I’ve had several cats with diabetes over the last 40 years so I think the 1 in 400 is too low of a number. In the old days diabetes seemed to occur after they had the steroid shot, depo, for like a skin rash. In those days, before we had AlphaTrak, it was trial and error with different insulins and lengths of time before the steroid shot actually wore off.
One night, Tipper, who had been on insulin for over a year after a depo shot, woke me up crying in my bed in the middle of the night and she was circling. I realized she had gone blind and I called the closest 24 hour vet and they told me to give her Karo syrup. I tried it on my finger and then they told me to get a 3 ml syringe and put that much in her mouth. I rushed her there and her blood glucose was 20 but in the morning it was 600 and her sight returned so I learned from that about how potent the Karo syrup is and now I just give cat treats to up their blood glucose level if it is low and they are awake and can eat.
Also years ago, Wormy had gotten diabetes from taking prednisolone for inflammatory bowel disease and started on insulin and had curves done at University of Pennsylvania Veterinary Hospital. So we had to stop the prednisolone and there was nothing they could do back then and he went from 18 pounds down to 7 before it was time to let him go. The vets used to do the curves at their offices before Alpha Trak came out and with the old insulins the blood glucose would go way down and then way up.
Another seemed to change that where the blood glucose stayed more steady throughout the curve, but I still haven’t been able to get Buckeye’s diabetes under control where his average is around 3
00 and I take alpha trak readings twice a day after his canned food before I give him his insulin so I don’t give him any insulin if he is too low. He doesn’t get dry food at all because dry food has too many carbs and my other cats’ dry food is on top of the washer and since Buckeye only has 3 legs he can’t jump that far up. He had lost a hind leg when he was young and then got pretty fat, that I called him my bowling ball. Then he started losing weight and we found out he had diabetes.
Purrcy also had diabetes from being overweight, but Tilly was thin and never had steroids so I don’t know how she got it. At one point I had Purrcy, Tilly, and Buckeye on insulin and did alpha trak tests twice a day on all 3 and the strips were costing me over $180 a month and the insulin was also expensive.
Now Purrcy and Tilly are gone so only Buckeye is getting it and the insulin is now generic and also cheaper.
Good luck with your research.
-jean in NJ