Feline Diabetes

Cats suffer from a similar type of diabetes to type 2 diabetes. This results from inadequate production of insulin or insulin resistance. Diabetes is much more common in overweight cats with obesity being the most common cause of reduced responses to insulin.

Cats with diabetes can show some or all of the following clinical signs:

Increased thirst
Increased urination
Increased hunger
Weight loss

During your consultation, your vet might recommend additional tests if they suspect your cat has diabetes.

Investigation & Analysis

Bloodwork may show an increase in blood sugar levels on our in-house labwork. If your cat has increased blood sugar levels your vet might recommend sending a sample to an external lab to check fructosamine levels. Fructosamine tells us how high blood sugar has been over the preceding weeks
Urinalysis may show glucose and ketones in the urine, these are abnormal findings usually consistent with diabetes. Diabetic cats are very prone to urinary tract infections and these can affect how well their treatment works. Your vet will look at a urine sample under the microscope to detect an infection.

Treatment

Treatment involves:

Removing complicating factors If your cat is overweight, this is often the most effective way to treat diabetes. Some cats with diabetes can go into remission once their weight is controlled. Your vet might recommend a low carbohydrate prescription diet to help achieve this and to help insulin regulation.
Urinary tract infections and some medications can affect diabetic control and your vet will make a plan to control these factors.
Insulin therapy Most cats need once or twice daily insulin injections to control their diabetes. While this might sound very intimidating, most cats tolerate injections very well. Insulin needles are very fine and the volume needed is a fraction of a millilitre. Many cats that resent other types of handling won’t notice an insulin injection given while they are eating something nice.
Monitoring during insulin treatment is essential to make sure we are not giving too high a dose of insulin and to detect if your cat is in remission and needs their dosing tapered off.

At regular check ups we will check:

Weight
Physical examination
Fructosamine levels
Urine samples

At these checkups your cat’s dose might need to be increased or decreased depending on the vet’s findings.

It can be worrying to find out that your cat has diabetes. The good news is that most cats tolerate treatment very well and with a dedicated treatment plan the prognosis is generally good.

What You Should Do

If your cat is showing any of these symptoms, especially if he or she is a bit on the chubby side, please call the clinic for advice, as they could become very unwell in a short period of time.