Hi Jazz! That’s so exciting! I love hearing adoption stories, especially when the pet is going to require a little extra care. Our current diabetic cat, Patches, was at the shelter for 2 years (their longest resident ever!) because owning a diabetic pet can be intimidating. But it doesn’t need to be. It’s honestly not a big deal if you are able to provide the regular care they need and know what to look for to see if she needs to have a check up. The shots are not hard to give. The needles are so tiny, I don’t even think our cat reacts most of the time. It’s very quick. So just have confidence when you do it. Sometimes when the cat thinks you’re freaked out, it scares them a little bit too. As far as preparing your home, I can’t think of anything special. I do recommend taking any shelter pet to your vet pretty soon after adoption. They’ll let you know what to feed her, what signs to look for, and when she should come back for another glucose test. But I bet your shelter has all of this figured out and she’s stable on the food and dosage they have her on. Good luck to you! Would love an update after you bring her home, and if I can help further, please comment or email me!

Thankfully we have a pet sitter who is a former vet tech, so she is comfortable giving the shots when we travel, but you are right, that is definitely one of the challenging parts! Thank you for your comment Sophie. Love to your Loustic!

I do have also a diabetic cat named Loustic, we shot him for about 4 years now, and it is quite easy to do. The only difficulty is when we go away for holidays or week ends, we have to find someone not frightened doing the shots to take care of him. We do control his diabet ourselves with human apparatus, but it is quite difficult to get some little blood drop to check glycemy when we want to control if the insulin dosage is good. Otherwise, that’s quite easy, but when we learn about his diabet, I was completely worried about the shots, but finally very easy. I hope my english is not too bad, I’m french.

Thank you for your comment Bridget. So glad you found some helpful info here. And thanks for your condolences. We miss Lady very much, she was a gem! We did go ahead and adopt that diabetic cat from the local shelter so we’re still giving insulin shots twice a day here. 🙂 Once you know how to take care of a diabetic pet it’s not so intimidating. And it’s very rewarding to know you’re playing such a vital role in their health. Good luck to you and your kitty!

Hi Lindsay,i am so happy to read about Lady.at least Lady is giving me some tips on how to take care a diabetic cat.i just got to know that my male cat,Dandy,4 yrs old ,suffering from diabetic.his kidney are 75% lost and the remainder of 25% will have to support his life.he has been hopitalized for 10 days.now and years,the vet told me that i have to give him an insulin shot for two days once.i am not a doctor and it makes me scared to shot the insulin on him.but by reading about Lady,i hope i can get clear clue managing my diabetic cat.thank you to our sweet Lady.thank for the reply LIndsay.sorry to hear that Lady has left us due to cancer.if i were at your place,i cant imagine how solemn am i looisng Lady.she was a wonderful lady and pretty.hoping that our pretty Lady rest in peace.i have lost plenty of young cats who was suffering from parvo virus.they were not vacinated yet during that time.loosing them just like loosing part of my life.some people saying that iam crazy for having 50 stray cats at home.i have kinds of cats.three legs,handiccaped,blurred eyes sight etc.all of them i picked them from re side of the road,restaurant and some just came to my home since young.me and my family treat them well and get themselves vacinated routine.
Talking about my cat, Dandy,he just discharged from the veterinar hospital 3days ago.his diabetic is controlled at the moment and i have to note down the reading every four hrs.two days once,i have to give him the sub Q fluid underneath both sides of his stomach.pity him.besides,there a few tabletsfor him to take twice daily.after two weeks i have to bring him again for the doctor review.i hope and pray so that everything will be fine whereby he doest not really depends on certain procedures for life.

Thank you so much for your comment Linda. I’m so glad you found this post and feel a little more at ease about caring for Dandy. I know if feels overwhelming but it’s not bad at all once you get into a routine and get comfortable with it. Sadly our Lady had cancer and we had to say goodbye to her about 2 months ago, so your comment really warmed our hearts to know that she’s helped someone. There is a diabetic cat at our local shelter that has been there for 2 years and no one seems to want. We wanted to give it some time after losing Lady but we are talking about adopting again and that cat is at the top of our list. You are a good mommy to Dandy. It’s hard to care for a sick pet, I know. I wish you the best of luck. Please come back and keep me posted on how he’s doing!

Oh Kelly, I’m sorry to hear that, but don’t lose hope. And please let me know if I can answer any questions for you. Our cat actually seems to be getting better and today, in fact, the vet told us to stop her injections for a while and see how she does.Good vibes coming from our family to you and your cat!