Development of a Requirement for Exogenous Insulin Treatment in Dogs with Hyperglycemia

Background: It has been suggested that overt diabetes mellitus in dogs be defined based on a persistent fasting blood glucose concentration (BGC) >144 mg/dL.

Objective: Determine the number of dogs with randomly identified hyperglycemia without insulin-treated diabetes mellitus (ITDM) that later develop a need for exogenous insulin treatment.

Animals: A total of 1318 dogs examined at a university teaching hospital without ITDM and with randomly identified hyperglycemia.

Methods: Retrospective longitudinal study. Hyperglycemia was defined as randomly identified BGC above >112 mg/dL, moderate hyperglycemia as BGC >144 mg/dL but <200 mg/dL and pronounced hyperglycemia as BGC ≥200 mg/dL. Dogs were defined as having ITDM if they were treated with insulin. Follow-up was attempted 7 to 12 years after hyperglycemia was documented to determine if over time dogs developed a need for exogenous insulin treatment.

Results: Twenty-nine of 824 dogs (3.5%) with hyperglycemia and follow-up information developed ITDM, including 3/824 dogs (0.4%) with moderate hyperglycemia, and 2/824 dogs (0.2%) with pronounced hyperglycemia. Most dogs with hyperglycemia that developed ITDM (24/29, 83%) had BGC ≤144 mg/dL. Among dogs that eventually developed a need for exogenous insulin treatment, no association was found between the degree of hyperglycemia and the time interval between documentation of hyperglycemia and diagnosis of ITDM. Logistic regression determined that BGC is not significantly associated with ITDM.

Conclusions And Clinical Importance: Most dogs with randomly identified hyperglycemia did not develop a need for exogenous insulin treatment. Other criteria could be required to augment the definition of overt DM in non-insulin treated dogs.