Diabetes in cats: Symptoms and Treatment
Diabetes is a metabolic disorder in which the body can no longer regulate blood sugar levels properly. Diabetes has long been widespread in humans and cats are also becoming increasingly ill with it.
However, feline diabetes mellitus differs in some respects from human diabetes. How cat diabetes develops, what symptoms the metabolic disease causes and how it can be treated are explained below.
Development and types of diabetes in cats
Normally, the pancreas produces the hormone insulin, which is responsible for regulating blood sugar levels. However, this process can be disrupted for various reasons.
As a result, the effect of the insulin in the body diminishes, and the cells are no longer able to absorb sufficient sugar from the blood. There is a sharp increase in blood sugar levels and the cat suffers from diabetes.
As in humans, two types of diabetes are distinguished in cats. Type I diabetes destroys the cells in the pancreas that are responsible for the production of insulin. In this case, the organism is not able to provide a sufficient amount of the hormone from the outset.
Type 2 diabetes leads to reduced insulin production and at the same time to insulin resistance. Type 2 diabetes is triggered by toxic damage to beta cells caused by too high blood sugar levels or the deposition of abnormally altered proteins in the intercellular spaces.
This form of diabetes is much more common in cats and is present in about 80 to 95 percent of all cases.
Causes of diabetes in cats
Diabetes can have different triggers in cats. In some breeds, such as the Burmese cat, for example, there is a genetic predisposition for the development of this metabolic disorder.
In most cases, however, diabetes in cats is closely related to overweight and feeding too many carbohydrates.
Another possible trigger that can lead to diabetes in a cat is the permanent release of stress hormones through undetected urinary tract infections or chronic inflammation in the mouth of the four-legged friend.
In addition, other underlying diseases such as inflammation of the pancreas (pancreas) and treatment with glucocorticoids can lead to the development of diabetes in a cat.
In these cases, however, cat diabetes is only a temporary phenomenon, which disappears after successful treatment of the underlying disease, or after discontinuation of the administered hormones.
Avoiding overweight as a risk factor for cat diabetes
To rule out obesity as a possible risk factor for diabetes in your cat, you must ensure that the amount of food you feed is appropriate to your cat's needs. If your four-legged friend already has too much weight on the scales, a timely diet is advisable.
To this end, we recommend that you opt for a reduced calorie intake in combination with our Shiimun Slim diet powder for cats. In this way, you can reliably control the body weight of your four-legged friend, and at the same time eliminate a major risk factor for cat diabetes and other health problems.
Symptoms of diabetes in cats
Since diabetes leads to the body no longer being able to use enough glucose for energy production, affected cats often appear to be listless and weak. To compensate for this deficiency, the four-legged friend increases his food intake.
Nevertheless, weight loss does occur. This is because the cat's body can no longer properly utilise the food due to diabetes. In addition, diabetes leads to the fact that the quadruped has to urinate frequently. To compensate for the loss of fluids, the cat drinks much more than normal.
As the disease progresses, affected animals suffer increasingly from muscle weakness. In addition, the permanently elevated blood sugar level over time causes nerve damage. In some cats with diabetes, for example, it can then be observed that their hind legs no longer appear on their paws but on their hocks.
In addition, the coat of animals with cat diabetes becomes dull sooner or later, so that the four-legged friend increasingly makes an unkempt impression.
Diagnosis of cat diabetes by the veterinarian
If you suspect that your cat has diabetes, you should plan a visit to the vet immediately. This is because the metabolic disease has serious consequences for your four-legged friend and is associated with long suffering.
The earlier your cat is diagnosed with diabetes, the sooner treatment can begin. During the examination, the veterinarian will first take a blood sample from your four-legged friend.
As your cat's blood sugar can rise sharply under stress and taking a blood sample is naturally an extremely stressful situation for your four-legged friend, a blood sugar measurement is not sufficient to diagnose diabetes.
Instead, it is necessary to check the fructosamine level in the blood of the four-legged friend. If it is elevated, your cat has diabetes. Further tests will then show whether there has already been any secondary damage, which may need to be treated separately.
Treating a cat with diabetes
Cats with diabetes receive either medication to counteract insulin resistance or insulin to compensate for the insufficient body production. Your vet will suggest the appropriate treatment for your cat depending on the type of diabetes.
For mild diabetes, it is sometimes sufficient to give your cat a medication to lower blood sugar levels. This is best mixed into the food of the quadruped.
Before a cat is given insulin, the diagnosis must be absolutely certain. It is also important that the insulin dose is calculated exactly and adjusted to the needs of the animal.
If your cat's vet prescribes insulin for diabetes, you will need to take a daily blood glucose reading. For this purpose a drop of blood is taken from the ear of the quadruped. For accurate results it is important that your cat is as relaxed as possible.
In most cases, cats with diabetes will need to be injected with insulin twice a day. This may be a challenge the first few times, both for you and your pet. With a little practice, however, blood glucose monitoring and insulin administration can quickly become routine.
The right diet for cats with diabetes
Besides a possibly necessary treatment with insulin, nutrition is very important in cats with diabetes. The supply of nutrients should be oriented as exactly as possible to the needs of the four-legged friend. If your cat is overweight, it is also advisable to reduce weight.
If your four-legged friend suffers from diabetes, you must always make sure that his food is of the best possible quality. It should contain neither cereals nor sugar, but instead should mainly provide high-quality proteins and fats.
A low-carbohydrate diet can make a significant contribution to the success of treatment. It is therefore essential that you rely on high-quality cat food, such as that found in the I love my cat range.
Also remember that the insulin dose and the amount of food must match. It is therefore important that you feed your cat with diabetes with largely constant rations. In addition, you should always inject your four-legged friend with insulin only after he has eaten.
Prognosis for cats with diabetes
How good the prognosis for cats with diabetes is, depends mainly on the time of diagnosis and the possible presence of other diseases. Provided you start therapy early on in your four-legged friend, the insulin dose is well adjusted and you consistently follow the doctor's instructions, your cat should be able to lead a largely normal life despite diabetes.
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