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Cat diabetes: What to know about symptoms, the importance of early diagnosis, types of treatment, and management · The Hissing Feline

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: This is the Hissing Feline Podcast, a weekly program that is about everything cats.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: The Hissing Feline features experts and other cat aficionados who share their knowledge and perspectives about dealing with felines.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: From strays and ferals to adoption, health, and cat psychology.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: We hope the topics give you helpful and interesting insight into the world of cats.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: Now, here is the host of the hissing feline, Clark Creer.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_01: A major concern of cat owners is feline diabetes.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_01: How can cat parents recognize symptoms?
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_01: What types of treatments and management methods are available for the disease?
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_01: Those are just some of the questions we'll be addressing in this week's episode of The Hissing Feline.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_01: Joining me today on the podcast is Dr.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_01: Elizabeth Chapman.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_01: She is owner and medical director of Just Cats Clinic in Reston, Virginia.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_01: Dr.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_01: Chapman, thank you very much for discussing an important cat health issue with me today.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_04: Thank you for having me.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_04: I'm very excited.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_01: There are two types of feline diabetes, I understand.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_01: Would you talk about those two things and maybe talk about what diabetes is in general?
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_04: There are two types, but it's really more of an academic conversation in that type 1 uh diabetes in cats is extremely rare.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, 95% are type two diabetics, which is most closely um related to humans in the, you know, the the people who are overweight or have a predisposition of family history to becoming diabetic.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_04: It's not a type that they're born with.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_01: How does diabetes come about?
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_01: Um, an explanation would be really interesting.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_01: And I know we could go way into the weeds on the clinical things, but what what are some things people really need to know?
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_01: Because I know this is an issue.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_01: We have we have a friend who had a cat many years ago that had feline diabetes, and uh uh just understanding the background to it would be really helpful.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_04: Absolutely.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, cats that are overweight are at a huge risk.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, also, cats that are fed high carbohydrate diets, um, which involves a lot of dry food.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_04: Dry food has carbohydrates in it in order to uh make it dry.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_04: So uh diet and lifestyle, sedentary, um, and being male.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_04: Unfortunately, male cats are more predisposed to becoming diabetic.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_04: It's usually cats that are between 10 and um over the age of seven, but really between 10 and 15 years old.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_01: What are some signs of feline diabetes that cat owners might observe?
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_04: Early signs are drinking a lot and peeing a lot.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_04: So you'll notice that they're suddenly draining water bowls that they never drained before.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_04: You'll notice that the urine clumps in the litter box are bigger than they used to be.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, other things they do is they suddenly become hungrier.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_04: Um, they are finishing off all of their food and acting ravenous all the time, and they'll lose weight.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, so uh the weight loss is a little hard to see at home since you look at your cat every day, but um, you can definitely, if you're watching for it, you can say, hmm, he's he's drinking more and peeing more than he ever has, and he is ravenous all the time.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_01: So you were talking about things such as weight and age and diet.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_01: Does genetics play a part in some of that?
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_04: I think genetics does.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_04: Um, there are um particular breeds like Burmese that are or it have an increased uh genetic risk, but I've seen it in every type of cat possible.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_04: Um so it it's it's really uh it's an it's an older cat overweight predominantly problem.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_01: We we try to watch our cats.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_01: We have two.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_01: We're always sensitive about something that might seem a little off with them, uh, whether it's maybe a pain situation.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_01: We we s uh saw our calico, it's been a couple of months ago, and she just wasn't acting right.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_01: And we took her to the doctor and they did some tests on her and they called us and they said, Oh, by the way, your cat has a UTI.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_01: And so treatment seeing a vet really soon is very important.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_01: What happens to a cat as far as long-term effects if they go untreated with diabetes?
