18/08/2026
🐶🐱 Diabetes — and how we can monitor it!
Just like humans, dogs and cats can get diabetes to but what actually happens when a pet develops diabetes?
When we eat a meal, the food is broken down and glucose (sugar) enters the bloodstream, causing blood glucose levels to rise. Normally, this rise in blood glucose stimulates the pancreas to release insulin.
Insulin acts like a key 🔑 — it allows glucose to move from the bloodstream into the body's cells, where it can be used for energy.
In diabetic animals, this process doesn't work properly.
In dogs, diabetes is most commonly caused by the pancreas not producing enough insulin. In cats, diabetes is more commonly associated with insulin resistance, where the body's cells don't respond properly to the insulin being produced.
Either way, the result is the same: glucose stays in the bloodstream instead of moving into the cells, leading to persistently elevated blood glucose levels.
This is why diabetic pets often develop signs such as:
•Increased thirst and urination
•Increased appetite
•Weight loss
•Lethargy
For most diabetic dogs and cats, insulin therapy is an important part of treatment. Finding the right insulin dose is a balancing act — we want to bring blood glucose into a healthy range without causing it to drop too low.
Traditionally, monitoring a pets glucose levels has been done in the clinic. However we can also use a continuous glucose monitor to monitor glucose levels at home. You may have seen these used in humans.
We recently placed one on this gorgeous patient Leroy 🐶 The small sensor sits on the skin and provides glucose readings throughout the day sending the information to the owners phone and allowing us to see how their blood glucose changes in response to meals, insulin and other factors.
These monitors aren't necessary or suitable for every diabetic pet, but for some patients they can be a really valuable tool when assessing and fine-tuning their diabetes treatment. 💙