Diabetes in cats - symptoms and treatment

DM in cats is a disease of the pancreas. Locally, this small organ is located near the stomach, having two different types of cells with its own functions. One category of cells is responsible for the secretion of enzymes that regulate the digestive process, and the second is beta cells that produce insulin, a hormone that regulates blood sugar and controls its transport to the body’s tissues. In other words, insulin deficiency leads to the development of diabetes. Clinically, any signs of diabetes are due to an increased level of glucose in the blood and the fact that the body cannot use this glucose as an energy source.

Types of Disease in Cats

It is customary to subdivide diabetes into two types:

1. The first type - in this case, beta cells completely or almost completely die. However, this type is very rarely manifested.
2. The second type is a characteristic feature of it in that a certain part of beta cells continues to perform its functions and produce insulin. But they are not enough to provide the body with hormone. Often, the main sign that a cat has type 2 diabetes is obesity.

Causes of the disease

Veterinarians are of the opinion that the following factors are on the list of the main reasons leading to the development of diabetes:

1. Improper nutrition. The diet, being unbalanced, can result in not only a lack of vitamins, nutrients and other elements, but also a malfunction in the metabolism, which often leads to improper insulin secretion.
2. Gastrointestinal diseases (colitis, ulcer, gastritis). Digestive diseases lead to a serious load on the pancreas, and this works like a trigger in the mechanism of diabetes. Also, diseases of the liver or gall bladder can lead to the development of diabetes.
3. Overfeeding. Many specialists in veterinary medicine believe that the main reason for the occurrence of diabetes in cats is to ignore feeding rules. Specifically, overfeeding, which turns out to be overweight in a pet, leads to the fact that the pancreas begins to produce less insulin.
4. Hereditary factors. Given that diabetes is similar to a human disease, it is also genetic predisposed in cats. Attentive and conscientious breeders reject those animals that have an endocrine disease.
5. Viral infections that turn into manifestations of hepatitis and pancreatitis of a viral nature.
6. The use of hormonal medications to control the sexual behavior of a cat. If a cat has been taking glucocorticosteroids for a long time, this often results in the development of diabetes.

Disease prevalence

Among other endocrine diseases, diabetes is one of the most common. There is evidence that every 400th cat has diabetes.

1. For the first time, clinical manifestations become noticeable at the age of 5-6 years or closer to old age.
2. More often cats suffer from diabetes.
3. The exact information about the dynamics of diabetes in cats is unknown, but with each year the total number of sick animals increases, as more and more obese pets are becoming.

It is worth noting that the cat whose weight exceeds the norm by only one and a half kg is already at risk for the occurrence of type II diabetes. Thus, this is true for any domestic cat whose weight exceeds 6 kg.

Again, giant cat breeds, such as Maine Coon, need to be excluded from this statement - for these breeds numbers should be increased.

The clinical picture of diabetes

Most often, diabetes in cats is manifested by the following symptoms:

• irresistible thirst;
• overly frequent urination.

In addition, coupled with these signs, there may be increased appetite and weight loss of the cat. Given the specific behavior of feline, these symptoms over time may be ignored or not noticed, especially at the first stage of the development of the disease.

If a pet regularly and often walks outside the apartment, he can easily find drinking water and, unnoticed, relieve his needs.

Those domestic cats that are fed with natural food or canned food can get enough fluid from the diet, which means that it will be difficult to pay attention to the high level of water consumption.

How to diagnose diabetes in cats

To diagnose feline diabetes mellitus, the following factors must be considered:

• anamnesis;
• the presence of glucose in cat urine;
• clinical picture;
• consistently high blood glucose.

However, one should not confidently make a diagnosis if all the necessary tests (blood and urine) were performed only once, because there are a number of factors that cause a single “jump” in glucose levels, for example, after suffering stress. Therefore, in order to confirm or, on the contrary, refute the diagnosis, it is important to take urine and blood for analysis up to five times a day.

Therapy for feline diabetes

If you follow all the necessary recommendations, feline diabetes can be successfully treated. But this will be required from the owner of incredible patience, desire at all costs to achieve the goal, since the treatment of the disease will take a very long time.

