Does anyone have a diabetic cat? I’m faced with giving my cat two injections a day for the rest of his life. What’s this like? I’m trying to get a handle on the cost and inconvenience factor, although I’ll probably do it if it’s not prohibitive.
Thanks!
Dash over to www.sugarcats.net. Also, www.felinediabetes.com.
My friend has been keeping her diabetic kitty going for more than five years, and everything she knows came from those two sites.
Good luck!
My mother-in-law and my friend both have diabetic kitties. They’re doing just fine. Just do the shots and do what the doctor tells you. They can go for a very long time like that!
Mercy has given you two of the best links ever for this. I don’t know what I would have done without them.
I have 2 cats… they’re littermates and are going to be 17 years old in May. Lady was diagnosed with diabetes in 1999, and Johnny was diagnosed 2 years later. They’re both doing great, and they are both honeymooning (off their insulin)… just regulating their bloodsugar levels with a modified diet.
There’s one thing that I can’t emphasize enough: buy a glucometer and test your kitty’s blood glucose levels - especially before giving the shot of insulin. A kitty with high a blood glucose is not good, but a kitty (or a person!!!) with too low of a bg level is deadly! And I mean quick!
As for those shots, don’t sweat it. You and your kitty will become old hat at those shots. I’d suggest the shorter, smaller gauge needles if it’s possible.
My e-mail should be in my profile… if you’d like to chat some more about this, I’d be more than happy to!
Cheers!
We just lost a cat who had diabetes.
The shots won’t be an issue once you’re used to them. Your cat won’t mind.
Our cat, Tuffy, was problematical because his pancreas decided at odd intervals to start producing insulin. So he went hypoglycemic quite often.
But he was an unusual case.
If you work closely with your vet, you can extend your cat’s life and it can be a happy, healthy life, as well.
Tuffy died last month at age 15. He had kidney disease as well as diabetes, so don’t think diabetes is the only culprit.
Happy to help if you have any questions. Good luck and give kitty a head butt for me.
Julie
Addendum… 
The cost will vary for you, I’m sure, but here’s what I remember paying:
One time purchase:
$40 for a Glucometer (Bayer Elite brand?)
Exhaustible purchases (how long they last may vary):
$30 insulin
$15 box of needles
$25 for generic brand of bg test strips for the glucometer
Once you start using the insulin, it’s effectiveness will drop off after a certain period of time. I don’t remember how long, but I used to get fresh insulin after about 2 months or so. YMMV
I don’t remember how many needles were in a box, but I use WalMart’s brand of needles as opposed to a brand name. And I never re-used them… the coating on the needle that keeps it smooth wears off after the first use, resulting in a painful shot.
And some folks will say that the generic strips don’t work as well, but they’ve always worked fine for me. I would actually take my glucometer in with my kitties to the vet, and they’d run a bg test, and I would take a reading right along side - the results were always within a few points, with mine being the lower of the two. (this is a good thing)
Oh, and on preview… ((((jsgoddess))))
So sorry to hear about your furbaby. You’re in my thoughts.
Thanks a lot for the information! I’m starting to think it’s going to be doable.
Thank you. We got Tuff when he was already 11 (his first person died in a motorcycle accident), so we didn’t get to spend a long time with him. But he was wonderful, and my husband and I are grateful for every second we had with him.
Uh oh. Getting teary. Thanks for the sympathy.
Julie
** Capt. C**, you’re so very welcome. And it is definitely do-able.
I’ve been looking around, and it seems that Bayer has upgraded their Glucometer Elite XL to Ascentia Elite XL, and it now costs 59.99 and up. Hmmmm. I found the old version of the Elite XL on ebay for a mere pittance of this… Of course, there are other glucose monitoring devices, the Elite just happens to be the one I chose for ease of use (and cost efficiency) back in the day.
Also, I forgot to add that you’ll need lancets for the glucose testing. They don’t cost much, and a box will last forever - I use the lancets over several times… just clean the tip with a little alcohol.
I found that spending the 15 to 20 minutes twice a day with my furbabies brought me so much closer to them. They didn’t mind the poking of their ears for the bg monitoring, nor did they mind the poke of the shot of insulin. It all resulted in much loving and talking and feeding (and an occasional soft kitty treat), so they were all for it.
jsgoddess, it sounds like Tuff was a special kittybaby, and that all of you were lucky to have one another. Bless your precious hearts.
It’s really easy to give cats insulin shots. I cared for my neighbor’s diabetic cat Xanadu when they went on vacation when I was about 11. Pretty easy–just fill the syringe, “grab a slab of flab,” and inject.
The initial blood tests showed the diabetes, but now the vet is having us leave the kitty there from wed to sunday, at a cost of $120/day. Ouch. Is this necessary? I believe they say they’re doing this to get the dosages calibrated.
I can afford it, it’s just one of those not-so-fun outlays :/.
Now, IANAV, but I have a very good relationship with my vet, and we worked some things out.
Most cats do not like going to the vet for any reason (in my experience), and they tend to get very worked up about the whole thing. This causes their bg levels to shoot sky high, which makes it nigh near impossible to get an accurate bg curve (this is what your vet is trying to do). The bg curve helps to determine the insulin dosage for your kitty.
I almost lost Lady this way when she was first dx (diagnosed) - her bg levels stayed very high whilst she was at the vet. As soon as I got home, her levels dropped, and I just about killed her with her insulin dosage. This was before I had visited the Feline Diabetes Message Board (FDMB) and its corresponding web site.
I met many wonderful people at the FDMB, and I learned so much. By talking to these people and by browsing the site I learned that you should always test the kitty’s bg levels before administering insulin, and that different types of insulin (NPH, Lente, Ultralente) yields different results in the bg levels, etc.
I learned all that I could there, and then shared it all with my vet. She was just thrilled that I went and found all of that information, because feline diabetes is not something that she and her colleagues dealt with much. I showed her how I tested the bg levels, and she was flabbergasted (in a good way). It’s so easy and quick after you get the hang of it.
From then on, I did the bg curves to determine Lady’s dosage. And when Johnny was dx 2 years later, I did the same thing and shared the results with my vet. It worked out for all involved.
(Note: bg curves should be done over a few days - I used to start them on a Friday evening and go through to Sunday. This meant testing every few hours. It was tiring, but worth it)
So, work with your vet (if your vet is willing). It can be rough, but things do work out okay. Just ask Lady and Johnny.
Mirror, you’re a great neighbor for taking care of Xanadu like that. Your neighbors are lucky indeed to have you!
DWD’s posts are right on time. My kitty, Mojo, had diabetes for the last four years of his going on 17 year life. At the start, I didn’t know if all the shots and vet attention would be worth it. He passed on a year and a half ago, but it was well worth it. He adapted to the shots well, and though there were a couple of blood sugar crashes, he had a good life until the end. Hindsight in tow, I’d take the same course in a heartbeat.
Diabetic Cat
Band name!
d&r
Capt. Caustic, how are you and your kitty doing? Please keep us posted.
elelle, all I can say is you and Mojo were lucky to have one another. Bless you!