What is Feline Diabetes?

Diabetes is a disorder affecting the processing of glucose (blood sugar) in the body. The digestive system breaks food down into various components, including glucose, that enter the bloodstream. Glucose is absorbed by cells to use for energy. Insulin is the hormone that signals the cells to take up the glucose -- without it, the glucose stays in the blood.

Diabetes is fairly easy to diagnose based on blood and urine sugar levels, but a full blood panel evaluation, including thyroid levels and urine culture, should be done initially to rule out concurrent disease.

There is newer blood test called serum fructosamine. This test can measure the degree of glycemic control over the preceding few weeks of a diabetic's life once on treatment and it can also be used to differentiate stress hyperglycemia from true diabetes in ill cats. Diabetic cats who are stable on treatment can often have the serum fructosamine test done instead of a 12-24 hour blood glucose curve for monitoring purposes.