What if your cat or dog was diagnosed with diabetes, what would you do?

My friends cat was diagnosed with diabetes and he was kinda leaning towards putting it to sleep but decided to leave the decision to his wife (its her cat).
She finally decided she's gonna keep it and start insulin shots and diet restrictions to control the diabetes.
At first thought , I agreed they should put it to sleep, they have 2 dogs for companionship. My decision was partly swayed by the fact that I'm highly allergic to cats and if they got rid of the cat I could visit my friend more often. Plus the fact it kinda puts a damper on any long vacations for them although I did agree to learn how to give the shots if they ever did have to leave it for any length of time.
Now after seeing how happy it has made his wife that they are gonna keep it, I'm starting to think its the right thing to do.

Any thoughts?

My wife runs a kennel and you would be surprised how many pets have diabetes. Just remember that to most people, pets are part of the family, sometimes more loved than actual kin.Pets offer unconditional love and, IMO, pet owners have an obligation to return that love to the best of their ability.Don't get me wrong, under terrible circumstances, any creature deserves the dignity of a quik death, me included.

It comes down to how much money you want to spend.  It can get quite expensive for syringes and insulin.  Not to mention frequent office visits.  In other countries it would have been lunch!  But thats what makes America great.  We have the income and as long as its mine no one should tell me to use it.

I had to shoot up a cat everynight for this old mean woman in a wheel chair that had a even meaner and older cat with diabetes when I was in college.  God did I hate that thing!  It was just a plain old mean cat.  One if RandellFlag wanted to shoot, I would tie it down for him. It had all these tumors and smelled bad. I would have to chase it down, catch it and give it an insulin shot.  It would scratch and bite the whole time. Then the old woman would say, "you now have to pet it and say you're sorry you had to hurt it"! If I wasnt trying to kiss some butt to help me get into med school, I would have sold the damn thing to the nearest Chinese resturant!

i had a cat w/ diabetes, gave him an extra 3 good yrs. it got so he knew the shots made him feel better, so he'd come looking for his insulin every morning. well worth it in my mind. besides, my mom has diabetes, i dont think i'd want her "put down".

It would be a no brainer in my opinion regarding a cat. They barely desirve to live when healthy.

We had a dog of 13 yrs we had overfed and given table scraps too.  He developed diabetes and would have needed the shots and would have had to wear diapers because we both work and no one could have been there to take him outside every half hour or so.

So sadly it was time to go to the big puppy pen in the sky.  It was hard to do as growing up as a farm kit a dog/cat was not a long term commitment, city/house dogs live a long time and one can get attatched to them.

As for visiting your friend more. If they like cats they will soon replace the lost animal with a new kitten so your alergies would be the same.

Where is Randellflag when you need him!

I would do it for my dog. FWIW, weight loss would probably be very beneficial as would proper diet and excercise. I would at least give that a shot.

Another thought: I am not a vet but there are excellent oral meds for typeII diabetes these days. Don't know if there are available meds for pets nor whether or not the human meds could be dose adjusted for pets. They are expensive.

Diabetes is a devastating disease in humans. The questions that need to be asked are: What is the expected quality of life and are you prolonging life or prolonging death and suffering?

Oral meds are not effective for most diabetic cats. This is a general statement and only your Vet can determine the proper treatment.

[url]http://www.petdiabetes.org/[/url]