Looking for some cat advice
Caveat: I'm following up with my vet for most of this, but she's newer and is having to do a lot of consulting with other vets in the practice.
Info: I have three cats,
- adult female - Nova, 13ish?
- adult male, Pippin 3ish
- male kitten - Fig 5 months (he's very sneaky)
Ok so, my girl Nova has been diagnosed with diabetes. This has entirely upended our feeding schedule and she's not coping well with it. We'd previously used some automatic feeders that dropped food 6 times a day, because she would stress out about not having food and then overeat and would throw up in both scenarios. But now all three cats are on different food (all kibble), and at least Nova would prefer to eat any food but her own, or have seconds, but the others would too if left to it. So they're being fed in different rooms at the same time.
Nova is ravenous, aggressively trying to drag her bowl out of my hands, headbutting the tub of her food (she caught it loose once) across the floor, running to the other bowls in case there's CC. food left once they're separated. She just dove for one as I was trying to just let a cat out of the room instead of pick the bowl up. She's always under my feet in a way that she used to be good about avoiding. I've stepped on her several times, and hurt my ankle and wrist last night catching myself.
Any suggestions for the perpetually (thinks she's) starving cat? I just got her a glucometer and am figuring it out but haven't been taught how to adjust her insulin as of yet.
Part of the difficulty here, and another area I need solutions in, is that she'll (mostly) inadvertently scratch my partner's leg when she wants his attention usually to be fed. I think occasionally it's intentional but he uses a wheelchair and mostly can't feel the leg - a cut can be dangerous for him, but also sometimes the touch/pain sets his leg off in a spasm cycle that is incredibly painful. On a bad day he's feeling guilty for how angry he is at her and is afraid he'll hit her (he probably wouldn't, but he doesn't have the control to say intentionally tumble her like a mama cat to a kitten, and she would probably claw or bite if he tried plus she's been sick and he's already afraid of hurting all the cats with the chair.) he's done the spray bottle thing in the past, she likes water and we know it's not ideal, but it's usually something that happens when he's not looking or can't see or hear her til she gets him.
Finally I need a better storage method for the food. Something she can't headbutt open or into dropping food, but that I can leave out in an open space. Currently I have a bag in a bathroom vanity, a tub of the Rx food in a spare room, and a bag in a closet. They have torn the bags open in the past (working together as a team, I suspect) when they're not secured.
I've thought about the microchip feeders but the youngest isn't chipped yet and frankly they're really expensive.
Summary of Asks:
- Help with a diabetic cat who's perpetually starving
- Help with getting a cat to stop scratching a human's leg who can't see it coming (addressing the first might help)
- Help with ideas for cat food storage/dispensing that would be more accessible than 3 bags in 3 closets in 3 rooms, two of which my partner can't access.
Bit of a vent here too, just everything is expensive right now too so I'm trying the best I can. Pics added.
We’ve got a cat like this, we throw single kibble pellets for her to chase in between meals. Seems to calm her down a bit.
Shes still annoying as hell and will trip you, but with the kibble chasing exercise at least she naps sometimes now instead of just constantly hunting.
It works I think as long as she doesn't have to compete with the others. She's got a few "puzzle" toys and if I thought I could prep it without her losing her mind I'd feed her that way entirely. But she's very smart and learns them quickly.
I tried a slow feeding "lick mat' that we've used for the churu, and she just flipped it.
Yeah exactly, we dont do this for the other cats they’re locked away.
We tried the puzzle toys with ours too and it wasn’t the same. Our girl wants that chase. We’ve got her running all up the stairs, across the kitchen, bouncing off walls chasing after that piece of food.
After about ten of those we feed her the meal and shes good for hours. We feed 3x a day
It would be tricky getting the other cats put up if it's just my partner, the wheelchair makes it hard because they can scoot past him easily in a doorway, but I'll try it. He tried playing hide and seek with some food last night - a little here a little there on the tree or the couch and that seemed to work. But then she just harassed him more so idk.
