Jazz - new diabetic October 2007 by Eryl
“Jazz is a six year old spayed female tabby of good strong Lancastrian farmstock; who spends all her days hunting in the field behind our house. We’ve had her since she was a kitten but I have to admit that I did not notice that anything was wrong - she is very active, eats well and drinks a bowl of water most nights but nothing abnormal.
However, she’s recently been in a cattery for two weeks while we took a late holiday in Scotland and the cattery owner noticed that she was drinking more than normal, so I took her to my vets for a check up. Because of her age, weight and general demeanour, a urine infection seemed the most likely cause of her drinking but the urine sample showed sugar so last Friday (12 October 2007), a blood test was taken and diabetes confirmed with a sky high reading of 25 mmol/l
Because of the weekend, my vet decided to start insulin yesterday (Monday 15 October) and so I gave my first injection of two units of Caninsulin yesterday morning! We’ve started on two injections of two units but next Monday she will have a glucose profile done at the vets covering the whole day so adjustments can be made if necessary. I have got to say that, faced with the daunting prospect of giving an injection, I couldn’t have asked for a more placid, good-natured cat - she’s so sensible and calm, she seems to be helping me.
My husband is an insulin dependent diabetic too, so we now have various phials of insulin, syringes and pens in the fridge and I understand that we can test Jazz with my husband’s monitor - just as long as he can explain any anomalies when he goes for his hospital checks!!
I shall send updates on Jazz’s progress to let you know how we get on.”