Feline Diabetes

[Terror]

My 13 year old cat was diagnosed with Feline Diabetes yesterday.  Now the decision is to give him daily insulin shots and monitor his blood sugar or to euthanize the old guy.  With two young children and both my Wife and I working full time, I don't know if we can give the cat the type of care he will need to manage his condition.  Has anyone here ever had to deal with this type of condition in a pet?

Terror

[xrtoronto]

If you guys are capable of caring for your cat and the expense isn't overwhelming, why not try?

Maybe a cat lover would take him from you if you find you can't care for him. An ad in a local paper or on a neighbourhood grocery store bulletin board might help locate someone.

G'luck

[Goth]

My 8 year old male is on 2 heart meds and my 16 yr old female just started thyroid meds. Insulin shots will only take you 10 secs. As long as the cats quality of life doesn't suffer you should reward your friend with all the care you can.

[StarOfAfrica2]

The way I look at it is, you took responsibility for the animal when you made it a pet.  As a wild animal, it would be dead now.  You pay for a vet to keep him healthy, pay for good food so he doesnt get sick, get him vaccinated against diseases .......... this is just another extension of that responsibility.  He wont get sick or feel any bad effects from diabetes unless you dont give him his shots.  

Of course, to be brutally honest here, he probably wont live another 2 years.  3 tops.  He's going to get more and more expensive to care for, have more "accidents", and get moodier as he gets older.  He'll never feel better than he does right now, and many days he'll feel worse.  He'll probably take that out on you.  I dont know how close your family is to the pet, but .......... have you ever watched anything or anyone you cared about die slowly?  You will, and its not fun.  When the time gets close, I would seriously consider euthanizing him, it would be alot more humane.

[Yeager]

Our old cat Tommy got sick as hell last year, all in the space of a few hours.  Took him to the vet and managed to get his srry tail saved....lots of liver problems which ultimately came down to what your kitty got....Feline diabetes.

We just give him 1 unit of insulin in the morning and 1 unit at night.  He doing fine.  We dont monitor his blood suger (except when the vet does the blood check every 6 months for the average blood suger levels, thats when we adjust the units given) and as long as he looks alright and behaves normally we are fine with it.  Hes jus a dummy but Im glad he is still around.  He one cool cat

[myelo]

Many cats with diabetes do pretty well with fairly minimal fuss, so if you're up for it I would give a try fro a while and see how it goes.

Also diet in these kitties is critical. Purina (DM) and Hills (MD) both have diets for diabetic cats and in some cases the diabetes will go in remission with diet.

[Dinger]

.... aka "sorry we blew kitty's pancreas out with the refined sugar of the previous diet".

No, it sucks. But you owe your cat to "give it a shot". If it doesn't work out, fine -- you took your shot, and it wasn't working out with what you had to do for a life. There's no law saying you have to bear every exaggerated expense to keep an individual of an already overpopulated species on the planet (as long as it's not human, of course). But pets aren't completely disposable, either; if they were, I'd have a bunch.

[Terror]

Originally posted by Dinger
.... aka "sorry we blew kitty's pancreas out with the refined sugar of the previous diet".

Actually, this cat was on a special prescription diet for UTI problems for the past 2 years.  It may have been a contributor to the diabetes, but we did not unintentionally over sugar the cat.  It was actually a low carb/high fiber hard food.  As of last years checkup, his urine work-up showed no signs of diabetes.  

As of today, the cat is going through hospitalization to get his "numbers" straightened out.  He was dehydrated and having some liver problems due to the starvation type symptoms diabetes causes.  The vet says that hydration, food, and insulin should get these symptoms under control quickly though.  (ie 2-3 days of hospitalization).  Then its a new canned food diet, insulin 2 times a day, and daily blood sugar monitoring.

Terror

[Vipermann]

In the space of 3 years I had plates and screws put in both back legs of my beagle to fix problems he developed. Over 5k in vet bills and 6 months after the last surgery I had to have him put to sleep because of cancerous tumors on his thyroid.

He had a blast running around after his surgeries.

Best 5k I ever spent.

[LePaul]

In a perfect world, Id hope your fury friend would deserve to be treated as faithfully as it was when it was well.  It sounds like its a hassle, yes....but this animal has loved your family with no terms.  You shouldnt ditch your animal just because it now has needs.

Again...in a perfect world.

Me...I'd treat it/take care of it.

[JB88]

Originally posted by Terror
My 13 year old cat was diagnosed with Feline Diabetes yesterday.  Now the decision is to give him daily insulin shots and monitor his blood sugar or to euthanize the old guy.  With two young children and both my Wife and I working full time, I don't know if we can give the cat the type of care he will need to manage his condition.  Has anyone here ever had to deal with this type of condition in a pet?

Terror

yep.  i have a dog named Wigglebutt who was diagnosed with canine diabetes several months ago.   we sometimes call him "needlebutt" now.  we give him his shots every morning and thats all there is to it.

we thought he was dying when we took him to the vet.  since then he has been almost litereally resurrected and acts years younger than his age.  

i am glad to have more time with my buddy and glad for him that he can have more time to chase squirrels and hang out with my other dog.

[x0847Marine]

Originally posted by Terror
My 13 year old cat was diagnosed with Feline Diabetes yesterday.  Now the decision is to give him daily insulin shots and monitor his blood sugar or to euthanize the old guy.  With two young children and both my Wife and I working full time, I don't know if we can give the cat the type of care he will need to manage his condition.  Has anyone here ever had to deal with this type of condition in a pet?

Terror

The shots are no big deal, given between the shoulder blades usually, the cat will develop a callous there and you can give him / her the shot while s/he eats.... esp if you feed something real tasty like Tuna or "all meat" baby food (not Gerbers tho.. it has onion salt)

I had cat who died at 20 years old, the last 5 of her life we gave her 1 shot every day.

[Trikky]

http://www.felinediabetes.com/phorum5/list.php?8

We had one cat who was diet controlled after 3 weeks on insulin (we're on diabetic cat No. 2 now) after being put on a species appropriate diet ie low carb/high protein, in other words canned wet cat food like Fancy Feast, Wellness. The above site is brilliant for beginners and outlines how to home test blood sugars, lists appropriate foods (including those good for renal cats) and is an international board so someones around 24/7.

2 key things to managing FD:

1 Monitoring blood sugar before each inuslin shot.
2 Appropriate diet, you dont need to buy expensive prescription diets.

Read the FAQ's and post on the health board.

BTW, the Mrs just dictated all that to me and she would love to add so much more.

[JB88]

Originally posted by Vipermann

He had a blast running around after his surgeries.

Best 5k I ever spent. [/B]

[midnight Target]

A wise man on this BBS once told me.. "Taking a cat to the vet is like servicing a Bic lighter"


Thank You Hangtime.