposed to have his insulin within the next half hour.

"My sugar cat went off his food last night except for tinned tuna in jelly. This morning he finally ate chicken in jelly(I think high carb) then lapped up his Fancy Feast pate I'd prepared to syringe feed. He then threw it all up. He was fed more later by my mother as I was out today, but threw that up too, now he's eating nothing. I've just given an anti-nausea, he had one last night as well. His blood sugars were finally starting to go down a tiny bit on 3.5 units of Lantus (16.6 at +3), but are now really high at 21.7 +10. Not sure if it's because of the higher carb food or not, since he threw it all up. He doesn't seem to be drinking or peeing much today either. The vets aren't open until Tuesday, it's Saturday night. He's supposed to have his insulin in around an hour and a half. Hoping I won't have to bring him in for an emergency visit tonight. Surely there's something I can do for him at home? His blood ketones tested low this morning, at 0.7. Even when he was in ketoacidosis he wasn't throwing up. I feel like we're losing this battle, it should be going smoother than this as he was only diagnosed around 4 months ago."

 

[Alyce & Elkie]

I don't even know which clinic to call. The vet I dealt with when he was in keto struggled to treat him due to his behaviour and pushed euthanasia, I'm also in debt with that clinic (paying it off weekly) and any other expenses are to be paid at time of consultation. The vet I had before that from the same clinic when he had a UTI did everything without complaint, although she discouraged home-testing. It depends who is on-call. I was thinking of switching vet clinics, but they haven't sent over Elkie's files. Also don't know if the other clinic will take or charge extra for emergency patients that aren't registered with them. I was really hoping to wait until Tuesday to take him in for tests, and the later the time is the more it costs. I don't know if he's just having an off-day and can wait, or if I need to act now and set up a second debt with another clinic, or call the original and just try pay.

 

[squeem3]

I think any vet office charges a standard emergency fee regardless if you are a client or not.

Ask the vet, wherever you go, if a feeding tube would be helpful for your cat's situation. Feeding tubes may look scary but they allow you to get essential nutrition and even medicines into the cat with little stress. There are different types of feeding tubes for different situations. There info at https://catinfo.org/feeding-tubes-for-cats/

Pancraatitis is common in diabetic cats and would have to be diagnosed with the FPLI blood test. There's info here on treatment: https://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/a-primer-on-pancreatitis.83108/