What is the goal of treatment?
A1.6. The overall goal is a happy and healthy cat with a normal lifespan. Ideally, this is achieved by using diet and insulin (and possibly drugs and exercise) to get your cat’s blood glucose as close as possible to normal glucose values (under 120 mg/dl or 6.7 mmol/L) without ever descending into unsafe hypoglycemic levels (under 40 mg/dl or 2.2 mmol/L). For some cats, particularly that lucky minority that can be controlled with a low-carbohydrate diet alone, normal blood glucose values are attainable (“normalization”). Most other cats, particularly those who do not respond consistently to food and insulin, or those who have health problems which interfere with their ability to get to near-normal blood glucose values, may need to be kept at higher overall blood glucose values in order to avoid the risk of hypoglycemia. For these cats, a more realistic goal is “regulation,” see Section 6.
