Just like with people, diabetes rising in pets
But 'Catkins' diet, Weight Watchers-type programs and new meds can help
By Kim Campbell Thornton
MSNBC contributor
updated 7:06 a.m. MT, Mon., Nov. 19, 2007

The 9-year-old Australian Terrier was drinking a lot of water and urinating
frequently. So his owner took the little dog to her veterinarian, John
Hamil of Canyon Animal Hospital in Laguna Beach, Calif. A urinalysis and
blood work revealed that he had diabetes.

As with people, the incidence of diabetes in cats and dogs is increasing.
Not so much of a problem in decades past, diabetes now affects as many as
one in 50 of the animals, some statistics show, especially pudgy pets.

“There is no question from what I know that is published in the literature
that obesity is on the rise, No. 1, and No. 2, diabetes is on the rise
right along with it,” says veterinarian Robin Downing, hospital director of
Windsor Veterinary Clinic in Windsor, Colo.

Diabetes results when the body doesn't produce enough insulin, a hormone
that processes glucose (blood sugar), or properly use it. As a result, the
body's tissues cannot use glucose for energy, and the sugar builds up in
the blood and urine.

Veterinarians say that while obesity clearly is linked to diabetes in pets,
it appears to contribute to the disease differently in cats and dogs.

Fat cats are prone to diabetes because they develop insulin resistance,
meaning their bodies don't effectively use insulin. As a result, the
pancreas pumps out more insulin as well as another hormone called amylin.
“When you get too much insulin secreted, you get too much amylin secreted
as well, and that tends to aggregate and destroy the insulin-producing
cells,” says veterinarian Richard W. Nelson, a professor at the University
of California School of Veterinary Medicine in Davis.

With dogs, obesity is associated with an increased risk of pancreatitis —
an inflammation of the pancreas — which can then lead to diabetes because
the body doesn't make enough insulin, according to a report by Jacquie S.
Rand, a diabetes expert at the University of Queensland’s School of
Veterinary Medicine in Brisbane, Australia.

'Catkins' diet and other aids
Not every dog or cat that develops diabetes is fat, but any way you look at
it, obesity and diabetes are linked. The good news is that obesity is
preventable and reversible, and oftentimes so is the diabetes.

A change to a high-protein, low-carbohydrate diet — nicknamed the “Catkins”
diet — can promote weight loss and make diabetes more manageable in cats,
often sending them into remission so that they no longer require insulin
injections. At the Windsor Veterinary Clinic in Colorado, three out of
every four diabetic cats have their disease controlled through diet alone,
says Downing.

Diet can help manage the disease in dogs so that they need less insulin,
but it doesn’t have as dramatic an effect as it does in cats.

“We don’t see dogs go into remission after dietary change, whereas that
happens fairly frequently in cats,” says veterinarian Michael Stone, an
assistant clinical professor of veterinary medicine at Tufts University in
Grafton, Mass.

Besides diet, improvements in insulin have made it easier for owners to
manage diabetes in dogs and cats. Veterinarians now have two newly approved
forms of insulin, one for cats and one for dogs, that make treatment
better. Vets also are finding that some diabetic cats respond well to a
long-acting human synthetic insulin called glargine, which appears to work
best in newly diagnosed diabetic cats that are being fed a high-protein,
low-carb diet.

Another important development has been the ability of owners to check a
pet’s blood glucose level at home using a blood glucose meter. That makes
it a lot easier to ensure that a pet is receiving the right amount of
insulin, without subjecting it to a stressful overnight stay at a
veterinary clinic.  

A preventable disease
Downing wants pet owners to know that diabetes is almost always a
preventable disease if a pet maintains a normal weight. She stages
interventions — advising clients with fat pets about the risk their animals
face — and runs a pet weight-loss program.

“We treat this just like Weight Watchers,” she says. “We have regular
weigh-ins, we create a food program and an exercise program, and we give
regular feedback to the owners about what a good job they’re doing.”

What happened with the little Australian Terrier?

“We sent him home,” Hamil says. “We put him on insulin over the weekend and
changed his diet. Once we have diabetic patients regulated, we find that
the vast majority of them do very well.”

Kim Campbell Thornton is an award-winning author who has written many
articles and more than a dozen books about dogs and cats. She belongs to
the Dog Writers Association of America and is past president of the Cat
Writers Association. She shares her home in California with two Cavalier
King Charles spaniels and one African ringneck parakeet.

© 2007 MSNBC Interactive
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21755451/?GT1=10547