A Job For "Service Cats?"

Bill's wife Marian is diabetic. Several times she has gone into diabetic comas and had to be transported to the hospital by ambulance. Bill called a few months ago and suggested I write a column about their new cat, "Jenny."

A couple of months ago they adopted Jenny from the Helping Hands animal rescue group in Clarkston. They noticed that Jenny seemed to sense in advance when Marian was headed for trouble. She doesn't call "911" but Jenny meows repeatedly, and jumps up in Marian's lap. Ironically, Bill and Marian's daughter has epilepsy and her dog is trained to sense an impending seizure and give her advance warning.

Maybe cats know something about diabetes that we humans don't. While Diabetes is common in cats, it is not unusual for a cat with diabetes to recover. Abby, one of our cats had started drinking excessive amounts of water and, of course, urinating often and large amounts. Insulin injections brought her blood sugar down, and the excessive water drinking and urination resolved. Regular blood sugar testing showed that, after a few months, her blood sugar began falling to below normal levels. I decreased the dose of insulin but her blood sugar continued to fall, until I eventually stopped the insulin all together.

Dogs definitely know something about epilepsy that we don't. Twenty or so years ago I wrote about a prison inmate who was participating in a prison therapy session with dogs. She discovered that her dog could sense and give advance warning when another inmate, who had epilepsy, was going to have a seizure. Since then it has become commonplace for humans with epilepsy to have service dogs that warn them of impending seizures so they can avoid associated injuries.

I don't know - I don't think anyone knows - how animals can sense these things. I think a lot of it may be that they notice subtle behavior changes and clues that we don't. My dog Maggie comes to work with me every day and she always knows when it is time to go home for lunch. All morning she will lie quietly in the office with the rest of the canine crew. I should explain, if you will pardon the digression, that one of the perks for my employees is bringing their dog to work. There are usually 3 or 4 of them at any given time, plus Newton. We provide "day care" for Newton, who doesn't do well home alone, nor in a kennel. My soft hearted employees found a couple of years ago that Newton does fine if allowed to snooze on the office floor with the rest of the freeloaders.

Just before noon, Maggie will be standing in the doorway of the front office with her front feet in the treatment room, pushing the limits of the approved canine freeloader area. Her ears are erect and she stares at me expectantly as if to say, "You know it's lunch time, let's go home." She likes all her "aunties" at the clinic but can tell, somehow, when one of her favorites drives into the parking lot. Maggie will be waiting at the back door for her to come in.

Dogs and cats not only hear and see clues we may miss; they can also detect and recognize smells to a degree we cannot even imagine. I was unable to find any other instances of cats sensing an impending diabetic coma in their human, but wouldn't be surprised to hear similar stories. Dogs and cats may have smaller brains than we do but they have sharper senses and perhaps fewer distractions.