Do cats get used to mirtazapine?

[Timewarpcat]

I have a 6 year old diabetic cat, diagnosed 6 moths ago. I give her 2.2 units of prozinc, a medium acting insulin 2x per day. Her dosage was adjusted with her wearing a Freestyle Libre sensor for 10 days or so, twice.

Sometimes she eats well, other times, she wants nothing except my food. I offer Fancy Feast, Sheba and another brand, Purina Beyond? paté in various flavors. I try warming food. I sprinkle nutritional yeast on top. I offer chicken. Hamburger. Scrambled eggs. A zero carb dry cat food by Young Again, a small company. Prescription pet food from Purina. And so on!!

The only stuff she'll eat reliably are the Hartz bisque and cat treats. So I have the ones that are nutritionally complete, Temptations and Feline Greenies. They're high in carbs.

Vet gave me mirtazapine, but she's so sedated. She takes phenobarbitol for seizures. I have backed off the phenobarbitol a bit, with veterinary advice, and her eating was much improved. For 10 days. And her face is twitching a lot more. So I can't cut the phenobarbitol more.

She was so sedated in mirtazapine, imo, life isn't worth living like that. Is this something that will get better with time? I'm not sure the mirtazapine will work long term anyway.

Any ideas are welcome. I love this cat.

I think what I will have to do is keep offering quality foods, and don't sweat it if she won't eat those and just end up giving her Hartz Bisque and Temptations for a meal most of the time. And hopefully she can live a couple happy years like that. Temptations is a complete food, I guess. She's not overweight.

She's hungry, just picky. My goal is to get food in her because if she doesn't get insulin, she gets sick. I was adjusting the dose, but she's overall better if I give the insulin no matter what and let her eat whatever she will.

 

[tyleete]

My baby also eats Young Again Mature Zero. In fact, I feed that to 7 of mine now. Expensive, yes. But so worth it.
Mine was diagnosed as in remission 2mo after diagnosis. But I still keep get on a strict diet. I have to feed her different Fancy Feast every feeding cause she gets bored.:/ So while it's always 1 of the classic pates, I alternate.
Mirtazapine wreaked havoc on 2 of mine. They had bad side effects from it. Would walk nearly I circles crying loudly. And could never get comfortable. So I rarely use it in my house.
However! Both my Cancer kitties have gone to taking cbd for cats. It doesn't contain anything to make them high (THC), but the benefits are great.
Helps fight: anxiety, arches & pains, depression, inflammation, and best of all? Makes them want to eat. I guess like humans get the munchies. Also helps against nausea. It helps my Cancer cats, a boy with hyperthyroidism, & another with stomatits. You might want to check it out. Forus poor people, there is Lazarus Naturals -salmon flavored

ORGANIC PET CBD TINCTURE, 20MG/ML

Ease your furry friends' anxiety when you're out of the house or you want to help boost their overall well-being with our Classic Calming Pet CBD Oil Tincture.

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or cbdMD -catnip flavor for cats.

CBD Oil Tinctures & Drops for Cats

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If you're rich and can deal with the mess of putting liquid into capsules, cause the taste us just Awful! There's Ellevet.

 

[FeebysOwner]

I am not exactly clear on what you are asking. What is the purpose of giving your cat mirtazapine - just to make her hungrier so she will be less picky about her food? If that is the case, I think you might be right about it not working as well. If Feeby doesn't like a food to begin with, Mirataz (the transdermal form of mirtazapine) is much less helpful. Others have talked about the effectiveness of Mirataz diminishing with longer term use, and I suppose that could be happening with Feeby. But I am not sure that applies as much to the oral form. I do know some members have moved away from Mirataz/mirtazapine and now use Elura - which works a bit differently.

What is the dosage of mirtazapine? Usually, it is given no more than every other day or every third day - so if you give it more than that, I suppose it could be causing some sedation type effect.

