Diabetes Mellitus in dogs and cats
Did you know that just like people, dogs and cats can develop Diabetes as well? Most pet parents are surprised when they learn that when their furbabies test positive for Diabetes. The estimation is that 1 in 300 adult dogs and 1 in 230 cats have diabetes. November is Pet Diabetes Month and to help spread awareness of this common disease, we thought we would share some risk factors, clinical signs, testing, and treatments for Diabetes in our pets.
Similar to their human counterparts, the number one risk factor for developing diabetes is diet and lifestyle. Being overweight has been shown to shorten the lifespan of a pet by 2 years, and one of the reasons for this is that our overweight pet population is more prone to diabetes.
Some common signs and symptoms of diabetes are obesity, drinking and urinating more than usual, increase or decrease in appetite, vomiting, urinary accidents, and sudden weight loss.
Diabetes can be easily detected in our annually recommended blood panels. For our diabetic patients, the blood panels show elevated blood glucose levels and which is frequently accompanied by glucose present in the urine.
The good news is that Diabetes is treatable! For some of our feline friends diabetes can be controlled with diet alone. In most cases, however, both dogs and cats need to be treated with injectable insulin daily. There are different insulin options available and your doctor would know the best one for your pet. Although treatable, diabetes can be difficult to manage in both people and pets. Keeping our pets healthy and at a great body condition score decreases the likelihood of them becoming diabetic as they become older.
If your pet drinks and urinates excessively or you have appreciated one of the other aforementioned clinical signs, talk to your veterinarian. There are other conditions that do have similar symptoms and catching things early can make treatment more successful.
Please visit https://usa.petdiabetesmonth.com/ for more information! #PetDiabetesMonth