Yeah hide and seek is too slow shes gotta get in the chase. Wear your girl outtttt throw kibble against things it’ll bounce off of make her work for it
Have you already tried one of those food ball things? I've had a couple of hyper cats that love them, one of my friends ended up using one to feed her cat all the time, he seemed to think it was more fun than a bowl.
The link didn't work, but we have a couple of the treat toys like that, none big enough for a meal's worth of food. But yeah, it's why I thought of the puzzle toy - it's got a bunch of slots and makes her work for it - but I'll need her less frantic to use it myself with any regularity.
We used one of those cat food pot things for our cat exclusively. She never really overate, just ate too fast, but you could still see her weighing up wether it was worth it to fish out more food or not. Something like this https://www.curbly.com/crafting-a-diy-cat-food-puzzle-game-with-3-simple-materials We didn't make it ourselves but the one we had I can't find online, but it was similar - she could only fish out 1-2 pieces at a time and had to transport them out of the box.
It's basically like that but it's got slidy things and boxes that open and pieces she has to move. I have several different ones, they're just not a challenge for her anymore but that could be ok with the food.
Mini updates, feeding her using one of the puzzle feeders and then chucking kibble at her..she's not quite running for it but she's chasing it down
Started having her come get a nose boop and then a kibble toss, so maybe I can slowly start turning this into a touch training. She was frantic until I took the puzzle feeder away (because it was empty) and then got distracted by bouncing bits of kibble. So, this seems like progress.
Didn't get her nails clipped myself today or the glucometer set up, but baby steps. She's settled somewhere right now and isn't howling or demanding food
I've never used the RFID feeders, but I have friends that have used them with good results as well, so I second @davek804 on that front.
We did have a cat, Verona, that had a terrible stomach, and so she was constantly on various prescription foods. Like Nova, Verona was a bit... excitable about food, and needed ta be fed at least 4 times a day (including the middle of the night) or she would start panicking about starving, and eat herself sick.
I don't know exactly what food Nova needs to be on, so maybe this isn't an option, but we just put both of our cats on Verona's prescription food. It wasn't actually medicated, though (to be honest, I don't understand why so much specialty pet food requires a prescription, and it drives me a little nuts). It was, of course, more expensive, but it meant that we could keep using our auto feeders and keep the cats (relatively) sane.
Re: the scratching/aggression, this is maybe a bit of a long shot, but:
One of the strategies that we tried for getting our cats more comfortable being around our dog was to train them to "touch". Cats, it turns out, are very good at clicker training (as long as the clicker sound isn't frightening to them). You can buy extendable wands with built in clickers, and teach your cat to boop the tip of the wand with their nose, and then reward them with a treat. For Verona (and probably Nova), just using a piece of kibble was often a sufficient treat. Here's one of the "target stick" wands I'm talking about: https://www.amazon.com/CAT-SCHOOL-Training-Kit-Tools/dp/B084NHN1ST. That company actually has a bunch of YouTube videos on how to train cats to do various behaviors with clicker training: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjLBG9wsaAo.
This might help with your partner? I'm extrapolating a bit from dog training, but in general, I imagine that the right strategy here is going to be some operant conditioning: redirect her to a scratching post (or even a couch, anything is better than a leg) with the wand, and reward her for postponing or redirecting the scratch. Maybe even hang some bells around the house so that she feels like she has a way to get your attention? Hopefully, with time, she'll start opting for the non-leg option on her own, because she keeps getting rewarded for it. You may even want to have something scratchable in every room, just so that there's always something to redirect her from. This is the kind of behavior that will take a lot of persistence to modify, but with enough consistency, I suspect you'll be able to do it.
All of our cats adapted reallllllly well to clicker training. Seconded there as well.
Good to know, ty!
Yeah it's a diabetic diet. I'm under the impression that maybe I could buy some regular but more expensive food with the same ...er... Macros I guess? But I haven't done that research. Kitten probably needs to stay on his food, but that's slightly more manageable and if he eats the other stuff it won't be the end of the world. It's worth asking at the vet.