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_04: Uh it's devastating.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_04: Um, if if they go untreated, uh they develop peripheral neuropathy where they start walking kind of on uh the backs of their legs.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_04: Um they can't stand up normally anymore, and they're at risk for having an acute crisis called diabetic ketoacidosis, um, which is absolutely deadly.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_04: So it is very important.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_04: And and in my practice and many feline practices in the country, um, we recommend seeing senior cats twice a year.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_04: Um, we don't necessarily run labs twice a year, but we are looking at weight.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_04: We're looking at muscle loss, and we're asking you those questions of, hey, is your cat drinking more or peeing more, or really, really hungry?
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_04: So partnering with your vet just to get hands-on exams um and and weight tracking can be life-saving.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_01: Is there anything that can be done if diabetes goes untreated for a while?
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_01: Can anything be reversed or are they pretty well stuck with it?
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_01: Now you're into uh maybe a maintenance mode.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_01: How is that gonna work with you know somebody some uh a cat is treated down the line for that?
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_04: Uh if we don't catch it early, uh, it definitely turns into a lifelong problem um for the cat.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_04: But cats are amazing.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_04: They're they can go into remission and chances of remission are much, much higher if we are catching it early and we initiate treatment um early.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_04: And treatment includes medications and diet change.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_04: Um, so making sure they're on a on a high protein, low carbohydrate, predominantly canned diet uh can make an absolute difference.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_04: And we can get really good remission rates if we're if we do everything at once.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_01: Uh now there are, as a veterinarian, uh do you have certain methods of detection diagnosis when it comes to uh let's say a cat parent brings their feline to you to look at because they're just concerned that this might be the problem, uh, what what kind of process do you go through?
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_04: Uh well, you know, cats can't talk to us, so we have to do some diagnostics.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_04: Um a lot of cats present similarly, weight loss, drinking more, urinating more, um, and that could be diabetes, but it could also be kidney disease, uh, it could be hyperthyroidism, it could be any number of things.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_04: So we always start with baseline labs.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_04: So a complete blood count or a CBC, a full chemistry profile, um, checking a thyroid value and checking a urinalysis.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_04: And that will give me pretty much all the information I need to make the diagnosis.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_04: However, cats, they're always a little tricky.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_04: Cats, when they're stressed, can have their glucose level spike.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_04: So sometimes we get labs back with elevated glucose values that those cats aren't necessarily diabetic.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_04: So there's an additional test we can add on called a fructosamine that gives us an idea of what the glucose has been like over the past two to three weeks.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_04: And that can help us determine whether the cat's truly diabetic or not.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_04: Another way to know is if there is glucose in the urine.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_04: If the cat's uh glucose is greater than 300, um, then it will spill over into the urine.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_04: So we look at all of those things together to make the diagnosis.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_04: It's a it's a huge partnership between the veterinarian and the cat owner uh in that a diabetic diagnosis uh causes uh a financial commitment and a time commitment on the owner.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_04: And you know, there's a lot of follow-up, a lot of medic, a lot of progress and checking um and regulation that needs to happen.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_01: Is there anything that cat owners can do as far as the preventative care to make sure their cat maybe isn't heading that way?
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, again, it's really hard to tell with cats because they can't do anything except meow.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_01: That's not very helpful.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_01: Is there something they can do to contribute to the cat's health where there's less of a chance of them getting diabetes?
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_04: Absolutely.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_04: Weight management.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_04: You know, fat cats are kind of cute, but they're really not healthy.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_04: And so keeping your cat at a good weight, um, a good body condition score, where when you look at them, if they're standing, that they are straight lines and their bellies are not bulging out sideways.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_04: Um, they're always going to have that little pouch underneath.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_04: Um, we call it the primordial pouch.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_04: That's fine.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_04: You know, even healthy weight cats have that.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_04: But we're talking about if we're looking at them top down, they're straight lines and not not rounded.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_04: So keeping them a good weight is absolutely number one thing that we can do.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_01: We we feed our cats, uh, they have both dry food and wet food.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_01: And I understand that uh using wet food with gravy and those types of things helps to contribute to at least their their water intake, their hydration.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_01: Is is that is that true?
