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5 Early Signs of Diabetes in Cats

5 Early Signs of Diabetes in Cats | Diabetic Neuropathy

Updated On November 27th, 2015

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Reviewed By Christie Long, DVM

Can cats get diabetes? They certainly can, and it's actually more common than most people think. While dogs typically get Type 1 diabetes, which corresponds to juvenile diabetes in people and usually involves a decrease in the production of insulin, cats usually get Type 2 diabetes. In people this is called “Adult Onset”, or “Non-Insulin Dependent” diabetes.

There are similarities and differences to the way that diabetes manifests itself in dogs and cats. And although the ultimate result of the disease is similar – in both cases the cells in the body can’t use glucose – the reason that happens is different in the two kinds of diabetes. In cats, the pancreas, which is the tiny little organ that nestles between the intestines and the stomach in the abdomen and produces several hormones, still makes plenty of insulin. The problem is that the cat’s body is so bombarded with carbohydrates due to overeating that the insulin receptors on the cells no longer respond to insulin – they essentially “ignore” the signal to take up glucose.

Uncontrolled diabetes has a lot of serious complications associated with it, so recognizing the disease in its early stages can not only stem those complications, but also perhaps keep your cat from needing daily insulin injections. Read on to learn what diabetes looks like in the early stages in cats.

Looking more like Jabba the Hutt than Princess Leia

Not all fat cats will get diabetes, but being overweight makes them more prone to the disease. Being overweight is easily the number one risk factor for development of diabetes in cats. We’re still trying to figure out exactly why, but more and more researchers are concluding that the relatively large amount of carbohydrates in the form of grains in most commercial cat foods plays a big part.

The consumption of carbohydrates raises blood sugar, which in turn causes a whole lot of insulin to be released by the pancreas into the blood stream. Over time the cells stop “listening” to all this insulin and stop pulling glucose in, starving the body for glucose and resulting in a huge excess of glucose in the blood.

It’s the classic “water, water, everywhere, but not a drop to drink” situation.

Lots of people are suggesting that grain-free diets may stop the development of diabetes in cats due to their relatively lower amount of carbohydrates, but to date there’s been no solid proof of this. Once a cat has developed diabetes we do know that they do better on a lower carbohydrate diet, and many don’t even need insulin injections. For sure we know that keeping your cat at a healthy weight by not over-feeding will nearly ensure that it will not get diabetes.

Drinking more water

Polydipsia, which is a fancy word meaning “drinking more water than is normal,” has a number of inciting causes. But in diabetics it starts when the animal becomes hyperglycemic, or has a high amount of glucose in the blood. The kidneys, which typically do the work of pulling excess glucose out of the blood and reclaiming it for use in the body, quickly become overwhelmed. The excess glucose ends up getting dumped into the urine.

So why does this make the cat drink more? The relatively heavy nature of glucose-laden urine pulls more water out of the blood, causing excessive water loss. It’s that loss of water that causes the cat to feel thirsty, and thus drink more water.

I’ve had owners of diabetic cats tell me that they’ve seen their pet sit for prolonged periods of time at the water bowl. This is pretty unusual behavior for a cat, as they tend to be very good conservers of water, and contrasted to dogs we often almost never see them drink.

You need a front-end loader to clean the litter box

All that urine and glucose has to go somewhere, and that “somewhere” is the litter box. Paying attention to changes in what you’re cleaning out of the litter box is extremely important to the early detection of many diseases, but in diabetes it’s critical because production of large amounts of urine is a hallmark of the disease. This is called “polyuria”, and it’s oh-so-easy to recognize in a litter box, as the clumps of urine are obviously bigger than they used to be.

Pay attention to the size of the puddles in the litter box. A normal cat tends to make a clump of litter that’s between the size of a baseball and a softball. This is just a guideline, mind you, and your mileage at home may vary based on many things, including the size of your cat.

Frosty paws

Sugar-filled urine has the potential to be sticky, as you might imagine. Some diabetic cats have paws that resemble gaily-decorated Christmas cookies.

This isn’t a universal change reserved only for diabetic cats, as I’ve seen normal cats with litter stuck to their paws, too. But as diabetic cats tend to be large cats, and many have less-than-fastidious litter box habits, they sometimes step where they’ve urinated, or even urinate on their rear paws by accident. The sticky urine contacts the litter and it sticks to the paws.

Walking like a drunken sailor

Diabetic neuropathy is a big problem in human diabetics, and it often leads to pain and/or loss of sensation in the extremities. Nerve damage from the consistently high blood sugar causes this complication.

In cats this neuropathy often preferentially attacks the rear legs, causing the cat to lose nerve function and walk not on its feet, but on the backs of we would call the ankles, or hocks. This leads to a clearly abnormal stance and to abnormal walking, and sometimes the cat will appear unsteady and “drunken” because of it.

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I have a cat that as a kitten was very ill. We got him from 7 months old. We knew he’d had cat flu prior to him coming here. He is now nearly 5 yrs old. He picks huge fights with our other cat. He keeps urinating and scratching at doors and windows around the house. We allow him to go out via the cat flap unlimited. What is happening to him

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