A general vet who really gets it: At last, and an excellent article

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That is a great article coming from the perspective of vets and it covers the majority of diabetic cat owners (only a small percentage end up here), which is a much more realistic look at it than at controlled studies at universities.
 
That's really interesting, and corresponds exactly with what my vet told me when Henry was diagnosed: that while in academic and research studies, remission rates were sometimes as high as 100%, in the "real world" and at their practice, the rate was more like 1 in 4. (Which totally bummed me out at the time but we were fortunate that Henry turned out to be one of the 25%.) I was gently advised not to get my hopes too high for remission but instead to be encouraged that we'd caught it early and to concentrate on maintaining his quality of life.
 
I love this article!!!

I am curious however, as to the differences in the university studies / trials and "at home" cats, and why up to 100% of the study cats went into remission but only 25% of the at home cats did. I assume perhaps the study cats were regulated very tightly, only fed the lowest carb wet food as a rule, and risked going hypo regularly (perhaps?)
 
A lot of what this article talks about, quality of life, not just focusing on the numbers is what we attempt to find out through the WCR (Whole Cat Report) which consists of the 5 P's (peeing, pooping, purring, preening, playing) and your cat's appetite.
 
Following on from BJ's post, different demands on caregivers' time and availablity (e.g. for monitoring) and also different caregiver strengths and limitations all have influence.
 
Yes.

I wonder how stoic cats can be though, with regard to their 5 Ps. Dweezil's preening, purring, playing, peeing and pooing are all almost normal and you wouldn't know anything was wrong with him. And yet...

I would always worry that he was seeming happy and under control but he really isn't and then...over time, damage is being done. :(
 
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Yeah, I am not really impressed with that at all. No wonder remission rates are low for his/her clients. If you approach the treatment in such a loose manner you aren't going to get the results of a better regulated diet and insulin treatment. Just because a person "likes to feed a variety of foods" means its acceptable to feed diabetic cats food that is not good for them? I don't see vets taking this approach with any other feline disease.
A cat who is overall acting better but still in the 300-400s is still sick, over the renal threshold, and experiencing organ damage. The number matters.
 
I consider ti a very good approach. I used to work at a vet and have seen some clients decide to EU their cat vice treat since treating would be too much work. I do not consider the caretakers in this forum to to the norm of caretakers. The caretakers here are extremely dedicated to their animals. I consider that if a vent said yo had to test your cat and do all the other things suggested in this forum then more clients would decide to EU their cat than to treat them.
 
I still like the article. But my mind jumps to questions like of all the study cats vs all the vet seen at-home cats, what percentage lived happily and healthily (even if not in remission) beyond 2, 5, 10 years?
 
monty_dweezil said:
But my mind jumps to questions like of all the study cats vs all the vet seen at-home cats, what percentage lived happily and healthily (even if not in remission) beyond 2, 5, 10 years?
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I know from simply being active in these forums over the past two and a half years that there is a much higher remission rate here than "in the real world" and most all of the cats who pass on do so from other issues and not from the diabetes. A lot of it depends on age when first diagnosed and if they have any co-morbid conditions.

From a vet perspective, my vet has about 20 diabetic cats at his practice and only two of us test (1/10). He's encouraged others to start testing after he saw the results I was getting with Mikey, but you can only lead a horse to water....
 
Do you think if a cat is diagnosed young, like Dweezil at age 6, that their chances of a long life are better or worse than an older diagnosed cat?
 
I adopted Patches as an 7 year old, already being treated diabetic kitty. I said goodbye to her last December. She was doing good then a heard a thumb in the bathroom It appears she had a stroke.
I also adopted Mitten being already diabetic from may years. I said goodbye to her because of heart failure. Based on here records she was diabetic for over ten years.
 
monty_dweezil said:
Do you think if a cat is diagnosed young, like Dweezil at age 6, that their chances of a long life are better or worse than an older diagnosed cat?
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Their chances could in fact be better than a cat who never received a Dx of diabetes because of the education we undergo to learn to help them better, because we probably get a heads-up on potential problems sooner through monitoring, and also because we change their diets to species-appropriate food.
 
monty_dweezil said:
Do you think if a cat is diagnosed young, like Dweezil at age 6, that their chances of a long life are better or worse than an older diagnosed cat?
Click to expand...
Mikey was six months old at diagnosis and he's now almost 3 years old and doing great. I do worry about the long term damage and know I'll most likely lose him to renal failure, but because he was switched to a good diet so young, I hope that will help counteract the damage a bit.

My last two cats I lost to CKD at around 10-12 years old, neither diabetic. If Mikey makes it past that, I know I did well managing his diabetes. But, I'm planning on Mikey doing even better and living to 20!
 
Glad this resonated. As a healthcare journalist, I liked the citations of the literature, and the whole cat approach. I will be seeing her as I think she is quite unique. I would have expected a slew of vets in SoCal to get diabetes--maybe they're around, but difficult to assess. I stumbled upon this story.
 
My cat has never displayed any diabetic symptoms. He had a high BG found at his yearly exam. His 5 Ps are perfect. Despite his diet change to low carb he has not lost weight. I'd say according to this article I should not be treating him as his quality of life is great? But that would just be wrong! I do like this article and all the posts regarding it but do agree that we are the minority here at FDMB. Just today a good friend of mine said she would put all 3 of my cats to sleep. OMG. For over 10 years I've had minor problems only JOY and now I'm supposed to consider them disposable? I do believe if I could get my fatty to lose some weight his numbers would improve. Well we are working at it. It's hard because the other 2 kitties are losing weight too rapidly. Possibly renal kitties but the numbers do not show it....yet.
 
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