Diabetes

In a normal dog or cat the pancreas releases insulin into the bloodstream. The purpose of insulin is to break down sugar in the blood into usable energy. In the diabetic dog or cat, the pancreas doesn’t produce as much insulin as is needed, which causes hyperglycemia (“hyper” means “over”, and “glycemia” means “sugar”).

High sugar levels in the blood basically rot the smallest blood vessels in the body known as capillaries. When the capillaries in the back of the eye deteriorate it causes blindness. This also causes the kidneys, liver and the brain to malfunction. It causes nerve damage and makes the healing of wounds difficult.

Also, since the body is not getting enough energy from the processing of the sugar, it falls back on the backup system: burning fat. This sounds like it might be a good thing, but one of the byproducts of burning fat are ketones, and too many ketones upset the acid-base balance in the bloodstream and causes diabetic ketoacidosis, or DKA, which makes your pet feel bad.

Diabetes is treated by giving your dog or cat extra insulin to help process the sugar out of the bloodstream. But care must be taken that too much insulin isn’t in the bloodstream, or the blood sugar levels can get too low, which is called hypoglycemia (“hypo” means “under”). Your pet will get very lethargic or even become unconscious if blood sugars get too low.

Managing diabetes in the dog or cat can be challenging. People with diabetes check their blood sugar several times each day and tailor their insulin dose to whatever their blood sugar is. This isn’t practical for most owners of dogs and cats, so regulating insulin dosage needs to be done in the hospital for a day or two until we can figure out how much insulin needs to be given and at what times, along with what and when your pet is eating meals. The idea is to not let your pet get too hyperglycemic or hypoglycemic throughout the day. Several spot checks over the next few weeks and months will be required to make sure that your pet is maintaining their blood sugars at reasonable levels. Food and insulin must be given on regular schedules with little or no variation.

The biggest risk factor for diabetes in pets is obesity. Overweight animals are far more likely to become diabetic than lean animals. This is just one more reason not to let your pet get overweight.

Signs and symptoms of diabetes include lethargy, excessive thirst, frequent urination, and/or sudden weight loss.

If you are concerned that your pet might have diabetes, or would like some help getting excess weight off of your pet, call the hospital today at 883-3456 to schedule an appointment with the doctor to talk about diabetes and its risk factors.