Many cats can go into remission (some rather quickly) with proactive treatment. I'm not saying your cat is guaranteed to go into remission especially if there are any other complicating illnesses, but 80+% of newly diagnosed cats go into remission with the proper treatment. You *might* have a chance of getting your cat into remission before the fall, but if not, you'll at least be in a position to train and show your parents how easy it is to treat. As long as someone is home when your cat needs his insulin injections, you're good. Since injections are given on a 12 hours apart, usually this means that it doesn't interfere with most jobs as long as the schedule is regular. I work about 50-60 hours a week at two jobs and go to grad school, and I was able to treat Bandit with no problem.
So the key is getting your cat regulated (blood sugar in a normal range all day) as soon as possible. This means you need to do three very important things:
1. If you're feeding dry food, get rid of it right away. Find a low carb canned food that's under 10% carbs (preferably lower). Here's a list of low carb, grain free flavors of Fancy Feast:
http://www.felinediabetes.com/glutenfree.htm. There are many other foods you can feed. Pick something canned that's less than 10% carbs of the cat food nutrition charts:
http://www.felinediabetes.com/diabetic-cat-diets.htm A few cats go into remission as soon as the dry food is removed.
2. Buy a human glucose meter, test strips, and lancets and start home testing. You can get these at pretty much any pharmacy. Walmart has the cheapest strips and meter (ReliOn) if you want to buy them in the store. Some people buy their strips on online via amazon or ebay with other meters and get them cheaper that way. You'll need to start testing at least 3 times a day--before each insulin shot, and one test 6 hours after the insulin takes effect.
3. Have your vet prescribe a long lasting insulin like Lantus or Levemir. Have them write a prescription for the pens, not the vial because the vial will go bad before you can use it all. The pens have a slightly higher cost up front, but are more cost effective in the long run.
You're going to want to start all of this as soon as you can...like I said, the quicker you get treatment going, it's more likely Baylee will go into remission.
And you can always come back and post here for advice with dosing in order to get your cat regulated quickly. Here's a link to the protocol we use that's been proven to bring a high rate of cats into remission, including my own:
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1581. If your vet is a knowledgeable vet and eager to help you, you can print out the information so they can help you out as well.
It seems overwhelming at first, but diabetes becomes so easy to treat that it becomes second nature. Many people here have adopted multiple diabetic cats.