She is very smart so maybe we could do the clicker training. I'm open to trying basically anything. It's just often not possible for him to redirect her in the moment, he can't pick her up and often the pain makes the leg jerk and he needs time to calm it and himself down. So pre-emptive strategies may work best. We're pretty sure it's attention getting not a lack of scratching opportunities (lots of posts/two trees/cardboard scratchers)
I'm not a vet, nor should this advise be taken as anything but something to explore with an expert, but grain free cat food tends to have a positive effect on diabetic cats. Usually because of the macros. It's also similarly priced to regular cat food.
Something to explore perhaps if it hasn't been already.
I've also once read a study why cats feel like they're starving if they haven't had any food for a bit. I'll try to dig that up. But it's been a while so I don't know if I can find it.
Yeah it's an area I don't know much about.
I do think some of the "starving" is from trying to get the diabetes managed, she may feel like her glucose is "low" when it's not. But she's always been more like this. When we free-fed she was fine, with the automatic feeders she'd get a bit "headbutty" at them before it was time for food but she didn't eat everything without a pause for breath. Sigh
This definitely all makes sense to me. It read as attention seeking to me, too — one of the nice things about the clicker training for us was that it seemed to fulfill our cats' human engagement quota somewhat, even though we weren't physically in contact with them. That was sort of a big deal, because Verona would otherwise insist on being in our laps literally all day long.
I should also say, we worked with an animal behaviorist when we were trying to integrate our cats and dog, and it was a really, really wonderful experience. I don't know how feasible that sounds to you, but we learned a lot about cat behavior from her!
Just having the clicker training in general as a strategy may still be helpful, especially if she's clever and likes to use her noggin. I don't know how well you can anticipate when she's going to start getting scratchy, but even if you can't, just being able to spend some time each day training with her may help regulate her mood a bit.
I can't say for sure it would help though :/ I wish I had more. This kind of thing can be endlessly frustrating — I've definitely felt it myself. I hope you check back in with updates, whether or not things seem to be moving in the right direction!
I appreciate the brainstorming, we're gonna try a few things. At the least, new ideas help when we've felt like we were out of them..
Cost wise, we just found out we must replace our furnace and probably should replace the AC with it. Plus we have to widen our crawl space entrance or relocate it because, bonus, it's not big enough for a new furnace AND can't be widened without a floor joist being involved.
So uh, money is a bit fucked right now. Care credit is pulling most of the weight for the cats as we're going to have to pay a carpenter and maybe electrician a separate amount even if the furnace is financed. I'll probably make another post on that in a bit because I know fuck all about HVAC.
So I will try to update as I can, it may just be sparser than I'd like
If you live in an environment appropriate for it, a heat pump might take over for both. Also check into rebates with your power/gas company, they can be quite helpful.
It's our preference, we already have solar so getting off gas and on electric is ideal (though solar will be less useful in the winter) we're getting quotes at the moment and it's thankfully not a situation where we need it installed immediately with a slightly warm fall so far.
In my experience, the more food motivated a cat is the better clicker training works. My orange was really easy to train, his sister just wanders off.
Aww, poor Nova and poor you, new stuff like this is so hard. You're a good pet parent for working so hard to figure this out.
Appreciate it. We're tired for a lot of reasons
I have nothing to add except that I also have a cat named Pippin that is 3 years old, but is a tuxedo cat. Wishing your cats the best!
Is he also a Fool of a Took?
But of course!
The food storage is actually easier than you might think. Our chonker also likes to rip open a bag of food if left undefended. Just get a plastic storage tote, and if need be, there are the ones where the lid has a snapping handle mechanism. We leave our food in its bag, in that big box. Works well.
We have RFID feeders (I bet you can find some used for a bit of a discount), and one of the better features is that if another cat tries to butt-in, their chip registers and the door closes. It isn't perfect, but our cats trained themselves pretty well within a week. The more food determined lady skulks by all the feeders even though she knows she won't get any glory.
Last comment is that I can't say much about the histrionics around starvation - I've read about it but never had to deal with it first hand. I guess just my commiserations. And cat making you take a tumble is infuriating, and then you feel bad for being angry.
That's fantastic, I didn't know it was a thing. A friend of mine had one cat that would push the other into his feeder sensor when he wanted to steal from it.