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_01: Is that how it works?
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_04: That that is true, and it also has fewer carbohydrates, so it makes it the ideal diet.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_04: Cats are not great water drinkers in general.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_04: Um, so uh we in the feline world like canned food.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_04: Uh also it's portion control, right?
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_04: You're not measuring out the dry, and your cup might be bigger than somebody else's cup, and is it rounded?
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_04: Um, you know, it's uh canned food if if the kitty will eat it, is is much more optimized for what they need.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_01: You're talking about weight of a cat, and I know different types of cats and breeds and you know their backgrounds and those things probably dictate so uh the size of the cat.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_01: But what would you say for I don't know if there's an average cat weight, which is something good to watch?
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_01: I know I've seen cats that are very large, and some breeds, like Maine Coons, they're like three cats in one.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_04: And and that's where we get to the body condition score.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_04: So Perina made a body condition scoring system.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_04: Um you guys can Google that, but uh it it's really what the cat looks like as a whole.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_04: It's not a particular pound weight uh that you're looking for.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_04: You're looking for when they are standing that they're a straight line without without the abdomens being bulged out.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_04: Because you're right, different cats have different body comp body um compositions, right?
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_04: You can have a very heavy muscular cat that would be overweight if we were just looking at the weight.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_04: Um so I there isn't an there isn't an average weight that we can look at.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_04: It's it's really an overall what what does the cat look like itself?
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_01: And it's almost like uh human's body mass index is you know, you're really looking at the physiology of the cat to determine if there could be problems like diabetes.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_01: Correct.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_01: Uh is is there a comparison between human and feline diabetes?
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_01: Are we talking about two different types of diseases?
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_04: I think there is a comparison, um, but I know way less about people than I do cats.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_01: I understand that, yes, yes.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_04: So um I think there is a comparison, but there are, we do know that um things that are inflammatory in the cat, like urinary tract infections or really bad dental disease or history of GI um disease, you know, the chronic vomiters and the scarf and barf uh kiddies, uh, they're all at risk because they have underlying inflammation.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_04: And when we do diagnose a cat with as a diabetic, if they have really bad dental disease that hasn't been addressed, we're not going to get them regulated until we fix their teeth.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_04: And we're not going to get them regulated until we control uh any inflammation in the GI tract.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_04: We're not gonna get them regulated if they have a urinary tract infection.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_01: So Yeah, it's not just one thing, there could be multiple things happening.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_01: Multiple things, the cat that is causing this, and maybe not necessarily causing, but contributing to it.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, if they have teeth or gum issues, they're probably gonna not want to eat very much of the dry food, and so their intake is different.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_04: Not necessarily.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_04: Cats are masters at hiding pain.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_04: Um, they, you know, I've seen cats with actual infections in their mouths with pus coming out and they are still eating.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_03: Huh.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_04: Um so I, you know, dental disease and pain in cats is what I can tell you is that it definitely bothers them, it definitely hurts, and you're not gonna notice it till it's fixed.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_04: Um, I have many people come back to me after their cat has had a dental procedure and we've had to remove some teeth.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_04: And a month later they say, Oh my gosh, my cat is now playing, and it hadn't been playing in a long time, and I didn't realize it.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah so it's they're just subtle creatures.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_01: You're listening to the Hissing Feline Podcast, a show that is about everything cats.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_01: I'm your host, Clark Greer, with today's guest, Dr.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_01: Elizabeth Chapman.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_01: She is owner and medical director of Just Cats Clinic in Reston, Virginia.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_01: We'll be back to talk more about feline diabetes after this break.
