Diabetes for Dummies

By Dr. Anndrea Kapke
Olive Branch Parke Veterinary Clinic
www.olivebranchvet.com
olivebranchvet@gmail.com


I’m a fan of series like The Complete Idiots Guide to Brain Surgery or Rocket Science for Dummies. Diabetes is a complicated disease that can not only afflict humans, but dogs and cats too. I learned about diabetes from our furry friends’ point of view in veterinary school, and then became intimately familiar with the human version of the disease when I was diagnosed with it nine years ago.
Very simply, for any species, diabetes is about how the body handles sugar (glucose). We eat simple sugars (like table sugar) or complex sugars (like the carbohydrates in pasta) and certain cells in our pancreas make insulin. Insulin lets our body use the sugar we eat. Human Type I diabetics (sometimes called Juvenile) aren’t able to produce their own insulin so they have to inject themselves with it. Most dog diabetics are similar to human Type I. Human Type II diabetics (sometimes called Adult Onset) may be able to produce some of their own insulin, but not enough, and what they do manage to make, their body might not recognize right. Most cat diabetics are similar to human Type II.
Just like in people, sometimes cats and dogs get diabetes because of bad luck or bad genetics or bad diet. We can only control the bad diet. If your pet is getting plump, put down less kibble. Preventing your pet from being overweight will help to prevent diabetes.

Your dog or cat might have diabetes if she acts tired, quickly loses or gains weight, or drinks a lot and urinates a lot. Sometimes a well house-trained dog or litter-trained cat will start having accidents in the house. A dog with diabetes may suddenly go blind with cataracts. A cat with diabetes may have weak back legs and have trouble walking.
A veterinarian can do urine and blood tests to check for diabetes and a complication of diabetes called ketoacidosis. Many animals diagnosed with diabetes are found to also suffer from other diseases such as pancreatitis, dental disease or a poorly working thyroid gland.
Diabetes doesn’t have to be a death sentence for pets, but it does require a commitment to a regular feeding, medicating, and testing schedule.
Often diabetic dogs and cats are fairly sick by the time they are diagnosed and may need to be hospitalized for a short time and stabilized.

Because dogs are usually like Type I diabetics, they are put on a high fiber, moderate carbohydrate, low fat diet (for example, Canine Prescription Diet W/D) and their owners learns how to give them daily insulin injections. Sometimes owners monitor their dog’s sugar in their urine with KeoDiastix® or their blood glucose using a home blood glucose monitor. Blood samples can be taken from the lip, elbow, ear tip or outside of the footpad.
Cats are usually like Type II diabetics as well as being true carnivores. So they are put on a low carbohydrate diet (such as Feline Prescription Diet R/D). A few cats can take oral medication for their diabetes, but most do better with insulin injections, often twice daily. Twenty percent of cats that are treated with insulin will go into diabetic remission 4 to 6 weeks later and stop needing insulin. Glucotest® can be added to cat litter. It turns color in response to sugar in the urine. Or blood sugar can be monitored with a home glucose monitor.
The goal of treating diabetes is to keep the blood sugar from being too high, which could cause death in a couple of weeks, and to keep the blood sugar from being too low, which could cause death in a couple of minutes. If a diabetic dog or cat on medication has low blood sugar, he may act weak, stagger, collapse, lose control of bladder or bowels, or have seizures. The pet owner should rub corn syrup or honey on the pet’s gums on the way to the veterinarian or veterinary emergency clinic, if this happens.

If diabetes in dogs or cats is not treated, it will result in blindness, nerve damage, kidney failure, liver disease, and death. If diabetes is well controlled, dogs and cats can live happily and comfortably for several years.
My personal greatest threat to blood sugar control? I’m a confirmed chocoholic. Café Mochas and Heath Bar Blizzards. I guess canine and feline diabetics have an advantage over us humans there. Chocolate is toxic to them, so they shouldn’t even be tempted.