Inconsistant Appetite and Constipation Tips?

Hi All,

I'm new here, and for a little background, I have a 7 year old male cat named Tigg (he was a crazy kitten with wild black hair, so he's named after the SofA character). Tigg has been a free feeding grazer his whole life, and always had a big appetite. He was never obese, but he was a pretty large cat in general. Then he had started losing weight and drinking more water in a day than I do, so I brought him to the vet.

He was diagnosed with diabetes almost 3 weeks ago, and started on Lantus and DM dry food. He was underweight at the vet, so I was told to give him 1/3 of a cup twice a day before his 1 unit shot. When we got home that night and I gave him his measily little scoop, he scarfed it back and gave me the usual side-eye glare because his bowl was empty, so I tried giving him some of his old food to transition him slowly to his new food. He was insulted by this offering and demanded more of the new food so I let him have a little more.

I asked the vet the next day about giving him more food, and was told I could give him up to 1 and 1/4 cups a day because they didn't want him gorging himself because it would make his diabetes harder to regulate. I started him on several small meals throughout the day and also started mixing in some FF transition him to wet food. I lost my job a week before his diagnosis so I can't afford $100 for 10lbs of dry food.

My concern is how incinsistently he will eat. With both the dry diet, and now the wet/dry diet, I can't seem to find a routine for him. Some days he will have a few bites when I give him fresh food, then still have half of it in his bowl when it's time for his next meal. Then other days he gulps it down immediately and is crying for food an hour later. If he's underweight, I don't want to deny him food if he is hungry and make him wait for his next meal, BUT when he has a hungry day, his stomach will be so full of food that he looks like he's pregnant. His belly will be rock hard and all he does is lay on the floor, but he still uses the litter box so I don't think he is constipated. I hate not giving him food when he is crying at his bowl for more, but he feels like he is gonna explode so I don't think I should.

I brought him to the vet for his first glucose curve and mentioned his eating to the vet. His dose was increased to 2.0 units after his appointment 3 days ago, but I didn't get much advice on this though because Tigg had a slight fever and the vet was more concerned with that. IHis fever is gone at least.

I got the vet to walk me through using the AlphaTral 3 with me, so we are just starting to get the hang of at home testing. I've gotten 5 readings since that appointment, and the lowest was 443mg/dL about 5 hours after his shot today. Before his meal and nighttime shot, it was 540mg/dL, but I don't want to increase his dose since it's only been three days since the last increase, and he isn't eating the same amount of food from one day to the next.

I'm not sure what I should do, so if there's any tips or advice I'd love to hear it.

Thanks,
Sydney and Tigg

 

Hi and welcome to the forum Sydney and Tiggy.
Lantus is a good insulin for diabetic cats.
But the DM dry is not…it is high carb food and unsuitable for diabetic cats.
Here is a FOOD CHART for you to look at. Choose foods that are 10% or under carbs. Canned food is much better for all cats than dry food.
Do any transition slowly over a few days to stop any tummy upsets. And I would suggest getting the testing of the blood glucose down pat first before transitioning with food as low carb food can drop the BG (blood glucose) by up to 100 points.
Diabetic cats when first diagnosed can be nauseated or not want to eat. Others are starving. My Sheba ate very little for the first several days and she was a very food motivated cat.
You might like to ask the vet to prescribe some ondansetron (an antinausea) for a week or two until things settle down.
Feed a good meal before every dose of insulin and then give 2 or 3 snacks of low carb food during each cycle (12 Hours). If he is underweight , feed him when he asks, except for the 2 hours before you are going to get the preshot BG as we don’t want that BG to be food influenced.

With the testing of the BG, always get a test done before every dose to make sure it is safe to give the dose. And then try and get at least one test in during every cycle. The insulin doesn’t onset until about 2 hours after it is given. So I would try and get a BG somewhere between +4 and +7 ( 4 or 7 hours after the dose of insulin.
We recommend you do any increases on dose by going up in 1/4 unit increments. So if you started with 1 unit, you would increase to 1.25 units. And we do increases based on how LOW the dose is taking Tiggy, not the preshot BG. As long as he did not have any ketones at diagnosis, I think you could wait a day or two before increasing and get the spreadsheet set up so we can see some BG data and we will be able to tell you if an increase is needed.
Here is a link to hometesting hints and links

And a link to HELP US HELP YOU. This has the link to our spreadsheet and our signature and our hypo kit.
Please set up a hypo kit.
And we can help you with dosing and other things if you can set up a spreadsheet and signature. If you have trouble setting up a spreadsheet I can get someone to help you.
Keep asking lots of questions.

 

Hi,
Thank you for your reply, I have a hypo kit ready and I think I've got his spreadsheet set up now. I'm switching him over to only wet food and I'll keep the rest of the dry stuff as as high carb food.

The vet hadn't told me any of his BG levels they tested or given me the range they want him at so I don't know what he was at when he was diagnosed, but he did have trace ketones.

I accidentally slept in today and missed his AM dose. I fed him just wet food when I got up and couldn't test his BG until before his PM shot. He had eaten all the wet food and his PMPS was 18.4mmol/L which seems low for him. I gave him his meal, but he wasn't interested. I got him to eat a few bites before I gave him shot and have been testing his BG hourly since. He ate a little bit before the +5 test but still hasn't finished it. He has usually gotten a whole other meal by now.

Would me missing his shot be why he isn't hungry now?

 

I don’t think so. Try offering him some other food. It is important diabetic cats eat.
Here is a link to STIMULATING KITTY’S APPETITE

Are you testing for ketones at home? I would recommend you do so, especially if he is not eating well at the moment and because he is unregulated. You can buy a bottle of Ketostix from Walmart or a pharmacy. You will need to collect a urine sample and follow the direction the bottle and read the result exactly 15 seconds after dipping the strip into the urine. Anything above a trace needs vet attention. Don’t ignore it. Can you go out today and get the Ketostix? I would feel more comfortable knowing there were no ketones at the moment with that loss of appetite.
COLLECTING A URINE SAMPLE

Well done getting the SS set up and the signature.

Any drops under 90 is a dose reduction of 0.25 units when following SLGS dosing method.
We recommend increasing and decreasing in 1/4 unit increments.
Until you have more data I would not give the dose if under 220 on the pet meter. If this happens stall, don’t feed and test again in 20 minutes to see if the BG is rising. And post and ask for help. We don’t want you skipping a dose with ketones in the picture recently so we would probably suggest a smaller dose for that shot, but you will need to post and ask for help.
A normal BG for cats using a alpha track meter are 68 to around 150.

 

I gave him different food and he ate a bit of it. He is eating more again as I write this and has gotten almost a large can down.

I will go and get Ketostix today, it's 5am for us so I'll have to wait until something is open to go.

His last 2 tests were much higher than the others. The one I just did was 614.

 

I didn't see anything above a trace. I finally got a sample I am confident with, and all 3 strips I tried came back between negative and trace.

I have been trying all day long and Tigg bested me every time. He even snuck out the door just to pee outside, but I got a good clean sample this time and it showed less than trace amounts.

 

That’s good to know. When you have time, would you put the urine ketone result into the remarks column of the spreadsheet please?
Keep up your good work!
And keep posting !