Feline Diabetes

In winter, 2006, my pride and joy best furbuddy was growing sick, and I began to understand it was serious. He was 12 at the time and at first I just thought it was aging/arthritis related. What I noticed was he seemed to be losing strength in his rear legs, with less and less ability to even go up stairs. Then I noticed him sleeping much more than usual, being constantly hungry, and other odd symptoms such as lots of dander in his coat. This didn't happen suddenly, but after watching his behavior continue to change and determining we needed to see the vet, I cried as I sat with him the night before the appointment thinking this was going to be a good bye for us soon.

Truth be told, he *was* dying, in a slow and painful way. I'm still mad with myself that I didn't recognize this somehow sooner. So, there I was in the vet's office, when she came back in after doing a simple urine test with an initial diagnosis. She drew a deep breath, and said something along the lines of "I have some bad news..." I was ready and nodded. "He has diabetes." Instantly my mind was racing, and I almost smiled with relief. I know this sounds odd, because despite my relatively little knowledge at the time about the disease, certainly in pets, I had thought "Ok. This will be work, but we can do something about this." I guess the vet had prefaced the news since for many pet owners it seems a daunting challenge, and some or many decide it is not something they can take on...

We talked over his initial treatment and what to expect. In short, I was to give insulin injections 2x a day, and make dietary changes to a special food in the office. Armed with a few pamphlets, we left. I would get further information from the blood test results in a day or so.

I began reading everything I could find on the Internet. The result of that searching, and his subsequent months of treatment is what I'll share with you here in this lens.

 Today, my buddy is 13, alert, able to jump up to our high bed like before, and I haven't given him an insulin shot in over a year. While there's no miracle in his situation, and he is not cured, his quality of life has returned to very close to before his diagnosis. We will have to watch his condition for the rest of his life. I can't promise your dear kitty will have similar results as there are many factors involved, but I will try to get you to the information you need to know to make good choices about how to take care of your cat with this disease.