Thanks to all of the educated kitty people here I was prompted to take my 14 y/o furrball to the vet because her symptoms were indicative of diabetes. Three bloodtests and urinalysis confirmed your suggestions. Thank you.
Chloe keeps spitting out her pills and they’re not seeming to help much, she’s still peeing sticky stuff EVERYWHERE and it’s really hard not to get angry at her. I keep telling myself (and my family) that she’s sick and old, similar to maybe great-grandpa not being well.
I’m curious as to the progression of the disease. Is it painful? I really don’t think that I could handle having to administer one or more injections daily for her. I also don’t want to have to “put her down” if she’s not in pain and the only problem is that she’s now incontinent. I got her from my “hub-to-be” 14 years ago as a present. Had mentioned I wanted a little gray fluffy female cat and lo, here he comes one evening with the exact one I wanted. Chloe was ADORABLE when she was little and while a bit destructive at one point in her life, has been a wonderful addition to our family. I hate the thought of her hurting.
Please, does anyone have experience to share with a diabetic cat?
RSSchen-I’m sorry, I’m not sure what diabetes does to cats, but in people the long-term complications include blindness and kidney failure, neither of which will be great for your cat’s quality of life.
Talk to your vet, they’ll tell you what can be done, and if you tell them what you consider to be an unacceptable quality of life for your kitty, they’ll sensitively let you know when they think the time is approaching to make a decision about further treatment or euthanasia.
I had a diabetic dog. He was put on insulin right away. I was hesitant at giving injections twice daily, but after doing it a few times it was no big deal. My dog sat still and didn’t object - I think he felt much better after an injection so he behaved even though I was jittery and not always perfect with my pokes. He dramatically improved after being put on insulin - he ever seemed to be in pain from it. He stopped drinking/peeing all the time. Ultimately his kidneys failed and he stopped eating. I then made the decision to let him go peacefully. He had other problems - if it had only been the diabetes he would probably still be with me. I have heard of some animals doing well on insulin well into their late teens, so it is not necessarily the end for Chloe.
Feline diabetes can be hard to manage. There are a couple of reasons:
Cats can and do just up and start producing insulin again. Our Tuffy did this twice, and both times he nearly died. He ended up with blood sugars in the teens once. For the record, that’s really low.
It’s hard to test their blood. Some people do claw snips, but I just can’t get behind that.
However, if you can get her stabilized, I think cats do better with the disease than people or dogs. Ask your vet about putting her on kitten food. A couple of years ago they decided that one of the problems was the amount of carbohydrate in most cat foods. They might have come up with a different plan since then.
She can live for quite a while, quite happily with the disease. Shots are really easy, and Tuffy really didn’t mind it at all. We had a little routine and he’d come to the kitchen every morning and evening to allow me to give him his shot and his food.
I have had a lot of drama with my diabetic cat, whose insulin levels are constantly inconsistent. One thing that helped, and that I would really, really suggest you do if you’re not already, is feed the cat wet food only. I happen to like Fancy Feast gourmet style. You have to do it very carefully while monitoring glucose levels because if you’re giving pills to help lower blood glucose, it can result in too-low glucose. As soon as I started feeding him canned food only, his glucose levels returned to normal and he no longer needs insulin. Of course, I would want to say that while it worked for my cat, it might not for yours…
Instead of being redundant as to why and how, I will direct you to How to feed your cat . Also, Feline Diabetes is a great resource for all sorts of diabetes info, including a message board with other diabetic cat owners.
Good luck. My understanding is that cats can live a good life with diabetes. My cat’s 12YO and I think in the best shape of his life, now that I’ve figured out this diabetes stuff.
My fiance and I just adopted a diabetic cat about 2 months ago. Fortunately for us, his diabetes was already stabalized by the time we got him. First, I would highly recommend going here for some great information on the disease, and some good, simple definitions to what various medical terms that you will be hearing mean. Also, the forums are great and the people are really helpful and will probably be able to share more similar experiences with you than I can, as most of them already owned their cats when they were diagnosed. There are also a lot of vets who can share treatment advice as well. If you post about your cat there, you should put all the treatment info in your profile, as people will want to look at that if they are giving advice.
As for Seth, he gets insulin through injection, twice a day. He barely notices it, we just get him while he’s eating. We also have started testing his blood sugar - like another poster said, cats can begin producing insulin again spontaneously and it’s dangerous to give insulin if their blood sugar is too low. We use the same testing supplies that you would use on a human (they don’t make them for cats yet, but on is being developed). We take blood from his ear to do it. Some people do use the paw, but the ear is supposedly less painful and easier to heal. Seth was jumpy the first few times we did it, but now he purrs the whole time, because of all the attention and he knows he’ll be getting a treat after. His ears are fine, and he has no marks on them. Testing will let you know if there is a problem before your cat gets really sick. Talk to your vet about it - some vets are for home testing and some are against, but I find that it gives us peace of mind. It’s good to know how his blood sugar is doing. Do some research and talk to your vet, you may find it is something you want to do. Also, if your cat wears a collar with tags, get one made that says “diabetic” on it. We just made one at PetSmart at a little kiosk. It’ll be a good idea if our cat ever escapes, as some well-meaning person could feed them something that’s fine for a normal cat, but would make yours sick.
From what I understand, the hardest part of this will be the initial diagnosis and stabalizing of your cat’s treatment. Once you have a routine going, your cat will get used to it and make it much, much easier on both of you. I know that Seth was very sick when he came to the shelter we got him from, and had to live at the vet’s office for a few months before he was stable. Now, you would never know he was sick unless you happened to catch me giving him insulin. Diabetic cats can live long, healthy lives and with good care, tend to have fewer complications than even people.
I think one of the advantages with a cat is that they don’t eat a varied diet and most don’t get the opportunity to eat foods that aren’t good for their disease.
The ear testing was just getting started when Tuffy was diagnosed. I’m so happy to hear that it’s working for you.
