Sydney Mobile Vet Service
I’d like to introduce you to Boaz, a gorgeous 5-year-old Vetaround patient.
Recently, his devoted owner, Caitlin, recently caught him in this cute yet very compromising position above.
Boaz can be a little timid but he is actually very friendly, and recently he became one of my star patients.
Can you guess why?
Boaz was diagnosed with diabetes
Caitlin contacted me to visit Boaz because he wasn’t his usual bubbly self and he lacked energy, so after running a variety of tests, I diagnosed him with diabetes.
Cats with diabetes have an inability to produce enough insulin to balance their blood sugar levels, and this disease is particularly common in overweight cats.
As soon as I diagnosed Boaz, I prescribed him twice daily insulin injections as well as an adjustment to his diet.
A low carbohydrate and high protein diet is usually the best option for treating diabetes in cats with a focus on wet food (no or very little dry kibble).
And just four weeks later, we achieved an amazing result!
Boaz went into remission
Within four weeks Boaz was off his insulin and is now enjoying his new diet.
This great result was achieved mainly because we caught his diabetes early and were able to put a diligent action plan into place.
I’ve found that if we catch diabetes in cats early, many go into remission quickly and do not require insulin at all.
This is a real credit to Boaz’s dedicated owner Caitlin for calling me in straight away.
Watch out for the early signs of feline diabetes
So, what are the symptoms of feline diabetes that you need to look out for?
The two main symptoms you need to be aware of are increased thirst and increased urination. Your cat may also have a ravenous appetite because when they contract diabetes their body can no longer use the fuel supplied in their diet.
And while we do see feline diabetes in cats with appropriate body weight, it’s more common in obese cats.
Technologies for treating feline diabetes are always improving
We have new glucose monitoring devices which make initial diagnosis and treatment a lot easier, so I’m looking forward to getting all my future cat diabetics into remission quickly.
My main recommendation for my clients with cats are to not let your cat become overweight in the first place, and focus on feeding them on a high protein, low carbohydrate diet.
If your cat is already overweight they are at a higher risk of contracting diabetes, so even if you haven’t noticed any of the other symptoms it’s really worth getting them checked out.
We can come to your home to quickly diagnose whether your cat has feline diabetes, because the quicker it is diagnosed, the better the outcome.
And I’d love to see all of my feline patients make as impressive a recovery as Boaz, my star pet of the month.