Pets with Diabetes

[librarian]

This week I found out that one of my cats has diabetes.

Her name is Harlie and she's a tortie. Age 10.

She is currently at the vet and will be there until Monday.

Apparently, I am to give her insulin once a day and change her diet completely, and with any luck, change the other three cats' diets as well. (good luck to me!)

Does anyone have a dog or cat with diabetes? How are they doing?

What is their quality of life like?

I don't want to give up on her.

 

[burgeranacoke]

Feline Diabetes

 

I just want to add a few insights on pets.

 

I have really loved having cats in my life. I have had a few, a couple of those lived to be about 20 years old. It is hard to make decisions sometimes regarding the cats health vs your well being.

 

A major thing unfortunately is money. When i was much younger I had a cat that had some severe issues. I put thousands of dollars into that precious pet, and at that time in really put me into a bind financially. Would I do it again? Maybe, but with the experience well behind me, probably not. That cat lived to an age of eight years in pretty good health. Certainly a very short life for a cat though.

 

A pet with health problems can present great restrictions to your life. Other than money, it can really eat into your time. I realize that the attachments to a pet are great. but are you really prepared to give up a large portion of your life for this particular pet?

 

The third point of course is the animals quality of life. My own views are, if you own a pet you are totally responsible for this, and that includes deciding when to put the animal down and unfortunately part of this decision include your well being as well as the pet.

 

Tough decisions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 23, 2012 by burgeranacoke

[Mara]

I had a cocker spaniel who lived out his last 7 years as a diabetic. He got shots 2x/day, and my wusso husband could never bring himself to learn to do it, so I either had to be home or arrange for my mom to come over and do it. We did fine - he never went blind or had kidney issues.

 

I'm pretty sure there's a Yahoo! group for people with diabetic cats. I think it can be managed pretty well in most cases, though the challenging part (I would imagine) is that cats tend to sort of free-range feed throughout the day.

 

Good luck to you. Oh, and get the vet to write a script for several boxes of needles (as fine-gauge as you can get - hurts less). I never had ANY problem buying insulin, but got a raft of shit for buying syringes until my vet prescribed 100 boxes.

 

Pharmacist: "You've been coming in for syringes frequently, but your insulin purchases don't keep pace." -Raises eyebrows in that "I-know-you're-a-junkie-so-fess-up" face.-

 

Me: "It's for a 30 lb DOG. He gets a total of 14 units per day, you presumptive ASS! One bottle of slow-acting lasts 6 weeks and the fast-acting lasts 3 months! But don't worry, I won't be buying insulin OR syringes here any more!"

Edited June 24, 2012 by Mara

[librarian]

Thanks bnc and Mara! I am going to have to take this day to day. I have some reading to do and will need to take lots of notes tomorrow at the Vet. Tuesday will be a wake up call day when I have to feed everybody and give insulin to a cat for the first time. I can't F(*& this up.

[librarian]

Insulin went well today and if I did that right - that was the easiest thing.

 

the Clavamox and nose drops for her cold? She was not having it. those were basically crapshoots. I believe that some of the Clav went into her mouth, but the nosedrops? doubtful. She nearly did a backflip out the bedroom when she saw the drops coming. Wow.

 

 

 

meanwhile....other cats are now sneezing SH*8!!!!