DCIN's Shelter/Rescue Program

This is a page under construction.

DCIN has increasingly been helping shelters with diabetic cats. The usual response of a shelter to the intake of a diabetic cat is that the cat is not adoptable and that he should be immediately destroyed to minimize his suffering from untreated diabetes.

That does not have to be the case.

DCIN is in the beginnings of developing a shelter/rescue program. Actually, we have been tossed into the deep end of the pool this week with two shelter—one in PA and one in GA—coming to us with diabetic cats with which they would like our help.

DCIN does not have a facility to house diabetic cats or an established foster network. With a cat that need rehoming, we usually facilitate the placement of the cat into a new home. Sometimes that placement can take a long time.

We want to work with shelters and rescues to understand that diabetes is not a death sentence. And, as long as we are able, DCIN would like to support their treatment of diabetic cats pending adoption by enabling them to acquire insulin, syringes, testing equipment, and low-carbohydrate wet food. We also will provide education and mentoring.

What shelters personnel need to understand is that the stress of shelter life, and the dry food diet that most shelters provide the cats in their care, can throw a cat into hyperglycemia. We see this time and time again. DCIN pulls a cat from a shelter, someone gives it a loving home, a good diet, and a short course of insulin, and the cat is in remission from diabetes.

DCIN will be developing a program to inform shelter and rescue personnel of the facts of feline diabetes and its treatment. They need to understand the effects of shelter stress and dry food diet on cats. They need to understand that DCIN will, as long as it is able, provide the tools the shelters and rescues need to treat diabetic cats and perhaps get them into remission. Information for this latter purpose--what DCIN will provide to a rescue that fosters a diabetic cat--is on the adopt/foster page here.

DCIN is only scratching the surface of the feline diabetes problem. But we get a warm feeling for each one we save. Please see our Cats Helped in 2011 page here.