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• 14:55
  SPEAKER_01: This is the Hissing Feline, a podcast about everything cats.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_01: I'm your host, Clark Greer, with today's guest, Dr.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_01: Elizabeth Chapman, owner and medical director of Just Cats Clinic in Reston, Virginia.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_01: We've been talking today about feline diabetes and some of the ways that cat parents can recognize it and some of the things that you do to help to diagnose it and deal with the disease.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_01: What types of complications will a cat have with diabetes?
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_04: Diabetes is one of the most challenging diseases to treat.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_04: There are many complications that can happen, especially when we're using insulin as a treatment.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_04: We can have too much, we can administer too much insulin and cause a hypoglycemic crisis.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_04: They can go into remission and nobody knows, again, causing a hypoglycemic or low blood sugar crisis.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_04: They can go into diabetic ketoacidosis.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and all of those things are can be pretty scary.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_04: But the hope is there are new treatments.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_04: In the past couple of years on the market, there are now oral treatments for uh diabetes.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, they're called SGL2 inhibitors, uh, sodium glucose uh co-transporter 2 molecules, um, but they're magical.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_04: They're nothing short of revolutionary for how we treat diabetic patients.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_04: And uh it's so much better.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_04: It's a once-a-day pill or a once-a-day liquid uh that we really don't have any risk of making the cats become hypoglycemic or have low blood sugar.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_04: Um, it is absolutely game-changing.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and we have a higher rate of making the cats go into remission when we're using these medications.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_04: Not every cat is a good candidate.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_04: Um, it has to be done very carefully, and there's some monitoring that goes along, but I think it is a far better way to manage these cases uh than using insulin therapy.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_01: So there are probably numbers of management methods.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_01: You were just talking about some of the medications, especially the new ones that are out.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_01: Uh does that mean that would cat you were talking about monitoring, do uh cat owners still need to monitor their glucose?
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and if so, how how do they do that?
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_01: Do they get blood samples from their cat?
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_04: Sure.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_04: Um, well, traditionally, when we were using insulin, um, you would definitely be getting glucose on your cat.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_04: Um, we would teach you how to use a glucometer.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_04: Um, you can do an ear prick or foot pad prick to get a drop of blood and find out what your cat's uh blood sugar is.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_04: We would historically we would do glucose curves either at home.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_04: We would tell you to take a whole day and get a get a glucose on your cat every hour, or we would try to do them in the clinic, um, which was just fraught since cats raise their glucose levels just from stress.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_04: So if you leave them in the clinic all day long, you're not gonna get a very accurate curve.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and then maybe six years ago, we started using uh freestyle Libres, um, which are for humans, um, for continuous glucose monitoring.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_04: Um, so those helped us revolutionize things um when we have to use insulin.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_04: Uh with the new oral drugs, we don't need to do curves at all.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_03: Wow.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_04: Um we need we need to monitor the blood ketones.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_04: So we use a ketometer.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_04: Uh and uh the the first couple of weeks are very intense and in the in getting the cat on the oral uh medications and and checking the the blood ketones, but after that, if they're you know are able to to to use it, then it's it's magic.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_04: Um we're not doing those continuous glucose monitors, but there are even advantages advances in that, in that there, like I said, we used to use freestyle Libres.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_04: There is a one that's actually been made for cats and dogs called Adipet.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_04: So we're starting to use that one instead, in that it has the right parameters.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_04: Um, the human glucose uh monitors really are set for very tight control with glucoses going up to maybe 300, but cats go to 400, 500, 600.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_01: And like you say, if they're stressed, it's gonna throw all your numbers off.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_01: So uh do cats respond well to that type of monitoring as well as the treatments?
