Cat Taking Appetite Stimulant, Won't Stop Meowing After Eating All Her Food At 8am...

kittyqss

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My cat is taking a medication for asthma, and it seems to be helping, but at the same time theres a huge appetite stimulant side effect that took place almost immediately.

I give my cat 40g of food every day, in the morning. Typically when I've had enough of her meowing because she eats all of her food at 8:00. So much for being trained. This has been routine. I get up, give her all her food, if she eats it all, tough shit.

The other day when I gave her meds, I noticed she ate super fast. So yesterday I tried to cut it to feeding 10g/10g/10g/10g throughout the day, but she still meowed a shit ton. Fed up with her incessant, constant, shrieking that shes hungry, I just decided to feed her all 40g today. At 8am she was pretty much done with her food, and the meowing has been continuing non stop. No shit you're hungry later, you just ate all your food in one sitting.

Sorry if the frustration is so apparent. Love my cat. But I can't get her to shut up. I try vocally cutting her off when she vocalizes (like intercepting her meow with a no), I've tried scruffing her after a string of meows and it doesnt help. I'm getting an automatic feeder, but that won't solve the problem because shes just gonna friggen meow at that. I tried a brief "time out" while I took a shower, locking her in the closet (holds litter box, and a bunch of clothes, a decent amount of space), that didn't work too. I'm at my wits end and its only been a few days. If the med works I'll be so happy, but at the same time if she won't shut up I will want to throw myself off a cliff.
 

Furballsmom

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FeebysOwner

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Hi. How old is your cat? Is she overweight? How long is due to be taking the asthma meds? I would think that for now, since she is on a med that is stimulating her appetite that it isn't her fault she feels hungry - and to feed her more for now.

I am not sure, but if she continues to need some sort of asthma treatment after the one she is on, you might want to ask the vet if an inhaler would be less likely to cause appetite stimulation.

Also, just in case it might help - since steroids are never a good long term solution, ask your vet about one or more of the holistic treatments in this article, once her asthma is under control.
Natural remedies for feline asthma
 

susanm9006

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If she is meowing for dry kibble, try a bowl like this one. The food can’t be gobbled because every piece needs to be scooped out of the bowl with her paw. You find these “slow bowls” as dog products in Amazon but they work great for a cat. You can also make a homemade kibble dispenser out of a soda or water bottle. Just cut three or four holes in the bottle with an exacto knife, fill it with her kibble and add cover. She will need to roll the bottle around to get her food.
 

daftcat75

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Which appetite stimulant? Mirtazapine? Your dose may be too high. Krista was prescribed 1/4 pill by the animal hospital but I found through internet searches and trial and error that 1/8 or even 1/16 worked better for Krista. Stimulated her appetite but didn’t make her a crazy cat for hours.

Also I found that the vocalization wasn’t always for food. Every cat is different. But Krista would get a serotonin surge between 1 and 4 hours after taking the pill and it was very distressing for her. What worked best for both of us was to hold her or be near her and be there for her while she was peaking. Give her a lap to sit in or sit next to her and pet her or whatever scratches she wanted. After about 30 minutes she felt better. And hungry. I thought her mirtz’ing was adorable because I’d get an extra long cuddle sesssion with her and she’d be purring and trilling her head off. But i know it was distressing to her because if I wasn’t giving her this attention and support, she’d wander the apartment restless and very vocal.
 

LTS3

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My cat is taking a medication for asthma, and it seems to be helping, but at the same time theres a huge appetite stimulant side effect that took place almost immediately.
I'm confused by your post and title :headscratch: Your cat has asthma and the vet prescribed an appetite stimulant? :headscratch:

Or is your cat on asthma medicine (Flovent? Pred?) and an increased appetite is a side effect of that medicine?
 

daftcat75

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Oh I see. I didn't read it your post well enough. She's on a steroid for her asthma and that is having an appetite stimulant effect. Probably don't want to cut the dose without consulting the vet.

Get a timed feeder. Give her more food. Are you feeding her only once a day? Can you increase that to at least twice a day? A wild cat would typically eat as many as 10 times a day or more. Is that wet food? 40 g isn't a lot of food.

Being hungry isn't a behavioral issue you should try to be correcting with timeouts or "no"s. Not that either will work anyway.
 

epona

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If she is on oral steroids for her asthma she is going to feel super hungry all the time, no matter what food she has eaten.

Try to spread out her feeds so she is getting it split into 3 or 4 feeds per day (or smaller portions spread over more feeds) rather than all at once, but don't give in and overfeed her - she could easily become obese if she is on steroids, because she will always feel hungry and eat any food you put down even if she is already full.

(My husband was on steroids in hospital for a while after a bad asthma attack with complications and staff had to stop him hunting down the food trolley to see if there were leftovers, he gained about 2 stone during 1 week in hospital - that is a human with allegedly some self control - you have to be the self control for your cat - not sure that makes sense but...)

I would advise speaking to your vet too, make sure this is the best treatment for her in the long-term. It could well be, but it doesn't hurt to check in with your vet to make sure.

EDIT: Asthma is a killer, so don't stop any medication without instruction from your vet - it may be that to save her life you have to live with the side effects. Just keep checking back with your vet to make sure she is on the best treatment regime possible.
 

LTS3

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K kittyqss what is the name of the medicine your cat is taking for asthma? When did your cat start the medicine? What was the initial dose and what is the current dose?

A steroid such as prednisolone can cause an increased in appetite but not right away. It usually takes a few weeks or so on a fairly high dose for a noticeable increase in appetite to appear. Just feed your cat more food. If the medicine helps the asthma, then you just deal with the side effects until the vet determines that you can try stopping the steroid.

Inform your vet of the increased appetite and get advice on what to do. Do not decrease or stop the steroid on your own. Steroids are a finicky, you need to slowly taper off use over a week or so before attempting to safely stop. Ask the vet if using a different medicine for the asthma is an option. An inhaled medicine like Flovent doesn't have an increased appetite as a side effect but may not work for your cat's asthma.
 
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