Mama Cat's Diabetes Takes A Vacation

When teenaged cats contract chronic illness (kidney disease, hyperthyroidism and/or diabetes) – and almost all of them do -- you can be pretty sure they’ll need veterinary treatments for the rest of their lives – pills, injections, special diets and even SQ fluids. And once they’re on a treatment plan, they’ll also need more frequent vet visits for exams and lab work to ensure the medications are doing their job and not causing any unintended side effects.


It requires some commitment, but with today’s veterinary medicine, many cats can have a good quality of life for many years after the common diseases of old age take hold. And, while controlling these primary diseases, you often prevent other life-threatening diseases altogether – like hypertension and heart disease.

Yet at first, the very idea of medicating your cats is daunting. But once you get the hang of it -- and the cats know what’s expected of them -- you settle down and adjust to a new normal. And—by doing so – you’re rewarded with sharing an extended time with your cats – knowing that not only are they still with you, but that they’re more comfortable and vibrant than they would be otherwise

Every now and then a teenaged cat beats the odds and recovers from a chronic disease. Mama is one of those cats. Last year she was diagnosed with diabetes shortly after she unexplainably lost 3 pounds of weight. Her glucose levels were running about triple the normal rates (80-120), and so we started giving her insulin injections twice a day and checking her glucose at home periodically. As time progressed her 350’s dropped to 250’s and about a month ago she started reading consistently in the normal range. We’ve stopped giving her insulin altogether now, and only need to recheck her glucose a few times each month. So long as the test readings stay in the normal range, she’s no longer considered diabetic. We feed her a high protein diet and encourage her to eat wet food over dry food as much as possible to keep the carbohydrates low.

Why has Mama’s diabetes gone away – or at least gone into remission? We don’t know. Some cats are able to use supplemental insulin to jumpstart their own insulin production and that may have happened in Mama’s case. Or, it could be that her weight loss – dropping from 15 pounds to 11 pounds over the last year -- may have arrested her diabetes. Whatever the cause, we’re glad she no longer needs twice daily injections. And, she looks better too. At 17, Mama cat is doing great – better than we had thought she would this time last year.