November is National Pet Diabetes Awareness Month- from Pet Cancer Awareness
November is Pet Diabetes Awareness month: It was designated to help create more awareness of this disease that can significantly impact the health of companion animals.
If you didn’t know your dog or cat could develop diabetes, you’re not alone. Many owners don’t realize diabetes can affect pets too, so learning that your dog or cat has the condition can leave you with many questions.
Diabetes is a relatively common disease in which the body doesn’t use glucose properly. If left untreated, diabetes is life-threatening. It is manageable and if detected early enough, pets with diabetes can live a normal life when treated and medicated properly. In some cases with cats, diabetes can actually be reversed.
Signs and symptoms of diabetes that owners should be aware of include the following:
• Increase in water consumption
• Increase in urination
• Increase in appetite
• Weight loss
• Cataracts may be present if diabetes has been existent for a longer period of time
Your veterinarian is an essential partner in your pet’s diabetes care. Only your veterinarian can diagnose diabetes and provide appropriate preventive and management programs.
Treatment
Even if your animal develops diabetes, if you work with your veterinarian and follow his or her recommendations closely, your animal can have a good quality of life. Diet will be the first thing your veterinarian will consider, especially if your pet is a cat. Besides diet, there have been improvements in the types of insulin and the types of monitoring tests available to your veterinarian.
Prevention
Although obesity is clearly linked to the development of diabetes, not every pet who develops diabetes is fat and not every obese pet will develop diabetes. Nonetheless, diabetes is almost always a preventable disease if your pet maintains a normal weight.
Annie
Featured Dog: Annie – She lost her home when her owner had to move and couldn’t take her. She is a very friendly puggle, pug and beagle mix. She loves to go for walks and enjoys people. She is 5-6 years old.
Other available dogs:
Benji – 5 year old male, long hair doxie/pom mix; friendly, loves to walk
Sissy
Featured Cats: Sassy and Sissy- These ladies lost their home when their owner died. They have lived together but they do not need to be adopted together.
Sassy
Sassy is 4 years old and a medium-long hair tortoiseshell color. She is becoming more outgoing and wants attention and to be petted or brushed. She will follow you around and watch everything you do. Sassy is not a lap cat just yet. It won’t take long before she is your reading, TV watching and napping partner. Sissy is 2 years old and a pretty black and white tuxedo cat. Sissy is shy and prefers being someplace where she can watch you but not be out in the open. She loves to be petted and have her chin scratched and purrs very loudly. She will need a quiet home where she has time to get used to the changes in her life. She is becoming more outgoing each day.
Other available cats:
None
All animals will be spayed or neutered prior to leaving shelter and receive 1 year rabies vaccination and city license. Ages are approximate.
The City of Mesquite Animal Shelter located at 795 Hardy Way is open for adoptions from 11am until 1 pm, Monday through Saturday, Sunday 1pm -3pm. Please call 702-346-7415 during these hours to speak to the front desk. Animal Control may be reached by phone or voicemail at 702-346-5268 .
The animals submitted to the media may have changed so please visit our Petfinder website for a current listing and more detailed information on the animals: www.mesquiteanimalshelter.petfinder.com.
Please also check our Facebook pages for lost and found animals along with pet information: https://www.facebook.com/MesquiteNVAnimalControl and https://www.facebook.com/FRIENDSOFMESQUITENVANIMALSHELTER