The difficulty level with the food storage is getting it to high enough place that my partner can reach it, and even scoop from it while also not letting her knock it over. For example, if on the counter she'd push it off, on a shelf she might depending on the location.
But tubs are the route I'm looking at the most.
Getting 3 feeders will be costly but (though as I said, the littlest doesn't have one yet. Actually, now I'm doubting if Pip is chipped as he was a COVID kitten we found on campus. I can check the vet records though.) maybe we can start with one or two, if I can find them on Facebook or something :-\
Partner is worried to death about rolling over a cat's paw or tail and has clipped her and Fig a few times, but with the obsessiveness she's been less attentive than her usual careful self. Long term I can mostly avoid hurting myself, he's less safe.
Have you ever seen the angular food container with the wide mouth 'screw top'? Could put one of those on a slightly elevated shelf or similar. I'll see if I can find a pic of what I'm referring to.
Perhaps you're thinking of this one? https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0002H3S5K/?th=1
Completely overkill for a cat though, and I don't think they make them any smaller.
That's literally the exact thing I was thinking of. Well found!
Wow that's expensive. You can get a similar lid for a standard 5 gallon bucket for far less.
They make one that's got a screw top and doesn't have the angle to it, but it also says 50lbs so I don't know if it's smaller or not. Might still be difficult to access, but anything secure and next to each other would make my life easier. Thanks
https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fi5.walmartimages.com%2Fasr%2F64b7f7b7-13a1-421b-bf83-c0009f9aff5f.a7d799aaa0d3f544489df63525f39602.jpeg&f=1&ipt=6c9c6f58eb594fa880988ae263dd39a0ab5d1646b5c0d0c471f496ead8b67c88 this wasn't what I meant, but the wheels could be good.
This was the general idea I was thinking of: https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fm.media-amazon.com%2Fimages%2FI%2F51olTgYPL8L._AC_SL1500_.jpg&f=1&ipt=eae6d2dca5497344dda8459ea4a05c79aba9a4df225db91ecf3979b79d61f076
Probably adds some cost compared to your basic rectangular bin, but ya know.
The second one looks smaller and may work, I'll look at something like that. Thanks!
With regards to the scratching, how does Nova do with having her claws trimmed? It's not a solution by any means, but it might help avoid any injury while you work through the behavioural / food issues.
For food storage, there are child-proofing latches that can be added to cupboards that might help secure the bags of food in a place that your partner can still easily access.
For feeding time, is there a room or something that Nova goes into but the other cats tend to avoid? You could try splitting her normal serving into multiple smaller bowls and leaving them around "her" room, but you'd probably need to monitor it to make sure the other cats weren't getting at it.
Scratching: she's my least compliant with it. It usually involves at least a churu, but she's a bit more used to being manhandled post vet. She has an upcoming appointment and I planned to ask them to trim her nails to get us started though.
Storage: low cupboards + heavy objects are difficult, he can't always manage to get a pan from a cupboard depending on angles. He doesn't have a ton of mobility at the moment. That comes and goes some, so somewhere out is likely
Feeding: unfortunately they would all go everywhere if it's open. The kitten insists usually, and if there's food involved they'll all be wherever that is at least some of the time. I could feed just one fending her off, but partner will struggle if the other two are persistent.
Ah sorry, I hadn't considered that moving the bags would also be a challenge.
Is splitting the large bags of food into smaller containers an option? It'd be a lot of front-loaded time and effort, especially for 3 different types of food.
There are sprays you can get that are supposed to help with stress and other issues that might help Nova. I don't have any personal experience using them and they could be completely useless, but it might be worth asking your vet?
Asking about arthritis might also be worthwhile given her age. If she's in pain on top of everything else she might be trying to get at the food as a comfort.
Sorry I don't have any better suggestions, hopefully Nova will adjust to the new diet quickly!
I can manage the work once a month or whatever timing wise, if it lets partner take some of the load, daily. Thinking she had arthritis, and her deteriorating with pancreatitis on top of the diabetes, is where we were when this started. We're not sure if she has weakness in her back legs from arthritis now or from losing 3lbs in 3 months. So we're keeping an eye on her.
