You can help your pets stay diabetes free by keeping an eye on their diet and acting early on any of the telltale symptoms. Just like us our pets are becoming prone to diabetes. And all too often the pet owners are to blame.

Obesity is the main cause of diabetes in cats and, while this is often not the case with dogs, controlling diabetes is harder if they are carrying extra weight. We’re literally killing pets with kindness - our instinct is to show love to our pets by feeding them - we love seeing them enjoy their food and by rewarding them we are rewarding ourselves, but we have to pull back from that.

Like type 2 diabetes in humans cat diabetes is linked to lifestyle. As a species they are largely carnivorous and a combination of too many carbohydrates in their food bowl and too little exercise encourages weight gain that can cause insulin resistance. The good news is, caught early enough, the condition can be reversed.

Canine diabetes resembles type 1 diabetes in humans – the dog loses the ability to produce insulin and needs lifelong insulin injections to survive.

This once meant a reduced life expectancy but, thanks to advances in diabetes treatment over the last generation, the prognosis has improved. Good management involves a healthy diet and working out what dose of insulin will keep the pet stable. Some animals stabilise immediately but for others it can take a as long as 6 months. Once stable there’s nothing to stop them from living a long, full and healthy life.

It’s up to owners to spot the telltale symptoms of diabetes – a pet making frequent trips to the water bowl and having increased urination, fatigue and weight loss. The earlier your pet receives treatment, the better the long term prognosis.

Focus on Cats

Early detection and treatment can reverse feline diabetes. Because it’s commonly brought on by age (from 10 years onwards), obesity and a sedentary lifestyle, losing a kilo or two via diet and exercise may be all that is needed to restore your moggy to full health.  If that’s done, about 30 – 40% of cats will go into full remission three months after diagnosis.

It’s important to feed a cat with a view to diabetes prevention – this means watching the balance between carbohydrates, which encourage weight gain, and excess protein which can cause kidney problems.

Some breeds particularly Burmese, are at high risk of diabetes. When weight loss isn’t a solution, daily insulin injections may be needed.

Focus on Dogs

While dogs develop diabetes that is similar to type 1 in humans, onset is usually in middle to old age – about 7-10 years, depending on the breed of dog. Those with an increased risk are Keeshonds, which can develop diabetes from one year old, Bichon Frises, plus standard miniature and toy poodles. Decreased insulin production caused by destruction of the pancreas’ beta cells is the cause, but experts have not yet pinpointed why this happens, though obesity has not been ruled out. It does however make canine diabetes harder to treat.

Overweight dogs don’t respond as well to treatment. Once an overweight dog has been diagnosed and stabilised it is put on a diet and encouraged to exercise. Constant moderate exercise is better than one big run per week, will help control diabetes and in many cases reduce the amount of insulin needed.

While the most common side effect of diabetes in dogs is cataracts, like humans they can also suffer from hypertension and kidney disease. For this reason a diabetic dog’s urine is regularly checked for proteins along with blood pressure checks.

Ketoacidosis is a serious risk of undiagnosed diabetes. This is where a dog’s body can’t access energy from glucose and begins cannibalising fat stores to keep going. Desperate thirst and weight loss are the primary symptoms and if left untreated can be fatal.

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