Complete Care for Your Aging Cat - Amy Shojai [97]
DIABETES MELLITUS
When your cat eats, her body processes the food into glucose (sugar). A hormone called insulin moves glucose from the blood into the cells of the body where it is used as fuel. The pancreas, located near the liver, manufactures insulin and digestive enzymes. “In cats we see what’s called amyloid deposition in the pancreas, where you essentially have gradual depletion of functional pancreatic tissue because it’s being covered up by this amyloid deposition,” says Dr. Davenport.
Diabetes mellitus is a metabolic disorder in which not enough insulin is produced by the pancreas (Type 1, insulin-dependent), or the body is unable to use the insulin that’s present (Type 2, non-insulin-dependent). The latest evidence suggests that Type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) is the most frequently occurring form of DM in cats and humans.
Type 2 DM in cats is characterized by an impaired ability to secrete insulin following a glucose stimulus and is caused by both a defect in pancreatic beta cells and by peripheral insulin resistance. Diabetes renders the cat unable to use glucose for energy, in effect starving the body. Diabetes is one of the common endocrine (hormone) disease in the cat affected one in every 200-300 cats seen by veterinarians, says Sharon Center, DVM, an internist at Cornell University.
“About 20 percent of them have an in-and-out phase of diabetes,” says Richard Nelson, DVM, an internist at the University of California-Davis. He notes that transient diabetes is most commonly associated with pancreatitis. “Those cats are ones that are amenable to just diet sometimes, or diet and oral medicine.”
Another common cause is obesity. Fat suppresses the insulin function so that even though the pancreas is making insulin, the body can’t use it effectively. Diabetic cats are very often overweight.
Senior Symptoms
Various signs of diabetes can be similar to symptoms of other serious illnesses, such as kidney disease.
Increased thirst
Increased urination
Sticky ‘sugary’ urine
Missing the litter box
Increased appetite
Weight loss
Bad breath that smells sweetish, like nail polish
“Plantigrade” stance—walking on her heels
Because cats are true carnivores and have evolved to best use a diet consisting primarily of animal flesh, they’ve lost the need for dietary carbohydrates. Some experts suspect, therefore, that carbohydrate-based commercial dry cat foods may be one part of the puzzle that causes some cats to develop diabetes and obesity.
The unused glucose is eliminated via the bladder, turning urine into a sugary liquid that pulls additional fluid out of the body. Losing so much water prompts the cat to drink more water, which creates a vicious circle when she then needs to urinate more frequently. Often, the first signs you’ll notice is the cat urinating outside the litter box when she’s not able to get to the facilities in time.
A small percentage of diabetic cats develop diabetic neuropathy, which causes a rear-leg plantigrade stance. Instead of walking normally on her toes, her stance drops until she’s on her “heels.” This neurologic disorder can be reversed once the diabetes is under good control, says Lisa Klopp, DVM, a neurologist at University of Illinois. “Diabetes is a very dynamic disease, it’s not static,” she says, and that can make it difficult to treat effectively. The combination of symptoms point to the disease, and diagnosis is confirmed by testing the blood and urine.
“It’s an old animal diagnosis,” says Richard Nelson, DVM, an internist at University of California-Davis. Most cats are diagnosed at age 10 or older, and average survival time after diagnosis is three years. “I’ve had diabetics that have had it for 8 or 9 years,” he says. The key is getting the cat regulated and maintaining them.
Nurse Alert!
In most cases, a diabetic cat will require insulin injections. Typically these are given with tiny needles that the cat tolerates quite well. Most owners find that giving injections