She of course, also refuses to swallow a pill, even in a pocket or a churu treat or anything. Spits it right back out /ᐠ｡ꞈ｡ᐟ\
I have a cat (Sterling) who is the absolute sweetest boy in the world. I've only heard him hiss once in his ~14 years of life (when I accidentally rolled over his tail with a chair because I didn't know he was there), and I have to give him an asthma puffer daily which he dislikes but copes with (He likes the post-puffer attention and treats more than he dislikes the puffer).
All this to say that giving him pills is a huge challenge, and is generally a two person job to get the pill in the mouth and then keep it closed until he swallows.
Sterling is receiving Solensia injections for arthritis every ~6 weeks, and I've seen a huge improvement to his mobility. It does mean a vet visit to get the treatment, usually a nurse appointment rather than a full vet consult but it's still fairly costly.
If it turns out she has arthritis that's the route we'd go, but so far the vets been leaning it's side effects of the drastic weight loss/muscle wasting. We have to get further away from that to know more basically
On preventing scratches, something my household started doing after our baby was born was to effectively just blunt the tips of our cats nails using a pet nail grinder. As long as we stay on top of it this has been entirely effective for us in eliminating scratches. Admittedly his scratch attempts in normal life are exceedingly rare though. Much more common, at least prior to this, was getting scratched by non-extended swipes (like the nails just being long enough that pawing led to scratching).
Our cat can be very fighty to the extent that our vet is unwilling to see him without sedation, but he still does pretty well with a grinder. I think it's because the grinder doesn't have any startling moments like clippers do, but who really knows what he's thinking. The downside of this approach is that he's now worse at removing the blunted nail sheaths himself so we'll occasionally need to fix a few for him. This only really occurs though because we grind off so little.
She might tolerate that. I use the small pet nail scissors, but mostly she doesn't like her paws touched. My boys will pretty much tolerate anything (although Fig is still pretty bitey. I cannot wait for him to stop biting everything. Any day now)
We had a cat with diabetes for 3-4 years. I'm mostly curious what Nova's food and medication situation is? Our girl ended up going through a couple rounds of vet visits before we determined that she'd 1. Need more than intervention via prescription food and 2. Need human-type insulin instead of animal-type insulin. It also took us a while to figure out the best dose and medication tools for her. (We eventually settled on human insulin needle-syringes, rather than pens.) Eventually, she would tell us when her post-food poke was due, and she looked forward to it.
It could be that Nova's appetite and desperation will calm down once her body evens out. Our girl and her brother had been free fed up until her diagnosis, and after that, they were switched to meals twice a day. (I don't remember them behaving desperately in response to this change, but I wasn't living with them at the time.) I know Nova's probably drinking a lot, but please keep an eye on any weirder litterbox (or out-of-litterbox) behavior. Infections like UTI and bladder infections can mess with their insulin levels and cause complications, which is ultimately how we lost our girl.
We currently on food and insulin twice a day but we're less than a month into this - she's getting a glucose curve this week - and she's getting 1.5 units each meal. She's getting them with the food right now, but yeah we want to adapt to whatever she needs. We know some of this is transition, and the vet has told us so, but I can't have her scratching partner's leg to shreds because she's sure she's while we adjust. :/
Part of me wonders if just letting her eat, giving her the insulin, knowing it won't be great but would be better than before and accepting she'll leave us sooner but less miserable wouldn't be better. Quality over quantity. But I think that's just the exhaustion talking.
She had acute pancreatitis along with a 600+ blood sugar by the time we figured out what was wrong with her - in part because we thought Pippin was pooping outside the litter box as a territorial thing with Fig being around and not Nova doing it because she hurt too much to climb in. (We were moving the boxes around trying to give them space and it wasn't working for some reason) So yeah definitely being attentive to the water intake. Of course, Fig just discovered today that the gravity water dish is basically his personal splashpad so.... Sigh toddlers.
We use something like this. They come in small sizes, like 10 liters, which is perfect. They are also used for kayaking around here, so they are easily found.
