Your household pet

Diabetes? Cancer?  Yeah you typically hear that in humans but what about your furry little cute creature that you have at home?  It's crazy how household pets are developing these cases!  What is in their diets?  Here's an excerpt of an article posted on my companies site:

November is international diabetes awareness month – Abbott Animal Health wants you to know that dogs and cats can get diabetes, too. Diabetes affects an average of one in every 200 cats and one in every 500 dogs.

Symptoms and diagnosis
You will be able to recognize the symptoms of diabetes in a dog or cat that is part of your family:

• Drinks more water than usual
• Urinates more frequently, produces more urine per day
• Large appetite despite weight loss, although cats may also be obese
• Is less active and/or sleeps more
• Has cloudy eyes (dogs)

It’s important to take your pet to a veterinarian if he or she has these symptoms. Diabetes is usually diagnosed in cats and dogs through evaluation of symptoms or testing for abnormally high levels of glucose in the blood.
Most cats and dogs that have diabetes are older than seven years. Male cats and female dogs are more prone to this disease. Burmese cats have a risk factor for developing diabetes; the dog breeds with risk factors are Miniature Schnauzer, Bichon Frise, Miniature Poodle, Samoyed, Tibetan Terrier and Cairn Terrier.
You may be able to prevent or delay the onset of diabetes if you help your pet maintain a healthy weight by adhering to the diet prescribed by your veterinarian.

Managing diabetes in pets
If your pet is diagnosed with diabetes, the goal of treatment will be to regulate the glucose level to be as close to normal as possible. This may be done with daily injections of insulin to metabolize dietary glucose, along with careful monitoring. Monitoring is key to managing this disease, in order to reduce the symptoms, minimize the potential consequences of the disease and get the pet into the normal blood glucose range. Pets who do not receive treatment are more likely to get recurrent infections.

The AlphaTRAK Meter, from Abbott Animal Health, was developed specifically for the unique properties of animal blood and provides convenient, accurate blood glucose results with a very small blood sample size. Best of all, it can be used in your home.