Does anybody know how was diabetes was diagnosed in old days?

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Some cats once switched to a high protein / low carb diet (canned only would be best, consider a prescription diet made just for cat with diabetes) may not need insulin. It depends on how high your cats blood glucose is. He will likely be easier to manage as an indoor only cat as it is so important that he eat consistently and get insulin on schedule. Diabetics are also more prone to infections so indoors would be best. I had a diabetic cat while growing up who was wonderful, once they are regulated they tend to do quite well. Make yourself familiar with the signs of low blood sugar (hypoglycemia) and have your vet on speed dial.

History of Diabetes in Timeline


1552 BC – Written on a 3rd Dynasty Egyptian papyrus, physician Hesy-Ra mentions frequent urination as a symptom. This is the earliest known record of diabetes.
1500 BC -- Ancient Hindu writings note that ants are attracted to the urine of people with a mysterious emaciating disease.
500 BC -- The first descriptions of sugar in the urine and its occurrence in obese individuals.
250 BC -- Apollonius of Memphis is credited with coining the term "diabetes", meaning to go through, or siphon, for a disease that drains patients of more fluid than they can consume.
1st Century AD - The Greeks describe the disease as "a melting down of the flesh and limbs into urine."
164 AD - Greek physician, Galen of Pergamum, diagnoses diabetes as a kidney ailment.
Up to 11th Century - Since the urine of people with diabetes is thought to be sweet tasting, diagnosis is often made by "water tasters" who drink the urine of those suspected of having diabetes. Mellitus, the Latin word for honey, is added to the term “diabetes”.
16th Century Paracelsus identifies diabetes as a serious general disorder.
For thousands of years, no one knows how to live with diabetes, let alone treat or cure it. Children with diabetes often die within days of onset and older people deal with devastating complications. Remedies range from herbs to bleeding.
1776 - Dobson finds a substance like brown sugar in appearance and taste when diabetic urine evaporates. He also notes a sweetish taste of sugar in the blood of diabetics. He observes that, for some people, diabetes is fatal in less than five weeks and, for others, is a chronic condition. This is the first time that a distinction between Type 1 and Type 2 has been made.
1797 - Rollo applies the first significant dietary approach to the treatment of diabetes. He successfully treats a patient using a high fat and protein diet after observing that sugar in the urine increases after eating starchy food.
1798 - Rollo documents excess sugar in the blood, as well as the urine.

NOTE: 1800's to the present can be found at the source below.

The first webpage below states:

"From the 17th century until nearly the 20th century physicians would take to sampling the urine of their patients to determine if the urine had a sweet taste. Because diabetes causes the spilling over of sugar into the urine, this was considered a viable means of diagnosing the condition."

The second webpage states:

"In the past, diabetes was diagnose by tasting the urine. No effective treatment was available."

The third webpages states:

"The term diabetes was probably coined by Apollonius of Memphis around 250 BC. Diabetes is first recorded in English, in the form diabete, in a medical text written around 1425. It was in 1675 that Thomas Willis added the word “'mellitus'” to the word diabetes. This was because of the sweet taste of the urine. This sweet taste had been noticed in urine by the ancient Greeks, Chinese, Egyptians, Indians, and Persians as is evident from their literature."

They had the person urinate on the sidewalk and if the ants came to the urine...it had sugar in it and you were told you had diabetes. I got this from a book about old time medical treatments. It was really interesting to see how they figured things out without a big lab and fancy equitment. And how stupid some of the treatments were. LOL

By tasting the urine to find if it is sweet.