Dog Diabetes

Just like their owners dogs can develop diseases and conditions. Dog diabetes or canine diabetes is of two types: diabetes mellitus, which is similar to the human diabetes mellitus, and diabetes insipidus. Both are caused due to the problems in the body's system of producing hormones.

Diabetes mellitus is a chronic endocrine disease. Diabetes mellitus is characterized by the lack of production of insulin in the body or the insulin produced is not able to reduce the blood sugar level to normal levels. Sugar or glucose which is the main source of energy in the body is converted to energy with the help of insulin. Sometimes, the pancreas which produces or secretes the hormone insulin is not able to produce the required amount of insulin to bring the blood sugar level to normal. In other cases, the insulin produced is just not able to bring down the blood glucose level. When the blood sugar level is high, the kidneys are forced to work more than normal to absorb the sugar in blood. This is the reason your dog may urinate frequently which is one of the classic symptoms of diabetes. The other classic symptom of diabetes is excessive thirst. This happens because the frequent urination dehydrates the body.

Just like in human diabetic mellitus, canine diabetic mellitus is further classified as type 1 diabetes mellitus or juvenile diabetes and type 2 diabetes mellitus. Diabetes mellitus occurs most in dogs of age group 5 to 7 and female dogs are the more susceptible ones.

The symptoms of diabetes mellitus are frequent urination, excessive thirst, unusual weight loss, fatigue, polyphagia (increased appetite), exercise intolerance and recurrent infections. It is also advised that dogs be taken yearly to the vet doctor and blood and urine sample tests be conducted as undetected and uncontrolled diabetes may lead to many urinary tract diseases. It may also lead to cataract. Other complications that may occur are Ketoacidosis, Hypoglycemia, Rapid insulin metabolism and Somogyi overswing.

As there is no cure for canine diabetes mellitus, only treatment can be given to the affected dog. Your vet may show you how to administer insulin injections (as there is no oral medication available at present for dogs.) to your dog and give you a time schedule to follow. Following this time schedule is a must and very important. Also, there is no standard dose of insulin that can be applied to dogs. Other than the treatment it is also important to maintain a strict high fiber and low sugar diet for your dog.

The other type of diabetes (as mentioned in the introduction) is diabetes insipidus. This disease is also an endocrine disease where the antidiurectic hormone (also known as vasopressin) is deficient or the kidneys are indifferent to this particular hormone. Because of this, large amounts of the urine are severely diluted is excreted. This indicates that the kidney is not able to concentrate urine.

Diabetes insipidus is further classified into central diabete sinispidus, nephrogenic diabetes and dipsogenic diabetic insipidus. In such cases, care should be taken that the dog drinks water only when thirsty and all precautions told by the vet doctor be taken.