Aside from her being picky, I get the impression that you think the phenobarbital might be having an impact on her appetite. Have you discussed with the vet trying other meds for her seizures? Phenobarbital just seems to be the most common. It might require a visit with a vet who specializes in neurology (and/or even an internal med specialist) to find other possible med options.

From what I know, Hartz Bisque and Temptations are not nutritionally complete. Mixing them with cat food might be one option to try to get her to eat more nutritionally balanced meals. There are also a ton of other 'toppers' you could try to add to cat food to see if that will entice her to eat them. Just do an internet search on 'cat food toppers'. You might also try adding baby food meat (Gerber Stage 2 or Beechnut) with a nutritional supplement like EZComplete (for all flavors other than chicken) to her food repertoire, just for something different. I do so with Feeby because of her pickiness.

 

[Timewarpcat]

Gabapentin was another choice for seizures and did not work.

I try these tasty options as toppers. It works a couple times, then she won't eat it. Tonight she stopped eating the Hartz bisque. She will not eat baby food.

I think there must be another disease process going on with her and I will end up losing this cat. She's 6 and won't eat. The vet does not know what's wrong. I've never had a cat behave this way unless it was dying. But she acts totally fine on days she will eat. I have to have her eat or I can't give her insulin. She's probably type 1.

The mirtazapine was 1/4 of the smallest pill you can get. I'm going to try the type you put on the ear, I guess.

 

[maggie101]

I agree with FeebysOwner . Call the vet and tell him/her what's going on if you want to change anything. Or make an appointment.all cats react differently to mirtazapine plus she's taking other drugs for a medical condition. Possibly a different vet?

 

[Timewarpcat]

I live in a rural area and she is by far the best vet within reasonable distance.

I cut the mirtazapine into 5 pieces so she got less than 1/4 dose, and that went much better. She was only mildly sedated this time. I had decreased the phenobarbitol since the last mirtazapine attempt. For now, she's eating again.

She's doesn't like wet food and I've been trying like anything to get her to eat that for months. For years before that, wet food was always offered. She wants dry food.

I think this kitty is just not going to eat a decent diabetic diet and that's that. I can't keep doing this. I'm exhausted. I'm going to see about the mirtazapine ear gel for hopefully temporary use and look into the CBD product. I'm going to get a blood sugar meter for testing between uses of a Freestyle Libre and try and get her blood sugar a little lower. It's not terrible, but not ideal because of all these problems. If none of that works, then I guess kitty isn't going to make it. It may be the infection damaged other things besides her brain and pancreas. She's only 6 years old.

Thanks for the answers!

 

[louisstools]

I'm having a similar struggle with my girl and eating. She's not diabetic or anything...perfectly healthy. Used to be a hoover but now only has brief moments when she'll eat. I get the exhaustion and just wanted to express some sympathy.

I hope your kitty is doing well.

 

[Timewarpcat]

Kitty is doing well, but still hard to feed. I still don't know what's the matter. She's good for several days, then has trouble for a few, in a cycle. I did get the mirtazapine ear gel. I have recently switched her to a better insulin, Levemir, and I'm trying a low dose of Miralax.

I noticed her tummy gets hard, so I did gas x and that helped. But the anti seizure med, mirtazapine and gas x all can cause constipation.

I'm hoping that the problem was the poorly controlled blood sugar and the side effect from the seizure med, and maybe then I can use miralax and skip the mirtazapine and gas x down the road.

The food aversions are such a problem!

I wish you the best with your kitty!

 

[louisstools]

What you describe is exactly what I'm dealing with: eats ok for a few days then has some bad days, like in a cycle. I haven't been able to figure out what causes the cycle. I was thinking freshness of food but I don't think that is it b/c she did this when we were trying to get her to eat wet food and those cans are going to be fresher. Other thoughts were mild constipation but even on her "bad" days if she has a "corker" poop that doesn't always get her back to eating good. Just baffling! Best of luck to you too.