Dogs Should Be Tested For High Glucose Levels
Like humans, your four-legged friend can develop a form of diabetes, a life threatening disease of the endocrine gland system that affects the pancreas. A dog’s pancreas manages his level of blood sugar using a hormone called insulin, but canine diabetes disrupts normal insulin production. Both your dog’s weight and genetics are risk factors when it comes to developing diabetes, with overweight dogs being more prone to the disease.
Canine diabetes has some early warning symptoms, such as increased thirst and urination, but if you don’t catch the disease in its beginning stages, your dog is seriously at risk of various complications. He can develop cataracts that cause blindness, lose his energy, stop eating, lose weight, vomit excessively or go into a coma. Dogs with untreated diabetes are also at risk for serious infections and will die without proper veterinary treatment. A blood test for high glucose levels can quickly identify diabetes early, before irreversible damage has been done to your dog’s organs, and get your dog the help he needs without a costly delay. Having your dog’s glucose level tested reveals if his blood sugar levels are above normal, the earliest warning sign of the disease that you can’t see with your eyes alone.