living diabetes
Not many cat owners would greet the news that their cats are diabetic with sangfroid. That diagnosis does carry a life sentence of needles and injections, and, to most owners’ way of thinking, eventually devolves into worsening symptoms and dead-end complications. Mosette Eibert is an exception to that rule. When Eibert learned that her pudgy, 13-year-old domestic longhair, Perry, had diabetes, her response was immediate.
“I was so happy,” she says. “I was glad that’s what it was.”
Eibert, a veterinarian, specialized in feline medicine while serving her residency at Kansas State University. Thus, she understood that Perry’s symptoms–which included a compelling thirst, frequent urination, and weight loss—could have spelled life-threatening disease in capital-punishment letters. Moreover, she already knew several heartening facts about feline diabetes: The prognosis for diabetic cats is generally good. Feline diabetes is usually manageable; and diabetic cats do not suffer blindness, circulatory problems, or other complications that human diabetics do.
“Diabetes is an easy disease to live with,” Eibert says. “At first it seems terrible and overwhelming, but it just takes a little getting used to. It’s one of the easier chronic diseases to manage, and it’s not fatal when treated.”
Nor is treatment all that expensive. The initial cost of diagnosis and insulin adjustments can run several hundred dollars. After that, say one Canadian couple who have been treating their diabetic cat for seven years, insulin and needles cost about $ 200 a year. (Those costs, of course, will vary from one country, state, county, and city to the next.)
