Diabetes in cats depends on some health factors like weight, age, and territory. It is a common health condition occurring mostly in domestic cats. In this condition, either the blood sugar in the cat’s body is too high or the cat doesn’t have enough insulin to convert all the sugar into energy.

Insulin is the main doorway that converts blood sugar into the energy that our body requires to do physical activity. Feline diabetes is determined by checking if there is an increase in thirst, urination, and weight in the cat. These are the signals that indicate that your furry friend is not healthy.

If your cat has diabetes, it will always be thirsty, will urinate frequently, will lose weight and, in some rare cases, experience damage in the nerves of its hind limbs. The risk factors are age, physical inactivity, excess weight, gender, neutering, and food.

1. Causes of diabetes in felines
Cats have the genetic risk of developing diabetes during middle or old age. Some cat breeds are more prone to developing diabetes. But there are other factors involved in this cause like:

• Gender: Male cats are more prone to developing diabetes than female cats.
• Breed: The Maine Coon, Siamese, and Burmese breeds in cats are predisposed to develop diabetes.
• Age: Middle aged and old aged cats usually fall victim to this disease.
• Medications: Some steroid medications increase the risk factors of feline diabetes.

2. Diagnosis
The best way to diagnose diabetes in your cat is to take it to the veterinarian for a blood test. Through the blood test result, the veterinarian can check the blood sugar level of your cat. Besides the blood test, the veterinarian also does a urine test as cats have higher blood sugar levels when they are stressed or nervous, so a urine test helps determine the presence of diabetes.

These two tests rule out other conditions like liver disease and thyroid disease. In some cases, the veterinarian may recommend a fructose amines test to determine the amount of sugar present in the bloodstream and accumulated in the red blood cells. These are three ways to know if your feline friend has diabetes. Feline diabetes can be treated with insulin dosage and dietary adjustment.

3. How to decrease the risk factors of diabetes in cats?
It is hard to anticipate which cat is going to develop diabetes, but, as the risk factors are known, decreasing those factors will help the cat overcome this expensive and frustrating but manageable disease.

It is best to keep your cat active. Domestic cats do not have enough exercise to maintain their weight. As a result, they gain weight, and it is a major cause of developing diabetes. Try to move the food bowl once in a while or create obstacle courses for your cat. Outdoor exercises are also helpful for them to convert blood sugar into energy and decrease the risk factors of feline diabetes.