Thanks!
I had a diabetic cat for five years. A fair number of cats can eventually get off the juice (no shots) with dietary changes. My suggestions are to sign up to the forums at the feline diabetes message board, where you'll find lots of people who have been in your situation and who can help you while you get your cat stabilized and on the lowest possible insulin dose (which ideally is 'none').
And head over to Tanya's feline chronic kidney disease page to look at her food charts. There's also Dr Lisa Pierson's charts. [With much love to Janet and Binky, who started the charts.] I think Tanya's charts are more recent, but Dr Lisa's charts may have information for other foods. [If you're not in the US, the FDMB has links to charts for other countries.]
Your ideal food is something that's less than 10% carbs (or as close to that as possible), that accommodates any other health issues your cats may have, that your cat will eat, that's available in your area, and that's cheap enough for you to afford. There are a lot of options, including things like cans of Fancy Feast.
You'll want to switch their food at a point where you're comfortable getting BG readings, so you don't accidentally send her into a hypo.
I don't know your situation; did your vet check with you about either Bexacat and Senvelgo? They're pills that were approved to treat feline diabetes, but I'm not sure under what situations their use is recommended for or against.
What food is she getting now? You want something low carb, and if she's constantly fighting hunger, you'll probably want something with a higher fat content as well.
There's probably more information I should mention, but it's late and my brain wants to sleep.
I'll be honest the idea of starting on a whole new website, the way I joined discord for my own diabetes, is overwhelming and exhausting right now, but I'm up at almost 5am because she was harassing my partner to the point he couldn't sleep, so I gave her some food and shut her in the spare room with water and a litter box. So it's not a great night for emotional regulation. I'll take a look at the forums and the food options.
She's kibble only and refuses to swallow any pills I don't poke down her throat which was really only manageable when she was really sick. She's on Purina's diabetic Rx diet right now and her glucose isn't regulated but I a) don't know when to test her compared to food and insulin and b) haven't figured out how I'm getting her to tolerate that on top of the shots. She's still "starving" immediately after eating as well as in the 12 hours between meals. She was over 600 when she was at the hospital, and she's going in for a curve this week after going up to the 1.5 from the 1 unit.
Right now we could manage everything but the behavior. But long term we have to get everything managed so my partner can also take care of everything for I'll never be able to leave. And it's already so hard for me to leave 😭
I used an intermediate-duration insulin that's no longer on the market, so my experience isn't going to be applicable to anyone using long-duration insulins like Lantus or Levemir (or whatever their generic names are - glargine and sitting else?). I think the L&L folks were testing six hours before giving the shots, but I may be misremembering. The idea was to see what that number was, and calculate how much you needed to give. People would post their bg test numbers to the forums and would get advice on how much insulin to give.
Have you tried a rice sock? It's a small sock with a bit of rice in it, warmed a little in the microwave. It gives you something to press against, the warmth helps the blood move easier. Also, massage the ear a little bit before you prick: again, it helps get the blood moving, and it may help relax the cat They may have newer tricks now as well.
Oh! When I was there, there was also a little list for things to gather together for an emergency kit in case of a hypoglycemia incident. Ours was just a small box; I forget most of what was in it, except it had a small jar of honey (or corn syrup), to quickly raise BG levels if needed, a couple syringes, spare test strips and prickers. There was some other stuff as well - I can see the box in my mind, I just can't remember what was in it. Edit: oh, I had a little kitty blinder mask in there too. She never fought me but I was afraid if she hypo'd and was confused, I'd spend time struggling with her instead of fighting the hypo.
I also sat through several vigils, where members came in because their cat was hypo, and we talked them through initial treatment. About 2/3's of the time they managed to avoid going to the middle-of-the-night emergency vet.
Is there any way to switch her to canned food, or at least supplement with canned? Especially if she's this hungry. Some of the Fancy Feast canned foods are surprisingly diabetic friendly.
The vet has given me none of this so far. But I wouldn't be able to do that unfortunately as I work all day.
I haven't tried the glucometer at all yet, it just got here and I'm not sure when to use it, and it's more that she's uninterested in having things done to her.
