My cat has diabetes

I found out today that my cat is diabetic. She seems really sad...

Anyone have any experiences with cats or dogs with diabetes? Anything you want to share with me???

Aw, poor little thing. Sorry, I don't have any experience with a diabetic pet. Will you have to give her insulin?

I had a diabetic cat for many years. He is still alive, just living with my ex. I think he was probably diagnosed over 12 years ago.

Go to www.felinediabetes.com. There is a message board there where they will tell you everything you need to know, including how to give insulin shots and how to do home blood glucose testing, which you will need to do.

They saved my cat's life (when he was first diagnosed, the vet said he would live only about two years) and are the first message board I ever joined. They are the reason that I use internet message boards.

Feline diabetes can be very manageable once you get the insulin under control.

ETA: Oh, I misread and thought the OP already said that the cat needed insulin.  It is likely that she will do, but the people on the feline diabetes message board will also give advice about other treatments, if necessary.

I had a diabetic cat for many years. He is still alive, just living with my ex. I think he was probably diagnosed over 12 years ago.

Go to www.felinediabetes.com. There is a message board there where they will tell you everything you need to know, including how to give insulin shots and how to do home blood glucose testing, which you will need to do.

They saved my cat's life (when he was first diagnosed, the vet said he would live only about two years) and are the first message board I ever joined. They are the reason that I use internet message boards.

Feline diabetes can be very manageable once you get the insulin under control.

ETA: Oh, I misread and thought the OP already said that the cat needed insulin.  It is likely that she will do, but the people on the feline diabetes message board will also give advice about other treatments, if necessary.

Thanks! I know she will be fine, but its going to be lot of work from the whole family!!!

Poor kitty.  Luckily she has such a caring family to look after her!

My parents' cat has diabetes. They had to get a special litterbox for him so they can check the blood sugar levels through the urine. It uses bird seed as the litter (non-absorbant, but he can still bury his stuff). It took a while for them to figure out how much insulin he needed. It's actually the same insulin as humans take, just a smaller dosage. They also bought a human blood sugar monitor to test his levels while they were figuring out dosage.

As far as the insulin goes, it depends on the cat how well it would do. My Chloe wouldn't do well at all, but my parents' cat, Smokey, is great about it. My parents "shoot the cat" at 7am and 7pm each day and Smokey actually goes looking for his insulin around those times. He doesn't know what it is, but knows it makes him feel better.

I think my dad has used that same message board sweetpeach posted. It is a lot of work, but it doesn't need to be too bad. The biggest challenge for my parents is when they are out for a while and need to adjust his times, or if they are going on vacation and either need to bring him or find someone to give him his insulin twice a day.

im so sorry to hear that

Best of luck with your kitty.  My cat had kidney failure--totally different than diabetes of course, but something cats are prone to.  With a little extra work (medicine, pills, and fluid injected through an i.v. a few times a week) she did very well for 5 years.

I hope your kitty goes on to have *at least* another happy 5 years with you!

Aww poor keekee!!! 

I had a similar experience to Belita.  My dog i grew up with had diabetes.. and we found out he had it because he was really lethargic and he'd never pee'd on the floor before and christmas morning i was playing with him and out of the blue he just pee'd all over the presents.. but it was as if he didnt know it was happening.. didnt lift a leg.  He also was drinking massive amounts of water and that was a concern.

He was about 7 when he was diagnosed and my mom had to give him 2 insulin shots a day.. once in the morning and once in the evening.. it had to be at the exact same times everyday (6am and 6pm) meaning she'd have to wake up at 6am even on the weekends. Once he got it under control with the insulin he was happy and healthy and lived for another 6 years... sadly he passed away when he was 13 but that was due to old age because he was a big dog, not the diabetes.  Sorry to hear about your kitty. Hope she feels better really soon 

It can totally be manageable.   I used to work in a cat only veterinary clinic and we had several diabetic cats.  They all got insulin injections and that's an extremely easy thing to give.  The needles are way tiny and if you give them in the scruff of the neck, the cat won't fee it as much.  Also, they need a very tiny dose.

You probably will have to take your cat into the vet a couple times a year and leave her there for the day in order for them to do a glucose curve.  It allows the doctor to determine if the insulin doses are correct.

You can actually do a glucose curve yourself at home. It is, in fact, better to do it at home because your cat is under stress when he is left at the vet, and stress can cause the glucose levels to become abnormally high temporarily.

I think the syringes used for cats are also used for (human) babies.

All of the glucose curves we performed worked out well, even with some of the cats that were stressed.

I do know the needles/syringes all of clients used were for humans.  Don't know about the baby part.