Hairball after shot

Hello, I’m still rather new here so I hope I am in the right place to ask this!

My cat, Beanie, got fed at 7:00pm. Insulin shot at 7:30pm. At 7:45, he yowled and threw up a huge hairball, along with some food. I’m really really worried that he’s going to be hypoglycaemic now because he threw up a little after the shot. I’ve been watching him like a hawk, and he seems to be just fine, playing with his toys and everything. Should I try to feed him a bit more? Should I skip his 7:30am dose? I have to leave at 1:00am for work, should I call in so I can monitor him? A second opinion would really be appreciated!

Ps. He is on 1 unit of Caninsulin, never thrown up after his shot before.

 

Hi Zara and welcome! Are you doing any home glucose testing before you give him his shot? It's hard to give dosing advice without some concrete numbers. When did he eat before 7 PM? Some cats throw up after eating if it's been too long since the last meal.

 

Still relatively new to all this, trying to find an appropriate tester as my vet didn’t even mention home testing. Beanie (as recommended by the vet) eats every 12 hours.. 7pm 7am.

 

Caninsulin is an insulin that hits hard once it's administered, so that is why feeding at shot time is appropriate. However, it also leaves the system fairly quickly so it's not as good for keeping glucose levels steady in cats (it's an insulin mostly recommended for dogs, hence "canin"sulin). Lantus and Levemir are the insulins for cats that I am most familiar with and are recommended to treat diabetes in cats along with a low carbohydrate diet: https://www.aaha.org/globalassets/02-guidelines/diabetes/diabetes-guidelines_final.pdf

The FDMB is an amazing place with a lot of very experienced caregivers and cat lovers. We are very data driven here and so we advocate home glucose testing. I am not sure where you live, but if you are in the US, many of us use a Relion meter from Walmart and the glucose strips that come with it. The strips are inexpensive and easy to use.

Here is a link to help you get acclimated here so that we can help you best: https://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/new-how-you-can-help-us-help-you.216696/

 

The nice thing about depot insulins like Lantus and Levemir is that you can feed the cat many small meals a day. This is better for their digestion and better for glucose management. This way you can avoid throw ups during shot time.

Can you feed him a little more food since he threw up? It's important that he has food in him after the shot.

 

I’m going to feed him a little more. I’ll ask my vet about Lantus, Im due to go back soon anyway. Thank you so much!

 

Previous thread

https://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/new-member-need-help-please.253435/

 

Did he eat more food? Sometimes cats will eat too fast and do a scarf and barf. Giving him more food, but maybe spaced out a bit might slow down the barfing.

Waving high to you from the west coast of BC. My vet just told me to find a meter that needs just a small drop of blood, to make it easier on me for testing. The Freestyle mentioned above was one I tried and it definitely needed just a small drop. My local pharmacist was very helpful in reviewing meters with me to see what I liked.

 

He ate, acted normally the rest of the night. It’s 12 hrs later now and he’s getting his 7:30am shot soon, praying he keeps it down and earlier yesterday was just a fluke. Im taking him to the vet soon, hoping to switch insulin because even though Caninsulin is controlling him well, he really hates eating every 12 hours. He would really prefer eating throughout the day I am sure. Thanks for the help, all the way from ONT!

 

Ahh! Didn’t see your reply. Thanks!

 

Can you feed mini meals throughout the day as well as feeding him at shot time? That was he is still eating throughout the day?

 

thats the thing, I am unsure. I was told strictly to only feed him 12 hrs apart, 30 min before insulin…Im hoping when I go back to the vet and try to switch to Lantus, that I can feed him throughout the day. Vet also said no snacks whatsoever, whether it be the expensive DM food or diabetic-safe treats..

 

This doesn't seem right but I want more experienced members to chime in.

 

Magic was on Vetsulin (aka Caninsulin) for a month before he was switched over to ProZinc.

I was told at that time to feed him, let him eat for a minute or so - to make sure he’d eat, and then give him his shot while he was eating. I was also told he needed to eat all of his food ration in one sitting. I found that a staggered smaller ‘mini meal’ about 2.5-3hrs after the main meal made for a more gradual drop and less of a bounce.

The main problem with Vetsulin was the duration in Magic just wasn’t there. In 6hr it was done and then his numbers would go through the roof until the next dose.

 

It doesn’t. Not at all. No treats, eating 12 hrs apart…it sounds strange I know.