1. Initially, you will need to eliminate any factors that lead to the onset of symptoms of diabetes. For example, if your pet regularly takes medications that indirectly provoke the onset of diabetes, you will need to stop taking these medications. Plump cats have an increased tendency to develop this disease, so a strict diet and weight loss can result in a situation in a number of animals improving.
2. Any cat that has diabetes should follow a proper diet: timely and balanced. It will be easiest to compile if you use ready-made premium food, where the protein level is high, but carbohydrates are low. Due to this, the amount of glucose that is absorbed from the digestive tract will be reduced, and the body will not need insulin so much.

If it is not possible to determine the factors that lead to the development of diabetes, or eliminating them does not bring tangible results, helping a pet is still possible without even resorting to overly complicated treatment methods:

1. The use of hypoglycemic medications can help some cats.
2. In some cats, good treatment results can be achieved using injections of the hormone insulin.

At the initial stages of therapy, you will need to contact a veterinarian more than once, who will be able to determine the dosage that is right for your pet, based on a specific situation. In the vast majority of situations, in order for a cat to stabilize, it may take from a couple of days to a month or more.During this period, the owner of the cat will need to give insulin injections to the pet once a day or twice, depending on the recommendation of the veterinarian. For this kind of injection, syringes with very small and thin needles are used, so the animal will not be overly uncomfortable. And over time, the injection process will become routine and routine. In the process of follow-up visits to the doctor, it is sometimes possible to change the dosage of medications if this makes therapeutic sense.

Note! Never adjust the dose of insulin without consulting your doctor!

Therapy process control

In order to control the process of therapy and to be sure that it is proceeding efficiently, a veterinarian will regularly direct the owner with the pet for the planned delivery of urine and blood for analysis. According to the results of the research, you can already adjust the frequency of the injection or dosage of the drug.

When veterinary medicine is adjusted, therapy records are of particular importance to the host, which are produced daily. The following parameters should be reflected there:

• The time at which insulin was administered.
• The amount of insulin injected.
• The time and amount of food offered to the pet, plus the amount of food she consumed.
• The volume of drinking water.
• The mass of the animal (daily rate).

In addition to examining the blood of an animal, it is important to monitor the urine of a cat. If the glucose content in the urine changes, this can cause a change in the dose of the administered drug and control the effectiveness of its use.

In order to take urine for analysis, it is best to take night or morning urine. To collect material without unnecessary problems and stress for the animal, you can use a number of ways:

1. If the pet can easily visit the tray without sand, you can use a special frequent grate, which is installed in the tray.
2. In European countries, it is proposed to use special gravel for aquariums instead of the standard toilet filler. Sterilized gravel does not absorb liquid, therefore, urine will accumulate at the bottom of the cat's tray, from where it can be transferred without difficulty to a container with a lid.
3. If there are no other ways, you can use the urogenital catheter, which is used, inter alia, for collecting urine. However, this method has significant drawbacks, because urine collection will be required regularly, and a catheter without advanced sedation is not placed. In other words, it will take more than once to expose the pet to the effects of potent tranquilizers and inflict a catheter ureter injury on it.

If the level of glucose in the blood changes markedly, you will need to adjust the dosage of the injected insulin. Therefore, tests are required to be carried out regularly, taking into account the recommendation of the attending physician. But it is forbidden to make any changes to the treatment process on your own if such changes are not agreed with the veterinarian. There is a possibility that the glucose level can change almost daily, which determines the importance of the recommendations and help of a doctor.

Overdose of the hormone insulin

Sometimes in the analyzes there is an excessively low level of glucose, this may be due to an overdose of insulin. Therefore, it is important to carefully and accurately apply the dose of insulin to a cat suffering from diabetes. The following are a number of characteristic signs indicating an excessively low glucose level:

• shaky and uncertain gait;
• tremor, convulsions;
• general weakness, cat lethargic and lethargic.

If a cat that suffers from diabetes has one or more of these symptoms, you will need to urgently consult with your veterinarian to avoid unwanted effects.

In mild forms of hypoglycemia, a “drunk” type of animal gait or nerve tics are sometimes observed. In this case, at home, you can help the cat using a syringe without a needle in order to gently pour one tablespoon into her mouth. honey, sugar solution or corn syrup.

If a competent veterinarian and a patient, attentive owner work together, the life of a cat suffering from diabetes will be prolonged and saved.

Video: diabetes in cats and dogs