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_04: Uh they do, absolutely.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_04: The continuous glucose monitors, you know, they can last for 12 days, um if the cat will leave it on for 12 days.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_04: But you have to think about how revolutionary that is compared to the okay, we do a glucose curve once every six months or three months in a cat where we're just getting snapshots in time over a 12-hour period.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_04: So even if the continuous glucose monitor only stays on the cat for one day, that's more data than we've ever had.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_01: Now that's really helpful for you, and uh and be able to figure out what's gonna happen next with the cat.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_01: And you could you could I I'm guessing it's like humans with diabetes.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_01: You have to you have to think about regulating the whatever types of treatments you're doing on them, and it will really help them because you can respond instantly almost.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_04: Well, that's actually a misconception.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_04: Um, you know, in humans with diabetes, they're taking glucose or they have a monitor that tests their glucose and gives them the right amount of insulin.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_04: Because the insulin we're using is not made for cats, there is no cat-specific insulin.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_04: We can't adjust on a dime like that.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_04: Every time we make a change, it takes the cat's body seven to ten days to adjust to that new dose.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_04: So we, you know, you can look at a continuous glucose monitor for an entire week, but you shouldn't be adjusting the dose based on based on that every day.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_04: You're never gonna get where you need to be.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_01: That's that's very helpful information.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_01: I appreciate that.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_01: And uh and uh having cat owners really understand the whole process.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_01: I imagine there's some people that probably say, How fast can you fix my cat?
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_01: You know, and and it just it's time, it takes time.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_04: It does.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_04: Unfortunately, there is not a fast fix.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_01: Uh what what is the prognosis for cats with diabetes?
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_04: Prognosis is good if it's caught early and the owner is able to make the changes, get the medications in, and keep up with all the the checks.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_04: Um it is grave if we find out you know the cat is diabetic when it's in diabetic ketoacidosis.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_04: So that late stage, you know, something's not right with my cat, but it hasn't seen a vet in a long time and we didn't know the prognosis is grave.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_01: So that's why a veterinary visit should be one of the first things that cat owners should turn to if they suspect there's anything going on with the cat.
• 22:12
  unknown: Correct.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_01: Related to any health issue, but diabetes, I mean, like you're saying, there are some issues if it goes too far.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_01: So that's why it's very important for people to see their vet.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, could you recommend some additional resources uh that cat owners could uh look at or access?
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of things are available online if um they want to know more about uh feline diabetes.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_04: Absolutely.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_04: Um, I would point them to the American Animal Hospital Association.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_04: They just released in April their new feline diabetic guidelines.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_04: Um that has more, if you're you know into science and you want to know all the ins and outs, that has more information than uh anything else out there.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_04: Going to the website at a pet's website has great uh resources as well for diabetic cat owners.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_04: Um you can also go to the Feline Veterinary Medical Association.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_04: There are a lot of resources on their website for cat owners, and also the American Animal Hospital Association recently released their uh 2026 uh feline diabetic guidelines.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_04: Those are great places to look.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_01: This has been just full of information today, and I know that this is an issue that cat owners have maybe gone through already.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_01: They're concerned about their cat, and it's important to turn to those resources and their local vet.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_01: And uh a lot of the things we talked about today are really crucial to understand more about diabetes and how it affects uh felines.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_01: You've been listening to the Hissing Feline podcast.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_01: Dr.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_01: Elizabeth Chapman has visited with me today.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_01: She is owner and medical director of the Just Cats Clinic in Reston, Virginia.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_01: Dr.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_01: Chapman, thank you for talking about feline diabetes symptoms, treatments, and methods of management.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for having me.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_01: And be sure to tell your friends about the hissing feline and click the follow button where you listen to this podcast.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_01: Join me for the next episode of the Hissing Feeline.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_01: Until then, remember to keep purring.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_00: Content on the Hissing Feline podcast is for information and entertainment purposes only.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_00: And it's not intended to provide medical, veterinary, or legal advice.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_00: Please consult your veterinarian and local and state authorities before dealing with feral and straight cats.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_00: Opinions expressed are those of the hosts and guests and not necessarily those of Duracio Cat Media LLC.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_00: References to products or services do not imply an endorsement.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_00: The Hissing Feline podcast is a production of Duracio Cat Media LLC and has been blessed by our rescue cats, Bridget and Maddie.
• 25:02
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