 

I see Denver gave her cat a mini meal and I think you'd be save to do so as well. I'm sure you don't want to go against your vet but sometimes they are just wrong.

 

I’m a little upset about how I was told to do Beanie’s routine. I know I wouldn’t want to eat every 12 hours, neither does he! And the needles I was given are massive compared to the ones I learned about on here..To think I’ve been making him miserable by just trying to help him really hurts.

 

Oh I'm sorry to hear that! Yes, I've learned a lot from this site...mainly, the vet is not always right. If I were you, I'd be feeding mini-meals. Since it seems no one else is responding to this thread, you could start a new one asking about mini-meals with Caninsulin.

 

I think this mindset with the vets is because that's how you treat diabetes in a DOG. When I lost my temper and confronted mine that was reluctantly the reason given.

ProZinc works like Vetsulin but with a better duration and more gradual release. If you do mini meals you're going to need to 'front load' them so you don't get an initial crash when Vetsulin takes effect. You're also going to want to taper them off as the day/night progresses since Vetsulin has a shorter duration. You kind of need to let Beanie's numbers be your guide. As long as you're watching the numbers you're not going to hurt Beanie or break anything.

For example, Magic tends to drop significantly around +3-4. He gets him 'mini meal' at approx. +2.75 so that food is already onboard for that second drop. I'm actually considering adding another meal around +5.75 since I've started to see some drops around +6 but I'm still monitoring to see.

As for treats, I use PureBites freeze dried duck (the chicken version makes Magic vomit). He gets 1-2 pieces a couple times a day. It essentially is like 2 calories and almost no carbs to piece so unless he downs a whole bag it's not going to make any difference whatsoever in his numbers or weight. But it does make him happy.

I went into this trying to do everything right and have since realized that its basically a process of following the numbers and that things don't have to be as 'carved in stone' as the vets make it out.

 

Thank you so much for the detailed response. It is thanks to this site that I have learned to keep Beanie’s interests in mind, not just the vet. I am going to take him back there to ask about Lantus, and hopefully get Beanie on a much looser feeding routine, because it is affecting his mood and appetite horribly. I will make a new post detailing his changes and where we are at in a few weeks. I appreciate your help and encouragement, forever thankful that I stumbled across the site and that everyone here is so wonderful. Wishing you and Magic all the best.

 

Thank you... I'm glad to help.

One option to keep in mind is ProZinc is also a good option as well. It's less expensive than Lantus and vets in general do have experience with it. It was supposedly designed from the ground up to be an insulin for cats. It also allows for a little more dosing flexibility as far as scheduling which you can't do with Lantus.

I know exactly what you're dealing with. When Magic first got forced into the only 12hr feeding schedule he'd follow me around constantly begging for food - it ripped my heart apart watching him like that. Moving him to ProZinc, expanding the feeding times and finding the PureBites gave me a way to make his world more normal.

 

Breaks my heart to see him beg and follow me as well. Can’t wait to fix up his routine. Thanks for the Prozinc recommendation!

 

I'm also going to vote for ProZinc.
Take it with a grain of salt, because I have no experience with any other insulins since Chucky was put on ProZinc from jump, but I like it alot.
Because of my work schedule, I can't be as regimented or monitor him as closely as would generally be considered the gold standard, so that extra bit of flexibility that ProZinc provides has been great.
If he was on Lantus, I'd probably be stressed out and poking him all the time out of paranoia and we would both be crying every day lol.

I'm also going to vote for a slow feeding bowl!
Chucky is a hardcore scarf and barfer. I feed him about 4x a day and have to put his biggest meals (morning and evening) in a slow-feeding bowl or he will gobble it all down and then barf it up. And then he will step over the barf to go right back to his bowl, where he will sit and cry like he forgot that he just ate six hours of food in one sitting.
It has like...protrusions that separate the food out and force him to slow down in order to get around them.
It worked a treat at first but I've noticed that he's starting to speed up again. I assume he's learned the layout of the bowl lol.
So I got a couple of different patterns and will start rotating them to keep him guessing.
Anyway, maybe try a slow feeding bowl as well lol.

Exercise balls have also been good dispensers for snacks for him. He doesn't need snacks most days, but some afternoons, he seems to be extra hungry. On those days, I'll put some low-carb dry food in a ball and let him chase it around the house, and that tides him over until dinner. The ball only releases one or two pellets at a time so it's a good way to get him something to munch on with the added benefit of mental and physical stimulation.