Fat cats and paunchy pooches: could your pet be diabetic?

Diabetic animals often start to drink from unusual places (Photo credit: MSD Animal Health)

I’ve blogged before about pet obesity: one recent study showed that almost two thirds of dogs carry extra weight, with one in three being clinically obese. Cats are prone to the same problem. There are many adverse consequences of excessive body weight, including an increased tendency to arthritis and heart disease. And there’s one specific hormonal disease that’s highly correlated with obesity: diabetes.

Today is World Diabetes Day, which has the primary aim of highlighting the disease in humans. With the trend to an increasing incidence of the condition in pets, it’s important to highlight the animal version of diabetes as well.

In fact, November has been designated as Pet Diabetes Month in an effort to raise awareness of the problem. Many people don’t recognise the early signs of diabetes: they may think that their pet is just showing signs of old age. A simple online screening survey has been set up for owners to discover if their pet is likely to be suffering from diabetes. Early diagnosis of the problem, followed by early treatment, can reduce the severity of the physical consequences of diabetes.

A definitive diagnosis of diabetes requires urine or blood tests, but simple observation can be enough to have a strong suspicion about what’s going on. Whenever I see a middle aged pet that has lost weight despite eating the same diet, alarm bells go off in my head. If the owner reports that the pet is also drinking more than usual, more alarm bells start ringing. But even then, simple laboratory work is needed to confirm the diagnosis: a dipstick test that demonstrates sugar in the urine, or a blood test that shows a higher than normal blood sugar level.

I remember one older vet who did manage to make the definitive diagnosis without a lab test. A younger vet had hospitalised a sick dog and was trying to work out what was wrong with it. The dog had just piddled on the floor, and the older vet was helping to clean it up. As he put the mop away afterwards, he said: “I think you’ll find that she’s diabetic.”  How had he deduced this? As he’d been mopping, he’d noticed that his feet were sticking to the floor: the only possible reason for this had to be that the urine was loaded with sugar.

The art of veterinary medicine, gained from wisdom gathered over years of experience, will always be a part of my job that can’t be learned at university.