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Serious Inquiries please contact Marie Tabsch
By Jane Burren
Many people are aware that diabetes is reaching epidemic proportions in our communities, particularly in wealthy first world countries, but few are aware that this disease also affects our friends in the animal kingdom. It's been estimated that diabetes occurs in about one of every 400 to 500 dogs and cats. My cat Richie was diagnosed with diabetes in August 1999. Diabetes mellitus occurs in animals (or humans) when not enough insulin is produced by the body, or where the body has an insensitivity to insulin. Insulin is produced naturally in the pancreas and secreted into the blood, where it is used to allow glucose to pass from the bloodstream into the cells. Once it reaches the cells, glucose is used for energy. Without enough insulin, glucose cannot enter cells, and the body starts to receive signals to use fat and protein stores for energy. This results in weight loss. Meanwhile, the excess glucose in the blood is filtered through the kidneys and passed into the urine. The body requires water to flush the glucose from the bloodstream and sends "thirsty" signals, provoking excessive drinking and a large volume of urine. So, as in humans, symptoms of diabetes in cats usually include excessive urination, greater-than-normal thirst, and often eating more than normal combined with weight loss. These signs were what first alerted me to the possibility that Richie was diabetic. I have some experience with diabetes since my father and grandfather both developed diabetes in their mid 40s and my husband has been an insulin-dependent diabetic since childhood. Early attention to the disease is critical, since if it's left untreated, diabetes can cause many complications, including cataracts, blindness, kidney and liver problems, and, in extreme cases, death. A vet can diagnose diabetes with a simple urine or blood test, which is what happened with Richie. Although diabetes is not completely understood in humans or animals, risk factors for cats, like humans, include obesity and age (in humans, diabetes most often developes in middle age; in cats, most are over 6 years old). A major difference from diabetes in humans, though, is that most cats require insulin injections to control the disorder (in humans, mature onset or "Type II" diabetes can often be controlled through diet and exercise alone, or sometimes with oral drugs). So what happens to diabetic cats? It depends very much on the owner. Some owners feel unable to cope with the complexities of care and elect to have the animal put down. Others take on the challenge of insulin injections, accurate feeding to balance food intake with the amount of insulin injected, close observation of behavior as an indicator of health, and periodic blood glucose testing (to determine if the insulin therapy is working) that caring for a diabetic animal involves. We decided to take the challenge. Plenty of people asked why we didn't have Richie put to sleep, but when I asked if I should also have my dad and my husband put down, nobody seemed to have an answer! But even with our relatively strong knowledge of diabetes, the thought of managing Richie's diabetes threw us into a panic at first. As with any major illness, even one that you know can be successfully controlled, there is an element of "Why me?" followed very quickly by "How on earth am I going to cope?" Apart from our wonderful veterinary clinic, we turned to the Internet for help. There, we found a vast amount of information about coping with a diabetic pet and received lots of support from people who had faced exactly the same issue. Managing diabetes in cats is a very complex business. There are several reasons for this: it's a never-ending search for balance amongst concerns like insulin dose, food consumption, exercise, weight, and many other variables. Also, cats metabolize insulin very quickly (more quickly than humans and dogs, for example), so it can take time to find the right insulin formulation so that the insulin lasts long enough in the bloodstream. Another difficulty is that cats' blood glucose levels are affected by stress, which means that if a cat is stressed by a visit to the vet, results of a blood glucose test at the vet might well be abnormal! In consultation with Richie's vet, we developed a routine of twice-daily insulin injections, measured amounts of food, and regular blood glucose testing. It's a bit restricting knowing that one of us has to be home at a particular time in the mornings and evenings for his injection, but it's not even really as demanding as raising children, in our view. During our vacations, Richie stays at the cattery attached to the vet clinic, and we know he's getting the same level of care he gets at home. It helps that Richie is very patient and doesn't mind his injections at all. However, a less complacent animal can pose a real problem at injection times. It's been said that the only difference between a terrorist and a difficult animal with diabetes is that you can negotiate with the terrorist! Certainly, the animal's temperament plays a huge part in how easy the condition is to live with, and, in some cases, whether management is possible at all. Typically cats with diabetes do not live as long as animals without the disease, but properly treated they can enjoy a healthy life for many years. There are plenty of success stories at www.felinediabetes.com that attest to that. For more information on diabetes in animals, visit www.petdiabetes.org and www.original1.com/diabetes/cdm.html. -Jane Burren is a freelance writer and cat lover based in Melbourne, Australia. Over the past 30 years, Jane has been involved with cats of all shapes, sizes, and illnesses, and is renowned at her local vet clinic for falling in love at first sight with each and every cat she meets. She can be contacted at jane@burren.cx. |
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