Diabetes in People, Cats, and Dogs: Biomedicine and Manifold Ontologies

Abstract

If people express salient beliefs and values in caring for pets then it is worth considering that dogs and housecats are routinely treated using the biomedical armamentarium. To investigate animal-human connections in the treatment of dogs and housecats for diabetes, we conducted ethnographic interviews in Canada with 12 pet owners and six health professionals in conjunction with a review of documentation on diabetes in cats, dogs, and people. Treating dogs and housecats for diabetes, we conclude, pivots on recognition of these animals as sentient selves. At the same time, treating diabetes in dogs and housecats helps to produce a named disease as a physical thing. In treating a housecat or a dog for diabetes, pet owners breach one of the foundational distinctions of Western science: human and nonhuman bodies exhibit continuity in terms of physicality, but a fundamental discontinuity exists when it comes to interiority.

Medical pluralism and livestock health: ethnomedical and biomedical veterinary knowledge among East African agropastoralists

“…The majority of these societies also rely upon “biomedicine,” defined as the global medical system based upon western scientific principles and products (e.g., antibiotics) [6–9]. Reliance on veterinary biomedicine (VB) has received little anthropological attention [10]. The coexistence of EVM and VB patterns health outcomes in both livestock and human populations.…”

Prototypes Connect Human Diabetes with Feline and Canine Diabetes in the Context of Animal—Human Bonds: An Anthropological Analysis

“…Professionals may be more likely to enlist veterinary services and to follow through on diabetes treatment for their cats and dogs, but we found that people with lower levels of education and income also seek to treat their cats and dogs for diabetes. Indeed, the other person with diabetes who volunteered for this study (identified as "Joe" in Table 1) could be described as working class, but just like Darleen, he recognized diabetes in his dog due to cross-species similarities in symptoms (see Rock and Babinec 2008, for a presentation of this case). Thus, prototypes probably cross species boundaries in a variety of contexts.…”

“…Approximately 1 in 500 dogs and 1 in 250 cats residing in developed countries are treated for diabetes, usually with insulin (Rand et al 2004;Catchpole et al 2005). The insulin used to treat diabetic dogs and cats tends to be sourced from other animals, typically cattle or pigs or a mixture of the two (see Rock and Babinec 2008, for further discussion).…”

“…Preventing complications through tight blood glucose control is the main thrust of current treatment protocols for treating type 1 and type 2 diabetes in people, whereas current treatment approaches for feline diabetes as well as for canine diabetes emphasize symptom control. Nevertheless, to the extent that symptom control results in sustained quality of life and owner satisfaction (e.g., prevention of house soiling), treating dogs or cats for diabetes may extend their lives (see Rock and Babinec 2008, for further discussion). Dogs and cats may live with diabetes for years, provided that they receive and respond to treatment, which typically involves two or more injections of insulin per day.…”

Pet bylaws and posthumanist health promotion: a case study of urban policy

“…Insofar as actor-network scholarship has attended to animals, the focus has mainly been laboratory research (Rock et al 2007), but the ambit is extending to multispecies ecologies and to pet care (e.g. Degeling 2009;Hinchliffe and Whatmore 2006;Rock and Babinec 2008). The case study of pet bylaws presented above is part of a shift away from a resolutely descriptive to a prescriptive stance in research informed by actor-network theory, and this shift is influencing the field of health promotion (e.g.…”