Is your cat diabetic? The Two Major Warning Signs
May 8th, 2008 by omidog
Growing up, we always had cats in my house. First came Snickers, who was around before I was born. She was a sweet little thing and passed away when I was in 5th grade. The following year, we returned from our trip to the shelter with the goal of getting an orange striped kitty, and ended up with two black ones! They were brothers, and we named them Squabby (mine) and Jet (my brother’s). I’m sure you don’t want to hear my whole pet history, but this leads into the topic of this post - feline diabetes. Both Squabby and Jet were diagnosed with diabetes, but for most of Jet’s life, we thought only Squabby had it. Even when we had Jet’s blood tested repeatedly at the vet’s, it came back just fine, and we weren’t able to get him help until it was too late.
Squabby is still alive and well, and has been living with feline diabetes for at least 6 years now, if not more. If you think that once your pet is diagnosed that it’s the end, this is definitely not true! This article will help you to identify the two major early warning signs of diabetes in your cat (or any pet!), and offer some resources for how you can get help.
Warning sign #1: weight loss with a healthy appetite. Squabby has always been a…well…sturdy cat; a solid cat…okay, he’s always been kinda fat. I remember sitting in the kitchen one day as Squabby came out for his usual snacktime, and ran my hand along his back, not feeling quite so much ‘padding’ as usual. I looked up at my mom and said, “Does Squabby look thinner to you?” we shrugged it off, but did notice he seemed a bit more svelte than usual, and decided to keep an eye on it.
Warning sign #2: Excessive thirst and urination. Consequently, we noticed we were also filling up the water bowl a bit more often, and there were a lot more clumps in the litter box. We knew that excessive thirst and weight loss are often signs of diabetes in humans, so we thought it might be a good idea to bring him over to the vet. Sure enough, we had a message on the answering machine a few days later with Squabby’s test results - he had feline diabetes.
Having never even heard of pet diabetes before, we were devastated and assumed this meant we were going to have to put him down. Come to find out, though, pets take insulin shots just like people do, and can have a very long and rewarding life if you’re able to adhere to their medicine schedule and just keep watch to make sure they’re feeling well. Sometimes, even just a diet change is enough to effectively cure your cat!
If the diabetes goes untreated for too long, their body will basically begin to starve to death. This is the process that Jet went through during the final months of his life. Always a picky eater, suddenly Jet couldn’t get enough food, yet was wasting away. It was an awful process to watch, and even with an attempt at regulation with insulin, his body just wasn’t responding.
Having multiple cats can make it difficult to isolate what the problem is and who has it. With shared food and water bowls and a shared litter box, it can be nearly impossible to attempt to isolate one cat’s eating patterns or to even notice a problem. So particularly with multiple cats, it can be beneficial to get all cats tested for diabetes if one is suspected, as we did.
Here are some fantastic online resources for you if you suspect that your pet may have diabetes, or if your pet currently has it and you’re looking for some support, information, and guidance:
Diabetes in Cats for Beginners - this website has an enormous amount of information, from discussing what exactly happens in the body, to treatment options and discussion of the complexity and difficulty in finding accurate treatment for this enigmatic disease.
YourDiabeticCat.com - this website has some very active forums that you can go to to discuss your cat’s health with other experts and feline diabetes cat guardians.
It’s always best to discuss treatment options with your trusted vet, or even more than one vet if you can find a second opinion. Please check back for some more information on feline diabetes in the coming entries on Omidog. If you have a story to share about feline diabetes or some tips or other links, please feel free to leave a comment!