Diabetes in cats

This article is about diabetes in cats. For general usage, see Diabetes. For other uses, see Diabetes (disambiguation).

Feline diabetes mellitus is a chronic disease in cats whereby either insufficient insulin response or insulin resistance leads to persistently high blood glucose concentrations. Diabetes affects up to 1 in 230 cats,[1] and may be becoming increasingly common. Diabetes is less common in cats than in dogs. The condition is treatable, and if treated properly the cat can experience a normal life expectancy. In cats with type 2 diabetes, prompt effective treatment may lead to diabetic remission, in which the cat no longer needs injected insulin. Untreated, the condition leads to increasingly weak legs in cats and eventually to malnutrition, ketoacidosis and/or dehydration, and death.

Diabetes in cats can be classified into the following:

  • Type 1 diabetes, in which the immune system attacks the pancreas, is "extremely rare" in cats, unlike in dogs and humans.[2]
  • Type 2 diabetes is responsible for 80–95% of diabetic cases. They are generally severely insulin dependent by the time symptoms are diagnosed. Glipizide for T2DM are not known to be effective in cats, unlike in humans.[2]
  • Gestational diabetes, which occurs in humans and dogs, has never been found in cats.[2]
  • Insulin resistance and diabetes in cats can also have a component of hypersomatotropism (an excess of growth hormone, also leading to acromegaly)[3] and hyperadrenocorticism.[4] In some cats, cancer causes the loss of pancreatic islets.[3]
  1. ^ McCann, T. M.; Simpson, K. E.; Shaw, D. J.; Butt, J. A.; Gunn-Moore, D. A. (August 2007). "Feline diabetes mellitus in the UK: The prevalence within an insured cat population and a questionnaire-based putative risk factor analysis". Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery. 9 (4): 289–299. doi:10.1016/j.jfms.2007.02.001. PMC 10822632. PMID 17392005. S2CID 5832729.
  2. ^ a b c Gottlieb, S; Rand, J (2018). "Managing feline diabetes: current perspectives". Veterinary Medicine: Research and Reports. 9: 33–42. doi:10.2147/VMRR.S125619. PMC 6053045. PMID 30050865.
  3. ^ a b Rothlin-Zachrisson, N; Öhlund, M; Röcklinsberg, H; Ström Holst, B (January 2023). "Survival, remission, and quality of life in diabetic cats". Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine. 37 (1): 58–69. doi:10.1111/jvim.16625. PMC 9889602. PMID 36637031.
  4. ^ Niessen, SJ; Church, DB; Forcada, Y (March 2013). "Hypersomatotropism, acromegaly, and hyperadrenocorticism and feline diabetes mellitus". The Veterinary Clinics of North America: Small Animal Practice. 43 (2): 319–50. doi:10.1016/j.cvsm.2012.12.004. PMID 23522175.