Is Diabetes Common in Puppies?
Is it common for puppies to get diabetes? If so,
can it go into remission so that she doesn’t need
shots for the rest of her life?
Laura
Concord, NH
Diabetes is very uncommon in puppies.
Diabetes mellitus (known simply as diabetes) is a common disease of cats and dogs. It occurs when the body is unable to regulate blood sugar levels. Diabetic animals have chronically high levels of sugar in their blood. The most common symptoms of diabetes are increased thirst, increased appetite, and weight loss. Diabetes is a life-threatening syndrome that must be treated.
In my experience, diabetes is most common in middle aged animals. I have never diagnosed diabetes in a puppy or kitten.
I have, however, seen high blood sugar levels in puppies and kittens. Very young animals may develop temporarily high levels of sugar in their blood after meals or after treatment with IV fluids that contain sugar. They are also prone to episodes of low blood sugar when they haven’t eaten for long periods.
I am therefore wondering about the circumstances of your puppy’s diagnosis with diabetes. Have multiple blood sugar tests yielded high results? Is there sugar in her urine? Has her blood sugar been tested after she has been fasted for several hours?
If your veterinarian has performed rigorous testing and concluded that your puppy is diabetic, then you will have to administer insulin. Some animals do experience remission from diabetes and do not require injections for their entire lives.
If your vet hasn’t performed the sort of testing listed above, I’d recommend it. There may be a chance that your puppy isn’t diabetic after all.
For more information on canine diabetes, visit my website:
http://drbarchas.com/canine_diabetes
And there also is information on feline diabetes:
http://drbarchas.com/feline_diabetes
Photo: Tina was diabetic, but not when she was a puppy.
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[...] Is Diabetes Common in Puppies? [...]
I found my puppy abandoned in a dog park in Albuquerque NM a couple days before thanksgiving. She was aprox 5wks at the time. She is growing just as a puppy should but recently (as in 2-3 wks) i’ve had to take her to the vet because of continuous pacing around the perimiter of a room and climbing over things instead of going around (which we have discovered is because her eyes aren’t tracking she is pretty much blind) lots of salvating, inability to turn her head, lethargic and not drinking (which we figured out is from the blindness, she knocks the water over when searching for it) the first thing the vet told me was he thought she had rabies… how can a dog that hasn’t had any exposure to outside animals get rabies? they kept her over night doing blood tests and waiting for more information from the state vet. The next morning they told me to come and get her that she was completly back to normal for a puppy, rambunctious, turning her head, eyes tracking the whole shabang. they sent her home with some antibiotics for a wk. she was great for about a day then we were back at step one with an extra symptom… her front end would collapse and her back end would lock in the standing position. they wanted to hospitalize her but due to money retraints we had to opt for treating the sypmtoms at home. he put her on a heavy antibiotic and a steriod 2xday for four days along with continuous crating except for going potty which she had to do on a leash. at her follow up on the fourth day she was again back to normal (she was vastly improved the same night we started her on the meds) so the vet gave us enough of the steroid to wean her off of it. once a day for five days then once every other day till gone. well today is the first day of the every other day stage and she has completly regressed yet again. she was fine when I left for work but from what I was told she got worse and worse as the day went by and the steroid flushed out of her system. I gave her one of the remaining pills when I got home and witnessed her regression and she is again completly crated except for potty on a leash the only way she can drink is if I hold a cup full of water under her nose while she drinks. as long as I do this she drinks like a camel just as she has done since day one. The 2nd vet diagnosis was insephilitis. (there were some unusual liver enzymes in her blood work). a Friend of the family sugested that she be treated for Diabetes… could she really have diabetes? I am calling the vet first thing in the morning for another follow up but I am considering changing vets if this one cant figure things out pretty soon.