The results of studies on the life expectancy of cats with diabetes mellitus have varied widely. Now research among several European veterinary colleges, including the University of Zurich, has found cats with the disease have fair to good prospects for survival.
The retrospective study of 114 cases, reported in the Journal of the American Veterinary Association, showed the median survival time of cats newly diagnosed with the disease was one year and 46 days, while 70 percent lived longer than three months, 64 percent lived longer than six months and 46 percent lived two years.
Cats with high concentrations of creatinine, a waste product normally filtered from blood by the kidneys, had shorter survival times. Surprisingly, ketoacidosis, a life-threatening condition common in diabetes, didn’t significantly impact survival time.
