Ask Lemmy

No

I have a diabetic dog. She hates giving blood(so we had to go to the hospital to test her) but she loves her insulin shots, because she goes absolutely bonkers over pate. We had issues giving her insulin at the start but i created a small ritual.

I noticed that in the doctor, she kinda freezes(or at least doesnt try to escape) while she is on the examining table. So i replicated that at home. I am using a giant mousepad(so that she is comfortable and wont slip) on a table and then i put her on the table. We spread some pate on a plate and give her the insulin shot(using an insulin pen) while she is licking it. Twice a day, every day for the last 3 years or so.

If you want to change your injection times, you can do it slowly over a few days/weeks, so you need to schedule your changes.

She is 15yo now. Diabetic dogs can live for many years with no issues. Be aware that diabetes can amplify some things. She had a skin wound that even the doctor thought was some super aggressive cancer(it looked bad) but it turned out to be nothing and it just healed normally.

Her energy levels will fluctuate over the day. Because the insulin is slow release, her energy will be at the lowest at the midpoint between the shots. We havent had any issues with low sugar, though it is something that you need to keep in mind.

Also her eyesight is mostly gone, because of diabetes(maybe because we failed to reach her ideal insulin dose fast enough because of the inability to take blood samples at home).

We never give her pate outside of the insulin injections. She is like the borg, she quickly adjusts to things, so we dont want her to adjust. For example, she let us take blood samples for 24hours once but never again.

TIL that cats and dogs can get diabetes.

I had a diabetic cat, he lived to the age of 18. He was a total asshole, but I loved him enough to give him insulin shots every 12 hours, every day. It made traveling out of town a pain, and it was expensive. I ended up buying my coworker's child's open insulin bottles off of her because it was cheaper (it was the mom's idea, the insulin was just gonna be thrown out anyway).

I did feel a sense of relief when he finally died, but he was worth the effort.

We switched our cat from dry to wet food when he became diabetic years ago, and he quickly recovered. No more insulin. Not special expensive wet food either, just the stuff from Costco.

Nopers

At least your cat doesn't have a sarcoma.

My cat was diabetic. Had to give her insulin shots but she absolutely managed that extremely well. She understood it improves her condition and was happy to follow instructions. After leaving out the dry food she recovered and doesn't need insulin anymore. However, as a result of the diabetes she now can't process sugar or wheat at all. She'll vomit that right out. Luckily, the cheapest brands at the supermarket don't use either of those in their wet food, only the expensive brands. Go figure.

I had an insulin resistant horse. That was a huge management challenge. I was fortunate enough to have her at home, I don't know how I would have managed it if she was boarded out and I had to rely on another to ensure she got her meds/no access to sugar, etc.

My family's cat just got diagnosed about a month ago :( He's doing well so far with his insulin shots but it likely went unnoticed for a week or two because he's a pretty reserved cat and normally hides from us. He's been having trouble walking/jumping recently which is probably related, hopefully the insulin along with a changed diet (we're mostly feeding him wet food now) will help him improve

No, but I have a diabetic (human) best friend, which is even scarier.