# My kitty needs insulin

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-kitty-needs-insulin/434856>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [January 24, 2008, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-kitty-needs-insulin/434856 "2008-01-24T20:02:10Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Jennshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Jennshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jennshark)\
**Post date:** [January 25, 2008, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-kitty-needs-insulin/434856/21 "2008-01-25T23:37:58Z")

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I shot my diabetic cat up for six years (she wasn’t supposed to live long b/c the disease was so out of control: ha!)

I was very freaked out at first, but it became routine and very easy. As far as traveling, you can hire a pet sitter to come over and do the shot or, perhaps even better, board kitty. Kennels usually charge a small amount for shots.

It’ll be okay!

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**Author:** ![CherryBomb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/919ad9/32.png) [@CherryBomb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CherryBomb)\
**Post date:** [January 26, 2008, 9:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-kitty-needs-insulin/434856/22 "2008-01-26T09:08:57Z")

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My Friday is diabetic. The best resource that can be found (which I actually found here) is [here](http://felinediabetes.com/). It’s a very easy thing to deal with, and I would highly suggest learning how to hometest, etc. per the suggestions you will read on that board. You may have a more challenging time if your kitty is adverse to being handled extensively, but there are ways to work around it. I’ve also found that my cat doesn’t really need a rigid structuring of her shots, so there is leeway.

Feel free to pm me with any questions, I’m more than happy to help guide you through all this.

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**Author:** ![Jennshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Jennshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jennshark)\
**Post date:** [January 26, 2008, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-kitty-needs-insulin/434856/23 "2008-01-26T13:11:59Z")

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[QUOTE=CherryBomb]  
My Friday is diabetic. The best resource that can be found (which I actually found here) is [here](http://felinediabetes.com/). It’s a very easy thing to deal with, and I would highly suggest learning how to hometest, etc. per the suggestions you will read on that board. You may have a more challenging time if your kitty is adverse to being handled extensively, but there are ways to work around it. I’ve also found that my cat doesn’t really need a rigid structuring of her shots, so there is leeway.

Feel free to pm me with any questions, I’m more than happy to help guide you through all this.  
[/QUOTE]

Agreed: most cats don’t need the shots _exactly_ 12 hours apart (or whatever the vet suggests). I found that so long as K-Kitty had enough units per day, she was okay (YMMV and IANAVet).

I also want to add that I thought my vet was over-zealous about all the testing once we established the amount of units that worked well; it’s the testing that becomes very expensive, not the insulin and syringes. Like Cherry, I started doing home-testing and cut my vet testing down by a fourth.

BTW, once you find a pharmacy that carries Humulin, ask them to order ahead for you. Humulin is old-fashioned insulin and pharms are tending not to carry as much as they did in the past.

Also feel free to PM me if you want to chat. Like I said upriver, it can be kinda freaky and squeamish at first, but it becomes routine and not-a-burden once you find some kitty sitting help.

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