My aunt has a male cat with similar issues. I’d say it’s been at least 5 years, maybe longer, since he was diagnosed.
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Thanks for the tip about the water bowl!
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My diabetic cat is driving us crazy!
We were told to feed her only twice a day. Now, she is in search of food ALL DAY LONG, and if we are eating or cooking, she is yelling at us (Bengals are VERY loud when they want to be) and trying to jump on the counters, stove, table and/or the sink. She even tried to stick her head into a pan I was boiling chicken in.
Today I tried using sticky paper on top of the stove and in the sink. She just “shook it off” and went about her business.
We’ve also taken to putting her in a bathroom when she does it, but that doesn’t seem to be helping.
Any ideas? Please don’t say feed her more, because after spending $$$$ on the vet hospital last spring, we stick to the prescribed diet. She is a healthy weight, and seems to be doing pretty well with the diabetes, except for this foraging for food.
Our kitty might have hyperthyroid. Blood work being done. We will know this week. He lost some weight since his last annual check up…and all of his other senior blood work was fine.
1214mom -
Could you feed her less each meal and then make her work for the rest of her food? Maybe a puzzle feeder or even wrapping it up in crumpled newspaper?
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Great suggestion. We used this with one of our cats. A relative does not have a bowl for their dog - at all! The dog gets to “mine” her own food form a device like this:
https://www.amazon.com/PetSafe-SlimCat-Meal-Dispensing-Great-Treats/dp/B0018CG40O
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Interesting thoughts - thanks. She gets mostly prescription wet food these days, but when I clicked on the Amazon link BB supplied, I noticed a licky(sp?) mat. My son used one of those for his dog - maybe it will work for our cat. She does get a tablespoon or so of dry kibble - we could try that in the meal dispensing ball.
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One of our senior cats (16 going on 17) is likely dying. She stopped eating Friday, though she is drinking water and occasionally will take a lick of the gravy on the wet food I keep offering her. She’s had low level kidney failure for the last 2 years, but when kitty moved to live with my daughter, the new vet didn’t do any senior bloodwork on kitty this October despite my vet sending copies of the cat’s health records. Kitty doesn’t seem to be in pain, isn’t feverish or otherwise obviously ill. She’s just…winding down.
D will call the vet Monday and try to get her in a for a check, but I’m pretty sure there isn’t anything that can be done for her.
My daughter raised this cat from bottle kitten and although she can occasionally be crochety, she is a nice cat, patient with the babies and the giant (80lbs+) clumsy puppy.
Try a jar of Gerber’s baby food meat: mix the puree with warm water till it’s almost liquid. My vet had me try this with a sick kitty once upon a time and it helped.
So sorry to hear about your cat.
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I was going to suggest trying the baby food too. @WayOutWestMom so sorry to hear about your sweet kitty.
So sorry to hear about your kitty, @WayOutWestMom.
This illustrates that cats are amazing creatures; their heat seeking ability is out of this world. 
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I’m so sorry. When our old cat lady stopped eating, I found out that cats cannot fast, and that after three days of not eating, they can go into liver failure.
We tried everything including forcefeeding the liquified baby food, but she vomited it all up again.
Because she was so clearly in distress, we took her to the vet, who diagnosed pancreatitis and said that the only way to save her was putting her on an IV at animal hospital to keep her alive while her body fought the pancreatitis. The things you do for the kids! It was very expensive but she made it. She is eating well again now, but only wet food, won’t touch kibble at all any more. We were told to feed small portions throughout the day, and add pancreatitis enzymes, which she won’t touch, so we let that one go.
She now sits down in front of the fridge several times a day and miaows until she is fed. Because of the pandemic, someone is usually home.
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My old lady cat has hyperthyroidism. She lost weight slowly over the first pandemic year and the vet was pleased as kitty had been overweight. But then she kept losing and we were concerned. I give her a pill daily to control her disease. Unfortunately, I think this low dose is now making her sick. (The vet had warned of this issue and said she would start kitty on a low dose to test her tolerance.) I think I will try every other day.
Kitty was gaining weight so it seemed to be working.
I will keep an eye on how much eats or doesn’t eat the next few days.
The old lady cat is hanging in there. She is well hydrated and has been urinating; her abdomen is soft to palpation and she shows no guarding behavior. Kitty shows no obvious sign of being in pain, although her activity level is way down. She took a few bites of food yesterday, but refused food again this morning, gagging when she sniffed at it. Kitty also showed signs of being nauseated at times yesterday.
D believes kitty may be experiencing organ failure (liver or kidney) that’s part of her aging and dying process. So long as kitty isn’t in pain/suffering, she not inclined to take to her to vet --which the cat finds highly stressful and upsetting-- to undergo invasive testing which will in the end will not change the outcome.
Since the kitty is hers, I am going to defer to her judgment, though I find it hard to watch. (I lost a 22 year old absolutely wonderful cat to age/organ failure in almost exactly the same manner 4 years ago.)
We went through something very similar (pancreatitis, 5ish days in the hospital) last spring with our cat. We tell people we sent her to college, bc that’s what the bill felt like :). Yes, what we do for our “kids.”
Our cat is diabetic, and screams for food for hours in the evening, as I think I posted recently.
We haven’t gotten the test results yes about the thyroid and our kitty. I’m guessing we will hear tomorrow.
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In this case, I do mean out literal kids who would never have forgiven us if we hadn’t done everything we could for the cat! I love my old cat very much, but on our own we might have decided to let her go. As she’s rallied so we’ll, I’m glad we didn’t!
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I guess thyroid issues was one of the better things an old kitty could have. I went in to the vet’s office steeled to hear much worse.
I hope so. Giving this kitty a pill every day will be a challenge. You would think they would have them disguised as treats!