She's never been interested in canned food, food toppers, etc. she hates fancy freeze dried chicken treats and throws up on the cheapest ones. Maybe I could switch her, but they had to keep her at the hospital and extra day for not eating until I told two different people she doesn't eat wet food. So I don't know.
No, that's all understandable, this is all so overwhelming and I completely understand - I went through all of this as well (except the dry food thing). Last question, I guess: does she like Churu's? I don't know if they'd be at all useful, either in getting her to eat wet food, as a way to disguise pills or other meds, or simply as a higher fat thing to maybe help check her appetite?
Also, I want to say that I think you're admirable for trying to handle all this - it *is overwhelming, even with none of the other major issues in your life.
She does like churu and similar, but will lick it off a pill leaving even a broken piece of a pill behind, and maybe could use it to help transition. They're our backup treat but they're kind of expensive too. My vet is just really hesitant to make suggestions because she's new and I don't want to switch providers at the clinic but also...
No, I understand. And thank you for taking the time for this conversation, and for all the care you're giving your cats.
I hate to suggest this, given the financial and other stresses you're under, but there's substantial evidence that dry, high carbohydrate cat food contributes to the development and worsening of feline diabetes. It might not be a stretch to switch Nova to wet cat food.
The moisture content helps prevent urinary tract infections, and it tends to mitigate the "always hungry" problem by being more filling for the same number of calories. Costco carries a paté-style wet cat food that's grain-free, has healthy macros, and it's less expensive than most premium wet cat foods at about $0.75/serving. Two servings a day is plenty for adult cats. Since each serving is self-contained, it prevents ripped packages, and can be easier to handle for people with disabilities. [I struggled with gripping the foil cover when my hands were bad, but a pair of pliers is a kitchen assistive tool. 🤷♀️] My fur demons find all three flavors highly palatable. This might actually be less costly than prescription dry food, and certainly cheaper than multiple automated feeders.
You've mentioned you've got lick pads for Churu treats. Let the lick pad slow her down so the wet food has time to satiate her appetite, and keep her entertained while while she's eating. [This also worked for the cat who'd always gorge on dry food, drink, then vomit.]
"Always hungry" in diabetic cats can also mean "always thirsty". [My first clue that I had a diabetic cat was that she was drinking the water bowl dry and saturating the litter box. She lived for five more years on insulin injections after a diagnosis at age 12 - it's eventually manageable, not a death sentence.] I'm sure you've got plenty of water available, but keep an eye out and make sure she's drinking. You may want to put additional water sources around the house so she's not contending with the other cats.
As for scratching people for attention, I've got one cat who's a problem child in that regard, and I don't have a good fix. She was an abused rescue, and all attention (including yelling and involuntary swatting) is good attention as far as she's concerned. Lilly is extremely attached to a clockwork feeding schedule, and she will dig 0.1 mm of claw into the tip of my nose if I lie in bed longer than she likes. As others have mentioned, claw trimming so they're not as sharp is one strategy. Meticulous attention to regular feeding schedules is another - if it's humanly possible, feed at exactly the same times every day to try and avoid the build-up of food anxiety.
It's a stressful time for the cat, too - her humans have changed their behavior around her, the vet trips are terrifying, and cats are very sensitive to changes around their feeding habits.
If she's willing, I can consider it. I never did with my cats because I hate the smell of wet food, but I'd do it for her. It's just that they literally had to keep her at the vet an extra day because she wouldn't eat wet, and she's never been interested in food toppers or anything either (churu yes, wet food no). She does drink regularly and as long as the litter box is clean pees enough
I did feed her in a puzzle toy today and it seemed to help, maybe.
Unfortunately she spent all night last night harassing my partner to get fed. I do feed them between 6 and 7 each AM and usually at 6 at night. I know the other cats are stressed too and I'm worried about them getting enough food because I have to pick their bowls up. I'm going to try to get her nails trimmed but last night was more than just the clawing. She probably needs more attention but it's hard to give it to her when the only thing she wants is the food.
It's just a lot and I'm overwhelmed and I just want her to be happy and healthy