I take my hat off to you all xxx

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I don't have a cat with diabetes but
I have a cat who is such a wonderful person to have in my life and a now adult son with type I diabetes.
My heart goes out to you all for the love and devotion you show to your pets in treating a disease that can be very difficult to manage. After years of adjusting to this diagnosis for my, then, teenage son I have some idea of the difficulties you face - he doesn't have claws but he can be pretty uncooperative and aggressive when having a hypo or high bsls.

I don't know anything about the idiosyncracies of feline diabetes, is there type I and II as there is in humans? also, is the incidence rapidly increasing as it is with juvenile IDDM? if so any thoughts on what the cause of increased incidence might be?

Just really wanted to share the love with you all and say thank you for loving your gorgeous felines enough to manage this as best you can
:RAHCAT :dizcat wings_cat :thumbup cat_pet_icon dancing_cat flip_cat :RAHCAT
 
Thanks for visiting!

Cats can get type I and type II but usually the caregiver/vet doesnt know because the reason might be a pancreatitis attack that damaged the pancreas so much it cant recover, or pancreas damaged due to genetics, or a pancreatic tumor not apparent til later:( Many cats however can go into remission with a little insuliln and change of diet.

Causes of Feline diabetes include genetic predisposition, steroid induced, and DIET! too many carbs, just like people. So yes, this means an increased incidence in general, of feline diabetes. Most dry food is full of carbs and cats are obligate carnivores.

Now I do not have diabetes, but based on what friends with it say, I think human diabetes is much more complicated than cat diabetes. Human diabetes and Canine diabetes are more similar in the way it affects the body. For example, dogs get cataracts and go blind if their BGs are too high for a long time. Cats dont have sugar mechanism in the eye so their cataracts (of old age) are not diabetes related. Dogs are much more affected by high BGs, but cats can tolerate hyperglycemia for a longer period without as much immediate consequences...my friend would freak out when I would tell her how high my cats BGs were.

Of course, some cats do have more complications than others, that are potential complications in all cats with diabetes. Diabetic ketoacidosis, and neuropathy (reversible in cats when BGs are lowered) hypo and hyperglycemia. Another general problem is that vets do not believe cats can be hometested like a human tests at home, and this board is a testament to the fact that it can be done very successfully!

We have had discussions periodically if its possible to attract human diabetics towards adopting a diabetic cat, but I think since human diabetes can be so complex it scares diabetic humans away from doing that. In case you are interested or know any other diabetics that might be...we have a lot of diabetic cats right now needing new homes, and some of them are actually off insulin, diet controlled. A member of this board started http://fdmb-cin.blogspot.com/ to help rehome kitties because of so many folks coming here to the FDMB to rehome their cats. Feel free to crosspost on human diabetes sites too! DCIN has rehomed many cats to different states so location is not an issue.

Sorry, I wandered a little all over the map with my answer!
 
Thank you so much for your response Lisa. There is a lot to think about. There is much debate about diabetes in humans, its causes and its management and also a variety of annecdotally supported propositions as well as misinformation. It becomes hard to know which end is up. It is also really astute of this group to realise that the challenges of managing such a disease may make it overwhelming to take on a diabetic cat, my guess is there would actually be quite a bit of curiosity but also overwhelm at the thought of another lifelong obligation - just a random thought, how about a big brother/sister little kat program?
btw do cats do this cat(2)_steam when they get hyperglycaemia or is that just humans...
 
The wikipedia page about feline diabetes gives a great overview on the subject: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diabetes_in_cats. Most diabetes in cats is thought to be caused by diet--similar to type-2 diabetes in humans. Dry food is kitty junk food (even the expensive ones), and is the cause of many nutrition related ailments: http://catinfo.org/.

The good news is that cats also have a very resilient pancreas, so the majority of cats can go into diet-controlled remission with the right treatment. My Bandit has been in remission for a while now, and he's no trouble to take care of at all! I just make sure that dry food doesn't even enter the house. :smile:

Bandit did seem grumpier when he had high BG, and he would lie around and not want to play. I could always tell whether his BG was going to be higher or lower before I tested him just based on how hyper he was. Now he's hyper ALL the time, of course. :-D
 
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